Support Your Leaders
You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! 2 Timothy 1:15-18
When Paul writes of ‘Asia’ he means the province encompassing the western part of modern Turkey and which includes Ephesus.
Because Paul had spent a lot of time in the province of Asia and in Ephesus particularly, he must have felt very alone and even a failure. He had preached to the people, befriended them, lived with them, prayed with them and poured his heart into the growing church. But now ‘everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me.’
This doesn’t mean the Christians had rejected Jesus or even the gospel message. They might have watered down the gospel’s cutting edge. Paul was black and white. If Jesus was the true Saviour and Lord, then Caesar wasn’t. The Emperor’s claims about himself were false. Had the Christians adopted the more comfortable belief that Jesus only offered a personal religious experience which needn’t bring you into confrontation with the principalities and powers?
Another possibility is that to visit Paul in prison was to be tarred with the same brush. This fits in with 4:16 and 17 in this letter. The Christians might have stopped sending financial support. Because Roman prisons didn’t offer proper food, private support from family and friends was often the difference between life and death.
We don’t know who Phygelus and Hermogenes were, only that Paul expected their support and was disappointed when they refused it.
The shining light is Onesiphorus. Again we know nothing more of him than Paul’s glimpses here into his life. He wasn’t ashamed of Paul (c.f.1:8), searching until he found him. Onesiphorus ‘refreshed me’ (1:16) probably meaning he brought Paul food and drink and probably money to buy more, as well as offering friendship and encouragement. Paul clearly saw God’s future reward for Onesiphorus.
The media twists stories about Christian leaders to make their coverage more tantalizing to the public and so make more money for themselves. In war the first casualty is always truth.
Don’t let the media determine your attitudes. God gave us the Scriptures for that.
Stand with Christian leaders. Pray for them. Support them by what you say and how you act. And should they face imprisonment, remember Jesus’ words ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat … I was in prison and you visited me …whatsoever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’ (Matthew 25:34,36,40)
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