2 Timothy 4:9-22 (ESV)
9 Do your best to come to me soon. 10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. 14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15 Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. 16 At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
19 Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. 20 Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. 21 Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.
22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
In these final remarks, we hear the amazing confidence in Paul in the face of his persecutions and trials. He trusts the Lord to deliver him and bring him safely home to heaven.
There is something else here that is easy to miss. There are 14 people listed with positive affirmation in these last remarks, (not to mention others who are included as part of groups and households). What does that tell us? It tells us how important it is to have others with us in ministry. Paul was not alone. In fact, this passage shows us that there has been a reconciliation between Paul and Mark. Acts 15 records the parting of ways between Barnabas and Paul over a disagreement regarding Mark. Paul didn’t want to take Mark on the next missionary journey because Mark had withdrawn from the work on the previous missionary journey at one point. However here, we know that there has been a reconciliation between Paul and Mark as Paul finds Mark very useful for ministry (verse 11).
While it’s true that no one stood by Paul at his first defense, it’s clear that there were many who partnered with him in his ministry and in his walk with the Lord. This is awesome and challenging for us. It’s challenging in that we must intentionally pursue partnering with others in our journey with Christ and in the ministries that He calls us to. We need godly people who will encourage us in our faith and be there to challenge us to grow deeper in our relationship with the Lord and this includes both men and women. Paul mentions Prisca here, but you should also check out the list of names in Romans 16. That list includes men and women in leadership together.
I can’t stress enough how important it is for us to be in relationship with others as we pursue knowing, loving, serving, and following Jesus. We need other believers around us to encourage our faith, especially as we live, work, and move in this world. It’s so easy to get sidetracked by our culture, to run out of gas by doing things on our own, to have a very difficult and painful stumble or failure, and then there are those times of spiritual dryness and even darkness when we don’t feel the presence of the Lord (rest assured that the Lord is there, it’s just that we’re struggling to experience His presence—it’s often called “the dark night of the soul”). I’ve seen these things happen with pastors and with good godly men and women of faith.
These struggles, failures, dry times, and times of darkness, don’t always happen in a moment of weakness, rather, they are the result of unaddressed and perhaps unknown compulsions, desires, and insecurities that remain unaddressed in our lives and build up over time until they find a way to escape out in our lives.
However, being connected with a community of faith helps us tremendously as we share with other believers and give them permission to speak into our lives. It’s not always easy to do—to cultivate a group of people that you can trust to be open and vulnerable with about your life. It takes time to build that kind of trust with others, but it is so worth the effort. So it is my prayer and encouragement that you deliberately and intentionally seek out other brothers and sisters in Christ with whom you can find support, encouragement, and connection for the purpose of building up one another in Christ.
1 Thessalonians 2:11–12
11 For you know how, like a father with his children, 12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
God bless you and know that you are constantly in my prayers.
Scott