Fit Soldiers
1Samuel 21:4-5 The priest told him, “There is no ordinary bread on hand. However, there is consecrated bread, but the young men may eat it only if they have kept themselves from women.” 5 David answered him, “I swear that women are being kept from us, as always when I go out to battle. The young men’s bodies are consecrated even on an ordinary mission, so of course their bodies are consecrated today.”
Like it or not, we are in warfare. It is a spiritual warfare, not one fought with guns and bombs and swords. “For we wrestle...” (Ephesians 6:12). You cannot fight the Lord’s battles while living an ordinary life. A soldier must live fit, separated, and ready.
2Tim 2:4, 20-21 (ESV) No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. … 20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
1 Corinthians 9:25 (ESV) Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
The nature of warfare necessarily strips us of the commonness and entanglements that are the norm of civilian life. We cannot be lazy. We cannot glut ourselves on food or pleasures or intellectual novelties, for war is at hand and we must be fit.
And it is not that we must refuse all these entanglements but that we have no space to be occupied with them, no capacity for them. We are not refusing them but are prevented from engaging with them. We cannot be occupied with them, for war is most certainly at hand.
This passage in 1Samuel also suggests that romantic entanglements in particular can be especially unprofitable during a time of war. (Deuteronomy 24:5; 1 Corinthians 7:28-29). Illicit relationships are obviously a hindrance and will quickly remove the soldier from his duty. Biblical marriage is good, but we live in a time where the pursuit and maintenance of a godly marriage has become an idol among believers. It can so consume spouses that they have little energy for or awareness of the war of the ages that rages around us. There are whole churches whose focus is a navel-gazing attention to the health of marriages in their congregations. I see that they are trying to stem the tide of divorce and heartache that is so prevalent among us, but much dysfunction could be eliminated if married believers devoted themselves to the work of the Lord. And this requires the lifestyle of a soldier.
“Lord, make us fit soldiers."
