“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.” 2 Timothy 2:3-13 ESV
Paul was a prisoner of Emperor Nero. Much can be said about the man’s (Nero) depravity. He was Rome’s fifth emperor from A.D. 54-68. From his book “Nero,” Edward Champlin wrote:
“Nero murdered his mother…Nero also slept with his mother, Nero married and executed one stepsister, executed his other stepsister, raped and murdered his stepbrother. In fact, he executed or murdered most of his close relatives. He kicked his pregnant wife to death. He castrated and then married a freedman. He married another freedman, this time himself playing the bride. He raped a vestal virgin. He melted down the household gods of Rome for their cash value.”
Nero was the one responsible for Saint Peter’s death – by crucifixion…upside down. Like all narcissistic madmen, Nero’s family and immediate household felt his crazed wrath. His mother, Agrippina, full of evil intrigues herself, conspired to displace Nero and elevate Britannicus, the son of Claudius, led to Nero’s poisoning of Britannicus. Later, he fell into the intrigue of Rome’s most beautiful and wicked woman, the infamous Poppaea Sabina. Under her seductive influence, he murdered his mother, and then his wife. He discarded all wise counsel – including those of Seneca and Burrhus, and instead accepted those of Tigellinus, a man known as being of the worst character. He then followed a career of wickedness, extortion, and atrocious cruelty. [Source: “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901)].
That Nero came to power at age 17 didn’t help. Absolute power, of course, corrupts even the best of men much less a boy of 17. But, lest we shake our heads at the insane immorality of it all, and consider Nero, or any other despot for that matter, a thing all unto itself, we remember the Scripture. How long was it before murder came into the human drama after the Fall? Was Cain brought up by wretched parents? Was sin in the world? What do we make of Lamech, of Nimrod, of Saul, Ahab and his not-so wonderful bride, Jezebel? And how about Nebuchadnezzar? Proverbs speaks with a consistent drumbeat about the dangers of the adulterous woman, the seductress – of wanting her and being under her influence. Solomon, who would know something about the issue said:
“And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.” Ecclesiastes 7:26 ESV
Even Nero, the most powerful man in the world at the time, Emperor of mighty Rome, was a slave to his own Jezebel. This is always and forever the truth. Unless a man come to Christ to be His servant, he will be a slave to sin.
You see, Nero’s story is our story too. So, cool your self-righteous jets. What would we do if we were in absolute power of the whole world at 17? Nero’s tale is the tale that man is never free, can’t be free, and will always be a slave either to Christ or to sin. Nero had the world, but not God and, like Nebuchadnezzar before him, it meant nothing. A world without God is a hellish one, and our hedonistic culture is discovering that for themselves as we now have something unknown to the world before our time. What’s that? The illusion, through social media, through material wealth, through the abundance of time and food, that we’re little gods.
Nero, like all hedonists, worshipped himself. He fancied himself a great artist and warrior/athlete. He competed as a poet, actor and even as a singer. In chariot-racing crazed Rome, he competed in that too – at the Olympic Games. He won everything, of course – even one race where he fell out of the chariot. Ah, but such is competition when you’re the Emperor.
He hated the Christians and found unique ways to torture them. But he also hated Rome’s elite and alienated them and persecuted some of them too. We know how such a story ends. Facing execution, he committed suicide at 30 because that’s the last power available to the narcissist. All who hate God love death (Proverbs 8:36); all men are lovers of self outside of Christ and see themselves, not God, as the sole and true maligned party, the offended one of reality. Nero’s last words were: “what an artist died in me!” Sin’s motive is self-worship; its currency is hedonism.
This is the portrait of the man who caused Paul’s suffering and we know Paul’s reply. That Paul understood this is the reason why he responded the way he did – and exactly why we should too when faced with persecution and suffering. God’s word is never bound, though we might be in literal chains. The sin that animated Nero and that controls the world is at war with Christ and, therefore, hates the soldiers in His army. His saints, those who believe on Him, are targets to be taken out. First, sin will come. Temptation is the first attack by the enemy. If he can get a Christian to fall into sin and pride, he neutralizes him. If a Christian man doesn’t submit to Christ in all things, he can be a tyrant in his home. He can ruin the lives of his wife and children. Oh, how many of us have struggled in ways, great and small, and shed many tears, because of ungodly fathers? And how many ungodly fathers there are, maybe even sitting in Sunday pews, because they aren’t humble before the word of Christ? Every man, we must know, is a little Nero…a private one in his heart. And a man who doesn’t acknowledge this will be no good in his Christian walk anymore than a soldier who wanders into enemy fire is any good.
The temptations of the world are indeed the Enemy’s first line of attack, which is why Paul likens us to soldiers. The Christian life isn’t a cruise ship existence, but a battleship. And the battle is against sin. So, yes, Nero was Paul’s enemy in the explicit sense, just as today’s Democrat party and the hedonistic empire of modern America is the Christian’s literal foe. But the animating force behind the attack is sin. We see this in Nero’s demise and irrationality. Last week we learned that natural immunity was just as effective (I would certainly say more but that’s another story) against COVID than the mRNA vaccine. People of wisdom knew this two years ago but the tyrannical powers, drunk on their authority, and animated by the lust for more, always, therefore, hating freedom, said it wasn’t true. For a man like me – and perhaps you too – who refused the vaccine on the grounds that they’d already had COVID, they were called all sorts of vile things. Some had to choose between their jobs and their freedom. Was there an apology connected to this news? Of course not.
And here’s the point. Sin is a tyrant and it sells itself to wannabe tyrants. The sales pitch of sin is the lust for absolute freedom over reality and even Christians have this infection bubbling in the waters of their soul. Justification is a single act of grace; sanctification is the process where the converted sinner becomes more and more Christ-like in practical ways. The good soldier of Christ, therefore, fights personal sin – especially pride – and, if called to suffer in this world because of their faithfulness, they will suffer righteously. Lashing out at enemies and repaying slander for slander isn’t the conduct of the Christian soldier even though it’s so understandable. Paul’s conduct, and our Lord’s before Pilate, is our standard. We should pray to be so well grounded and established in the faith that we will honor God when it’s our privilege to be slandered, mistreated, and even punished for His honor.
Is Joe Biden or some other humanist leader terrible? Of course they are. That’s the point of sin. It makes us foolish. The Christian soldier doesn’t “get involved with civilian affairs” means that we aren’t trying to fix the world’s problems through the world, but through the gospel. We know what’s in men’s hearts – and ours too, which is how we can logically avoid slandering and reviling even in the midst of our indignation. We see Christ risen, His tomb empty, and yet the Nero’s judged in their rebellion and annihilated by sin. The Lord is not mocked and all accounts aren’t settled in this lifetime. That’s how Paul is joyous even in his false imprisonment. He’s falsely accused because he’s like his Savior but he knows that even though the charge upon which he eventually lost his head was false, the true charges of sin against God have been swept away by that glorious tide of grace in which he now stands. Nero declared Paul guilty though he wasn’t. Take this to heart as persecution and the insanity of sin rises in our time. It’s going to be a bumpy ride, yes. But we know how it ends. Therefore, we endeavor, in Him, to live like it – to live as men and women freed from condemnation in a world under God’s wrath. We must remind ourselves of this or else the sheer self-destructiveness and suicidal stupidity of the sin we see around us will cause us to be bitter and depressed. Paul was in the pit, but not forever. You may be in despair too in your fight against sin, but have heart. Christ has overcome all.
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