SPIRITUAL WARFARE: Sunday soldiers - reproach to Christ!

"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth."

2 Timothy 2:15

Recently, I encountered the term "Sunday soldiers." Curious, I did an Internet search and discovered the term was quite popular during “the war between the states,” our own Civil War.

“Sunday soldiers” were understood by veterans of battle to be those who saw little or no action; they were also known as “kid glove boys” or “parlor soldiers.” The terms were used as insults or signs of contempt. To be publicly referred to by one of them placed you in the camp of the coward or labeled you as unpatriotic.

In an interview for The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in about 1918, Lot D. Young, a Rebel veteran of the Civil War, gave this testimony before his death:

“On the 22d of January following I was twenty years old - quite a youth you are ready to say. But I had been a soldier almost two years, being a charter member of that little band of ‘Sunday’ soldiers - the ‘Flat Rock Grays’ - and which constituted an integral part of what was known at that time as the Kentucky ‘State Guard.’ This little company of citizen soldiers were in their conceit and imagination very important and consequential fellows. Invited to all the noted gatherings and public affairs of the day, dressed in gaudy and flashy uniforms and flying plumes, filled with pride and conceit, they did not know they were nursing their pride against the day of wrath.” [“Documenting the American South: Reminiscences of a Soldier of the Orphan Brigade: Electronic Edition. Young, Lot D., b. 1842 © Copyright 1998 by the Academic Affairs Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]

In other words, they were all show and no go!

The church is an army, the army of God; and we are considered soldiers of the Cross. We are admonished to wear all the armor of God at all times; to be ready in season and out.

But today the visible church is pregnant with Sunday soldiers – the “Flat Bottom Grays” –which constitute an integral part of what is known as “Christian church.”

This little company of lay soldiers are, in their own conceit and imagination, very important and consequential Christians. Invited to all the committee meetings and socials of the day. Filled with pride and conceit, they don’t know they’re nursing their pride against the day of wrath. They are, when the bottom-line is reached, all show and no go! They are armorless and powerless.

Someone should tell them that those of the losing side in our war were also known as rebels.

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