For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards,

No one in military service gets entangled in matters of everyday life; otherwise he will not please the one who recruited him.

Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to keep away from fleshly desires that do battle against the soul,

I put this charge before you, Timothy my child, in keeping with the prophecies once spoken about you, in order that with such encouragement you may fight the good fight.

Where do the conflicts and where do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, from your passions that battle inside you?

Then some soldiers also asked him, “And as for us – what should we do?” He told them, “Take money from no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your pay.”

Who ever serves in the army at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not consume its milk?