2 Timothy 2:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Oh, what an honor it is to be a soldier of Christ. Remember how important it is considered among soldiers to be under the command of earthly kings. If it belongs to a king's soldier to endure sufferings, then not enduring sufferings is unworthy of a soldier. Therefore you should not grieve if you endure sufferings, for this belongs to a soldier. Rather, one should grieve if he does not endure them.

Do you see that enduring sufferings belongs to a soldier? Therefore not enduring sufferings is unworthy of a soldier. Thus one must not grieve if he suffers after being placed in the ranks of soldiers. What an honor it is to be a soldier of Christ, when some regard it as important to be soldiers of an earthly king.

Where is Christ the King? Certainly in heaven. There you too, soldier, must direct your march. Forget every earthly rest. No soldier builds a house, acquires fields as his possession, or becomes involved in various trades to increase his property. A soldier has his sustenance from the king. He does not need to procure sustenance himself, nor even to be anxious about it.

Consider whose soldier you are, and courageously endure the labors of military service. Then, keeping to the same figurative manner of speech, he draws benefit from this.

The soldier's lot is to suffer hardship and endure every deprivation. If this is the soldier's lot, then evasion of sufferings is unbecoming to a soldier.

Attend to the bishop, so that God also may attend to you. I am a sacrifice for those who obey the bishop, presbyters, and deacons. May my portion in God be the same as theirs. Strive together, make your journey together, endure together, rest together, rise together, as God's stewards, household members, and servants. Please Him for Whom you serve as soldiers, and from Whom you also receive your provisions. Let none of you be a deserter. Let baptism remain with you as a shield, faith as a helmet, love as a spear, and patience as the full armor.

For one who has been enrolled in God's army must be free from other things, lest he be drawn away by any bonds of necessity from the Lord's camp, to which his name has been assigned.

"Suffer hardship as a good soldier." Military service is joined with very many privations and hardships, and it is accompanied by heavy labors. Nevertheless, a good soldier patiently endures all these sufferings. The follower of Christ is such a soldier.

“You therefore suffer hardship,” if this should be necessary for the sake of the Gospel of Christ, “as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one serving as a soldier entangles himself in the affairs of life, that he may please the one who enlisted him” (2 Tim 2:3-4).

But how can the successors of St Timothy, the modern married pastors of the Church, avoid entangling themselves in the affairs and business of life?

The Apostle does not demand complete renunciation of worldly affairs from the pastor of the Church. He himself says elsewhere that a pastor must, among other things, rule his own house well.

Therefore he must also care for the needs of his family. Indeed, “if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he care for the Church of God?” (1 Tim 3:4-5).

Exhorting him to the patient endurance of the labors of the Gospel, the Apostle points to examples worthy of imitation: military self-denial, exertions in the arena, and other labors.

St John Chrysostom says: “If hardship, that is, labor and need, is inseparable from the king’s soldier, so that to be alien to hardship is clearly a kind of alienation from the military rank, then you should not grieve that you endure labors and unpleasantness. This is inevitable for a soldier of Christ. Rather, you should grieve if you do not endure them.”

In the words about the impropriety of a soldier engaging in trade, according to Bishop Theophan, “two motives are given to the pastor for courageous and vigilant pastorship.

“Suffer hardship,” kakopatheson. Hardship, kakopatheia, is the bearing of painful labors connected with the undertaking begun, together with endurance of all the unpleasantness encountered in it.

This is evident from the examples given here: the soldier, the combatant in the arena, and the farmer. Therefore “suffer hardship” here means: bear the labors of the Gospel and endure the unpleasantness joined to them, “as a good soldier of Christ.”

How much a soldier must endure even in time of peace. What he endures in time of war cannot even be imagined by those who have not taken part in war.

What inspires him? The desire to show himself a soldier as he ought to be, so that no one may have just cause on his account to think badly of military service.

I know that many appeal to the insatiable lust of the flesh. Others excuse themselves by the need to find friends, to have someone to manage the house and family, maintain the household in order, supervise servants, and save expenses. According to you, it follows that only the houses of married people can be well managed, and that unmarried people must necessarily be ruined. But do eunuchs, soldiers, and travelers not live without wives, and do they always lose their property? Are we ourselves not soldiers, and should we not be subject to the discipline of the Greatest of commanders?