2 Timothy 4:19–22

"Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus." The first two were early companions who stayed faithful to the end. With them he links the household of Onesiphorus, whom he mentioned at the close of the first chapter of this letter. The apostle felt deeply how Onesiphorus linked himself with his circumstances as a prisoner. Onesiphorus himself was no longer in Rome, and perhaps not at Ephesus either, his usual home… God prospers earnest love for Christ's sake.

He closes the letter with a few more personal notes. Remember that the apostle "stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade" (Acts 18:2-3). And he calls them elsewhere "my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks" (Rom. 16:3-4).

Aquila and Priscilla had settled in Corinth… After Paul's ministry there ended they went to Ephesus. They were still there when 1 Corinthians was written. But in Romans 16:3 Paul greets them at Rome, so they had travelled back… 2 Timothy 4:19 tells us that once more they were back in Ephesus, where Timothy was living. "Greet Prisca" (a shortened form of Priscilla) "and Aquila." They were indeed strangers and pilgrims, but blessed to know that the Lord directed their wanderings. Priscilla is mostly named before Aquila. From this we may learn that she, like other notable women of those days, "labored for the Gospel."

Apollos had the natural gift of eloquence — he was a master of words. By diligent study he had become "mighty in the Scriptures." Yet when he came to Ephesus he was not well informed about God's intervention in Christ… Aquila and Priscilla heard him and at once saw what he lacked. So they did the delightful service of showing him hospitality, to teach him more fully what had happened through Christ. God used these saints, who had no particular public gift, to launch a very gifted vessel on his career of service. From Ephesus he went to Corinth. There he convinced many Jews about Christ, and he helped the believers much as well. How much of the reward for his effective service will go to the credit of Aquila and Priscilla, who can say?

The apostle writes: "May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus" (2 Tim. 1:16), and again he greets that same household here. The whole household is joined to the loyalty of its head. The whole household is commended in a special way to the mercy of the Lord, because Onesiphorus had a loyal and loving heart… The whole household shared the rejection along with its head. This is as it should be. May it be so in our households!

He does no great public work. But he often refreshed the apostle, and he was not ashamed to stand with a man in prison for Christ's sake. In Rome he sought Paul out. That was no doubt hard in so large a city, where prisons would be more than a few. Anyone could excuse himself from such a task as unnecessary. But the apostle, and certainly God too, valued the faith that kept going until it found Paul. What proof that things which may look small in our eyes are not really small in God's estimate!

There was no compulsion in regulating the labours of his fellow-ministers, even by an apostle. They were servants of the Lord. No one would have urged this more earnestly than Paul, and no one would have drawn back more than he did from setting up a controlling authority between the Lord and His servants. There were urgent calls elsewhere, no doubt; but Erastus stayed at Corinth. He was probably the man who had once been treasurer of the city.

Verse 20 leads one to think that Paul was released from custody after his trial. His first voyage to Rome took place under the circumstances recorded in Acts 27 and 28, and he had no chance then to leave Trophimus at Miletus. He left him there sick, which shows that it is not always God's way to heal sick believers directly, as some claim.

We also learn here that the apostles used the miraculous power given to them in the Lord's service. They did not use it for their private interests, or as their personal affection might suggest. Paul had left Trophimus sick at Miletus.

Apparently the miraculous power of healing which, in the course of his testimony, had been so strikingly used by the Apostle, was never used for the relief of a brother or a friend. As one has said, "Miracles as a rule were signs for unbelievers, not a means of cure for the household of faith."

Here again the apostle looked only to the Lord. His glory was the only motive, whether for working miracles or for holding back. So in the earlier letter the apostle told Timothy to stop drinking only water. He was to use a little wine for his stomach and his frequent illnesses. Any Christian friend might give that advice today, though without the Spirit's inspiration. This remains for us now in the written word. There was certainly no miracle in Timothy's case, any more than in Trophimus' case.

Paul, for example, with all his mighty powers of healing, says, "I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus." God had His own purpose in Trophimus' suffering, and a needless miracle might have spoiled that purpose. And on Paul's part, God did not give him powers of miracles to use at random, or at his own will, but to use in the service of his Master.

We see that whatever miraculous power was in the Church, it was not used to make every believer comfortable in this life. Nor did it always enable him to bring comfort to others. The apostle felt the absence of Trophimus, no doubt. But he has not a word of reproof for him, and not a thought of complaint about it.

"Do your best to come before winter" (v. 21). In verse 9 he had said, "Do your best to come to me soon." The repetition, with the defining words "before winter," is surely not pointless. He had told Timothy in verse 13 to bring the cloak left at Troas with Carpus. But he would also warn Timothy to start before wintry weather exposed him to a voyage like the one Paul himself had known (Acts 27). And he would give him the chance of helping Paul the aged, now a prisoner as well.

He longed for the presence of his child in the faith. He wanted someone to whom he could open his mind and thoughts freely, now that few would attach themselves to the Lord's prisoner. In fact he seems to have been alone, apart from Luke (v. 11). So Timothy was not to delay, but to come before the storms of winter made travelling hard, if not impossible.

The Spirit of God is willing to think about the most ordinary things of this life. The body is for the Lord, not only the soul; and the Lord is for the body (1 Cor. 6:13). So it is not only moral debasement that should be far from the believer, but also emptiness and worldliness. On the other hand, the Lord stoops to think of what might give physical comfort. He takes no pleasure in His servant shivering with cold.

No detail that concerns His children is too small for our God and Father to consider. Paul has already mentioned the cloak and the books; now he thinks of the season. Timothy is to try to come before winter would add to the hardships of his journey.

Paul names three brothers and a sister as sending greetings to Timothy, along with "all the brothers." This proves not only the love and esteem people had for Timothy, but the apostle's care to promote love among the saints.

The apostle was careful to promote love, and he sends greetings from several by name — not only men, but a woman, as well as from the brothers generally. A woman was put first, with good reason, in verse 19; and a woman is put last, with no less wisdom, among those named in verse 21.

A poet named Martial mentions a lady called Claudia, born of British parents, who lived at Rome. The apostle Paul also speaks of a Claudia in his second letter to Timothy. These two are supposed to be the same person. What adds to the likelihood is that the same poet mentions a Pudens alongside Claudia, and Paul gives that name too.

As for those whose greetings appear in verse 21, their names were too common at the time to build anything personal on them. One thing is certain: they were Christians. The people Martial writes about were pagans who, as far as we know, never submitted to the righteousness of God. Martial came to Rome as a young man only about two years before the apostle's death. His poems came later, most of them long after, when his Pudens and Linus and Claudia were still pagans. It is natural that some should claim the Linus mentioned here as bishop of Rome in the days of the apostles... The only thing certain, once we leave Scripture, is how uncertain human tradition is.

The testimony of the Lord not only has its seemingly prosperous times; sometimes the winter winds blow and the storms seem to rage around it. Look at Paul in 2 Timothy. He had to say, "All who are in Asia turned away from me." They could not stand the winter-time. How can we be Christians all the year round? By holding fast to the Lord. He is just as sufficient for the winter-time as for the summer-time.

Paul's last recorded prayer (written in 2 Timothy 4:22) is, "The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit," a fitting and touching close to a moving letter.

The last words of any servant of God must carry a feeling of deep solemnity. That is even more true when we think of them as written or spoken at the close of their service here. They are the fruit of long and varied experience, and they carry the solemn judgment of everything that years of dealing with God had given. How much greater is their power when they come to us as words of inspiration given by the Spirit of God. These are the last words of Paul to Timothy, his own son in the faith.

Paul closes this letter to Timothy in a beautiful way. His desire is that the Lord Jesus Christ may be with his spirit. It has been said that we may be right in doctrine and principle, and even in outward conduct, and yet be wrong in spirit. If the Lord Jesus is with us in spirit we shall show, in our words and ways, the very spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The closing expression is unusual, "The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit," for it was his spirit that needed strengthening, not his soul. Finally, "Grace be with you" — it is this alone that would lift him above the circumstances that tried him.

The letter then closes with the beautiful benediction, "The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you." What higher blessing could the apostle desire for his beloved Timothy? The presence of Him who is the Lord Jesus Christ — all that He is as expressed in these names — to be with Timothy's spirit, and also grace. May this same blessing be the portion of the beloved reader!

But the prayer is that the Lord be "with your spirit." That was the apostle's last inspired desire for Timothy. And "grace be with you" was for those in general who were with Timothy... It is the expression of a heart that could feel fervently for all, yet knew how to make a difference.

Does not the renewed heart long for a sense of the Lord's presence? And did not the Lord Himself answer that longing by His promise before He left: "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20)? And if that assurance is said to have a special collective application, Paul's wish for Timothy is undoubtedly individual: "The Lord [Jesus Christ] be with your spirit" (2 Timothy 4:22). May we then, individually and together, walk with Him!

The apostle's wish for Timothy, "The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit," is very blessed. May it be so for us too, that there may be more simple and full communion with our blessed Lord, as we discern His way in the present evil time.