Partnership means to connect to God at His way of working.
It is clear in 2 Tim 2:4 that Paul proposes a different way of partnership when He uses the image of a soldier.
2 Timothy 2:3-5
” Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.”
He warns believers to “not get entangled” to this world.
Entangle means to intertwine. It means that you become so part of something that you can’t be separated from it. You don’t know where one starts and the other ends.
Separating two things that are entangled will mean that both will be non-functional. We should never become so connected with this world that we are inseparable from it. We are not, what the world says or sees. Money, fame, possession should not dictate our happiness, hope, love and actions.
Becoming entangled with the world or anything else than Christ is the problem