“19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. 20 For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. 23 I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, 24 and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also. 25 I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, 26 for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. 29 So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, 30 for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.” (Php 2:19-30 ESV)
To share across boundaries: chances are the need for salvation has not escaped even our fiercest foe. The foe, in their own brand of uniform, either is corporately, at large, universally, destined for Hell, or is capable of those earnest and hopeful thoughts around his or her faith system.
That we still pick up arms, still fight with them, still anger at the abuses or irreverence for life, bawl in tears about the genocides or devil-may-care attitudes, this is not precluding that the enemy in our scope is still one for whom Christ Died. One possibly for whom our selfsame Christ Died.
Faith of our stripe is Universal in claiming folks need it, Universal in operating at a level higher than that level on which manifest War and Strife is fought out, Universal in the apostolic Witness of the brother or sister of the cloth, of the testimony, of the helpmeet’s sufferings for each other.
This faith is a pick-me-up Sharing, with that troubled brother or sister, with those manifestly on the other side from us, in a different uniform, sadly this day discovering in conversation a bit of malignity or misfitting parts. Or is that because we are closer to man’s sinful nature? Is our Awareness a recipe for despised dialog, unholy confession, seduced false witness? Never, when the hand of God is at work in the life of the would-be Listener.
Never, when mountains move and hills elide, in the capable hands of this our brother or sister in the faith. There is some precious Fact in the efficacy, the influence, the inspiration of the one whose very presence spells solemnity and confession. When all goes to pot, in the trenches when we Wonder at a faith shared across boundaries and uniforms, when we wonder how the unwarring classes still share this same Faith that drives the soldier to would-be sacrifice, selfless handing over of life itself, how these untamed unwarring classes share Anything with said soldier. And share, they do, because no uniform alone spells relief, no uniform alone is the Gospel; rather, ours is a fatigue and uniform designed around Hope, around the mandate to Act in the nation’s and church’s interest, because to do so is to Live Into gospel life, Cruciform life, Heroism in the small deeds.
Because to be heroic is to React boisterously and Manifestly in antinomy to the lossy concessions to a lost spirit of the air. Therefore we are not only passively receiving the benefits of Christ’s Cross, we are actively enjoined, humored, camaraderie-filled, in the mess hall and around the camp. We have this inspiration from a Christ brother or sister solemnly Heroic amidst obvious wrongs suffered. Who has promised the end of rumor-mongering and suspicions, with words not only True but Salvific: capable of Saving.