Beloved,
As a child begins to detach herself/himself from their mother as time progressed and their weaned from their mothers bosom, so do we go through such a process as babes and growing in a level of spiritual maturity in Christ. I often wonder whether we have yet really taken the attitude and urgency of what it means to truly live for Christ not only by action but even by attitude? We have become monotonous in the way we cling to the many of affairs of this life. Cling is a very strong word meaning to ‘remain persistently or stubbornly faithful to something-overly dependent on someone or something’ and we all know we can be stubborn creatures-stubborn meaning to be difficult, hard or tough, even fixed or set opinion.
I often like to define certain words because we often can take it out of context and be the first to say “Uh uh that is not me at all,” when truth be told it is us. The bible already tells us it is the Truth that will make us free that being said Jesus is the Truth and when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior and are Truthful with ourselves and one another we in turn can be free. The choice is ours.
I want us to focus closely and carefully on three verses:
2 Timothy 2:3-4 “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, , that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.”
See- this is personal Timothy is saying YOU not Him over there not Her but YOU must (should) endure hardship- you see enduring hardship isn’t just for you but those watching you. How do expect to preach and teach others if you yourself have not exemplified what you’ve said? Its more than words and I have found what you say often is what you will get tested on. I also want to remind you that enduring hardship is not God causing you to suffer but we must remember we have an Enemy who is hostile toward God, toward the things of God and towards those who follow God- so we are encouraged to endure in spite of, but this is what I look we are enduring hardship not for our families, not even for ourselves but as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He goes on to say that soldiers must give up some things such as pride, independence even self will even sometimes family. So you see some of the affairs of life are not all bad but even good, but sometimes we will find that being an effective soldiers and not being entangled with anything that will make us less effective we must detach ourselves from those things. You see because Jesus enlisted us we must not be so concerned with pleasing ourselves, those around us but Christ.
But in order to understand Timothy we must come to the knowledge and understanding of this truth in Galatians. We are told in Hosea4:6 because we lack knowledge we err (stumble) that lack of knowledge comes from forgetting the law of God, knowing just some of God and not enough.
Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,[and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” another version with just a bit more additional “ In [this] freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery [which you have once put off].”
We are told here that we must Stand Firm, hold your ground. Think about different countries we’ve been at war with and til this day we continue to be at war with because they are holding their ground and protecting their rights-we must do the exact same when we live for Christ. I love it because the Lord gives us this freedom but it is not Automatic. We must continually submit to God and resist the devil in order to maintain freedom. Liberty- what can I say it is freedom from restriction and control from bondage physically, mentally and even emotionally. But let me be very transparent it is not freedom to sin however it is the freedom we have in Christ from sin. God has paid a sacrifice on behalf of you, you, you and you in order we would be free from sin and from bondage.
I would also like to focus on Matthew 10:39 in the process which says “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.”
Lastly, beloved as I previously mentioned clinging is to stubbornly faithful hold onto something, having a fixed opinion which can cause us to stumble very quickly. You see the devil has a hidden agenda when we are blinded because of our clinging, and until we cling to Christ we will never know what it means to live but in order to live we must die to everything else which tries to compete with Christ position for your life. So either we spare our lives for the sake of temporal comfort or sacrifice our life. A solider and the commander always look further out then temporal satisfaction.
Beloved, let us not err due to lack of knowledge when the Lord has given us all the tools we need to be the best soldier enlisted in His army, but may we endure hardships, may we recognize our freedom –liberty is in Christ Jesus and may we be willing to loosen the grip on everything that causes us to become entangled (confused/disordered) even perplexed serving Christ and may we learn to loosen the grip on our lives in order to find it in Christ.
The real battle is our inner self vs sacrifice. Clark said it this way “When we know God for who He really is, it affects our conduct. “Where there is no knowledge of God, no conviction of his omnipresence and omniscience, private offences, such as stealing, adulteries, and so forth, will prevail.”
The Truth will make you Free! 