Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary

spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and

Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Howdy, fellas? Welcome back. This week, we're looking at different

passages of scripture that reveal to us and remind us Christian men that we were born for battle.

So today we're going to park in 2 Timothy 2, verses 3 and 4. But before I read it, we need to kind of

set the scene a little bit. So this is a letter from the Apostle Paul to his protege Timothy. This was Paul's final letter that we still have today. Some have called it

his last will and testament, if you will. He wrote this while in prison in Rome. This is likely his

second imprisonment there. The letter, if you read it, which you should, is very personal. So it comes

off as very pastoral as well.

And you can tell that he cares very deeply for Timothy and the continuation of his ministry.

And he wants Timothy to persevere regardless of the circumstances. So he wants Timothy to

operate with integrity. He wants Timothy to finish well in his ministry and for the sake of the

gospel. So now that we have that context,

I'll read 2, 2, verses 3 and 4 here. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

So let's actually break that down, verse 3, share in suffering. So the Greek word used here

literally means that shared in suffering. So suffer together with is what we are called to do.

It also shows us that suffering is normative, right? In fact, it's to be expected and suffering is a

mark of discipleship of Christ.

So, 1 Peter 4, verse 12 through 14, says this,

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you

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