2 TIMOTHY 2 

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.

BEING A SOLID SOLDIER

Paul was writing these words chained to a Roman soldier, so he had a good reference point. He saw this soldier day after day, and he observed all that the soldiers did and all that they said.

He observed these soldiers, and his master piece is in Ephesians 6 where he describes the armour of a Christian.

In Roman times the soldiers had to sleep out in the open when they were in battle format; they didn’t have comfortable beds to sleep in. They had to endure marching through mud, in the rain and living in difficulty, as we are to expect. The Christian life is not a bed of roses…Amen. Some of the soldiers guarding Paul must have had hardened or weather-beaten faces. They had been through it; they had fought many battles and marched many miles.

Matthew Henry says:

II. He must endure hardness (v. 3): Thou therefore, etc. 1. All Christians, but especially ministers, are soldiers of Jesus Christ; they fight under his banner, in his cause, and against his enemies, for he is the captain of our salvation, Heb. 2:10. 2. The soldiers of Jesus Christ must approve themselves good soldiers, faithful to their captain, resolute in his cause, and must not give over fighting till they are made more than conquerors, through him that loved them, Rom. 8:37. 3. Those who would approve themselves good soldiers of Jesus Christ must endure hardness; that is, we must expect it and count upon it in this world, must endure and accustom ourselves to it, and bear it patiently when it comes, and not be moved by it from our integrity.

Their focus was on pleasing their commander, so they were not entangled with the world. To be entangled is to be caught up with something. you cannot serve two masters. There is no way you can be a soldier of Jesus and a lover of the world, as Demas was to show sadly later in this book. He made the wrong decision… Amen.

We are under the command of Christ, we serve him and not ourselves.

Everything about that soldier was concerned about service, for his commanding officer. He kept his armour shining, he focused on his job, he marched. All he did was for the one who called Him to be a soldier.

How much more, as soldiers of the King of Kings, must our focus and service be to the one who has called us out of darkness, into his marvellous light, to share his glorious gospel.

Matthew Henry says these words

III. He must not entangle himself in the affairs of this world, v. 4. 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, 1. 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.

So many believers think they get sit in an easy chair on the battle field, warfare is going on all around them, and they are idling their time away.

This relates to time spent on our cell phones, It is easier to play on your cell phone for an hour, believe me, been there done that, this is entangling yourself with the world.

The more you entangle yourself with the world, the more it will start to choke you. 

Your Christian service and Christian fervour will be slowly squeezed out of you.

There are millions of believers, some of them sit in churches today, but they are pale shadows, they have entangled themselves with the world.

They are also thousands and thousands of people like Demas, who have loved this present world, they were once fervently serving Christ, but now they won’t darken the doors of a church,

Don’t be a Demas.

10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

Let us behave like true soldiers of the kings of kings.

God bless you

Keith