2 Timothy 2:4

2:1-7 As our trials increase, we need to grow stronger in that which is good; our faith stronger, our resolution stronger, our love to God and Christ stronger. This is opposed to our being strong in our own strength. All Christians, but especially ministers, must be faithful to their Captain, and resolute in his cause. The great care of a Christian must be to please Christ. We are to strive to get the mastery of our lusts and corruptions, but we cannot expect the prize unless we observe the laws. We must take care that we do good in a right manner, that our good may not be spoken evil of. Some who are active, spend their zeal about outward forms and doubtful disputations. But those who strive lawfully shall be crowned at last. If we would partake the fruits, we must labour; if we would gain the prize, we must run the race. We must do the will of God, before we receive the promises, for which reason we have need of patience. Together with our prayers for others, that the Lord would give them understanding in all things, we must exhort and stir them up to consider what they hear or read.

Having told Timothy that his life was to be the life of a soldier, in which he would be exposed to many difficulties, and dangers, and hazards, he here mindeth him of the law and custom of soldiers, who being once entered in the muster-roll, use to sequester themselves from other employments in trading, husbandry, or the like, that thereby they might be at the command of their general, or captain, to be called out upon what service he pleaseth. So he who is a minister of the gospel ought not voluntarily and of choice engage himself in secular employments, but give up himself wholly to the ministerial work, that so he might please the Lord Jesus Christ, who hath chosen him to be his soldier.

2 Timothy 2:4 . οὐδεὶς , no man ) The word abstain (abstinence) is recommended in this verse: sustain [3] (endurance) is added to the recommendation in the next.— στρατευόμενος , warring ) Do with all thy might what thou art doing.— πραγματείαις , with the affairs [matters of business] of this life ) in which merchants and workmen are involved.— ἀρέσῃ , may please ) being entirely devoted to the duties of a soldier. [3] It is here in the sense of withstand. It was thought right to use it to give the reader an idea of the antithesis in the original.—TR.

That warreth (στρατευόμενος) Better, when engaged in warfare. Rev. no soldier on service. In Paul, 1 Corinthians 9:7; 2 Corinthians 10:3. In Pastorals only here and 1 Timothy 1:18. Entangleth himself (ἐμπλέκεται) Only here and 2 Peter 2:20 (see note). This has been made an argument for clerical celibacy. In the affairs of this life (ταῖς τοῦ βίου πραγματίαις) Better, affairs of life. Not as A.V. verse implies, in contrast with the affairs of the next life, but simply the ordinary occupations of life. In N.T., βίος means either means of subsistence, as Mark 12:44; Luke 8:43; 1 John 3:17; or course of life, as Luke 8:14. Βίος Po. Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier (τῷ στρατολογήσαντι) N.T.o. olxx. Better, enrolled him as a soldier.

4. "No one while serving as a soldier." the affairs of (this) life—"the businesses of life" [Alford]; mercantile, or other than military. him who hath chosen him—the general who at the first enlisted him as a soldier. Paul himself worked at tent-making (Ac 18:3). Therefore what is prohibited here is, not all other save religious occupation, but the becoming entangled, or over-engrossed therewith.

2 Timothy 2:4 . στρατευόμενος : militans Deo (Vulg.). Soldier , in the sense of a person belonging to the army, not soldier on service , as R.V., which makes the same error in Luke 3:14 marg. (See Expositor , vi., vii. 120). ἐμπλέκεται : implicat se (Vulg.). The verb is used in a similar metaphor, 2 Peter 2:20 , but in a more adverse sense than here. A soldier, who is bound to go anywhere and do any thing at the bidding of his captain, must have no ties of home or business. The implied counsel is the same as that given in 1 Corinthians 7:26-34 , with its warnings against distraction between the possibly conflicting interests of the Lord and of this life. Note the use of ἀρέσκω in 1 Corinthians 7:32-34 . ἀρέσῃ : that he may be of use to (see Milligan on 1 Thessalonians 2:4 ).

Verse 4. - Soldier on service for man that warreth , A.V.; in for with , A.V.; enrolled him as for hath chosen him to be , A.V. Soldier on service ( στρατευόμενος ); as 1 Corinthians 9:7 (see, too. 1 Timothy 1:18 ). In Luke 3:14 στρατευόμενοι is rendered simply "soldiers," with margin, "Greek, soldiers on service." There is no difference in meaning between the "man that warreth" in the A.V., and the "soldier on service" of the R.V. Affairs ( πραγματείσις ); only here in the New Testament, but common in the LXX. and in classical Greek, where it means, as here, "business," "affairs," "occupation," "trade," and the like, with the accessory idea of its being an "absorbing, engrossing pursuit." Enrolled him, etc. ( στρατολογήσαντι ); only here in the New Testament, not found in the LXX., but common in classical Greek for "to levy an army," "to enlist soldiers." The great lesson here taught is that the warfare of the Christian soldier requires the same concentration of purpose as that of the earthly warrior, if he would win the victory. 2 Timothy 2:4

4 . No man that warreth ] More literally no one on service , as in Luke 3:18 ‘men on march’ came to St John Baptist. Carr, however, there quotes instances from the classics for the absence of the article, Eur. Ion 639, Med . 68, as shewing that possibly it may be used irregularly as a substantive, ‘no fighting man.’ entangleth himself with the affairs of this life ] The verb occurs only here and in 2 Peter 2:20 ; the noun only here: ‘affairs,’ in the sense in which we speak of a ‘man of affairs’ skilled in public business; the word has been debased and generalised since the writing of A.V. and of Shakespeare’s ‘There is a tide in the affairs of men Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.’ And now we use the word chiefly of ‘the affairs of every-day life’ and the like. The Vulg. has well ‘implicat se negotiis secularibus.’ who hath chosen him] Rather, who enrolled him ; the word is only here in N.T., a later Greek word.

No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life - Having alluded to the soldier, and stated one thing in which the Christian minister is to resemble him, another point of resemblance is suggested to the mind of the apostle. Neither the minister nor the soldier is to be encumbered with the affairs of this life, and the one should not be more than the other. This is always a condition in becoming a soldier. He gives up his own business during the time for which he is enlisted, and devotes himself to the service of his country. The farmer leaves his plow, and the mechanic his shop, and the merchant his store, and the student his books, and the lawyer his brief; and neither of them expect to pursue these things while engaged in the service of their country. It would be wholly impracticable to carry on the plans of a campaign, if each one of these classes should undertake to prosecute his private business. See this fully illustrated from the Rules of War among the Romans, by Grotius, "in loc." Roman soldiers were not allowed to marry, or to engage in any husbandry or trade; and they were forbidden to act as tutors to any person, or curators to any man's estate, or proctors in the cause of other men. The general principle was, that they were excluded from those relations, agencies, and engagements, which it was thought would divert their minds from that which was to be the sole object of pursuit. So with the ministers of the gospel.

It is equally improper for them to "entangle" themselves with the business of a farm or plantation; with plans of speculation and gain, and with any purpose of worldly aggrandizement. The minister of the gospel accomplishes the design of his appointment only when he can say in sincerity, that he "is not entangled with the affairs of this life;" compare the notes at 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 . That he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier - That is, him who has enlisted him, or in whose employ he is. His great object is to approve himself to him. It is not to pursue his own plans, or to have his own will, or to accumulate property or fame for himself. His will is absorbed in the will of his commander, and his purpose is accomplished if he meet with his approbation. Nowhere else is it so true that the will of one becomes lost in that of another, as in the case of the soldier. In an army it is contemplated that there shall be but one mind, one heart, one purpose - that of the commander; and that the whole army shall be as obedient to that as the members of the human body are to the one will that controls all. The application of this is obvious. The grand purpose of the minister of the gospel is to please Christ.