Responding To Failures

 2 Timothy 4:9-18


9 Be diligent to come to me quickly; 10 for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. 12 And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13 Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come—and the books, especially the parchments.

14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. 15 You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words.

16 At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them.

17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. 18 And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!

The apostle Paul sacrificed much. He faced hunger, shipwreck, beatings, and imprisonment to carry God’s Word to others. Consequently, he had every reason to expect the men and women he mentored to be faithful when he experienced a crisis. But Paul was virtually alone when he endured his Roman prison and trial before a government tribunal—only Luke continued to lend support.

Paul’s friends probably had reason to stay away—namely, fear that the tribunal would investigate them next, or confidence that the apostle’s faith would sustain him. Regardless of the reason, Paul had only these words for his deserters: “May it not be counted against them” (2 Timothy 4:16).

Paul’s words echo Stephen’s story. As Stephen was stoned for preaching the Word, Paul—at the time a Pharisee called Saul—looked on approvingly. When the apostle later repented after his experience on the road to Damascus, the memory of Stephen’s final words must have provided great comfort: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60).

While resentment and anger seem justified when others fail us, we don’t have the right to withhold forgiveness. Regard- less of the pain someone inflicted or the loneliness his or her absence caused, God’s expectation doesn’t change: We should forgive because Jesus forgave us.

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