People Problems
2 Timothy 4:9-10, 14-16 NKJV
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.
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.
Paul is wrapping up his letter to Timothy and has some things to share about three different situations involving people who were in his life.
The first was Demas. Demas was part of Paul’s ministry team. He had traveled with Paul and had seen the amazing miracles that God worked through Paul. So this was a guy on the front edge of what God was doing in the world, but it wasn’t enough. Demas heard Paul preach and teach repeatedly, so he was under great biblical feeding. Paul had an empowerment from God to go into areas that had never heard the gospel and reach people for Christ. God used Paul to heal sick people and share the word of God in powerful ways. But it wasn’t enough. Demas left Paul because he loved this present world or the things of this life. This life is wonderful but shouldn’t be our first commitment. Our heart belongs to the Lord, or at least it should. This is the danger of putting other things or people before our commitment to God. Misplaced priorities cause problems, and in the case of Demas, he left Paul behind.
The second person was Alexander the coppersmith. He was a businessperson who caused a great deal of problems for Paul. Alexander resisted the message of the gospel. Paul simply told Timothy to beware of him. Note, Paul did not tell Timothy to turn the other cheek or to take revenge on Alexander. Paul said beware of him and oh yeah, the Lord repay Alexander according to what he had done. Paul was not taking things into his own hands but asking the Lord to step into the situation.
The last people problem Paul encountered was with the people who deserted him when the heat got turned up. Evidently, Alexander must have brought Paul before the court system. But Paul said that at his first defense no one stood with him. Everybody left him. That really has to sting to have the people that you have loved and helped abandon you when the situation got tough. But Paul had an answer for these people. Lord, don’t hold their abandonment against them. Paul was praying that the people who deserted him would be forgiven and that their cowardly acts wouldn’t be held against them. That was my assessment, not Paul’s. He did not resort to calling names.
So our takeaways from Paul’s people problems. Some people will go with the way of the world despite all our best efforts. Sad but true. Some people will do us harm, so we let the Lord repay them. We will not take their punishment into our own hands, and we are not blind; we are aware of them. And for the ones who abandon us (not marriage, but friendships), we pray God forgives them.
People problems; we all face them. It’s how we face them that makes the difference.