Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ-2 Tim. 2: 3.
The Lord's people are soldiers in that army of which Jesus is the Commander. Their warfare requires strong endurance because of the many hardships to which they are exposed. Self-denial must be persevered in amid their many privations. Their many defects tax their endurance almost unto fainting. Their faults call for endurance against discouragement, and the strenuousness of their trials and sufferings can be borne only by a spirit that is inured to hardship and is sustained by the Lord.
Opposition is to be expected, and will, doubtless, continue until we finish our course in death. To submit patiently to this opposition is to sacrifice our own natural preferences for the friendship and the pleasures of the present life, and to endure hardness as good soldiers for the Truth's sake, in whatever shape that hardness may come, in our effort to do the lord's will and work of advancing the interests of His Kingdom. To be really in the Lord's service involves, first, the careful and continual study of God's Plan; second, the imbibing of its spirit; leading, thirdly, to an enthusiastic zeal for its accomplishment, and to activity to the extent of ability in its service, at whatever cost or sacrifice it may require.
Those in Christ Jesus are the consecrated. Their consecration makes them sacrificers for righteousness amid a world wherein the advantages are on the side of unrighteousness, and the disadvantages are placed on the side of righteousness. Their course can not be otherwise than one of persecution from those whose selfishness seems antagonized by the course of the consecrated. Thus all the faithful will be persecuted, but be ye strong and a heavenly soldier of Christ and never to fall.