2. Entanglement
Anyone who has been in the military knows that one of the things made clear very early in training is that once you commit to service, the military owns you! Every Christian who has read his or her "contract" in the Word knows that is true for the believer, too:
"Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness" (Romans 6:16-18).
This giving up of some aspects of self-determination is not in any way a negative thing for the believer – most of us come to realize that willing service to God is the only real freedom there is (James 1:25). But the point is that just like that of the physical warrior, our service does carry responsibilities.
One such responsibility – enforced by various militaries since ancient Roman times – is that of not becoming entangled with social, legal, recreational , or any other responsibilities that might conflict with being at the command of the force to which service is owed.
That's a principle Christians should understand also. Notice what the apostle Paul said about this specific point: "Join with me … like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer" (2 Timothy 2: 3-4).
The truth realized by most militaries is that any "entanglement" that hinders its personnel from full dedicated service is a conflict of interest that cannot be allowed. For the Christian the principle is just as true in three particular areas.
First, social, hobby or other recreational entanglements that might take up too much of our lives – encroaching on time that should be kept available for service – are things we should be careful to regulate. That is primarily what Paul had in mind in his statement to Timothy.
Secondly, if we are not careful we can also become entangled in false interpretations of Christianity that actually hold us back from true belief and service. Paul had this in mind when he wrote: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1 NKJV).
Finally, entanglement can occur and hold us back in the form of problems in our lives that we do not root out and which restrain our ability to fulfill God's will in us through guilt or deceit. That is why the writer of the Book of Hebrews warns us "… let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles" (Hebrews 12:1).
Any of these three forms of entanglement can hold us back from the service to which we have been called as warriors of the Way, and it is vital that we come to see and understand this early in our training. God can work with us only to the extent that we are committed to him – to the extent that we believe he "owns" us. He can give us extra ability to fulfill our calling, but not more time than he has put into the day. As is so truly said, ultimately, God is not interested in our ability – he is far more interested in our availability.