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| 2 Timothy 2:4 |
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.
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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
This verse has two parts:
1] No man that warreth entangleth himself with the
affairs of this life.
2] That he may please him who hath chosen him to be
a soldier.
1] No man that warreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life.
No man that warreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life. - Any
more than is unavoidable. In the affairs of this
life - With worldly business or cares. That -
Minding war only, he may please his captain. In this
and the next verse there is a plain allusion to the
Roman law of arms, and to that of the Grecian games.
According to the former, no soldier was to engage in
any civil employment; according to the latter, none
could be crowned as conqueror, who did not keep
strictly to the rules of the game.
~John Wesley Explanatory
Notes
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.
~Barnes Notes
Quoted verse:
1 Corinthians 9:25-27
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is
temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a
corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight
I, not as one that beateth the air:
27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into
subjection: lest that by any means, when I have
preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
No man that warreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life. - It
is well remarked by Grotius, on this passage, that
the legionary soldiers among the Romans were not
permitted to engage in husbandry, merchandise,
mechanical employments, or any thing that might be
inconsistent with their calling. Many canons, at
different times, have been made to prevent
ecclesiastics from intermeddling with secular
employments. He who will preach the Gospel
thoroughly, and wishes to give full proof of his
ministry, had need to have no other work. He should
be wholly in this thing, that his profiting may
appear unto all. There are many who sin against this
direction. They love the world, and labor for it,
and are regardless of the souls committed to their
charge. But what are they, either in number or
guilt, compared to the immense herd of men
professing to be Christian ministers, who neither
read nor study, and consequently never improve?
These are too conscientious to meddle with secular
affairs, and yet have no scruple of conscience to
while away time, be among the chief in needless
self-indulgence, and, by their burdensome and
monotonous ministry, become an encumbrance to the
Church! ~Adam Clarke
No man that warreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life. - Who
is a soldier, and gives himself up to military
service, in a literal sense: the Vulgate Latin
version, without any authority, adds, "to God"; as
if the apostle was speaking of a spiritual warfare;
whereas he is illustrating a spiritual warfare by a
corporeal one; and observes, that no one, that is in
a military state, [entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life]
~John Gill
No man that warreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life.- with
civil affairs, in distinction from military ones.
The Roman soldiers might not follow any trade or
business of life, or be concerned in husbandry, or
merchandise of any sort, but were wholly to attend
to military exercises, and to the orders of their
general; for to be employed in any secular business
was reckoned an entangling of them, a taking of them
off from, and an hindrance to their military
discipline: and by this the apostle suggests that
Christ's people, his soldiers, and especially his
ministers, should not he involved and implicated in
worldly affairs and cares; for no man can serve two
masters, God and mammon; but should wholly give up
themselves to the work and service to which they are
called; and be ready to part with all worldly
enjoyments, and cheerfully suffer the loss of all
things, when called to it, for the sake of Christ
and his Gospel: ~John Gill
No man that warreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life. - A
soldier, when he has enlisted, leaves his calling,
and all the business of it, that he may attend his
captain's orders. If we have given up ourselves to
be Christ's soldiers, we must sit loose to this
world; and though there is no remedy, but we must
employ ourselves in the affairs of this life while
we are here (we have something to do here), we must
not entangle ourselves with those affairs, so as by
them to be diverted and drawn aside from our duty to
God and the great concerns of our Christianity.
Those who will war the good warfare must sit loose
to this world. That we may please him who hath
chosen us to be soldiers. Observe, The great care of
a soldier should be to please his general; so the
great care of a Christian should be to please
Christ, to approve ourselves to him. The way to
please him who hath chosen us to be soldiers is not
to entangle ourselves with the affairs of this life,
but to be free from such entanglements as would
hinder us in our holy warfare.
~Matthew Henry Main
2] That he may please him who hath
chosen him to be a soldier.
That he may please him who
hath chosen him to be a soldier. - the
general who at the first enlisted him as a soldier.
Paul himself worked at tent-making (Acts 18:3).
Therefore what is prohibited here is, not all other
save religious occupation, but the becoming
entangled, or over-engrossed therewith.
~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
That he may please him who
hath chosen him to be a soldier. - The Greek
word is-technical: the commander of a band which he
himself has raised. As such it has a manifest
fitness as applied to Christ, the great ‘Captain of
our salvation.’ It was perhaps natural that the
analogy thus stated should have developed in
ecclesiastical legislation into a rule forbidding
the ministers of the Church from engaging in any
secular pursuits as a means of livelihood. Such a
rule has much to be said in its favour on grounds of
general expediency, but it should be remembered that
it rests on them and not on Paul’s words. They are
wider in their application, and extend to all
soldiers of Christ, i.e. to all Christians, and they
warn us, not against engaging in secular callings,
but against so ‘entangling’ ourselves in them that
they hinder the free growth of our higher life.
~Popular commentary
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. He is to pursue no separate plans,
and to have no separate will, of his own; and it is
contemplated that the whole “Corps” of Christian
ministers and members of the churches shall be as
entirely subordinate to the will of Christ, as an
army is to the orders of its chief.
~Barnes Notes
That he may please him who
hath chosen him to be a soldier - his
captain, or general, who has enlisted him, enrolled
and registered him among his soldiers; whom to
please should be his chief concern; as it should be
the principal thing attended to by a Christian
soldier, or minister of the Gospel, not to please
men, nor to please himself, by seeking his own ease
and rest, his worldly emoluments and advantages, but
to please the Lord Christ, in whose book his name is
written. ~John Gill |
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