Alexander the smith did many evil things against me. The Lord will render to him according to his works.
Paul is near the end of his life, and among the last names he writes down is that of a man who worked hard to harm him. He names the damage and hands the matter to the Lord. What should a believer do with a personal enemy?
Some link this Alexander with the man Paul had already named in his first letter to Timothy. One writer also draws out what his name means.
Paul had handed Alexander over to Satan because of his blasphemy. That put him outside the fellowship of the saints, in the hope that he would judge himself (1 Tim. 1:20). But clearly there had been no recovery. The opposite was true: he did Paul much evil… The meaning of Alexander's name seems most significant: "man defender." It will be of no use to defend man in the flesh against the Living God. Paul's doctrine had exposed man in the flesh and brought him to nothing, while exalting the person of Christ.
Alexander's quarrel was not with the teaching.
He is an active personal enemy of the Apostle. Personal hostility drove him, so it did not matter what Paul said — Alexander opposed his words. Such people existed in the Apostle's day, and sadly there are still such people in the Christian profession. They resist what a man says, not because it is wrong, but because they are hostile to the person who speaks. The Lord's servant does not repay such a person evil for evil, or insult for insult. He does not say, "I will try to deal with him according to his works." He commits the whole matter to the Lord, and so he can say, "The Lord will render to him according to his works."
Older English versions read the last line as a wish — "the Lord reward him." The better-supported text reads it as a plain statement of what will happen.
One cannot help feeling that the text with the highest manuscript authority is a great relief to the spirit: "the Lord will render to him according to his works." It is easy to see how the common text turned this verb into a wish… On the other hand, that the Lord will render to him according to his works is a certain truth which every Christian conscience must feel.
Some readers stumble here, thinking Paul asks for punishment on a man.
There is only one place in the New Testament where it looks like a Christian is asking for punishment on an enemy: 2 Timothy 4:14. But it should read, "The Lord will reward him according to his works." Paul did not desire Alexander's punishment, but he knew enough of God's ways to know He would deal with him.
Paul does not organise a counter-attack. One writer finds the same wisdom in the Old Testament.
Avoiding all open conflict as useless, Nehemiah commits the matter to God, like Paul… It would be well for us to pay special attention to these examples. There are many forms of evil which we cannot attack openly without damage to ourselves and to others. There are many evil-workers in the church of God whom we must leave alone. To attack them would only serve the cause of the enemy. Our resource in such circumstances is to cry to God against them.
Paul does not treat everyone who failed him the same way.
Alexander is an enemy of the truth. There is nothing to say but, "The Lord reward him according to his works!" The Roman converts were afraid to stand by the champion for the truth, and at his first defence they left him standing alone… "May it not be charged against them!" says the apostle — very different from what he had said in the other case. It is an important thing to distinguish between those who oppose the truth and those who are afraid to stand for it; and this is what Paul does in this case.
Paul met this harm while trusting the Lord with his own future.
In his day he had to meet those who did him "great harm." Yet, trusting in the Lord, he could say, "The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom" (2 Tim. 4:14, 18).
- The wound. A man inside the Christian profession fought Paul in person. He resisted Paul's words because of who spoke them, not because they were wrong.
- The restraint. Paul does not repay evil for evil; he refuses to say, "I will try to deal with him according to his works."
- The handover. The last line reads best as a certainty, not a wish. Paul leaves the account with the one Judge who settles it.
- The discernment. Paul answers enemies of the truth and frightened friends in two ways. He leaves one to the Lord's reckoning and prays for the other.
- The rest. The Lord rescues His servant and brings him into His heavenly kingdom. So the injured man can name the harm and then set it down.
Against whom be *thou* also on thy guard, for he has greatly withstood our words.
Paul's last letter names names. He turns from those who failed him to a man who fought him, and tells Timothy to stay on guard against him.
Who was this man? One writer ties him to Paul's arrest, and to an earlier clash in the city of Ephesus:
Alexander — of Ephesus, we believe — clearly had something to do with his arrest. He was either one of his accusers, or at least a witness against him. He writes to Timothy: "Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm." Ten years before this, he had stood forward as the open opponent of the apostle in Ephesus (Acts 19). He may now have taken his revenge by reporting the apostle to the Roman authorities. The charge to Timothy, "Beware of him yourself," seems to show this was the same Alexander of Ephesus.
Commentators differ here. Others say we cannot now tell whether this is the same Alexander. They call him only an uncompromising opponent of the truth, and of Paul in particular.
The opposition here had a particular flavour. It was not false teaching, and it was not love of the world:
Alexander is referred to, not as a teacher of error, as in the case of Hymenaeus, nor as loving this present world like Demas. He is instead an active personal enemy of the Apostle. Personal hatred drove him, so it did not matter what Paul said — Alexander opposed his words. Such people existed in the Apostle's day. Sadly, they are still found among those who claim the Christian name. They resist what is said, not because it is wrong, but because they hate the person who speaks.
This warning fits one particular man. Timothy was gentle, and gentleness has its own blind spot:
Against Alexander, Timothy also was to stand on his guard. It is clear, therefore, that he was an adversary still bent on evil to the saints and on opposition to the work. Timothy's gentle character might draw him into a mistaken kindness, when caution was urgently needed. The apostle gives the reason: "he strongly opposed our message." More than the apostle had warned or pleaded with this wrongdoer — perhaps Timothy himself among them.
Paul gives a reason for the warning, and the reason is not that Alexander was unpleasant but that he had set himself against the apostolic message. That opposition may well have looked impressive at the time:
He also uses the moment to warn Timothy about the true character of this adversary: "he strongly opposed our message." Alexander may have been a successful debater, and that may have won him the applause of his hearers. But he was a tool of Satan to his own destruction, unless he later repented.
"Beware" tells Timothy to guard himself. It does not tell him to strike back:
Vindictiveness refused. We are to see that none render evil for evil. There is the ever present danger of meeting flesh with flesh. We may have to be silent when facing malice, and even avoid the one who acts in malice, but in any case we are not to render evil for evil.
That is Paul's own posture. He does not try to settle the account with Alexander. He commits the whole matter to the Lord, and still warns Timothy — sad that such a warning is ever needed among Christians.
- Named. Paul names one man: an active personal enemy who may have had a hand in his arrest.
- Personal. Alexander's quarrel was not with wrong doctrine but with the man teaching it. That spirit still resists a message because of the messenger.
- Targeted. The warning fits Timothy's gentle nature, which could soften into a kindness that drops its guard.
- Reasoned. The ground of the warning is that Alexander "strongly opposed our message." A skilled opponent of the truth serves the enemy, whatever the applause.
- Restrained. Beware means guard yourself, not strike back. The servant leaves the account with the Lord.