Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
Luke (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 1:24). He went with Paul on his second missionary journey, Acts 16:10; again with him to Asia, Acts 20:6, and to Jerusalem, Acts 21:15; and was with him during his captivity at Cesarea, Acts 24:23; and at Rome, Acts 28:16. Contracted from Loukanos, indicating he was a freedman.
Take, х analaboon (G353)] - 'take up' on the journey (Acts 20:13-14). John Mark was probably in, or near, Colosse, as in the letter to the Colossians (Colossians 4:10), written two years before, he is mentioned as about to visit them. Timothy was now absent from Ephesus, somewhere in the interior of Asia Minor; hence, he would be sure to fall in with Mark on his journey.
He is profitable to me for the ministry - by his knowledge of Latin, so as to preach at Rome. He was Peter's son by conversion, and was with his spiritual father when 1 Peter 5:13 was written. He accompanied Paul and his relative ( anepsios (G431)) Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 12:25). Mark had been under a cloud for having forsaken Paul at a critical moment in his missionary tour (Acts 15:37-40; Acts 13:5; Acts 13:13), and was the cause of dissension between Paul and Barnabas. Timothy subsequently occupied the same post under Paul. Hence, Paul appropriately wipes out the past censure by high praise of Mark, and guards against Timothy's making self-complacent comparisons between himself and Mark, as though superior (cf. Philem
24). Demas apostatizes. Mark returns to the right way, and is no longer unprofitable, but is profitable for the Gospel ministry (Philemon 1:11). Egypt and Alexandria were the final field of his labours.