FOR what does the Christian soldier fight? A Roman Catholic journal, The Pilot (Boston), answers the question thus:—
“The Christian soldier fights for his country, sustained not by the hope of subsequent political rewards, nor even by the nobler expectation of the gratitude of posterity, but simply for the love of his country, and his conviction that it is his duty before God to lay down his life for her at need.”
And this is about the idea which many Protestants hold on the same point. But it is not Bible doctrine. The very first thing Christianity requires of any person, under all circumstances, is that he lay down his life. He [468] must be “dead,” and his life “hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3. “Subsequent political rewards” and the “gratitude of posterity” are ruled out altogether. And God never calls an individual to lay down his life for the sake of his country. He must lay it down because it is full of sin, and take in its place the life of Christ, which is all righteousness. “Whosoever will save his life,” said Jesus, “the same shall lose it.” The truly Christian soldier lets Christ live in him (Galatians 2:20), and by that life wages ceaseless warfare against all sin.