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 |