3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Paul was an excellent soldier.

A grand example for those who have joined the ranks.‭ ‬On every occasion,‭ ‬he gallantly acquitted himself.‭ ‬Paul sacredly observed that first duty pertaining to a soldier‭—‬Obedience.‭ ‬He never deviated a single iota from his Captain's orders.‭ ‬He was‭ ‬Courageous If duty required it,‭ ‬he was ready to die anywhere and in any way‭ (‬Acts‭ xx. ‬24‭; xxi. ‬13‭)‬.‭

He was‭ ‬Enduring.‭ ‬For the truth he endured all things:‭ ‬hunger,‭ ‬thirst,‭ ‬cold,‭ ‬nakedness,‭ ‬imprisonments,‭ ‬cruel mockings,‭ ‬and scourgings‭ (‬2‭ ‬Cor.‭ ‬xi. 23‭–‬27‭; xii. ‬10‭; ‬1‭ ‬Cor.‭ iv. ‬11‭–‬13‭)‬.‭ ‬He was‭ ‬Hopeful.‭ ‬Though

‭ "‬troubled on every side,‭ ‬yet not distressed,‭ ‬perplexed but not in despair‭" (‬2‭ ‬Cor.‭ ‬4:8‭)‬.‭

He was‭ ‬Skilful.‭ ‬He knew wherein his ability and strength lay,‭ ‬and these he was masterly in employing‭ (‬Phil.‭ iv. ‬13‭; ‬Ephes‭ vi. ‬10‭–‬17‭)‬.‭ ‬He was‭ ‬True.‭ ‬He was staunch to the last,‭ ‬and died fighting. A‭ "‬well done‭'' ‬and a crown of glory await him.‭

Paul has said,‭ "‬follow me‭". ‬Are we,‭ ‬like Paul good soldiers of Christ‭? ‬Our circumstances may differ from those of Paul,‭ ‬still we are engaged upon the same work,‭ ‬and have ample scope for exhibiting the Apostle's qualities.

Obedience is called for or we shall neglect to disseminate the good news of the Gospel.‭ ‬Courage is needed or we shall be deterred from letting the light shine by the ridicule or bitterness of the world‭; ‬endurance,‭ ‬or our first zeal will wane‭; ‬hope,‭ ‬or we shall get disheartened and faint‭; ‬skill,‭ ‬or we shall bring shame upon our cause‭; ‬faithfulness,‭ ‬or we shall become renegades.‭ ‬Let us fight the good fight of faith,‭ ‬and lay hold on eternal life.

Bro AT Jannaway

The Christadelphian, Oct 1887

12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

These evil times bring with them our opportunity. If there were no unthankful people, if we were not placed in relation to evil people, and if all things around were spiritually prosperous and refreshing, what opportunity should we have of carrying out the commandments of Christ, which expressly pre-suppose the existence of surrounding evil conditions?

If all were sweet and plentiful, we should be bemoaning ourselves that we had no opportunity of being tried whether we should keep his commandments or not.

...Paul's sufferings were pre-eminently the sufferings of Christ, and the sufferings of the Corinthians were indirectly the sufferings of Christ. Just as Paul was poor and unpopular as the result of the course he pursued, so were they as the result of identifying themselves with him; therefore they shared the sufferings of Christ, and we have to do likewise.

We have to accept unpopularity and the imputation of madness, and many other disagreeables incident to such a position as ours, if we are faithful to the truth. But if the sufferings of Christ abounded in the Corinthians, so also did the consolation. What is the consolation of Christ? It is that referred to by Christ himself when he said,

"Blessed are ye that mourn: for ye shall be comforted."

Bro Roberts - Obedience

14 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.

A certain amount of metaphysical subtlety is doubtless essential to complete mental action: but there is always a danger that it may run away with the lion's share of mental energy, and leave the mind impoverished. As in some departments of natural philosophy, men reason themselves out of the recognition of all facts whatever, so there is a possibility of metaphysical disputation dissolving the substance of the truth, and robbing the mind of all the joy, and love, and praise that the facts of the truth inspire.

The metaphysicians of the first three centuries of the Christian era blighted the work of the truth as effectually as the hot wind of the desert parches vegetation.‭ ‬The glory and the joyfulness of the gospel were lost amid their arid definitions and cantankerous disputations; and the faith of Christ was reduced... to as ugly and lifeless a thing as Barnum's manufactured mermaid, or the showman's Egyptian mummy. Like causes produces like effects. There is a danger of the joy and the beauty of the truth being destroyed by metaphysical contentiousness at this supreme hour of destiny, when the advent is nearly due.

A contention for the faith once delivered to the saints is a totally different thing.‭ ‬But even this dies down in the shadow of the judgment-seat. For everything there is a time. It is far more important at such a time as this to establish truth-believers than to contradict errorists.

‭ ‬It is far more important to bring forth the fruits of the spirit than to expose the pretences of superstition. It is far more important to comfort the heart of believers by the joyful facts of the truth than to bewilder both stranger and saints by the endless logic-choppings of metaphysical ingenuity.

There is such a thing as propensity in these directions: which differs as much from the wise handling of knowledge as the brandishing of razors by children differs from the use of tools in the hands of trained mechanics. The mischief will never stop till the Lord comes. Still, it may be minimised in many cases by the reminders that are said to be useful for those who love wisdom.

The Christadelphian Dec 1896

15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a work man that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

The character of a man's faith is altered by the quantity and quality of his knowledge.

...We may choose Christ, but he may not choose us. Our election turns not upon our choice, but upon his. We may choose him upon our own principles, while he rejects us upon his. He chooses us through a belief of the truth, the unadulterated truth; men choose him by believing what suits them, and rejecting the rest. Such may choose Jesus as their "portion forever," but they will assuredly have no portion in his joy.

Herald Apr 1853 - Our position scriptural and tenable.

Rightly dividing the word of truth.

The Bible,‭ ‬like nature,‭ ‬is so constructed,‭ ‬that if a man does not use his senses,‭ ‬he may easily break his bones.‭ ‬There are plenty of occasions for stumbling,‭ ‬if a man is not anxious about true and careful walking.‭ "‬Not of works,‭ ‬lest any man should boast,‭" ‬gives the libertine excuse for any sinful indulgence to which he may be prone.‭ "‬Not every one that saith,‭ ‬Lord,‭ ‬Lord,‭" ‬gives another occasion to justify his disregard of doctrinal truth.‭ "‬God,‭ ‬the Saviour of all men,‭" ‬helps a third to believe it is a wide gate that leads to salvation.

The Christadelphian, Sept 1887

17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;

"The depths of the Satan as they spoke" in apostolic times, were the speculations of Hymeneus and Philetus, and of the many other false prophets that had gone out into the world, acuminated in Origen and others (2 Tim. ii. 17; 1 John iv. 1), whose "word," or teaching, Paul said would "eat as doth a gangrene."

This is known by all pathologists to be destructive of all organization, and consequently of life. The word-gangrene of "the Satan" has consummated its work upon the theory and practice of christianity apostolically delivered. This is obvious to all scripturally enlightened observers of the spiritual system of the world. The word is not preached by the clergy, who are ignorant of the first principles of the oracles of God. They preach the dogmas they have traditionally received from the "false prophets" they style "the Fathers" -- the fathers of their "Holy Orders," at the head of which is "the Holy Father" they term "the Pope."

These fathers were the perverters of the gospel Paul preached, by their inventions, which substituted sacramentalism for faith; nullified the doctrine of a resurrection to judgment; abolished the kingdom; transmuted the great mystery of godliness into scholastic jargon about "trinity;" destroyed the sacrifice of the christian passover by affirming the immaculateness of Christ's flesh; in short, totally abolished the faith, and instead thereof, set up a system of RHANTIZED HEATHENISM, which may be defined, the sacramental deliverance of immortal ghosts from Plutonic fire and brimstone, and consequent translation into an Elysium beyond the realms of time and space!!!

This definition is the symbol of "the depths of the Satan as they speak" now from the pulpits of Satandom in all the world. The Satan's ministers, transformed, as Paul says, into ministers of righteousness, all proclaim the heathen dogma of a soul or spirit in man capable of disembodied existence in eternal weal or woe; and all the religion or pietistic invention they have patented proposes or professes to do, is to save this phantom from the flames of their Tartarus, and land it in Elysium, which they call Paradise!

It is this pagan dogma which lies at the bottom of all their "depths." Abolish this, and the religion of the clergy is abolished too; for their religion, which is "a cure" for such "souls," can be of no use to the people if it be proved that there are no such souls in them to be cured. Hence the clergy, when they find courage enough for the conflict, fight hard for hereditary immortality an immortality derived hereditarily from the earthy Adam, the first sinner upon whom the sentence of death was pronounced by the judge of all the earth.

A man under sentence of death is as a dead man. Immortality derived from a dead man by natural generation, is the immortality for which the clergy contend in all their "depths." Without it, their craft is destroyed and their occupation gone. It is the great sand-bag of their system, which, when removed from the foundation-corner of their temple, leaves it without support, and in its fall, reveals to the contempt of all observers the shallowness of "the depths as they speak."

Eureka

18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

To deter men from crime, and to move them to "get religion" that their souls may be cured of sin, frightful pictures are painted, sometimes on canvas, sometimes on the imagination, and sometimes sculptured on stones, of the crackling and sulphurous flames, hideous devils, and horrid shapes, which fill the Tartarian habitation of the immortal ghosts of wicked men. This destiny of condemned ghosts was a part of the "vain philosophy" of the Greeks and Romans before the advent of Christ.

It was introduced into the churches of the saints soon after "God granted repentance to the Gentiles" (Acts xi. 18). But, as the apostles taught the resurrection of the mortal body (Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:42-54) the dogmatism of the Greeks was variously modified. Some admitted the resurrection of the dead; but, as it interfered with their hypothesis about souls, they said it was already past (2 Tim. 2:18); and consequently, that "there is no resurrection of the dead" (1 Cor. 15:12).

This gentilizing the hope of the gospel filled Paul with zeal, and caused him to pen the fifteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians to counteract its pernicious influence. He wrote to Timothy to put him on his guard against it; and styles the gentilisms, "profane vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called" (1 Tim. 6:20). He exhorts him to shun them, and "not to strive about words to no profit;" for they "would eat as doth a canker" (2 Tim. 2:14, 16, 17).

Elpis Israel 1.2.