Editorial November 10, 1928 Issue

The Free Warrior

Albert F. Gilmore

Paul's aptness in the use of figurative language has few parallels in the world of letters. Drawing his metaphors from the affairs about him, he presented them in so trenchant a form that they could scarcely fail of their purpose. In exhorting Timothy, whom he addressed endearingly as "my son," to constancy and perseverance in his efforts to spread Christianity among his fellows, Paul wrote, "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." The affairs of this life Paul clearly saw as encumbrances to the righteous activity of the Christian warrior; as obstructions to be overcome in order to progress spiritually.

The same situation prevails to-day as in the olden time, and he who would be a successful warrior in Truth's army must free himself of the burden of material beliefs which encumber mortals and weigh them down, delaying, if not wholly obstructing, their progress.

Paul in his many brilliantly sententious epistles set forth the means of gaining true freedom. He saw the burdens of life as mental, and dealt with them accordingly. He knew that in order to be an effective warrior in the campaign which had for its high purpose the establishment of God's kingdom "in earth, as it is in heaven," thought must be corrected through transformation. Accordingly he wrote that familiar, because extraordinarily meaningful, sentence in his message to the Christians in Rome, "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

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