2Ti 2:1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
2Ti 2:3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
2Ti 2:4 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.
The Apostle Paul’s exhortation unto his ‘son in the faith’ Timothy was not only given that Timothy would be “strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” but that the “faithful men” that also desire to be a “good soldier,” would also benefit, and “be able to teach others also.” The Apostle Paul knows what the details of the sons ‘war’ entails as well. He knows that the Father desires the heart of the son, and the Spiritual minded son that desires to labor with the Father, but he also knows the opposition, and the enemy of the Father, and the enemy of the son, and who they both in a Spiritual battle. Satan, and his “wiles” are designed to cause the men of this world to follow his will, and this world, and the “affairs” of it. And these things work to please the flesh of the man, and please his heart, so in essence, the enemy is actually ourselves.

2Ti 2:9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
2Ti 2:10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
2Ti 2:11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
2Ti 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
2Ti 2:13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

The Apostle Paul uses the words; “be strong,” “endure hardness,” “warreth,” and “please Him,” when referring to how the Father, and Paul would have the “faithful” son to walk, and how the son ought to respond to this present evil life. And the sanctified life of the son is at stake in the eyes of our Father, the son could either live unto the Father as a faithful son, or he could live unto himself, and this world. Moreover, if the son desires to “live godly,” he will “deny” this world, and functionally “live” unto the Father, and “reign WITH Him,” but if the son desires to live unto himself, he will “deny” the Father, and the “sufferings of Christ,” and the context in the verse of this ‘reigning’ with the Lord, is based upon the sufferings of Christ. But there are those who are not able to discern what Paul teaches in verses 9-13, and they only see the doctrine of justification unto eternal life, and assume Paul is teaching eternal security within the afore mentioned verses.
2Ti 2:14 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Furthermore, too often many saints ‘read over’ the essential doctrine of the sufferings of Christ, and do not understand and appreciate the selfless love of Christ that we are taught whereby we are to suffer for His sake, but assume that God loves His Saints ‘far too much’ to have His saints to suffer for His sake, and would ‘spare them,’ and remove the sufferings away from them. But this is not what teaches Timothy, and what he charges that Timothy teach to other faithful men.
2Tim.2:20] But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
[21] If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
Finally, each and every member in the Body of Christ are of the household of God, and are in Him based upon faith in Jesus Christ alone, and in that “great house,” there are vessels of honor, and vessels of dishonor. And as we can see in the verses above, the members of His Body are all ‘in the House,’ they are all children of God, and of His household, the question is, what type of son will you be? The son who desires to be “meet for the masters use,” is the son who will be the “vessel of honor,” and and well pleasing unto the Father, this son will understand that he is at war with this world, and Satan, and most importantly, his own flesh. And the only way the son will be “meet for the masters use,” and the “good soldier” God desires, is that he must not entangle himself with the affairs of this life, but understand that when he does, he is denying the Lord, and his position as a vessel of honor in the sight of his Father.
Rod Jones