Weakness and forgiveness

Jeremiah 48:1-49:22
2 Timothy 4:1-22
Psalm 95:1-96:13
Proverbs 26:9-12

In the 2 Timothy passage we see Paul in a moment of moving weakness and humility.  I don’t know if I would have liked Paul had I met him personally.  He seems to have had one of those abrupt sort of personalities that told things as they are and was not afraid to lose friends in doing so.  We see this by how he faces down Peter in front of the church over eating with people who are not Jews (Paul, like Jesus, was for, Peter, unlike Jesus, was against).  There is another telling incident in Acts 15 when Paul hastily judges Mark (later to become the writer of Mark’s Gospel) because he failed them and ran away from them on a previous missionary journey.

He falls out with Barnabus on this one.  Barnabus takes Mark away with him and Paul storms off on his own.  The work of both men seems to have been blessed by God as they went their separate ways but how much more productive would it have been had they worked together?  Paul, just like Barnabus it seems, was a stubborn and pig-headed man.  But here we see him toward the end of his life.  He is an old man and in need.  He could be railing against the world and everyone who has failed him in the past but instead there are one or two beautiful moments in this letter.  He writes this to Timothy...

 ⁹Do your best to come to me quickly, ¹⁰for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. ¹¹Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. ¹²I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. ¹³When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.

Who does he ask for?  Mark, “Because he is helpful to me in my ministry.”  We don’t know when the healing happened or who said sorry to who but far from holding a grudge Paul now calls for help from a man that previously he wouldn’t even go on mission work with.  How long do we hold grudges for?  All too often in life people hold them until the grave.  Jesus gave us a very stern warning about that kind of thing in his teaching about prayer, he said, “14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:14-15