Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy from prison, near the end of his life, to a young man he was leaving behind in hard times. His order here is short and military, and it raises an obvious question: what suffering is meant, and why should a Christian expect any at all?
Older translations render the verb here as "endure hardness." That is army language. One reference work gives its plain sense, and adds the soldier's other mark:
The New Testament says two things about the Christian soldier. He must "endure hardness," that is, share in the suffering that comes with warfare. And he must not entangle himself with the affairs of this life, "that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier." That is, he must be quite free to obey his Captain in all things… The Christian servant is under authority. Unquestioning obedience should mark the soldier of Jesus Christ: he must be ready to endure hardships, and to suffer with his Captain.
Why should a Christian expect suffering at all? One writer answers by pointing to the ground the Christian stands on:
In an enemy's land who could wonder that Timothy was called to take his share in suffering?
When faithfulness to the truth is rare, the cost comes in ordinary and painful forms. It can also come from people you would never expect:
We shrink from suffering by nature. So the call goes out to Timothy — and to everyone who wants to be true to Christ — "Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Compared with Paul, the "share" of suffering we may be called to take will be small. But wherever a believer today refuses error and stands for the truth, he must be ready in some measure to face opposition, persecution, desertion, and malice. As with the Apostle, these things may come even from his fellow believers.
The verse does not just say suffer. It says suffer as a good soldier of Christ, and that rules out hitting back. The same writer points to Stephen as the picture of what the Lord gives:
We therefore need, not power to crush our enemies, but grace to take our share in suffering… Though Jesus is Lord in the place of supreme power, He does not usually act in power to crush the enemies of His servants. He did not give Stephen power to crush his enemies… He gave grace. Stephen was so strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus that he could take his share in suffering. As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, he did not threaten or insult his persecutors. Instead, he prayed for them and committed his spirit to the Lord.
The instruction carries weight because Paul was not sending Timothy anywhere he had not gone himself:
So when he urged Timothy to take his share in suffering, he had already walked that path himself. He only encourages him to follow in the same steps. And where is the servant, we may ask, who does not need this reminder? Avoiding the cross is a common temptation. Only when the love of Christ constrains us, and our eye is fixed on His glory alone, are we moved to take a glad share in the sorrows and sufferings of His interests here on earth.
One writer names a comfortable assumption and corrects it:
In lands where religious freedom is granted, the conflict side of Christian life is easy to overlook. People think that our journey to a joyous heaven will be happy and calm. But that is not the prospect Scripture holds out. We are not only pilgrims but also disciples. We are called to take up our cross and follow our rejected Lord. And because we are identified with Him, conflict is certain.
Everything turns on who the Captain is. One writer points to the path Christ Himself took:
A good soldier will obey his Captain and act as he does. Christ is the great Captain of our salvation. He has reached His place of glory through sufferings, and He has left us the perfect example of suffering in patience… To act in a way so contrary to nature will indeed demand that we should be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
- Enlisted. The Captain chooses His soldier, and the soldier's business is to stay free enough to obey Him in everything.
- Share. You take your portion of the hardship that war brings: opposition, persecution, desertion and malice, sometimes from fellow believers.
- Grace, not force. The Lord rarely gives power to crush enemies. He gives grace to suffer without hitting back, as Stephen did.
- Followed, not sent. Paul asked nothing of Timothy that he had not already borne, so the call is an invitation to walk behind him.
- Supplied. The Captain Himself reached glory through sufferings, and the strength to follow Him is the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
No one going as a soldier entangles himself with the affairs of life, that he may please him who has enlisted him as a soldier.
Paul tells Timothy to serve like a soldier on active duty. Two questions follow: what counts as an entanglement, and who is the soldier meant to please?
Kelly draws one demand out of the soldier image:
Here the apostle calls him to take his share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. What else, inside or outside, demands more self-denial or brings greater trials? ... The servant must make up his mind to refuse all distraction.
The Greek word behind "civilian pursuits" is bios. One reference work traces where else it appears:
Bios is the way a person lives, or what he lives on in this world. The poor widow put in all her living. Mark 12:44. We pray for those in authority "that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life." 1 Tim. 2:2. "No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits." 2 Tim. 2:4. "The pride of life is not from the Father." 1 John 2:16.
Hamilton Smith marks the limit of the verse:
The Apostle is not suggesting that we should neglect the affairs of this life, or that we are necessarily called to give up our everyday business. In other Scriptures he rules that thought out. He tells us to work with our hands to provide what is honest, and he can say of himself, "You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities." But he warns us against letting the affairs of this life fill our time, drain our energy and take over our minds. That way we become entangled as in a net, no longer free to carry out the Lord's will.
The line falls on the heart, not on the possessions. Mackintosh shows what sets a heart free:
The grand point is to keep the heart disentangled. God's warriors must have free hearts, and the only way to be free is to cast all our care on Him who cares for us. I can stand on the battlefield with a free heart when I have placed my house, my vineyard and my wife in the divine keeping.
Being tangled up does not put anyone outside the family of God. It puts them outside effective service:
He demands on the part of God's warriors a disentangled heart. It is not a question of salvation, of being a child of God, of being a true Israelite. It is a question of being able to fight an effective war. A man cannot fight well if his heart is tangled up with "a house," "a vineyard" or "a wife."
Dennett follows the comparison through to two kinds of servants:
Instead, he arranges to lay aside all his business responsibilities. He wants to be free from every other claim and completely at his commander's disposal. Are the soldiers of Christ to be on any lower level? ... It is a most blessed thing when busy men give their spare time to the Lord's work, putting His interests before their own ease and comfort. But the Apostle speaks here of another kind of servant. In the power of the Holy Spirit these servants free themselves from every human claim, because they want to please the Captain of their salvation and to be under His complete control.
Smith names the one whose approval decides everything:
The good soldier of Jesus Christ seeks to please, not himself or even others, but first and foremost the One who has chosen him to be a soldier.
Whoever hires a servant is the one that servant must please. Campbell asks where that leaves a servant of Christ:
Suppose one is called to be the Lord's servant. How then can he hire himself out as the servant of a denomination or a congregation, and do what man tells him to do? When a man is hired, he becomes a servant to those who hire him and must please them. Should he not stay free as the servant of Christ alone, and serve Him wherever and however his Master directs, day by day?
Westcott names the everyday pressures that crowd Christ out:
One of the first things we have to watch is the way the affairs of life take up our attention and shut out the Lord's interest. Whatever shape the Lord's interest takes in your life, and whatever service you are to give, be on your guard. Do not let the affairs of life fill your mind and crowd out the claims of Christ. It is very hard. The world is in such a state that we feel these distractions — uncertain work, difficulties in trade and business.
- Enrolled. Christ enlisted you. From that moment His pleasure sets the agenda — not your comfort, and not other people's approval.
- Engaged. Enlistment does not cancel your job. Paul never forbids the affairs of life; he forbids being caught in them like a net.
- Entangled. The danger is time, energy and mind so absorbed that you are no longer free to do the Lord's will.
- Effective. Entanglement does not touch your salvation. It touches your fitness to fight: a divided heart cannot fight well.
- Enabled. Cast every care on God. He keeps your house, your work and your family, and your heart goes free.
And if also any one contend [in the games], he is not crowned unless he contend lawfully.
This verse takes its picture from the public games: a competitor who breaks the rules wins nothing, however well he runs. Paul sets it among three images given to a young servant of Christ, and it raises a sharp question — does God care not only that we serve Him, but how?
Verses 3 to 6 give three trades in a row: soldier, athlete, farmer. Each supplies a condition of service, and one writer sums up the whole set in a single line. (Older translations say "strive lawfully" where the ESV says "competes according to the rules".)
He must endure. He must stay free from the world's entanglements. He must fight by the rules, and work first before he looks for fruit. These are the practical conditions of divine service for whoever takes it up.
An athlete must learn the rules of his sport before he steps into the arena. The same homework falls on the Christian:
There are certain rules of the ring. If you are going to compete, if you are going into special games, you must learn the rules of those games. Break them, and the judges may rule you out and disqualify you. The prize we are looking for makes one thing very important: we must know every desire of the Lord's heart, and all these rules He has given us to walk by. Can I ask you — do you read the Word systematically?
The verse does not say the lawbreaker loses ground. It says he is not crowned — and that holds even for the winner:
He is not crowned unless he competes lawfully, running by the rules of the contest. He may come in first and still not be crowned. Do we keep this in mind enough when we serve the Lord? Unless we serve by His instructions and obey His word, we cannot expect a full reward.
A common defence is that a person's overall record should cover a lapse here or there. The athletic figure removes that defence:
Christ calls His servant to be as careful as an athlete. If so, he must keep the revealed will of the Lord as strictly as those who took part in the games of Greece kept their rules. General faithfulness ought never to be sought or allowed as a cover for wrongdoing. And the highest excellence in the highest aims cannot excuse a departure from truth or righteousness, even in small things. The man who broke the law of the games in any way was shut out from the victor's wreath for that very reason.
The rules of the ancient games shaped a competitor's whole life, long before the day of the contest. That is where this verse presses hardest on comfortable Christians:
These rules demanded steady discipline and training before a man could enter the contest at all. History gives us the details of the training the competitors in the Greek games went through: the diet, the exercise, the fixed hours, the hard life they endured to win a crown that perishes. So in these days of ease, wealth and self-indulgence, the servant of the Lord is to train himself the opposite way. That way he can carry out his ministry and service according to the will of his Lord.
Does a day of weakness loosen the rules? One writer meets that argument:
The crown will not be given for great activity, nor for the amount of service, but for faithfulness in service. The crown goes to the one who strives lawfully. It might be argued that, in a day of great weakness, we must each adopt whatever methods we think best to get our service done. To meet such arguments we are warned that, in a day of ruin, we are still bound to "strive lawfully". So this condemns bringing carnal methods, human devices and worldly shortcuts into the service of the Lord.
Losing the crown is not losing the Saviour. The two rest on different grounds:
The crown the Apostle speaks of is not given for being a Christian, but for a faithful walk… It ought to be a solemn thought to our hearts that the Lord means to notice how people have stood as witnesses for Him, and what their walk was like. All are to be in glory on the ground of free grace. But Christ watches to see if we run well. He will give a reward if there has been faithfulness, and a crown of righteousness if we have loved His appearing.
- Entered. Every Christian is a spiritual athlete, standing beside the soldier and the farmer. The conditions of service: endure, stay free of the world, compete by the rules, work before fruit.
- Ruled. The rules of our contest are God's Word. Reading it steadily is not extra credit; it is the first duty of anyone hoping to be crowned.
- Trained. Ancient competitors gave up food, hours and comfort for a crown that perishes. In days of ease and plenty, the Lord's servant trains the opposite way.
- Faithful. God measures the reward by faithfulness, not by the amount of service. And general faithfulness never excuses a small departure from truth.
- Crowned. Salvation is free grace; the crown is not. Christ is watching how we run, and He gives the wreath only to the one who ran by His rules.
The husbandman must labour before partaking of the fruits.
Paul gives Timothy three word-pictures: the soldier, the athlete, and now the farmer. The farmer's lesson turns on one small word — first: work comes before the harvest, and that order never changes.
Each of these verses hands the servant a different trade to learn from.
You will notice the three different ways in which the servant should exercise himself. In the 4th verse you have the warrior; in the 5th verse the wrestler, and in the 6th verse the worker.
Each figure supplies a different quality.
As a soldier he was to obey his captain's command at once. He was to endure all the hardships of such a demanding calling. As an athlete he was to pay close attention to the rules of the game. He was not to seek the crown by unlawful means, for that would be to lose it. As a farmer he must be patient. He knows the labour must come before the harvest.
The writers use an older translation, which reads "must be first partaker of the fruits." The ESV puts it as the farmer who "ought to have the first share of the crops." One writer weighs which word "first" belongs to.
There is a question of translation. Is it "first labouring," or "first partaking"? It is simply a comparison, like the other one… Only he must first labour to be a partaker.
Either way, the sequence stands. One writer draws out both what God secures by it and what God asks along with it.
Rather he must "labour before he partakes of the fruits." That is, he must first labour, and then partake of the fruits. God takes care of His people, and secures them a blessed end. At the same time He will have them wholly for Himself. And He is also jealous about the way in which they seek even the ends of God.
The third picture is the plainest of the three. The man who does the work has the first claim on what the field yields.
Farming is man's earliest occupation, and it involves the maximum amount of real hard physical work. It means downright labour. So it is for the servant of the Lord. He must be prepared for real hard work. Yet when the autumn fruits come in, he has the very first claim upon them, and rightly so. We make a great mistake if we think we are special exceptions to this rule, carried to heaven on soft beds of ease.
Farming also fixes the pace of the work.
It is steady labour, and we cannot, by any human effort, hurry the harvest along. Souls must be exercised, and a real work carried on in them… We are impatient by nature. I remember, as a child, planting some little orange trees. I pulled the leaves to make them grow faster, and spoiled the plants.
The order also settles what to expect now.
The tendency of all, and especially of the Lord's servants, is to forget this healthy truth in the intense desire to gather in and feast upon the fruit. So we should remember this, and it will save us from many disappointments: now is the time of labour, and it will be the time of labour until the Lord's return… The time of partaking of the fruit is future. Knowing this will encourage our hearts to persevere in service.
Another writer puts the same order in the language of wages.
He tells Timothy he must work, or else he will not get his pay. I do not mean pay in a bad sense.
The three figures are not only instructions; one writer sees them fulfilled first in the Lord.
Above all others He was faithful as soldier, athlete, or farmer… He avoided or resisted every entangling alliance "with the affairs of this life." He refused every unlawful help in His strife against sin, and He was always about His Father's business… He Himself, the Firstfruits to God of His own labour, now, after first labouring, "is a partaker of the fruits."
- First, labour. The order in the verse is fixed: work comes before harvest, for the servant as surely as for the farmer.
- First, hard labour. Farming means downright hard work, and no servant is exempt from it.
- First, patient labour. You cannot force growth; hurrying souls along spoils the plant, as pulling leaves spoils a young tree.
- First, then fruit. Now is the season of work, and it will be until the Lord returns. Expecting the harvest early only breeds disappointment.
- First in Christ. He laboured before He shared the fruits — the servant walks a road his Master walked ahead of him.