To Battle We Go: Break ‘Em Down and Build ‘Em Up!
Basic training is a formative experience for anyone entering our military services, to say the least. It’s purposefully shocking and disorienting, designed to quickly develop the skills to be a functioning service member and inculcate the service’s history and culture.
Since each branch of service has a different primary mission, each has its own way of conducting basic training. As you would expect, the Navy includes more water-based training, and the Air Force emphasizes skills (and culture) related to aircraft and flying in general. The Army and the Marine Corps regard themselves as primarily infantry based, so their basic training focuses on entry level infantry skills like rifle marksmanship, throwing grenades, and marching, marching, marching!
But there is a major philosophical difference between the Marine Corps and the other services when it comes to training new recruits. The Army, Navy, and Air Force seek to build on the background, personality, and gifts that each recruit already possesses. The Marine Corps still adheres to an older tradition colorfully described as “Break ‘em down and build ‘em up.” The idea is that the recruit doesn’t bring anything of value to the Marine Corps except their physical presence and a desire to become a Marine, and that every part of their background, personality, and gifts — essentially any trace of individuality — must be broken down and eliminated. The “empty vessel” Marine recruit can then be rebuilt from the ground up and refilled with the pure version of everything Marine Corps by the training officers and NCOs.
There are good arguments for both philosophies, but I think the Marine Corps method more closely resembles what happens when we Salvationists turn ourselves over completely to the Lord and get serious about biblical holiness. Every part of us is contaminated by sin, and we bring nothing of value for God’s purposes except our desire to live a holy life. He can’t even tolerate our sinful presence without the saving blood of Jesus Christ cleansing us, nor do we have any hope of living a life pleasing to Him without the filling of the Holy Spirit.
So, when Paul says in Philippians 3:8 that he considers anything he lost because of following Jesus “rubbish” (dung is the literal translation), he means more than just physical suffering, but the loss of himself, the loss of everything he brought into the relationship. God had to literally knock Paul off his horse to get him from “All of self, and none of Thee” to “None of self, and all of Thee” as the old song says, and then built him up into the powerhouse missionary he became.
But there is much to recommend the training philosophies of the other services as well, and the truth is, God uses both methods. After He washes us clean and fills us, He can then use our background, personality, and gifts in His service. God used Paul’s study of philosophy, his exhaustive knowledge of scripture, and even negative traits like the extreme zealousness he showed in persecuting Christians, to carry the gospel to the Gentiles. And He’ll do the same for us if we allow Him to break us down and build us up.