You therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
All Commentaries on 2 Timothy 2:3 Go To 2 Timothy 2
Tertullian of Carthage
AD 220
I am aware of the excuses by which we color our insatiable carnal appetites. Our pretexts are: the necessities of props to lean on; a house to be managed; a family to be governed; chests and keys to be guarded; the woolspinning to be dispensed; food to be attended to; cares to be generally lessened. Of course, the houses of none but married men fare well! The families of celibates, the estates of eunuchs, the fortunes of military men or of such as travel without wives have gone to rack and ruin! For are not we, too, soldiers? Soldiers, indeed, subject to all the stricter discipline, since we are subject to so great a General? On Exhortation to Chastity