Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
Paul wrote to Timothy from his final imprisonment in Rome, where departures and assignments elsewhere had left Luke alone with him to comfort him in his weakened age and toil and to help him keep in touch with believers. In that loneliness he asked that Mark be brought to him because he had become useful for gospel work. Mark had once withdrawn from missionary labor at Perga for the comfort and safety of home, leading Paul long to distrust his stamina for toil, self-denial, and sacrifice. Yet under God's blessing and Barnabas's wise care Mark gave himself unreservedly to Christ and to hardship in difficult fields, even sharing Paul's imprisonment and counting gain in Christ above gain in the world, so that early failure did not prevent him from becoming a trusted fellow worker and comfort near Paul's death.
Final Imprisonment Setting
This is part of Paul's letter to Timothy, overseer of the church at Ephesus, written after Paul had been brought a second time before Nero where he would witness with his life to the faith he held. At that time others had departed or turned from the faith, some having left and some having been sent elsewhere, leaving only Luke with Paul. That aloneness belonged to his final imprisonment in Rome. There he was confined in a dark, damp dungeon.
Paul was weakened by age, hard labor, and illness, so Luke's faithful presence and service comforted him. Luke's help enabled Paul to communicate with fellow believers and others, including work as a scribe, and this made him valuable to Paul's ministry in prison. In that condition of trial through desertion Paul asked that Mark be brought to him as useful for the ministry. The record is meant to encourage later believers passing over the same ground when those once teachers deny the faith and work against truth they once advocated, not to lose faith and confidence in God.
Mark's Restoration to Usefulness
Paul had become fully reconciled to Mark and regarded him as profitable and useful for the ministry, welcoming and receiving him as a fellow worker, a fellow laborer, a personal comfort, and a valuable coworker not long before his own death. That reconciliation overcame Paul's former objection to Mark's service after his earlier failure. Mark had earlier deserted and withdrawn from the missionary work at Perga, leaving the earlier missionary journey when the work demanded toil and self-denial, for the comforts and safety of home.
Because of that desertion Paul had judged him unfavorably and even severely for a long time, seeing him as lacking the stamina the work required in patience, self-denial, bravery, devotion, faith, and willingness to sacrifice even life itself. Afterward Mark went with Barnabas to Cyprus and became a fellow laborer, and under the blessing of God and the wise support, training, and care of Barnabas for his inexperienced nephew he developed into a valuable worker, so that Barnabas's care was richly rewarded and Paul's judgment of him changed to recognize him as a valuable coworker. Mark again decided to devote himself to the ministry, giving himself fully and unreservedly to the Lord and to proclaiming the gospel in difficult fields.
He learned to put God's claims above other concerns, to accept the hardships of Christian service, and to follow Christ's self-sacrificing example in seeking to save people. Sharing Paul's imprisonment, he came to count gaining Christ at any cost as outweighing gaining the world and remained faithful to the end. His later usefulness as a trusted and faithful helper and a comfort to Paul shows that early failure need not prevent becoming a faithful fellow worker.
Solemn Call to Ministry
The wider passage sets forth the work of opening the Scriptures to others as a most solemn work requiring men of prayer, laid as a charge before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead. The minister's work is not finished with standing in the desk and giving an exposition of the Scriptures; pastoral work must follow in reproving and exhorting with all longsuffering and doctrine, presenting the Word to show wherein there is deficiency and feeling the burden for defects in the character of professed followers of Christ without lording over God's heritage. Dealing with human minds is the nicest work ever committed to mortal man, meeting human prejudices and hearts never subdued, ordered, or controlled in childhood, and it requires having the mind of Christ Jesus, walking humbly with God, and recognizing every soul labored for as the purchase of Christ's blood, so valued that Christ gave His life to provide a time of trial to weigh eternal interests and gain profit for eternal life.
Preaching the Word is to be without partiality for merely the prophecies and argumentative portions, but is to give the greatest and most important lessons given by Jesus Christ Himself, with the preacher becoming thoroughly acquainted with His doctrines in order to win souls by the love of Christ. God designs every minister to increase continually in efficiency, with more power in prayer and more intelligence in handling the Word, growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ by thinking, talking, and meditating upon Him, reflecting His image, having the Word abiding within and feeding upon the flesh and blood of the Son of God as true meat and drink, and becoming a partaker of the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust. That inward life is to be carried into daily life as a living example of practical godliness, making him a power wherever he goes rather than having power only in the desk, vanishing like the morning dew.
Paul wrote to Timothy from his final imprisonment in Rome, where departures and assignments elsewhere had left Luke alone with him to comfort him in his weakened age and toil and to help him keep in touch with believers. In that loneliness he asked that Mark be brought to him because he had become useful for gospel work. Mark had once withdrawn from missionary labor at Perga for the comfort and safety of home, leading Paul long to distrust his stamina for toil, self-denial, and sacrifice. Yet under God's blessing and Barnabas's wise care Mark gave himself unreservedly to Christ and to hardship in difficult fields, even sharing Paul's imprisonment and counting gain in Christ above gain in the world, so that early failure did not prevent him from becoming a trusted fellow worker and comfort near Paul's death.
Final Imprisonment Setting
This is part of Paul's letter to Timothy, overseer of the church at Ephesus, written after Paul had been brought a second time before Nero where he would witness with his life to the faith he held. At that time others had departed or turned from the faith, some having left and some having been sent elsewhere, leaving only Luke with Paul. That aloneness belonged to his final imprisonment in Rome. There he was confined in a dark, damp dungeon.
Paul was weakened by age, hard labor, and illness, so Luke's faithful presence and service comforted him. Luke's help enabled Paul to communicate with fellow believers and others, including work as a scribe, and this made him valuable to Paul's ministry in prison. In that condition of trial through desertion Paul asked that Mark be brought to him as useful for the ministry. The record is meant to encourage later believers passing over the same ground when those once teachers deny the faith and work against truth they once advocated, not to lose faith and confidence in God.
Mark's Restoration to Usefulness
Paul had become fully reconciled to Mark and regarded him as profitable and useful for the ministry, welcoming and receiving him as a fellow worker, a fellow laborer, a personal comfort, and a valuable coworker not long before his own death. That reconciliation overcame Paul's former objection to Mark's service after his earlier failure. Mark had earlier deserted and withdrawn from the missionary work at Perga, leaving the earlier missionary journey when the work demanded toil and self-denial, for the comforts and safety of home.
Because of that desertion Paul had judged him unfavorably and even severely for a long time, seeing him as lacking the stamina the work required in patience, self-denial, bravery, devotion, faith, and willingness to sacrifice even life itself. Afterward Mark went with Barnabas to Cyprus and became a fellow laborer, and under the blessing of God and the wise support, training, and care of Barnabas for his inexperienced nephew he developed into a valuable worker, so that Barnabas's care was richly rewarded and Paul's judgment of him changed to recognize him as a valuable coworker. Mark again decided to devote himself to the ministry, giving himself fully and unreservedly to the Lord and to proclaiming the gospel in difficult fields.
He learned to put God's claims above other concerns, to accept the hardships of Christian service, and to follow Christ's self-sacrificing example in seeking to save people. Sharing Paul's imprisonment, he came to count gaining Christ at any cost as outweighing gaining the world and remained faithful to the end. His later usefulness as a trusted and faithful helper and a comfort to Paul shows that early failure need not prevent becoming a faithful fellow worker.
Solemn Call to Ministry
The wider passage sets forth the work of opening the Scriptures to others as a most solemn work requiring men of prayer, laid as a charge before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead. The minister's work is not finished with standing in the desk and giving an exposition of the Scriptures; pastoral work must follow in reproving and exhorting with all longsuffering and doctrine, presenting the Word to show wherein there is deficiency and feeling the burden for defects in the character of professed followers of Christ without lording over God's heritage. Dealing with human minds is the nicest work ever committed to mortal man, meeting human prejudices and hearts never subdued, ordered, or controlled in childhood, and it requires having the mind of Christ Jesus, walking humbly with God, and recognizing every soul labored for as the purchase of Christ's blood, so valued that Christ gave His life to provide a time of trial to weigh eternal interests and gain profit for eternal life.
Preaching the Word is to be without partiality for merely the prophecies and argumentative portions, but is to give the greatest and most important lessons given by Jesus Christ Himself, with the preacher becoming thoroughly acquainted with His doctrines in order to win souls by the love of Christ. God designs every minister to increase continually in efficiency, with more power in prayer and more intelligence in handling the Word, growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ by thinking, talking, and meditating upon Him, reflecting His image, having the Word abiding within and feeding upon the flesh and blood of the Son of God as true meat and drink, and becoming a partaker of the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust. That inward life is to be carried into daily life as a living example of practical godliness, making him a power wherever he goes rather than having power only in the desk, vanishing like the morning dew.