2 Timothy 2:4 - An Understandable Version (2005 edition)

⁴ No soldier on active duty, gets himself involved in the affairs of civilian life, so that he can please the person who enlisted him [i.e., his commanding officer].

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

⁴ 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.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

⁴ No soldier when in service gets entangled in the enterprises of [civilian] life; his aim is to satisfy and please the one who enlisted him.

American Standard Version (1901)

⁴ No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier.

Common English Bible

⁴ Nobody who serves in the military gets tied up with civilian matters, so that they can please the one who recruited them.

Catholic Public Domain Version

⁴ No man, acting as a soldier for God, entangles himself in worldly matters, so that he may be pleasing to him for whom he has proven himself.

Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version

⁴ No man, being a soldier to God, entangleth himself with secular businesses; that he may please him to whom he hath engaged himself.

2 Timothy 2:4 Cross References

Luke 8:14

And those people [represented by the seed] that fell among thorns are the ones who have heard [the word], and as they go about their business, they become choked by worry, by money and by worldly pleasures, and produce no mature crop.

2 Corinthians 5:9

So, we are also eager to please God very much, whether we are at home [in our body] or away from it.

Galatians 5:1

Christ set us free [from condemnation under the Law of Moses], so we could stay free! Remain where you are then, and do not get tangled up again in the enslaving harness [of the Law of Moses].

1 Thessalonians 2:4

Instead, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel. So, we speak, not trying to please people but God, who examines [the motives of] our hearts.

2 Timothy 4:10

for Demas loved this world and [so] has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia.

2 Peter 2:20

For if people who have escaped from the defiling practices of the world by coming to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, become tangled up in them again, and are overcome by them, these people are worse off than before they were converted.