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| 2 Timothy 2:3 |
Thou therefore endure hardness, as a
good soldier of Jesus Christ.
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This section has two verses:
2 Timothy 2:3-4
3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ.
4 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.
We begin in the Barclay:
THE SOLDIER OF CHRIST
2 Timothy 2:3–4
Accept your share in suffering like a fine soldier
of Christ Jesus. No soldier who is on active service
entangles himself in ordinary civilian business; he
lays aside such things, so that by good service he
may please the commander who has enrolled him in his
army.
THE picture of every individual as a soldier and of
life as a campaign is one which the Romans and the
Greeks knew well. ‘To live’, said Seneca, ‘is to be
a soldier’ (Epistles, 96:5). ‘The life of every
man’, said Epictetus [ep-ik-tee-tuh
s], ‘is a kind of campaign, and a
campaign which is long and varied’ (Discourses,
3:24:34). Paul took this picture and applied it to
all Christians, but especially to the leaders and
outstanding servants of the Church. He urges Timothy
to fight a fine campaign (1 Timothy 1:18). He calls
Archippus [ahr-KIHP-uhs],
in whose house a church met, ‘our fellow soldier’
(Philemon 2). He calls Epaphroditus [ee-paf-ro-DAI-tuhs],
the messenger of the Philippian church, ‘my
fellow-soldier’ (Philippians 2:25). Clearly, in the
life of the soldier Paul saw a picture of the life
of the Christian. What then were the qualities of
the soldier which Paul wanted to see repeated in the
Christian life?
Quoted verses:
Philemon 2
And to our beloved Apphia, and
Archippus [ahr-KIHP-uhs]
our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house:
1 Timothy 1:18 [see
Lesson]
This charge I commit unto thee, son
Timothy, according to the prophecies which went
before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a
good warfare;
Philippians 2:25
Yet I supposed it necessary to send
to you Epaphroditus [ee-paf-ro-DAI-tuhs],
my brother, and companion in labour, and
fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that
ministered to my wants.
(1) The soldiers’ service must be a concentrated
service. Once soldiers have enlisted on a
campaign, they can no longer involve themselves in
the ordinary daily business of life and living; they
must concentrate on their service as soldiers. The
Roman code of Theodosius [thee-uh-doh-shee-uh
s] said: ‘We forbid men engaged on
military service to engage in civilian occupations.’
A soldier is a soldier and nothing else; Christians
must concentrate on their Christianity. That does
not mean that they must not engage on any worldly
tasks or business. They must still live in this
world, and they must still make a living; but it
does mean that they must use whatever task they are
engaged upon to demonstrate their Christianity.
(2) Soldiers are conditioned to obedience.
The early training of soldiers is designed to make
them obey unquestioningly the word of command [in
our case, God]. There may come a time
when such instinctive obedience will save their
lives and the lives of others. There is a sense in
which it is no part of a soldier’s duty ‘to know the
reason why’. Involved as they are in the midst of
the battle, they cannot see the overall picture.
They must leave the decisions to the commander who
sees the whole field. The first Christian duty is
obedience to the voice of God, and acceptance even
of what is not fully understood.
(3) Soldiers are conditioned to sacrifice.
Professor A. J. Gossip of Glasgow, tells how, as a
chaplain in the First World War, he was going up the
line for the first time. War and blood, and wounds
and death were new to him. On his way, he saw by the
roadside, left behind after the battle, the body of
a young kilted Highlander. Oddly, perhaps, there
flashed into his mind the words of Christ: ‘This is
my body broken for you.’ Christians must always be
ready to sacrifice themselves, their wishes and
their fortunes for God and for other people.
(4) Soldiers are conditioned to loyalty. When
a Roman soldier joined the army, he took the
sacramentum, the oath of loyalty to his emperor. A
conversation was reported between the French
commander Marshal Foch and an officer in the First
World War. ‘You must not retire,’ said Foch, ‘you
must hold on at all costs.’ ‘Then,’ said the officer
aghast, ‘that means we must all die.’ And Foch
answered: ‘Precisely!’ The supreme virtue of all
soldiers is that they are faithful even to death.
Christians too must be loyal to Jesus Christ,
through all the chances and the changes of life,
even down to the gates of death.
~the Barclay Commentary
Thou therefore endure
hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ -
The oldest manuscripts have no “Thou therefore,” and
read, “Endure hardship with (me).” “Take thy share
in suffering” [Conybeare
and Howson].
~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
Thou therefore endure
hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ -
Such hardships as a soldier is called to endure. The
apostle supposes that a minister of the gospel might
be called to endure hardships, and that it is
reasonable that he should be as ready to do it as a
soldier is. Soldiers often endure great privations.
Taken from their homes and friends; exposed to cold,
or heat, or storms, or fatiguing marches; sustained
on coarse fare, or almost destitute of food, they
are often compelled to endure as much as the human
frame can bear, and often indeed, sink under their
burdens, and die. If, for reward or their country’s
sake, they are willing to do this, the soldier of
the cross [stake]
should be willing to do it for his Savior's sake,
and for the good of the human race. Hence, let no
man seek the office of the ministry as a place of
ease. Let no one come into it merely to enjoy
himself. Let no one enter it who is not prepared to
lead a soldier’s life and to welcome hardship and
trial as his portion. He would make a bad soldier,
who, at his enlistment, should make it a condition
that he should be permitted to sleep on a bed of
down, and always be well clothed and fed, and never
exposed to peril, or compelled to pursue a wearisome
march. Yet do not some men enter the ministry,
making these the conditions? And would they enter
the ministry on any other terms?
~Barnes Notes
Thou therefore endure
hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ -
Another admonition: that the ministry of the word is
a spiritual warfare, which no man can so travail in
that he pleases his captain, unless he abstains from
and parts with all hindrances which might draw him
away from it. ~Geneva Bible
Translation Notes
Endure
hardness as a good soldier.
The Christian soldier
Every Christian, and especially every Christian
minister, may be regarded as a soldier, as an
athlete (2 Timothy 2:5). as a husbandman (2 Timothy
2:6); but of the three similitudes the one which
fits him best is that of a soldier. Even if this
were not so, Paul’s fondness for the metaphor would
be very intelligible.
1. Military service was very familiar to him,
especially in his imprisonments. He must frequently
have seen soldiers under drill, on parade, on gourd,
on the march; most have watched them cleaning,
mending, and sharpening their weapons; putting their
armour on, putting it off. Often, during hours of
enforced inactivity, he must have compared these
details with the details of the Christian life, and
noticed how admirably they corresponded with one
another.
2. Military service was also quite sufficiently
familiar to those whom he addressed. Roman troops
were everywhere to be seen throughout the length and
breadth of the empire, and nearly every member of
society knew something of the kind of life which a
soldier of the empire had to lead.
3. The Roman army was the one great organization of
which it was still possible, in that age of
boundless social corruption, to think and speak with
right-minded admiration and respect. No doubt it was
often the instrument of wholesale cruelties as it
pushed forward its conquests, or strengthened its
hold, over resisting or rebelling nations. But it
promoted discipline and esprit de corps. Even during
active warfare it checked individual license, and
when the conquest was over it was the representative
and mainstay of order and justice against
high-handed anarchy and wrong. Its officers several
times appear in the narrative portions of the New
Testament, and they make a favorable impression upon
us. If they are fair specimens of the military men
in the Roman Empire at that period, then the Roman
army must have been indeed a fine service. But the
reasons for the apostle’s preference for this
similitude go deeper than all this.
4. Military service involves self-sacrifice,
endurance, discipline, vigilance, obedience, ready
cooperation with others, sympathy, enthusiasm,
loyalty.
5. Military service implies vigilant, unwearying and
organized opposition to a vigilant, unwearying, and
organized foe. It is either perpetual warfare or
perpetual preparation for it. And just such is the
Christian life; it is either a conflict or s
preparation for one. (A. Plummer, D. D.)
~Biblical Illustrator
Thou therefore endure
hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ -
The best mss. give one compound verb instead of
pronoun conjunction and simple verb, take-part
in-suffering-hardship. As our A.V. stands, the words
may seem hard and severe, with little allowance for
difficulty and weakness. But the phrase in the Greek
is a volume of tenderness and yearning confidence,
of a father’s claim to loyal imitation. ‘Take your
share in the enduring of hardness. Take up my
mantle. I say not—go and brave hard fighting in the
trench, hard words, hard deeds, for Christ your
Master. I rather say—being such an one as Paul the
aged—come with me, come after me, be one with us all
who war the good warfare. My own son in the faith, I
crave (strange though it
seem), to nerve me for my last crowning
effort, the sight of your young heroism. The
standard that must fall from my failing hands you
will grasp will you not?’
~Cambridge Bible commentary
Thou therefore endure
hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ -
He considers a Christian minister under the notion
of a soldier, not so much for his continual
conflicts with the world, the devil, and the flesh,
for these are in a certain sense common to all
Christians, but for the hardships and difficulties
to which he must be exposed who faithfully preaches
the Gospel of Christ. ~Adam
Clarke
Thou therefore endure
hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ -
In the passage before us he makes use of all three
figures: but the one of which he seems to have been
most fond is the one which he places first, -that of
military service. "Suffer hardships with me," or
"take thy share in suffering, as a good soldier of
Christ Jesus. No soldier on service entangleth
himself in the affairs of this life; that he may
please him who enrolled him as a soldier." He had
used the same kind of language in the First Epistle,
urging Timothy to "war the good warfare" and to
"fight the good fight of faith". (1 Timothy 1:18; 1
Timothy 6:12) Every Christian, and especially every
Christian minister, may be regarded as a soldier, as
an athlete, as a husbandman; but of the three
similitudes the one which fits him best is that of a
soldier.
Quoted verses:
1 Timothy 1:18 [see
Lesson]
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy,
according to the prophecies which went before on
thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
1 Timothy 6:12 [see
Lesson]
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal
life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast
professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Even if this were not so, Paul’s fondness for the
metaphor would be very intelligible.
1. Military service was very familiar to him,
especially in his imprisonments. He had been
arrested by soldiers at Jerusalem, escorted by
2. Troops to Caesarea, sent under the charge of a
centurion and a band of soldiers to Rome, and had
been kept there under military surveillance for many
months in the first Roman imprisonment, and for we
know not how long in the second. And we may assume
it as almost certain that the place of his
imprisonment was near the praetorian camp. This
would probably be so ordered for the convenience of
the soldiers who had charge of him. He therefore had
very large opportunities of observing very closely
all the details of ordinary military life. He must
frequently have seen soldiers under drill, on
parade, on guard, on the march; must have watched
them cleaning, mending, and sharpening their
weapons; putting their armor on, putting it off.
Often during hours of enforced inactivity he must
have compared these details with the details of the
Christian life, and noticed how admirably they
corresponded with one another.
Military service was not only very familiar to
himself; it was also quite sufficiently familiar to
those whom he addressed. Roman troops were
everywhere to be seen throughout the length and
breadth of the Empire, and nearly every member of
society knew something of the kind of life which a
soldier of the Empire had to lead.
~Expositor's Bible
Commentary
Thou therefore endure hardness
- "Or afflictions"; as in 2 Timothy 4:5. The same
word is used there as here, and properly signifies,
"suffer evil"; and means the evil of afflictions, as
persecutions of every kind, loss of name and goods,
scourging, imprisonment, and death itself, for the
sake of Christ and the Gospel:
As a good soldier of Jesus
Christ. - Christ is the Captain of salvation,
the Leader and Commander of the people, who are made
a willing people in the day of his power; or when he
raises his forces, and musters his armies, these are
volunteers, who willingly enlist themselves into his
service, and under his banners fight his battles;
and such who manfully behave against sin, Satan, and
the world, are his good soldiers; such are all true
believers in Christ, and particularly the ministers
of the word, whose ministry is a warfare, and who
fight the good fight of faith; and besides the above
enemies, which they have in common with other
saints, have to do with teachers, who are wolves in
sheep's clothing. ~John
Gill
“A Good Soldier of Christ
Jesus”
2 Timothy 2:1-9
Soldier, 2 Timothy
2:1-4 : There is grace enough in Jesus for every
need, but we must avail ourselves of it. We can
expect nothing less than hardship, since life is a
battlefield. Our one aim should be to please Him who
chose us to be soldiers. In order to be all that he
would have us be, we must avoid entangling ourselves
in the conditions around us. We must resemble a
garrison in the town where it is quartered, and from
which it may at any hour be summoned away. The less
encumbered we are, the more easily shall we be able
to execute the least command of our Great Captain.
How high an honor it is to be enrolled among His
soldiers! ~F. B. Meyer
Recap of what we have learned tonight.
1] You are a soldier of Jesus Christ.
2] Accept your share in suffering like a fine
soldier of Christ Jesus.
3] Fight a fine campaign as you journey through the
Salvation Process.
4] Your service must be a concentrated service.
5] Obey God who is your commanding officer above
Jesus Christ.
6] Follow Christ.
7] Be loyal to God the Father and Jesus Christ.
8] Be faithful unto death.
9] Welcome trials and hardships as they come.
10] Part with or abstain from all hindrances that
might draw you away from your calling.
11] Invoke endurance, discipline, vigilance,
cooperation with others, sympathy, enthusiasm and
loyalty.
12] Profess a good profession; lay hold on eternal
life.
13] There is grace enough in Jesus for every need
you have. We must avail ourselves of this grace.
14] Avoid entangling ourselves in the conditions
around us. |
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