CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
2 Timothy 4:9. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me.—Make all possible speed to arrive, or on earth we shall not meet again. Perhaps, however, it was the loneliness of the apostle that made him yearn for Timothy. Compare 2 Timothy 4:10-11, with 2 Timothy 4:21.
2 Timothy 4:10. Demas hath forsaken me.—The word means to leave in the lurch, or in evil circumstances. The atmosphere of the prison and close association with Paul in his present circumstances could only be endured by true love and brave devotion.
2 Timothy 4:11. Mark.—He had left the apostle at Perga, and afterwards the desire of Barnabas to take him along with Paul and himself led to a rupture between the apostles. It is pleasant to see that the old man nearing his end has forgiven Mark and admits his serviceableness.
2 Timothy 4:13. The cloke that I left at Troas.—The word for “cloke” signifies a cloak with a hood, such as travellers and soldiers used, and which often formed their only shelter from the weather.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 2 Timothy 4:9-13
Suffering for the Truth—
I. Has often to be endured with a loneliness that craves for society.—“Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me” (2 Timothy 4:9). There is a beautiful pathos in these words, indicating the apostle’s sense of loneliness. “My end is drawing near; some have forsaken me: I yearn for the comfort and refreshment of a congenial spirit: my beloved Timothy, use all speed in coming to me.” Loneliness is sometimes more difficult to endure than pain.
II. The loneliness of suffering is intensified by the desertion of the timid.—“For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Timothy 4:10). Demas was once an active fellow-labourer (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 1:24). For some time the apostle must have observed the slackening of his zeal, his love of ease and comfort, his growing dislike to the hardships of pioneer work, his shrinking from the peril of being in Rome as a Christian and an associate of Paul; and the climax of his declension was reached when he deserted Paul at a time when he most needed help and companionship. The desertion of a friend always happens at the wrong time.
III. Suffering for the truth does not quench the zeal for its active propagation.—“Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia” (2 Timothy 4:10). “And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus” (2 Timothy 4:12). From his Roman prison Paul is the director-general of a world-wide mission, and he is interested in every movement of its messengers. Their engagement in the great work also explained their absence at this critical period. Paul had also seized every opportunity during his imprisonment to preach the gospel. The work of God was always uppermost with him.
IV. Suffering for the truth appreciates the friendship of the faithful.—“Only Luke is with me” (2 Timothy 4:11). It was a comfort to the noble sufferer to have with him one friend on whom he could rely. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Friendship is more valuable when it is tested, and when it bears the strain. It is in the power of one friend to render valuable service; and a noble nature does not fail to appreciate it.
V. Suffering for the truth recognises the valuable services of the man whose former vacillation had occasioned anxiety and strife.—“Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry” (2 Timothy 4:11). Mark had been under a cloud for forsaking the work, and was the cause of a sharp contention between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:37-40; Acts 13:5; Acts 13:13). But Mark had repented, and was now another man, chastened and stimulated by the lesson of his brief relapse. Paul’s sharp censure is wiped out by high praise—another example of the generous nature of the apostle, which even suffering did not sour.
VI. Suffering for the truth does not render us indifferent to the needs of body and mind.—“The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee” (2 Timothy 4:13). The cloak had no doubt been worn by the apostle as a warm wrap in many a cold, exposed journey, and would be known to his friends as an old, familiar article of his clothing. He needed it again, for winter was near (2 Timothy 4:21). “And the books, but especially the parchments” (2 Timothy 4:13). The books he needed to carry on his work of translation for the benefit of the Church; and the parchments perhaps contained translations already done, and some of his own inspired epistles. Brief as his life might be, the mind must be fed, and work must not stop. Tyndale, imprisoned in the Castle of Vilvorden, asked for warmer clothing, and above all for his Hebrew Bible, grammar, and dictionary.
Lessons.—
1. True greatness is conspicuous in suffering.
2. The sufferer appreciates genuine sympathy.
3. Suffering for the truth helps to spread it.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2 Timothy 4:10. The Defection of Demas.
I. His offence.—
1. He forsook the apostle. When he needed sympathy, comfort, co-operation.
2. He forsook the Christian cause. Fled from the post of duty because it was the post of danger.
3. He forsook the Saviour. Either for a season or permanently. Either as a backslider or as an apostate.
II. The principle by which he was actuated.—
1. It might be the love of ease.
2. It might be the love of honour.
3. It might be the love of wealth.
4. It might be the love of life.
Demas.
I. Demas an apostate after having done and endured much in the cause of Christ.—His profession of Christianity must have exposed him to hardship and danger. There must have been in him tokens of genuine conversion, seeing they could bear the test of hardship incurred in defence of the truth. He had given proof of sincerity in bringing others to Christ. What hardship could not do, what peril could not do, was effected by the allurements of a world whose god is the prince of the power of the air; and the man who had been ready to undergo martyrdom, who would not have flinched from the apparatus of torture, failed in withstanding the blandishments of pleasure, and was conquered by lust after defying persecution.
II. Demas an apostate though he had to quit St. Paul when that apostle was on the point of sealing his confession with his blood.—Demas was for a long time steadfast. He had St. Paul to instruct him, to reprove, exhort, and encourage him; and perhaps he thought, because he felt his bosom glow as this man insisted on noble truths and delivered sublime and noble messages, he was necessarily impregnated with the very spirit of Christianity, and bound too firmly to the cause of the Redeemer to be induced to forsake it by any common temptation. But the world gained an opportunity of plying Demas with its seductions—an opportunity of which we may suppose it to have been partially deprived whilst he was in the dungeons of St. Paul—and thus was it seen what a mere thing of sand is religion which depends upon a preacher for its warmth and strength. St. Paul was most rich in Christian experience when closest in his intercourse with heaven; and when he appealed with his grey hairs to every sensibility, one would have thought desertion impossible. Oh the degrading, deadening tendency of an attachment to time and sense!—H. Melvill.
2 Timothy 4:11. “Only Luke is with me.” Christian Loneliness.
I. That there are times when the people of God are forsaken and left mainly to themselves.
II. That the good man is never left altogether alone.
III. That Divine helpfulness is afforded to compensate for the lack of human sympathy.
Lessons.—
1. We have here a picture of noble Christian endurance.
2. Of submission.
3. Of fidelity.
2 Timothy 4:13. Human Means useful to Inspired Persons.
I. The poverty of the first preachers of the gospel.—A cloak and a few books.
II. Even Divinely inspired men did not so wholly depend upon Divine inspiration, but made use of ordinary helps and means.—Bishop Bull.