The Greek verb empleko means to weave together, to entangle, or to become enmeshed in something. In the New Testament, it appears in 2 Timothy 2:4 as a warning about civilian entanglements for the soldier of Christ.
Paul writes to Timothy: 'No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him' (2 Timothy 2:4). The word emplekomenai β entanglements β uses the image of threads woven together that become difficult to unravel. The soldier who allows civilian concerns to dominate his time and energy cannot fulfill his military calling. Paul applies this to the Christian life: following Christ requires a focused dedication that resists being woven into the competing demands and distractions of civilian (worldly) life. 2 Peter 2:20 uses the same word for those who, after escaping the corruption of the world, become 'again entangled in them and overcome' β a warning about the danger of returning to pre-conversion patterns.