Obedience to our Divine General
Dear knower of God’s love, you should also know that we are in the throes of spiritual warfare regardless our wishes, a battlefield not of flesh and blood but for souls and spirits. To develop strengths in full acceptance of the inconceivable depths comprising God’s goodness and greatness, is to wear the armour of a soldier in Christ. To share it is your sword.
In Ephesians 6:11, we encounter a vivid image of preparation for celestial combat: “Clothe yourselves with the full armour of God so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” Paulus exhorts us to engage in spiritual conflict that transcends our basic mortality. This echoes Christ commanding that “if anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24).
The soldier in Christ is no brute force but a resolute will in God with a stalwart heart firmly planted in His love. This warrior stands at the threshold of Kratos, the domain of Resurrexit Spiritus where community entry and self-definition coalesce, through which we learn how to get along as well as with whom we should. Here, the foundational virtues may be forged and tempered in the crucible of spiritual training. Magnanimity, the first virtue, emerges from this trial by fire, as commitment to truth and righteousness rooted in self-awareness and identity remembrance. The importance in identification of the self within Christ, in that grace, cannot be overstated.
Magnanimity: The First Virtue
Structural Virtues Theory (SVT) posits Magnanimity as the seed from which all other virtues spring. It is the grandeur of spirit that acknowledges the perfect divine origin of our imperfect human reason, thus superior to it in every capacity. Reason is thus an instrument half-completed as reflecting the infinitely superior eternal divine. In SVT, metaphoric numerologic mnemonics are use, so that Magnanimity is “1,” the primal virtue manifesting through memory and identity remembrance via Awareness and Honesty.
This grand virtue is not an elitist ideal but a call to every believer to embrace their divine heritage, and to Whom they owe most. Our truest identity is woven into us from the outset of God’s creations, undergirding all purpose and meaning. This awareness, this remembrance, forms the bedrock of our spiritual trail with our divine General who guides us into our battles and missions.
Obedience in any other contexts would be paradoxical. Blind adherence can not be it, however profound alignment with divine will most certainly is. Where we do not grasp the highest good due to our imperfections, we humbly submit, in a recognition of weaknesses by making our desires conform to what we can know of God’s, as revealed. In Jesus, the soldier’s obedience mirrors the modus operandi of a well-trained professional athlete where each movement on the field or in practice serves a greater purpose, as guided by the best evidences for good.
In Kratos’ realm, obedience manifests as a disciplined response to God’s Word, which often comes from imbalances found in the higher domains, tugging the roots this way or that, until equilibrium can be maintained. It is the first step in a spiritual training, the act of surrender empowering, as ostensibly paradoxical to the uninitiated. The soldier who obeys is liberated by their Leader.
Temperance: Virtue’s Guardian
Standing alongside Magnanimity is Temperance, though third virtue after Honour, is the guardian of virtues, restraining dishonourable actions and resisting lies. Temperance also acts as the gateway to Excellence, that first step in Analysis aspect, since they are both found in the moment of Propriety. Rooted in the Honesty aspect and Propriety moment, it serves as the bulwark against temptation’s seductions. It is the discernment separating truth from falsehood, guiding us through the Spiritual-Material divide.
Temperance is restraint but balanced with virtue application. It is wisdom knowing when to advance or retreat, speak or remain silent. In spiritual warfare, Temperance is the strategist plotting course holding back from treacherous Moral terrain, sticking to calmer waters.
Super Covenant
Thus, the spiritual soldier’s covenant is a binding pact with his divine General: commitment to obedience, discipline, and discernment. It is an allegiance to truth and righteousness forged in Kratos’s crucible, the domain of rules and laws. This covenant is not a fleeting declaration but a continual renewal, a daily surrender to divine will through redemption, atonement, and constant prayer.
Recall Paulus’s words in finality, proving prophetic:
“For there will be a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. And they will turn away from hearing the truth, but on the other hand they will turn aside to myths. You, however, be self-controlled in all things, endure hardship, do an evangelist’s work, fulfil your ministry. For I am already being poured out as an offering, and the time for me to depart is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith!” (2 Timothy 4:3-7)
The soldier in Christ fights not for glory or gain but for the eternal victory of the spirit, glorying in Him alone, a resurrection from death, from a death in this life to the enthralment of materiality and recognising our own spiritual poverty. The virtues are plates set down together and bound to form an impenetrable armour. Fortress of faith, march ye forward, with resolve of a saint, wisdom of a strategist, and the humility of a servant.