Paul Missed the Irony... Do we?

Yesterday we looked at how Paul and Mark repaired their relationship after years of distance and conflict.

Within one sentence of Paul writing about how he and Mark have reconnected (2 Tim 4:11), Paul writes about how another friend has ‘deserted’ him. Note how that’s the same word used to describe what happened earlier with Mark:

Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica… 2 Timothy 4:10

Paul did not think it wise to take Mark, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia… Acts 15:38

Do you see the irony? Here’s Paul writing off Demas as a deserter… right after mentioning Mark who Paul used to think of as a deserter!

Paul seems to be imputing motives to Demas’s actions “because he loved the world” - but perhaps he did the same thing when Mark left years before. And since this seems to be a repeat occurrence in Paul’s life, doesn’t it make you wonder if perhaps PAUL was the problem?

The beauty of scripture is that it records all of this for us, inviting us to look beneath the hood and weigh what’s really going on. There seems to be some questions begging to be asked after this little section of 2 Timothy 4. They might sound something like this: “Hey, Paul, it sounds like you’re upset and frustrated with Demas. Are you feeling hurt? Do you want to talk about it? And if God can do such a good work in Mark, perhaps there’s a better way to think about Demas here, don’t you think? And, if I may be so bold, do you think there might be a reason good ministry partners keep leaving you?”

What might be some questions the Spirit would be interested in asking you right about now?