James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary - 2 Timothy 2:5
SELF-MASTERY‘If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.’ 2 Timothy 2:5 Let me ask you in all earnestness whether you have seriously set before yourself the task of gaining thorough mastery over every part of your being? ‘So fight I, not as one that beateth the air.’ I. St. Paul describes no random efforts here.—His picture is of one who gets his enemy right in front of him, faces him, and then with well-directed blows, aimed straight from the... read more
James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary - 2 Timothy 2:4
AGAINST ENTANGLEMENTS‘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.’ 2 Timothy 2:4 The Roman soldier served under certain restrictions. The general principle was that he was excluded from those relations, agencies, and engagements which it was thought would divert his mind from that which was to be the sole object of his pursuit. I. The Christian soldier is to be unentangled.—In the world—he must not be of it.... read more