What is "a good soldier"?

Bob Hines, a close friend who was a Navy pilot gone to be with the Lord now.

During the night I sometimes wake up and cannot go back to sleep.  Last night I watched a military history show and they were interviewing a WWII soldier.  He recounted a time when under great fire they lost eighty one men in the platoon of a hundred.  The nineteen were moving out and he heard a sound from one of the soldiers whom he thought was dead.  It was his sargent.  He went to his side to hear him say, "Scoop, you're not going to leave me out here are you?"  The back of his head had been blown open.  At this point the old man stopped to try to keep himself from crying.  "I got out a bandage and put his head back together as best I could.  I picked him up and helped him to walk with me and we made it to a medic station.  I never saw him again."


John 12.
²³ And Jesus *answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵ He who loves his ^[h]life loses it, and he who hates his ^[i]life in this world will keep it to life eternal. ²⁶ If anyone ^[j]serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone ^[k]serves Me, the Father will honor him.

Acts 21.
³⁰ Then all the city was provoked, and ^[l]the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. ³¹ While they were seeking to kill him, a report came up to the ^[m]commander of the Roman ^[n]cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. ³² At once he took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to them; and when they saw the ^[o]commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. ³³ Then the ^[p]commander came up and took hold of him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; and he began asking who he was and what he had done. ³⁴ But among the crowd some were shouting one thing and some another, and when he could not find out the ^[q]facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. ³⁵ When he got to the stairs, he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the ^[r]mob; ³⁶ for the multitude of the people kept following them, shouting, “Away with him!”
Hebrews 11.
³² And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵ Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their ^[u]release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; ³⁶ and others ^[v]experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawn in two, ^[w]they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated ³⁸ (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes ^[x]in the ground.
³⁹ And all these, having ^[y]gained approval through their faith, did not receive ^[z]what was promised, ⁴⁰ because God had ^[aa]provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

Hebrews 12.
⁴ You have not yet resisted ^[d]to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; ⁵ and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
⁶ For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
And He scourges every son whom He receives.”

⁷ It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸ But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. ⁹ Furthermore, we had ^[e]earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of ^[f]spirits, and live? ¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. ¹¹ All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

¹² Therefore, ^[g]strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

2 Timothy 2.
³ Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴ No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

Jesus never was deceitful about the kind of life He was calling people to fulfill.  It is a life of challenge in order to love all people like Jesus did including our enemies.  It is to plant our own life in the soil of His way of life and expect God to take care of the fruit.  He didn't say it would be easy.  He did promise the rewards would be great and indeed they are. There are none of His promises that have failed.

Larry Wishard