Paul continues his word picture of a soldier who shares in suffering for Christ from the last verse. Paul points out that soldiers don’t concern themselves with non-military matters: they have a job to do. Nor do they worry about issues unrelated to their specific mission. In other words, a Roman soldier would not be distracted by “civilian” concerns: entertainment, politics, or weather, for example. Instead, his focus was entirely on fulfilling the orders of his commander. In this word picture, Christ is the one who has enlisted Timothy. His goal was not the trivial issues of life, but the mission for which God had called him.

Paul elsewhere used the concept of a soldier in relation to the discipline required in the Christian life (Phil 2:25). Believers who serve together are considered “fellow soldiers,” a phrase Paul used as a positive reference to those who worked with him (Philippians 2:25; Philemon 1:2). In modern terms, this is like saying Christians are to be well trained and disciplined, like an experienced Marine who is prepared for any battle.  ~ BibleRef

Jeremiah 42:1-44:23
2 Timothy 2:1-21
Psalm 92:1-93:5
Proverbs 26:3-5 

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New Testament: 2 Timothy 2:1-21

Summary: A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus, A Worker Approved by God

God’s grace strengthens us and enables us to be faithful teachers and soldiers, athletes, farmers, workers, vessels and servants. The world looks on us as evildoers, but we are God’s elect, willing to live and die for Jesus Christ. God’s grace enables us to overcome our three great enemies the world, the flesh and the devil. God’s grace enables us to endure hardship. We fight the Lord’s battle so that we do not deny the Lord. It helps us do the work to which we’re called, a work that we indeed are not ashamed of and deal with the problem of people of whom we are not afraid.

No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. ~ 2 Timothy 2:4

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

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