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"Endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist" (II Tim. 4: 5).
"Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray" (James 5: 13)
Sugkakopatheo, "To suffer evil together".
"Be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God"
(II Tim. 1: 8).
The reader will have noticed that this word is confined to the epistles written to
Timothy and to the epistle of James. From one point of view these epistles are poles
asunder, yet, if we make due allowances for dispensational distinctions, we shall find that
they are united by a common theme. Is II Timothy the epistle of the crown? So also is
the epistle of James. Does Paul associate the crown of righteousness with suffering evil
and patient endurance? James associates the same endurance with the crown of life,
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the
crown of life" (James 1: 12). Does the Apostle Paul associate the crown of righteousness
with "loving His appearing?" (II Tim. 4: 8). James says that the crown of life is
promised by the Lord "to them that love Him" (James 1: 12). Does the Apostle Paul
speak of "finishing" (teleo) his course? James speaks of "perfecting" of the faith
(teleioo) and the "perfect" work of patience.
In addition to this willingness to suffer evil, the Apostle says of the good soldier: "No
man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life" (II Tim. 2: 4).
Conybeare and Howson translate the above passage:
"The soldier when on service", and draw attention to the force of strateuomenos.
The military law of Rome did not allow a soldier to engage in merchandise or
mechanical employment; armis non privitas negotus occupari.
The word "entangle" is a translation of empleko and occurs only once more in the
N.T., namely in II Pet. 2: 20. Emploke, a noun form, occurs in the reference to "plaiting
the hair" (I Pet. 3: 3). Pleko, from which these words are formed, is found three times
translated "To plait", as the crown of thorns (Matt. 27: 29; Mark 15: 17; John 19: 2).
There is a reference to empleko in the LXX version of Prov. 28: 18 which reads in
that version, "He that walks uprightly is assisted; but he that walks in crooked ways shall
be entangled" (Prov. 28: 18). A similar idea, but expressed by a different word, is
found in Heb. 12: 1 where the runner is enjoined to lay aside every weight and the
"easily encompassing" sin.
That which the Apostle says will "entangle" the good soldier, if he yields, is called
"the affairs of this life". "Affairs" translates pragmateia, and pragma is variously
rendered "business", "work" "matter", "thing". Pragmateuomai is the word that gives us
"occupy" in Luke 19: 13. From the verb prasso has come into our own tongue the
words "practice", "practical", and the like.
The affairs, or business, which the soldier is to avoid, are "the affairs of this life". The
word translated "life" here is not zoe but bios, and refers more to the "livelihood" than
the life-principle itself. Here are some examples of its usage and meaning:--
"She did cast in all that she had, even all her living" (Mark 12: 44).