Paul urges Timothy to come to see him as soon as he can. He mentions a friend who has let him down, friends who have left Rome to minister to the churches, a friend who is sticking by him, and a friend he wants Timothy to bring with him.
Paul hopes and expects to see Timothy again before he loses his life, but Timothy must hurry. Paul is feeling lonely too, because for various reasons most of his other friends are not with him at this time. First he mentions a friend who has let him down. "Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica." (2 Timothy 4:9-10a) At one time Demas was a man to be counted on, for Paul mentions him as a friend and fellow worker in Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 1:24. We don't know what it was about "this world" that Demas loved so much, but perhaps he came to conclusion that working for the gospel was going to cost him more than he wanted to give. Seeing Paul's predicament, he might have decided it was best to distance himself from Paul and from Christianity. Paul's words indicate that Demas didn't place as much value on Christ as he did on the world or on comfortable living. Sometimes people turn away from the faith because they were never truly in Christ to begin with, so when the going gets tough they cut and run. There are plenty of reasons why people are active in the church other than because they love the Lord. There are other needs that they are trying to fulfill by joining a church and by enjoying fellowship with believers. Demas could have been one of these people.
"Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia." (2 Timothy 4:10b) Since Paul has nothing bad to say about the departure of either of these men, it is generally assumed that they were on business for the church, not that they had deserted Paul.
"Only Luke is with me." (2 Timothy 4:11a) Luke, Paul's friend and personal physician and fellow laborer in the faith, is still by his side. Luke's faithfulness to the Lord and to the Lord's apostle Paul may be the reason the Lord allowed him to be the author of two books of the Holy Bible. This man is the kind of friend we all want---the kind of friend who will stick with us til the end.
Next Paul asks Timothy to bring Mark with him. You will recall from our study of the book of Acts that at one time Paul was very disappointed with Mark (sometimes called John Mark) because when Mark was a young Christian and new to the faith he deserted Paul and Barnabas during a missionary journey. But since then Mark has grown a great deal in the faith and has performed invaluable work for the sake of the gospel. He has earned Paul's respect, so Paul says, "Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry." (2 Timothy 4:11b) There is nothing better a man like Paul could say about anyone than that they are helpful to him in his ministry. Before he leaves this world, Paul wants to see Mark again and tell him this face to face. When Mark left the missionary group, he did so because he was young and afraid and not mature enough yet in the faith to deal with some of the things that happened. Paul realizes now he misjudged this man. He was too hasty in thinking Mark would never amount to anything in the ministry. I think he wants to apologize to Mark in person. He doesn't want to depart this life without asking Mark for forgiveness.
Paul's friend Tychicus is away because Paul sent him on church business. "I sent Tychicus to Ephesus." (2 Timothy 4:12)
Paul now mentions several personal items he'd like Timothy to bring with him. "When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments." (2 Timothy 4:13) The scrolls may be books. In those days they didn't have printing presses where books could be bound together in the shape that we are familiar with today. These books might have been his own writings, the writings of other religious men, or writings of a scholarly nature. We know Paul was very well-educated and that he read secular materials as well as religious materials, for in his letters we sometimes find him quoting Greek philosophers and Greek playwrights. If I were in prison, one of the main things I'd want would be books, and I think Paul felt the same way. The parchments are believed to be the Scriptures, which in Paul's day would only have included the Old Testament. It seems unlikely Paul would not have his own copies of these with him, so some Bible scholars think he wanted them for the converts at Rome to have for the growing body of believers to study.
Next he mentions a man who, if he was ever Paul's friend, was the type of person of whom we could say, "With a friend like that, you don't need enemies." This man is Alexander, and Paul already mentioned him in his first letter to Timothy as someone whose "faith has been shipwrecked". (1 Timothy 1:19) "Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message." (2 Timothy 4:14-15) There are five mentions of the name "Alexander" in the Bible and there's no way to know if the Alexander in Paul's letters to Timothy might be one of those mentioned in other books of the Bible. It doesn't appear that all the Alexanders are the same man, so we know very little about Alexander the metalworker and we don't know exactly how he opposed the gospel message. Since Paul warns Timothy to be on guard against him, I tend to think Alexander was a wolf in sheep's clothing. He may have initially deceived Paul into thinking he was a godly man, but as usually happens when a person pretends to be something he's not, Alexander's true character eventually emerged.
Paul's words today clearly demonstrate the importance of faithful friends. There are people in my life I can count on whenever I'm in distress. Paul had some of those people too, but some let him down, and some were away from him by necessity so they could minister to the churches. He feels their absence keenly. There was probably never a time in Paul's life when he needed friends more than he did when he knew death wasn't far in his future. Taking Paul's words to heart, let's try our best to be the kind of friends who will stick things out to the end. Let's be there for those in emotional or spiritual distress, for those who are dealing with illness or who are facing a terminal diagnosis, for those who are grieving, and for those who need encouragement in the faith. We are not only performing a valuable ministry to others by doing this, but we are honoring the Lord, because He said, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me." (Matthew 25:40)
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