The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.

Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.

Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK) with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.

2 Timothy 4:9-15

Personal Instructions

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,^[a] 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.

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Last week’s post discussed Paul’s reminder to Timothy about his following the Apostle through all his trials; Paul says that those who are faithful to Jesus Christ through their holiness will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will continue to deceive and be deceived.

The rest of 2 Timothy 3 is as follows (emphases mine):

¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom^[a]you learned it ¹⁵ and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God^[b]may be competent, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 4 begins with this:

Preach the Word

4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound^[a]teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. ⁵ As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.

⁶ For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

This is the penultimate entry on the verses omitted from the Lectionary in 2 Timothy.

Paul, imprisoned for the final time in Rome, knows that his life is coming to an end, therefore, he wants Timothy to finish his work in eradicating the false teachers from Ephesus and reach the Apostle soon (verse 9).

As we know, Timothy was Paul’s spiritual son. The two had been together for around 15 years, since Timothy was an adolescent and a convert to Christianity.

John MacArthur explains Paul’s plea for Timothy to go to Rome as soon as possible:

He had the heart of Paul. He had the habits of Paul. He had the theology of Paul. He was Paul reproduced, the faithful son. And as Paul sits in a cold, dark dungeon, he longs to see his dear friend, his beloved son in the faith Timothy. He says in chapter 1 of this epistle, verse 4, “Longing to see you, even as I recall your tears so that I may be filled with joy. I want you just because I love you. I want you because I enjoy you. I remember your tears. I know you love me. I remember your compassion. I want you here.” And surely there was some work to do as well, and surely there was so much more to say to Timothy who would take up the mantle of leadership in the church. And Paul knew he was facing death, wanted so much Timothy to come. Oh, there were some Roman Christians in the city but that wasn’t like Timothy. And Luke wasn’t there, but Luke could never take the place of Timothy; nobody can take the place of anybody else in a person’s heart. And he wants to see Timothy once before he dies, at least, to pass on the mantle, the baton. Knows, according to verse 6, that the time of his departure is at hand; it is imminent. He will not live long, and if Timothy doesn’t come now, they’ll never see each other this side of heaven. So he urges his faithful son to come.

Weather was also a serious consideration:

He says, “Hasten.” The verb means to make every effort, to be quick, to be in a hurry, to be fast. He uses the word “soon, speedily.” Be in a hurry, be fast, get here quickly. There’s an urgency in this, because time is of the essence. Paul doesn’t have much time before he’ll die. Timothy doesn’t have much time before winter, as we will note in verse 21. And when winter comes, he can’t make the journey because the seas are too rough. And there’s so much to say and so much to share. Paul wants Timothy by his side.

Paul tells Timothy of the whereabouts of three men; Demas has deserted the Apostle for love of the world and gone to Thessalonica while Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia (verse 10).

Of Demas, Matthew Henry’s commentary says:

He quitted Paul and his interest, either for fear of suffering (because Paul was now a prisoner, and he was afraid of coming into trouble upon his account) or being called off from his ministry by secular affairs, in which he entangled himself; his first love to Christ and his gospel was forsaken and forgotten, and he fell in love with the world. Note, Love to this present world is often the cause of apostasy from the truths and ways of Jesus Christ. He has gone off, has departed to Thessalonica, called thither perhaps by trade, or by some other worldly business.

MacArthur tells us more, reminding us that Demas was previously faithful to Paul and the ministry:

Verse 10 says, “For Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” Why is it that the verse begins with the word “For”? That’s an interesting statement, “For Demas.” It’s as if Paul is saying, “Would you please come soon, because Demas is gone?” Could it be that Demas was of such strategic use in ministry that his place needed to be taken by Timothy? The implication here is that Timothy is coming not only for the sake of the heart of Paul but for the sake of the work of Paul, which here before was being done by Demas. We don’t know much about Demas. The first time he is mentioned is in Colossians 4:14 where he is mentioned as one of the esteemed and intimate companions of Paul.

While Paul was writing the Colossian epistle from prison in Rome, Demas was there. Probably Paul wrote Philemon within the same few-day period, and he was there as well, Demas was, when Paul wrote Philemon and is thus mentioned in Philemon verse 24. So he was intimately acquainted with Paul, had been for some years, was there during the time of that first imprisonment in Rome. Must have had some kind of outward ministry of importance. He is called, by the way, in Philemon a fellow worker of Paul. He was a partner in suffering to some degree, must have been a partner in prayer, must have been a partner in some kind of ministry. He was a man in whom Paul had invested much; he surely knew much. And when he deserted Paul, there was a void. And just the fact that it says, “For Demas having loved this present world has deserted me,” indicates that Timothy was going to step into something that Demas had been doing, which gives you an idea that Demas was a pretty strategic person, and at least on the outside was carrying on a ministry.

MacArthur discusses Demas’s betrayal of Paul and the ministry:

The verb, “has deserted me,” needs our attention for a moment. It is a very strong verb. It starts with a root verb meaning to leave, and then it compounds it by adding two prepositions at the beginning of the word, which makes it doubly intense so that it has been translated in sort of an American slang, “leaving me in the lurch.” And it is the idea not just of leaving but deserting in the midst of a dire situation, leaving at a most-inappropriate time. Perhaps the deprivation had gotten to Demas. Perhaps the difficulty, the suffering.

Perhaps he could see the handwriting on the wall Paul was gonna lose his life and he wasn’t about to lose his for that cause; he wasn’t that committed. Maybe he was caught up with Paul because of the noble cause, because of his emotion, his feeling, but never really counted the cost. He may well be one of those seeds that fall on rocky soil and pops up for a little while but when tribulation comes dies. He may be a little bit like the weedy ground where there is a sprouting initially and then the love of the world or the cares of the present age choke out the life before any fruit can come. It would seem to me that he probably was no true Christian at all because it says, “Having loved this present aiōn, age, world.” World system. All the aims, ideals, opinions, values, motives, morals, impulses of the present passing age, they were the things that he loved. He’s much like Judas. He fell in love with the world and apparently never genuinely had a love for Christ and the cause of Christ through Paul. On the outside he ministered, but Judas did too. But on the inside, there was not the commitment and he, like Judas, deserted Paul. Jesus had a deserter. Paul had a deserter. In a sense, it’s kind of comforting, isn’t it, to know that there will be those who will labor alongside us until the time when they decide they’ve had enough and they are gone. Having loved the present age it says he left and went to Thessalonica. Why did he go there? We don’t know. We can surmise that that probably was his home. He is listed in Philemon verse 24 with Aristarchus who according to Acts 20, verse 4 was a Thessalonian. So maybe they were kind of a duo from Thessalonica and he was going home. But the point here is not so much where he went as why he went, and why he went was because he loved the world more than he loved the things of God. And 1 John says, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not,” – what? – “not in him.”

MacArthur then shares a personal story about betrayal from an associate he once trusted:

I received a letter this last week from a man who used to work alongside me and who loved the present world and departed and wrote me to tell me in the letter of the disaster of his life, the devastation of his personal life, the destruction of his marriage as a result of that. You will have in your life a Demas or two or three or more. Somebody you pour your life into, somebody you think is on the team, somebody outwardly doing ministry who brings you deep hurt and deep pain and sometimes deep confusion because all of a sudden it becomes apparent that they love the present world, and they leave. Demas is a part of your network too, and mine.

MacArthur tells us about Crescens, about whom we know only from this verse:

Now we know absolutely nothing about Crescens. However, in spite of that, I have a few things I’d like to say. Evidently Crescens was a fairly-capable man, and I say that because Paul sent him to Galatia. Now Galatia was an area in which Paul had labored extensively. He went there on his first missionary journey, his second missionary journey, and on the third one as well, each time going back to Galatia. Evangelizing, founding churches, building leaders. The fact that Crescens was sent to Galatia could indicate that he had the capability to work with a strong church, that he himself therefore must have been a man of some kind of strength, of some kind of spiritual experience in order to be sent to strong churches with strong leaders to work along with them. Yet he is absolutely unknown. We know nothing about him; this is the only time his name is ever mentioned. And so he represents what we call the faithful unknown, who make up the ranks of everybody’s network behind the scenes. No one knows they even exist. No one knows their names, but God knows and somewhere in his own knowledge there is a fullness of reward for that person. The quiet unknown hero who comes along in spiritual maturity and spiritual strength to stand behind someone and do the work unseen. Thank the Lord for the faithful unknown who are gifted, who are called, and who in doing their duty are content to be unknown. God bless them. We are all indebted to them. They’re all around us.

Then we come to Titus. My study of Paul’s letter to him will begin in a fortnight.

Of him, MacArthur says:

And then there is the faithful well-known in verse 10. The faithful well-known. He mentions Titus has gone to Dalmatia. Titus appears 13 times in the New Testament, even has a letter written to him, the epistle of Paul to Titus, which by the way was written between 1 and 2 Timothy. He seemed to be able to flourish in the area of a new challenge. When Paul would go and evangelize an area, Titus was the kind of person who could go in and get the church built and build the leaders and strengthen off of that evangelistic effort. In fact, when Paul wrote the epistle to Titus, Titus was on the island of Crete where Paul, by the way, had preached. And he says here to Titus, “My true child in a common faith,” Titus 1:4. Then in verse 5, “For this reason I left you in Crete that you might set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I direct you.” Apparently, he was an equipper. He was a leader builder. He could go in and take sort of what was there and frame it and shape it and mold it and build it into strong churches. He had been with Paul, by the way, for years. He was in close and intimate work and fellowship. No doubt he had left Crete where he was when Paul wrote the letter of Titus. He left just before this and was now headed for Dalmatia. Now the only thing we know about Dalmatia is that there are dogs that came from there or got named by that name.

Not so these days. Dalmatia is part of Croatia and has many resorts, particularly along the coast.

MacArthur continues:

But Dalmatia was on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, north of Macedonia. Paul had preached in Dalmatia, according to Romans 15:19, so the Gospel had sort of dusted that area too, and that’s a perfect setting for Titus to go in again and pull it all together, strengthen the church, build the leaders. Titus 3:12 indicates that he came and met Paul at Nacapolis and left from there for Dalmatia while Paul was taken to Rome. He apparently was excellent at building leaders. He was the faithful well-known, or the faithful equipper. And we thank God for those who come alongside of us who are very gifted builders and leaders and equippers. Every person in spiritual service needs not only the quiet behind-the-scene unknown but those who can take a forward place, who are strong, who are builders of men and women, who are leaders. He was such.

Paul says that Luke alone is with him, so Timothy should bring Mark to Rome, as Mark is very useful to him in ministry (verse 10).

Students of Acts will remember John Mark, who is this same Mark — the Gospel writer — introduced in Acts 12:

Acts 12:24-25 – Saul of Tarsus, St Paul, St Barnabas, St Mark, John Mark, increasing the Church

The death of Herod Agrippa I caused many to convert to Christ Jesus.

Barnabas and Saul of Tarsus (the latter since converted) had been preaching in Antioch. When they returned to Jerusalem, they brought with them John Mark, the son of Mary, who had been housing many in the church of Jerusalem. John Mark was also the author of the Gospel of Mark.

He also featured in Acts 13:

Acts 13:4-7 – Barnabas, Saul of Tarsus, John Mark, Cyprus, Sergius Paulus, Bar-Jesus, Elymas

At the instruction of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 13:1-3, which represents the narrative shifting from Jerusalem to a Gentile Church), Barnabas, Saul and John Mark (author of the Gospel of Mark) set sail from Seleucia for Cyprus to preach the Good News in synagogues from east to west on the island.

Paul was quite upset with John Mark in Acts 15:

Acts 15:36-41 — Paul, Barnabas, Silas, John Mark, Mark, Antioch (Syria), Cyprus, Syria and Ciclilia

Upon leaving Antioch (Syria) after presenting the Gentiles at the church there with a comforting, biblical letter from the Jerusalem Council, Paul and Barnabas quarrelled about whether to bring John Mark — Mark (verse 37) — on a continuing ministry.

Although later reconciled, as my post explains based on New Testament verses, Paul and Silas continued on in Syria and Paul’s homeland of Cicilia. Barnabas took his young relative John Mark — St Mark of the Gospel — en route to his (Barnabas’s) homeland of Cyprus.

Key verse:

³⁸ But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.  (Acts 15:38)

Later, by the time Paul was writing his letter to the Colossians, John Mark, referred to as Mark, was with Paul:

Colossians 4:10-11 – Aristarchus, Mark (John Mark), Jesus Justus, Rome

Paul writes of his fellow workers Aristarchus, Mark (John Mark) and Jesus Justus, the only three Jews who are with him in Rome. Jesus Justus was likely to be the only Jewish convert in Rome who ministered alongside Paul while he was in prison.

Henry tells us we can draw a lesson from this:

He speaks respectfully concerning Mark: He is profitable to me for the ministry. It is supposed that this Mark was he about whom Paul and Barnabas had contended, Acts 15 39. Paul would not take him with him to the work, because he had once flinched and drawn back: but now, says he, Take Mark, and bring him with thee. By this it appears that Paul was now reconciled to Mark, and had a better opinion of him than he had had formerly. This teaches us to be of a forgiving spirit; we must not therefore disclaim for ever making use of those that are profitable and useful, though they may have done amiss.

MacArthur calls Mark ‘the unfaithful companion’ who did well:

Let’s look … at the unfaithful companion, the unfaithful companion. “Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he’s useful to me for service.” Mark, John Mark. His home, Jerusalem, Acts 12:12 tells us. The church in Jerusalem no doubt met in his house. He had accompanied Paul and Barnabas. He was selected as one of the bright, young lights in the Jerusalem church, and he was accompanying Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey. But Acts 13:13 says as they started on a difficult part, he abandoned them. It was too much for him. He didn’t have the courage for it. He didn’t have the character for it. He didn’t have the commitment for it. And Paul had no stomach for weak men, and he had no stomach for cowardly men and he had no stomach for uncommitted men. And he didn’t want to saddle his life with a lot of unnecessary baggage that he would have to keep pushing along and pushing along. If you couldn’t stand it, he really didn’t want you around. And so it registered in his mind when John Mark left that he didn’t want him back again. And approximately, according to some calculations, about seven years later Paul and Barnabas were about to set out on another journey. And Barnabas said to Paul, “Let’s take Mark,” and Paul said, “Absolutely not.” Acts 15:36 and following discusses the argument between Paul and Barnabas over Mark.

And because of the unresolved argument, they split and Barnabas took Mark and Paul took Silas. And the parting of the ways between Paul and Barnabas was over Mark. Barnabas thought he had been rehabilitated; Paul didn’t want to take a chance. Mark had failed, and in Paul’s eyes, even though it may have been seven years later, he had proven himself to be unworthy of the difficult rigors of ministry and he wanted no partnership with a weak man. About a dozen years later, we find Paul in prison in Rome, and guess who’s with him? Mark. Many years have passed now, and apparently Mark has proven himself and he’s back with Paul. And while in his first imprisonment, Paul wrote Colossians, and in Colossians 4:10 he refers to Mark. And he wrote Philemon and in Philemon … verse 24 he refers to Mark again. And so after all of those years, Mark was back in the good graces of Paul, an unfaithful companion restored.

After, by the way, according to 1 Peter 5:13, Mark spent some time with Peter. And at the request of the Romans, he wrote his Gospel, which many believe to be a Gospel which reflects the testimony of Peter more than the others … Mark was back with Paul and served him well and probably even assisted Timothy so that he was well known to Timothy also. So 20 years have passed and Mark is faithful and loyal, and Paul says, “Pick up Mark and bring him, for he’s useful to me for service.” Literally very useful, diakonia, the word from which we get deacon, service. Well what use was he? Well he’s been in Rome; he knew the Roman church. He was acquainted with the people. He could be of great help. I think that’s one of the great joys in Christian ministry, by the way, to see an unfaithful person restored, and sometimes it takes a long, long time, a long time. But the Lord does build the weak up again and make them strong. All kinds of people are part of the network, aren’t they? Faithful sons and unfaithful deserters. The faithful unknown and the faithful well-known, faithful companions and unfaithful companions, in this case restored.

As for Luke, the physician turned Gospel writer, Henry says:

Luke however remained with Paul (v. 11, 12), and was not this enough? Paul did not think it so; he loved the company of his friends.

MacArthur says that we should not get too wrapped up in Paul’s wording of that verse:

… we come to Luke the faithful companion, Luke the faithful companion. In verse 11, he says, “Only Luke is with me.” Now some have suggested that in such a statement he’s sort of depreciating the character of Luke. “Please, Timothy, hurry up and get here. Only Luke is here,” implied and you can imagine what that’s like. But we don’t want to express ourselves in that way; that wouldn’t be fair to dear Luke. Luke is a unique person and I want to just mention to you that he is only spoken of two other times in the New Testament. Colossians 4:14 he is named called the beloved physician. Philemon 24 he is a fellow worker of Paul. Beloved physician, a fellow worker. But though only three passages name this man, he is a dominant character in the New Testament. He wrote the Gospel of Luke, which is the longest of all four gospels. Though it only has 24 chapters and Matthew has 28, it has more verses and more words than Matthew. And then he wrote 28 chapters of Acts. 52 chapters of the New Testament were penned by the beloved physician, fellow worker of Paul who was an able historian. He chronicled the life of Christ under the inspiration of the Spirit, and then he chronicled the life of the early church under the Spirit’s inspiration. But he was humble, and he was content to come alongside a great apostle.

He was a constant companion to Paul, faithfully at his side. He was with Paul on missionary journey number two at Troas and Philippi. He joined Paul at the end of missionary journey number three and went with him to Jerusalem. He was with Paul on the ship that crossed the sea and was wrecked, account to Acts 27. He was with Paul in both of his imprisonments. And you read in the book of Acts periodically the pronoun we, we, we. We call them the “we” passages of Acts, and the “we” is Luke including himself in the travels of Paul. But while he doesn’t want any prominence and he doesn’t necessarily want to be well known, he was Paul’s servant. His heart was to come alongside Paul and serve his personal needs. And if anybody ever needed a personal physician, Paul did. Beaten with rods, stoned, whipped, shipwrecked, thorn in the flesh, all that he suffered. He needed a first-class personal, intimate friend. And the fact that he was a physician was of tremendous use, tremendous use. He wasn’t a preacher. We don’t ever hear him preach. We don’t hear him teach. He doesn’t appear to have been a theologian. He was a friend who acted perhaps as a secretary to Paul and certainly as a historian to the Holy Spirit. The fact that he says only Luke does not depreciate his value but simply means the only person I have here is my personal attendant and my personal servant, and I can’t do the work that needs to be done. He needed someone in addition to Luke to get the work done. Paul was not sitting in the corner of a dungeon waiting to die. He was still at it.

Paul continues his list of people, saying that he has sent Tychicus to Ephesus (verse 12).

Paul and Tychicus had a long association. We first meet Tychicus in Acts 20:

Acts 20:1-6 – Paul, third missionary tour, Timothy, Sopater the Berean, Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secundus, Gaius of Derbe, Asians Tychicus and Trophimus, Luke, Greece, Macedonia and Troas

Paul leaves Ephesus after the riot for his third missionary tour, revisiting churches he either founded or helped to build. He took with him the above companions.

Acts 20:13-16 — Paul, third missionary tour, Assos, Mitylene, Chios, Samos, Miletus, Timothy, Sopater the Berean, Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secundus, Gaius of Derbe, Asians Tychicus and Trophimus, Luke

Luke documents the cities and islands he, Paul and their companions visited on the way to Miletus. From Miletus, Paul arranged to sail south on his way to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost.

Paul remembers Tychicus in his closing remarks to the church in Ephesus:

Ephesians 6:21-24 – benediction, blessing, grace, peace, love incorruptible, faith, Tychicus

Tychicus carried the Apostle’s letter to the Colossians and to Philemon:

Colossians 4:7-9 – Tychicus, Onesimus

Paul tells the Colossians that Tychicus and Onesimus will visit them. Tychicus will carry the letter to the Colossians. Both were with Paul in Rome and were involved in ministry.

He also had with him the letter to Philemon, Onesimus’s master.

MacArthur says:

… the faithful messenger, Tychicus. Verse 12 says, “But Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.” He, by the way, is mentioned four other times in Scripture. Acts chapter 20, verse 4 tells us that he was an Asian from Asian Minor who accompanied Paul to Jerusalem with the offering for the poor saints there. He is a faithful associate of Paul. He is mentioned in Ephesians 6:21, Colossians 4:7, Titus 3:12, and here. And his special task seems to be to deliver the letters that Paul wrote. He took Ephesians to Ephesus. He took Colossians to Colossae for Paul. And I believe it’s best to assume that he probably is taking 2 Timothy to Ephesus to give to Timothy. So he was Paul’s messenger, Paul’s delivery service. Perhaps we could identify the statement, “I sent,” or, “I have sent,” as what’s called an epistolary aorist, which means I am sending. And very likely he was sending him to Ephesus where Timothy was with this letter.

He was a faithful man to deliver the Word of God. How vital was this letter? It was vital because Timothy had to know what Paul was saying, if he was gonna set the church right. How vital was this letter? Timothy had to know what God expected him to be. How vital was this letter? Timothy had to get the letter and read that Paul wanted him to come and come immediately before winter so that he had a very important task did Tychicus to get the letter there. He must have been a man of great responsibility. Maybe not a teacher, maybe not an articulator of truth but a messenger with the truth. We have those kinds of people in our network. I thank God for the people around me who facilitate the word getting out, whether it’s in the printed page or through letters or through tapes, whatever it is. Faithful messengers who go take the Word. I think of that every time I see those precious ladies who box those little tapes and send them out, those young men who package the Word of God and mail it all over the world, the Tychicus of the network of any servant of God, those who take the Word.

Then Paul mentions Carpus, who has his cloak at Troas; Timothy is to bring the cloak, Paul’s books and, most importantly, his parchments (verse 13).

MacArthur explains the situation:

While Tychicus was the faithful one who went, Carpus was the faithful one who stayed. You say, “Where did he stay?” He probably stayed home just to conjecture in a sense, from verse 13. He says, “When you come, bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments.” Apparently, Carpus, who we don’t know anything about him at all, but he lived obviously in Troas, and perhaps that’s where Paul stayed; in fact, likely he did stay there. And what he is saying to Timothy is, “Look, pick up Mark on your way with you, and when you come, go through Troas and get my cloak and my books and parchments.” He would go from Ephesus to Troas, over land, across the top there down into Macedonia, across Macedonia to the sea, and then he would catch the ship that would go to the city of Brundisium on Italy’s east coast and then over land to Rome. That would be the path he would take. And so he says, “Go north. Go through Troas.” Come across the top and down into what we know as Greece and then across the sea to Italy. And when you get to Troas, on the way pick up my cloak and the books and parchments because I left them at the house at Carpus. Some have suggested that may have been the place where the church met; we don’t know. Surely that’s the place where Paul stayed. He was the one who stayed home to receive the ones that the Lord sent. So you have those part of your network who were sent and those part who were there to take care of the ones who were sent. That was Carpus.

You say, “Why did Paul want his cloak?” Well, winter was coming. That’ll tell you a little bit about his economic condition and maybe about the economic condition of the church. You would think that they wouldn’t have to trek halfway across Europe with a coat. If he needed one that bad, couldn’t they go down to the local store and buy him one? But economic conditions were quite different than they are today. He had one of those and it had to be sent from one part of the world to another part of the world when he got cold. Far cry from our lifestyle. It was a heavy blanket-like garment made out of a wool with a hole in it like a huge blanket. You just put it over your head and it kept off the rain and kept out the cold, and you could even use it like a bed. You just fold yourself in it, almost like a sleeping bag. And winter was coming and the dungeon was dark and cold, and he needed his cloak.

Why had he left it there? Maybe he didn’t want to carry it in the summer. On the other hand, some have even suggested that he was arrested in Troas and hauled off before he could take any of his belongings, and that’s why his cloak was still there and that’s why his books were still there and his parchments were still there, which you can’t imagine he would leave. And that’s why when he finally got to Rome, he was whisked off by the soldiers, put on trial before any of his friends could come to his aid, and that’s why he says in verse 16, “At my defense, there wasn’t anybody there to stand beside me.” Maybe they didn’t even come ‘til later because he had been taken away from Troas; we don’t know that, it’s possible. So he says, “Stop by the house of Carpus and get my cloak.”

And then he says, “Also would you pick up my books and parchments.” The books and parchments, what were they? Well, parchments probably refers to animal-skin scrolls. Books some feel refers to papyrus scrolls. It may have been that some of them would’ve been the Old Testament books, whatever ones of them he had. Some of them may have been his own letters, copies of which he kept. Some of them may have been blanks on which he was about to write other things. The point is he wasn’t finished reading and he wasn’t finished writing and he wasn’t finished studying, and he wanted his books and his papers. And all of it was at the house of Carpus in Troas where Paul had been on numerous occasions, and this man may well have been a host for Paul many times. In his network, he had people who cared for his physical need, who gave him a place to stay, who took care of his coat and took care of his belongings, and those people are so important too. Paul had to depend on folks for those basic things in life. Thank God for the messengers who go, and thank God for the people who receive those messengers into their homes, show hospitality, kindness. They’re all a part of the network too.

Then Paul warns Timothy about Alexander the coppersmith, saying that he did the Apostle great harm, although the Lord would repay him according to his deeds (verse 14) and that Timothy should be wary of him, because he strongly opposed the Gospel message (verse 15).

Henry says:

This is he who is spoken of Acts 19 33. It should seem, he had been a professor of the Christian religion, a forward professor, for he was there particularly maligned by the worshippers of Diana, and yet he did Paul much evil. Paul was in as much danger from false brethren (2 Cor 11 26) as from open enemies. Paul foretels that God would reckon with him. It is a prophetical denunciation of the just judgment of God that would befal him: The Lord will reward him according to his works. He cautions Timothy to take heed of him: “Of whom be thou aware also, that he do not, under pretence of friendship, betray thee to mischief.” It is dangerous having any thing to do with those who would be enemies to such a man as Paul. Observe, (1.) Some who were once Paul’s hearers and admirers did not give him reason to remember them with much pleasure; for one forsook him, and another did him much evil, and greatly withstood his words. Yet, (2.) At the same time he mentions some with pleasure; the badness of some did not make him forget the goodness of others; such as Timothy, Titus, Mark, and Luke. (3.) The apostle has left a brand on the names and memory of two persons; the one is Demas, who forsook him, having loved the present world, and the other is Alexander, who greatly withstood his words. (4.) God will reward evil-doers, particularly apostates, according to their works. (5.) Of such as are of Alexander’s spirit and temper we should beware; for they will do us no good, but all the mischief that is in their power.

Acts 19 describes a riot over the worship of Artemis — Diana — in Ephesus. The pagans refused to listen to Alexander because he was Jewish:

Acts 19:28-34 – Ephesus, riot for Artemis (Diana), Paul’s companions Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul, Asiarchs, Alexander

The riot at Ephesus unfolds: Artemis (Diana) supporters versus Christians and Jews. Paul wanted to speak to the mob, but his disciples and the Roman government representatives, the Asiarchs, forbade him from entering the theatre in Ephesus. The Jews put forward Alexander to speak, but he was drowned out because the Artemis worshippers ignored him as he was Jewish. Many people did not know why they were part of the riot; they simply rushed in to be part of the mob.

However, MacArthur does not think this is the same Alexander, as it was a common name in that era:

Let’s call him the faithless enemy, the faithless enemy. “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching.” Alexander is a very, very common name in the ancient names. We do not need to assume that this Alexander is the same as the one in 1 Timothy 1:20 who was a leader in the church at Ephesus who was a false teacher. Nor do we need to assume that this is the same Alexander as in Acts 19:33. All we know about this one, and probably to set him apart from those others, is that he is called Alexander the coppersmith, so we know it’s not the other Alexanders. That word means a metal worker; he worked in metal. Maybe he made idols at Ephesus like Demetrius did out of silver. Maybe he too was an idol maker whose trade had been interrupted by Paul’s preaching in Ephesus. It’s likely that he was in Ephesus. He did Paul much harm, perhaps not only in Ephesus but maybe elsewhere; we don’t know. Timothy needed to be on guard against him, and Timothy at this time was in Ephesus.

On the other hand, some have suggested that this guy was in Rome and that he had harmed Paul in Rome by opposing him at his trial and that Timothy needed to be on guard against him when he got to Rome because he was liable to run into him. We can’t be dogmatic about either because it doesn’t say, but I would tend to think that he was Alexander of Ephesus and that he had done Paul much harm in the past and Timothy needed to guard himself and the church against him because he was right there in Ephesus. And it’s not without reason to assume that as a metal worker he had indeed made idols and that those idols of course represented everything opposite the truth of God. And so he hated Paul and set himself against him. He says, “he did me much harm.” You’ll note that in verse 13, and then he describes the harm in verse 15: “He opposed our teaching. He vigorously opposed our teaching. He showed me much ill-treatment but not in a physical way, in a mental way. He opposed the truth. He stood against the truth, the Gospel.” And then in a simple future prediction, a prophetic statement, Paul says in verse 14, “The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.” No sinner will ever get away with his sin. No person who opposes the Gospel of Jesus Christ will ultimately succeed.

These are the next verses of 2 Timothy:

¹⁶ At my first defence 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 for ever and ever. Amen.

May we have the faith and perseverance that Paul had during his decades of unfaltering ministry.

Paul closes with a set of greetings and gives those mentioned — along with Timothy — a blessing, to be explored next week.

Next time — 2 Timothy 4:19-22