What Would Jesus Not Do! Part #8,

Jesus Would Not Become Entangled in the affairs of this world 2 Tim. 2:4

By Warren E. Berkley

The Bible says that Jesus was tempted but never did sin (Matt. 4:1; Heb. 4:15). This truth means - among other things - that we have in Jesus a perfect example of what a godly life is. Involved in this is the fact that Jesus refused to be influenced by or entangled in the affairs of this world. His desires and motives moved in the opposite direction.

The affirmation is not that Jesus didn't live in the world. He walked on the earth, became acquainted with people; He ate, drank and took shelter. He was not a wealthy man, but did not condemn all possession and use of money. He becomes our example and proof that you can live in this world and do those things that characterize life "under the sun," but without becoming obsessed with money, enamored of social relationships and entangled in the affairs of this world. If Jesus were here today, He would not become entangled in the affairs of this world.

Paul wrote to Timothy: "No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier," (2 Tim. 2:4). Paul wanted Timothy and all of us to understand the single-minded devotion and discipline required to be a good soldier in the Lord's army.

Josephus, the Jewish historian of that time, described the Roman soldier: "Each soldier every day throws all his energy into his drill, as though he were in action. Hence that perfect ease with which they sustain the shock of battle: no confusion breaks their customary formation, no panic paralyzes, no fatigue exhausts them. All their camp duties are performed with the same discipline, the same regard for security: the procuring of wood, food supplies, and water, as required - each party has its allotted task; nothing is done without word of command. The same precision is maintained on the battlefield; nothing is done unadvisedly or left to chance. This perfect discipline makes the army an ornament of peace-time and in war welds the whole into a single body; so compact are their ranks, so alert their movements, so quick their ears for orders, their eyes for signals, their hands to act upon them. None are slower than they in succumbing to suffering." {War3. 72-108}.

Likewise, Roman troops were a model of discipline and such ideas were in Paul's mind when he chose the image of the soldier to describe the servant of Christ. "Just as the duties of soldiering required freedom from entanglements of the world, so too does Christian service. And right here we come face to face with the dialectic or dilemma of Christian existence: to be in the world but not of the world," {p.#172, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, by Philip H. Towner, IVP series.}

Who do we look to for such a model of self-discipline? Jesus, the captain of our salvation. He would not become entangled in the affairs of this world. Thus His followers must be constantly vigilant for such influences, and prayerful for the strength to imitate Him in this respect.

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God," (Rom. 12:2).

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