One small point of disagreement, however. You said, “The early church would have had a healthy percentage of pacifists for whom the military connotations would have been repugnant.”

I think the point of the use of military metaphors was to subvert the image. The writer of 2 Timothy was “pacifist,” as were virtually all Christians who knew what it meant to be Christian. I don’t think the military metaphors would have been repugnant to “pacifists.” It was a way the powerless communicated the subversive message that Christ is accomplishing through the church what Caesar failed to accomplish through his legions, i.e., peace and political reconciliation.

P.S. Where abouts on the Coast are you? I’m a Yank, living in Missouri currently, but I lived for 8 years on the Gold Coast, namely in Southport, Benowa, Parkwood, Runaway Bay and Helensvale (not simultaneously).