2 Timothy 2:4

‘No soldier on service entangles himself in the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier.’

2 Timothy 2:4-6 now give three examples of what is required of those who follow Christ. The first requires commitment and sacrifice. The second requires commitment and obedience. The third requires commitment and hard work. So the lesson about enduring hardship is applied. A soldier has to go forward ready for anything. He must lay aside all earthly entanglements, which in this case means all ‘the affairs of this life’. His one aim must be to please Him Who has chosen him to be a soldier. In future if he does anything connected with this world it must be for Him, not with eye-service as a man-pleaser, but as serving Christ and doing the will of God from the heart (Ephesians 6:6). It is a call for total commitment, and a demand that from now on everything be looked at in a new way. And it applies to all Christians. There are no exemptions. We have all been signed on.

‘The affairs of this life.’ This cannot mean literally that Christian leaders are not to do any secular work for Paul himself acted as a tentmaker in order to pay his way. The point with a soldier is that he leaves secular life and does not allow anything to get in the way of his efficiency as a soldier. Thus the same applies to a Christian leader. He must look on secular life as something that is not for him, and must thrust away anything that might hinder him in fulfilling his Christian responsibilities. All else must be subservient to properly fulfilling his ministry, and in that light the things of this life must count for nothing. His eye must be singly set on being the very best that he can be in the Lord’s service. Even in his recreation he must ask, is this genuinely making me better capable of serving God?

‘That he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier.’ His aim must at all times be to please his commander-in-chief, and no less so when the Commander-in Chief is present all the time.