Paul uses terms drawn from the realm of the military in verses 3-6. In the following notes on these verses, attention will be drawn to this technical terminology, and renderings that preserve this imagery in English will be suggested.
A literal translation of this verse is “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not fight [as soldiers] according to the flesh” (compare King James Version and New American Standard Bible). Thus Paul uses words from the accusation in the previous verse to defend himself. Paul acknowledges that Christians live in the world, that is, in their fleshly bodies, but “worldly motives” do not guide their life. One rather dynamic rendering of this in an African language is “It is true that we are only human, but we do not fight in a human way.”
Though what Paul says in verses 3-5 is true for all Christians, in the immediate context of chapter 10 the first person pronoun we should be translated as exclusive here, as well as in all of chapter 10—that is, the readers are not included. Very likely the first person plural pronouns and verbs in 10.3-16 are epistolary plurals. Moffatt, An American Translation, and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente use first person singular forms in these verses.
The verb translated as carrying on a … war in Revised Standard Version is a military term in Greek. A comparable term in English is to “wage war” (Anchor Bible and New International Version) or “make war” (Moffatt). Knox attempts to maintain the image while showing the figurative sense, by translating “fight our battles” (so also Revised English Bible). This military metaphor continues through verse 6. In languages that require a direct object for the verb “make war,” it will be possible to say “make war against other people.” In other languages translators may be able to change the structure to say something like “… as in a normal war.”
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellingworth, Paul. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .