God’s Warrior or Mercenary?

I’ve been talking with a lot of people recently about the indifference many of us seem to exhibit when it comes to living out our faith on a day-to-day basis. Francois Fenelon once asked: “To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid “big” sins – is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?” I think we all know that it isn’t, so how sad that we call ourselves the army of God when we’re really just a bunch of mercenary’s.

You see a mercenary is a soldier who is paid to fight in an army – one who only fights for personal gain. When the going is good the mercenary builds his credit; but as soon as the going gets tough the mercenary cashes in his chips and gets the heck outta Dodge. A warrior, on the other hand, serves and works with dedication to a cause. Kings would often have to supplement their armies of warriors with mercenaries to gain numbers for a tactical advantage. It would cost the king a lot to hire those mercenaries and ultimately they would desert him to save their own neck. Not so with the king’s warriors.

We serve THE KING. So my question is; do we serve him as a warrior or a mercenary? He paid the ultimate cost to purchase our lives and calls for a dedicated army of warriors. I don’t believe he has any interest in hiring mercenaries. So what are we playing at? Isn’t it time to stop cashing in and serve Him with everything we have in times of peace and trouble?