2 Timothy 2:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

This was said to Timothy, but through him it is said to every teacher and disciple. Therefore let none of those who have the episcopate be grieved when he hears this. Rather, let him be grieved if he does not do it.

This is said to all bishops and teachers. The expression is strong: he entangles himself. For worldly affairs truly are bonds and serpents. By affairs he indicates all worldly troubles, transactions, vanities, and burdens. These words suggest: why do you bind yourself? Why do you weave yourself into these burdens and troublesome affairs? Care for the one warfare, and in this way you will please Christ, Who chose you for His army.

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.

For no one, while serving as a soldier, attaches himself to the life of this age. That is, he does not take care to see his estates and possessions, but remains subject to the one who chose him, so as to please him. In the same way, a man must detach himself from everything and be attached to nothing except the preaching of the Gospel and the endurance of persecutions, so as to please only his heavenly Master.

How can clerics be stewards and managers of other people's houses and estates, when they are commanded to despise their own property?

"No one can serve two masters" (Mt 6:24). Therefore worldly occupations necessarily serve acquisitiveness. But the Church's minister stands before God in order faithfully to perform the service he promised Him, being occupied with the things of God, which are foreign to worldly occupations.

Those who have loved the military life are far removed from mercantile occupations. Their one concern is how to handle weapons skillfully, so as to please commanders who share the same nature with them. Then the Apostle draws the same instruction from another image.

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.

It has been judged that bishops, presbyters, and deacons should not become tax-farmers for gain, or managers, and should not acquire sustenance by dishonorable or contemptible occupation. For they must look to what is written: no one serving as a soldier for God entangles himself in the affairs of this life.

What benefit is there for you in John's desert solitude, which you formerly strove so carefully to emulate, when now you do not imitate him? You return to your private concerns, are troubled in the desert, and are disturbed in solitude. To keep outward stillness while inwardly meddling in worldly devices and disturbances fills the perception with darkness. It turns former labors into nothing, opens a path for the passions to victory, and makes the soldier throw away his shield. "No one, while serving as a soldier, entangles himself in the affairs of this life, that he may please the commander." On the contrary, out of a desire to please the commander, he enters the struggle fully armed.

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.

This same divine judgment, spoken concerning soldiers, can also be applied to sacred ministers, even if they do not seem to serve the world. Yet we serve God and the Lord, for the Apostle says: no one serving God entangles himself in the affairs of this life. Clearly, I say, we do not serve as soldiers in loose and spacious tunics, but we have the belt of our military service, which fastens us to inward purity.

"He entangles himself in the affairs of this life." In Church practice this rule of the Apostle Paul was applied in a definite way to the pastors of the Church. The canons of the holy Apostles, 6 and 81, the canons of many local councils, and especially canon 3 of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, determined that no one of the clerical order should take upon himself care for worldly affairs and estates. The Lord also said, "No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt 6:24).

He said: labor in the Gospel, not sparing yourself, as a good soldier of Christ. Now he explains who is a good soldier among ordinary soldiers, so that it may be clearer what a good soldier of Christ is.

There the good soldier is the one who is bound by nothing, but being free from everything, gives himself wholly to military duties.

So here also the good soldier of Christ among pastors is the one who gives himself wholly to the Gospel, to the spread of faith in Him, and to the ordering of life according to Him among believers.

All else he casts out of his attention, not even touching it in passing.

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?