20131006
We read grim and very lonely words of the Apostle Paul as he pen them to his son in the faith Timothy. This man of strong faith tells this young leader of the Ephesian Church to hurry to him, as almost everybody around has deserted him. Demas was distracted by things of the world. He was deterred by the sufferings that Paul was going through and decided on the easy way out. At his court trial, nobody was there to defend him or even support him. Alexander did much harm to him strongly opposing his gospel message. Paul wrote these last words in much helplessness and loneliness, asking Timothy to bring John Mark with him to help Paul in his ministry.
Nothing in these last words from the Apostle showed hope but yet, Paul did not give up. Despite all these, he hung on to one truth: the Lord is faithful and that He will rescue him. “But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.” (2 Tim. 4: 17). Even as Paul felt desolate and helpless, he asked Timothy to bring his parchments, which likely referred to his Bible. In prison, he probably did not have anything with him and even in this time of desperation, he craved for God’s Word to lift him up and help him through the hard times. Do we also rely on the Bible to help us through our lives, especially when times get hard? It is often easier to go with the world’s flow and complain or whine about it or even blame God. But here, we see how Paul, demonstrated his complete faith and trust in God. In 2 Cor. 4:8-10 we see that Paul was “afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies”.
In addition, he mentioned that he left Alexander to the Lord to “repay him for what he has done”. He trusted that God knew best – vengeance belonged to God! Throughout his ordeal, Paul showed his total dependence on his faithful God even as people around him failed him time and time again. We must always remember God’s constant faithfulness whenever we are let down by people. His promises gives us strength and hope to serve Him always.
