A Good and faithful Soldier of Christ 2 Timothy 2:1-13

Today, we’re going to talk about what it means to be a good and faithful soldier of Christ.

In our Old Testament, we have an inspiring story of faithfulness and loyalty, and we see how God worked good out of that one difficult situation for a young woman and her mother-in-law, and ultimately for all people.  

There was a man named Elimelech, and his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, who, during a time of famine, left their home in Bethlehem, and headed east to Moab, where there was food and an opportunity to make a better living.

After awhile Elimelech died, but they stayed there and the two sons married Moabite girls, Orpah and Ruth. After awhile Elimelech’s sons died too. So Naomi, Ruth and Orpah were left without a man to provide for them, as was the culture at the time.

Naomi decided that she would go back to her hometown of Bethlehem, to be with her relatives, whom she surely missed. So she told her daughters-in-law to go back to their families. She said, “As you have been good wives to my sons, and good daughter-in-laws to me, so may God be good to you.”.

They objected because they had come to love her like their own mother, but Naomi insisted. So Orpah kissed Naomi good-bye and left.

But Ruth refused to leave her. Naomi said, “Your sister-in-law has gone back to her family and to their gods…”

Ruth responded with these now famous words of faithfulness that are sometimes read at weddings, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

Ruth was being faithful to her mother-in-law, but more than that, faithful to God, and to the people of God: Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

So Naomi, with Ruth at her side, went back to Bethlehem. When they got there the village was abuzz. They said, “Could this be our long lost cousin, Naomi?”  Naomi said “Yes, but don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara.” Naomi means happy, and Mara means bitter. “For the Lord has made my life bitter.”

But Naomi would soon learn that God has a way of turning things around, from bitter to blessed.

Naomi had a relative, Boaz, who was a landowner of some means. She told Ruth to glean the grain from his fields after they were harvested. God had set it up so that the poor could follow the workers at harvest time and pick up the grain that was dropped or missed. In fact, the harvesters were supposed to leave the dropped grain in the fields for the poor to gather up. In that way, the poor would be provided for, but they would also work for their food.

Boaz saw Ruth gleaning his fields and he asked his workers about her. They told him she was a poor widow, Naomi’s daughter-in-law who had followed her back to Bethlehem. When he heard that, Boaz told the workers to deliberately leave some extra grain behind for her to pick up, and to watch out for her, and not lay a hand on her.

Ruth asked Boaz why he was being so kind, and he told her that he had heard about her loyalty to Naomi, and he wished to reward it.

Little did they know that God had plans for them. To make a long story short, Boaz ended up marrying Ruth, and both she and Naomi were well provided for.

But there’s more to the story. God would use Ruth’s faithfulness and Boaz’s kindness in his plan of sending his Son to save the world.

Boaz and Ruth had a son they named, Obed. Obed, had a son named Jesse, and Jesse had a son named, David, who became the great king of Israel. So Ruth was the great-grandmother of David. That means David was 1/16 Moabite; he was part Gentile.

That was a foreshadowing that salvation would be, not just for the Jewish people, but for all people.  

About 1000 years after David, another baby would be born in Bethlehem, a descendant of David, Jesus Christ. So the story of Ruth in the Bible is a part of the story of God at work in the lives of his people to bring salvation to the world.    

Through Ruth’s faithfulness, God blessed not only her and Naomi, but all people who would believe in Ruth’s eventual descendant, Jesus.

In the same way, when we are faithful to God, even in times of grief and adversity, not only can God work good for us, as he did for Ruth and Naomi, he can also use it to work good for others.  

As we remain faithful, and give God the chance to work things out for our good, He can also bless others through us.

Ruth saw how God turned things around for her and Naomi, but she probably couldn’t have imagined the blessing that this would eventually be for all people, as the Savior of the world would be born through her family line.  

In the same way, when we’re faithful God can be doing things for others through our faithfulness, maybe things we’ll never even know about. But God knows how he is going to bless others through your goodness, so be faithful to him, and through it he’ll do good things for you and for others, and perhaps for many years to come.

In our Gospel today, we see how Jesus worked through the faith of the leper. Jesus healed 10 lepers, but only one came back to say thank you to God, and he was the foreigner of the bunch, a Samaritan. Like Ruth, he was a Gentile.

Jesus told him, “Your faith has made you well.” Through faith, God worked good for him.

This story is also an assurance that all people, even into the future, could believe and be saved.

This was healing for the faithful leper, and assurance for the billions of gentiles, like you and me, who in future generations would come to Christ, and not be turned away.  

In light of this promise, our Epistle calls us to be good and faithful soldiers of Christ. Paul says, “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”.

The life of a soldier isn’t always an easy one, especially in the field. Not only is there the danger of combat, but also the difficulty of day to day life.

In the Revolutionary War there’s the famous story of Valley Forge, where the soldiers suffered through a bitterly cold winter without enough food to stay strong, and not enough fuel for fire to cook, and not even enough clothing to keep warm, and shoes and socks to keep their feet from freezing in the snow; and rampant disease.

The army could have fallen apart that winter, and the new United States of America would have lost the war. But the soldiers persevered; they remained loyal and the war was won, and democracy was born.

Today there are many free lands around the world because those Revolutionary War soldiers were faithful and didn’t quit when adversity struck. 

As soldiers of Christ, we must sometimes go through times of adversity and  temptation to quit. When we remain faithful, God will work good through us, as He did through Ruth, and through the faithful, thankful Samaritan leper.

A good soldier of Christ is first of all, faithful and true.

Secondly, a good soldier is obedient. If a soldier doesn’t obey, and does his or her own thing instead, it hurts the army.

In combat, a soldier who doesn’t follow commands can endanger, not only his own life, but also the lives of his fellow soldiers.

When Adam and Eve did their own thing and disobeyed God, it led to their downfall, and to the fall of all humanity.

On the other hand, when Jesus was faithful and fully obeyed His Father, it led to the salvation of humanity.

In the same way, as good and faithful soldiers of Christ, we strive to obey him. Sometimes we fail, and he forgives. And he helps us to trust him more and obey him better, for the good of all.

Finally, a good soldier is courageous. Jesus showed the greatest courage on the cross. His courage for us makes us courageous for him.

Paul told Timothy, God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of love and courage.

Courage to be teased and ridiculed, even rejected on account of our Christian faith, and our loyalty to the Word of God. Courage to make emotional and material sacrifices for the gospel. Courage to face all kinds of challenges and to overcome them with faith.

There are many challenges to being a good and faithful soldier of Christ. But God helps us with all of them. He has a plan, as he did for Ruth and Naomi, a plan not just for our good, but a plan to bless others through our faithfulness.

Paul tells Timothy, Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

By the grace of Christ, strive to be a good and faithful soldier of the cross, and the peace of God…