2 Timothy 4:9-15

Hey, welcome back as we close out the week this Thursday with
the moving into the latter
part, the last words here of 2 Timothy in the fourth chapter.
Interesting,
I think as we pick up in the 10th verse,
that Paul always does some version of this.
Just as we would do when we write a letter,
there would be, you know,
tell so and so,
hey, and oh yeah, sorry to hear about that,
or are you guys,
don’t forget this, and there would be that
kind of personal correspondence,
and that’s true here,
and it’s true in most of Paul’s letters.
However, this is kind of expanded.
There’s a significant list of names here,
and they really span a range of Paul’s experience,
both in his personal relationships and in his ministry,
and so there’s a lot here,
I think, that speaks directly to Paul’s relationships.
So let me read a few verses,
and then we’ll circle back and talk about them.
“Do your best to come to me soon,
for Demas, in love with this present world,
has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.
Crestons has gone to Galatia,
Titus to Dalmatia.
Only Luke is with me.
Get Mark
and bring him with you,
for he is useful to my ministry.
I’ve sent Tychaeus to Ephesus.
When you come, bring the cloak I left in
Carpus,
at
Troas, also the books,
and above all the parchments.
Alexander the coppersmith did me a great harm.
The Lord will pay him back for his deeds.
You also must be aware of him,
for he strongly opposed our message.” We can stop there, Michael, but…
So,
very interesting.
We have this…
Timothy, I’d love to see you.
Just as we finish a section in which Paul is kind of talking about his death,
his impending end of life,
we now switch gears to kind of this talk about the state of his ministry,
not really his organization, but his work.
“Do your best to come to me.”
And then he begins to kind of list people who have
been helpful to him and people that have hurt him or deserted him.
Demas goes on that side.
Crestons,
it’s not clear.
It says he’s gone to Galatia.
It’s not clear that that’s a good thing
or a bad thing.
It’s likely that the people reading this letter would know if there’s a prior
part of the story,
if that’s a positive or negative.
Some of these names we have seen before in other letters.
Many of them are new and leave us to guess at what the state of the relationship is.
And then we get into some nitty-gritty,
“Michael, you don’t bring the cloak I left
and the books and above all my parchments.” And that may seem strange for a man in prison,
but as Paul thinks about the opportunity for Timothy to visit him,
he thinks about those
things that would give him comfort,
those things he would love to have with him.
Not unusual,
but a little bit.
We don’t see a lot of this as Paul closes letters.
There are usually some goodbyes and some thoughts, maybe a warning.
But this is, I think,
a broader example of that than we usually get.
Yeah, I agree.
I’m not going to have a lot to add,
maybe just a few things to sort of add in,
fill in the cracks maybe.
Note that some of these individuals that we have listed here
come from places or we find in other places like Colossians,
Titus,
Philemon.
So like you said,
Clint, it is sprinkled throughout the New Testament.
There’s a case you read in verse 14 about this individual Alexander.
There’s another Alexander mentioned in Acts as someone who stood up and
preached in Ephesus, though it’s unclear if we’re talking about the same Alexander or if that’s someone else.
Maybe a thing that you could say surveying this section, besides,
I think,
what is the major thing to say is,
by the way, this is written by a real person
who wants his coat back.
Let’s not forget that.
But if you want to sort of look at this text and
you want to see the connective meanings,
just remember that Paul in his life of faith was betrayed.
He was betrayed by those who ideologically believe something different than what Paul did.
He was betrayed, as he says here,
he believes that Demas is in love with the present world.
So he deserted Paul.
There’s other cases where,
you know, even with Mark or John Mark,
you have this sense that maybe there’s some youthfulness in the desertion.
Paul has experienced a lot of
things in addition to Paul remains even at the very end of his life with a very strong
Christian social network, a very strong community of people who are supporting him.
And he is in the midst of his own defense.
We see that in verse 16.
It’s clear
that Paul is standing at one of the transition moments of his personal life.
He’s not just writing, offering counsel to a younger pastor in the midst of that pastor’s journey.
Paul is himself standing in some ways at a crossroads of his own personal life.
And that is,
it adds a kind
of seasoning, a kind of meaning,
I think, to this text,
Clint. It makes some of the things that we’ve
heard Paul say before in other letters.
It’s not substantially different.
Theologically, it means, I think, what Paul meant in those other letters.
But maybe it does land differently
when we know that he writes this at a moment in which he knows that there’s not a lot of
his race to run left.
Yeah.
We mentioned early on when we started the first letter to Timothy that there is some question about,
you know, one of the things scholars argue are these genuine Pauline letters.
They seem to maybe come later.
I think passages like this are some of the strongest evidence
that those who support the idea that Paul really wrote these would point to because these are,
this is very personal.
It’s very reflective.
I mean,
if you’re going to try to go all the
way down to my favorite parchments would be an odd detail to add if it was somehow symbolic or if it didn’t,
if, you know, it just,
this has a very much a ring of personal authenticity to it.
Having said that,
there’s also a certain reflectiveness in it.
So if we connect today’s
passage and yesterday’s passage,
I think there’s an interesting bridge there, Michael.
An older, in his context,
an older man who has served the church,
who’s already all but said he’s looking at the end of his life.
He’s considering the end of his
race, the finishing of his journey.
And he reflects in that that there have been those who have stayed
with him, that there have been those who supported him,
that there have been those who opposed him,
those who have done him harm or hurt him.
And I think whatever one’s job is,
one doesn’t, you don’t need to be a pastor to appreciate this,
that at a certain point we take stock of the
relationships in our life and he couches them in terms of ministry.
But it’s sort of a looking back
moment for Paul in some ways and that he shares that with Timothy and through Timothy to the church
is I think, you know,
very interesting that he kind of lays out this struggle that,
yeah, in some cases,
these people, it went really well and they matter to me.
In other cases,
that person left me and that person did harm to me.
And I think it’s a very interesting moment of introspection.
And I think we can
pretty easily connect the ideas of this passage with the ideas
we saw yesterday of a man reflecting on his end being near.
And to me, that gives it some depth
and makes it kind of interesting.
I once had a professor say that we underestimate how much
the church relied upon the technology of its day for the distribution of the gospel.
And they went on to make the argument that we underestimate the influence of the Roman roads,
the kind of transportation that was made possible in the days immediately surrounding and after Jesus’ life.
And I think this letter maybe does illustrate that claim.
I mean, just look at all of the goings named here,
you know, get Mark, bring him,
he’s useful.
I sent a tickus to
Ephesus,
but you bring the cloak that I left.
You know, there’s all of these people moving and
there’s all these different cities being connected.
That is,
in many ways, the arteries of the gospel.
This is Paul utilizing the ability to get from one place to the other,
the ability to send letters
that can get there in the reasonable amount of time and boats that can get you safely from one
harbor to another.
I mean, this is clearly a very well connected movement with bases in lots of different places.
And that is what ultimately we can all trace our theological heritage back to.
Right. I mean,
it all started with the men and women of these communities and Paul and these
leaders literally traveling and sharing in different places.
And so let’s just note that
there’s a lot of work and logistics that went into the ministry that Paul brought to the Gentile world.
And as those who live as Gentile Christians,
we may be quick to take that for
granted.
But I mean, the truth is we see here that in just a small amount of housekeeping,
I mean, there’s obviously a lot of hands at work.
And if you want to make that practical,
this is not the point of the text,
but if you want to make that practical,
I mean, that happens in every church in every place throughout all time.
I mean,
there’s always interconnected work, things that happen behind the scenes,
people who go from here to there.
So that’s the nature of community and we see it explicitly here in the text.
Yeah.
And you could read this as maybe Paul complaining,
you could read this as gossip,
you could put a negative spin on this,
but I think it helps to remember,
to keep in mind,
that Paul is writing to the church for the good of the church.
And so, yes, Paul is airing some
grievances, but I think he does that.
And I think he names these names,
knowing that this letter will be read and so that the church needs to be on guard against Demas,
against Alexander,
against these…
This letter has been steeped in false teachers and those who mislead people and
those who don’t lead with character and those who lead others astray.
And I think as we get to the
end here, he really makes that clear in a couple of cases saying,
“This person can’t be trusted.”
“This person went against the grain and harmed me.” “This person,
you shouldn’t listen to them.”
And we’ve seen glimpses of that in this letter,
but I think it’s probably not surprising that he
does that a little more extensively.
And the flip side is also true, Michael.
This person has been great.
This person has helped me.
This person is a wonderful addition to my ministry.
So, I think it helps maybe…
You could read this as just Paul’s personal list of
pros and cons, but I think it’s maybe helpful to remember that Paul is also giving that information
to the church that he has founded and cares about in the hopes that they’ll take it seriously.
Yeah.
I hear what you’re saying,
Clint.
Clearly, on one hand,
Paul gets nowhere close to the
complaints that the soul mist has.
So, let’s just admit that there’s a lot more sharp critiques in
the Bible than what you’re going to find here in 2 Timothy.
Another thing I want to point out,
though, is we shouldn’t be shocked.
Really, I’ve never thought of it this way,
but we shouldn’t be
shocked when Paul spends a substantial amount of time this letter talking about suffering and
persecution and the troubles and struggle of being Christian and Christian leadership.
We shouldn’t be surprised when he gets to the end of a letter and he actually has names to attach to that experience.
I mean, he has someone by the name of Alexander who did him great harm,
who he looks at that relationship and says,
“It was painful.
It was not good.
It did not end in a
positive way.” In fact,
Paul says, “The Lord’s going to deal with his deeds,” which is a very
scriptural way to understand how we love our neighbor and yet realize that the harm done to
us is not justified harm.
But it’s interesting, I think, Clint, just to see, like,
yes, on one hand, theologically, we might understand, yes,
suffering is a power of life,
but Paul actually had it.
I and that shouldn’t surprise us.
It’s a part of the scripture.
It’s a part of his own life and his own experience.
Yes,
he stands as a lion of the faith,
but he was also just a man.
And we see that here in the scriptures.
Yeah, Paul understands it’s part of his calling to protect the church,
and that means protecting it even from named individuals who he thinks are dangerous to it.
So that’s where he says,
“You must not listen to him.” So I think those are not the best parts
of a pastor’s work and certainly the church,
but they are sometimes necessary,
and Paul definitely feels it necessary in that context.
Well, we’re nearing the end.
I hope that you’ve heard
something in this today.
We will certainly be coming to the end of 2 Timothy next week,
so we hope that this week’s been encouraging.
We look forward to seeing you on Monday.
Thanks, everybody.