SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/17/2025 8:00 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Unfaithful Anonymous”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy 4:16
Message of the verse: “At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them.”
I begin my morning SD today on this very warm Sunday morning as the weather in our region has been very warm and also very dry.
The word defense translates from apologia and from that Greek word we derive the English “apology” and “apologetics.” It referred to a verbal defense and frequently was used as a legal term. In the Roman court system, an accused person had two hearings, the prima action, to clearly establish the charge, and the secunda action, to determine guilt or innocence. Paul’s first defense would therefore have been a prima action.
Now whatever kind of trial it was, not one of Paul’s friends and fellow believers supported him. MacArthur writes “As with the noun defense, the Greek verb behind supported may have been a legal term, referring to official testimony in court. No one stood by Paul or testified on his behalf; instead they all deserted him.
“It seems certain that Onesiphorus, who ‘often refreshed [Paul], and was not ashamed of [his] my chains (1:16), and faithful Luke (4:11) had not yet arrived in Rome. Had they been there at that time, they would have stood by Paul and gladly shared his fate.
“The price for such a stand could have been high. Because Paul was such a well-known leader among the Christians, and because Nero was so vehemently anti-Christian, some scholars believe the emperor himself may have presided over this hearing. Only a few years earlier, Nero had set Rome ablaze, blaming the unbelievably callous and evil deed on the Christians. While still alive, some Christians were sewn into the skins of freshly killed animals and released into the arena among wild dogs, who tore them to pieces. Others were coated with pitch and set afire to light Nero’s garden parties. That would be no excuse, or course, for those whom Jesus called not to take up their own crosses and follow Him (Matt. 10:38; 16:24; 27:40).
“And although their actions were indefensible, perhaps some of them only rejected Paul, not Christ. Some may have been weak-hearted but not false-hearted. In any case, Paul prayed that their desertion might not be counted against them. Like Stephen (Acts 7:60) and the Lord Himself (Luke 23:24) the apostle had a supremely forgiven spirit.”
Lord willing we will finish this letter of 2 Timothy in four more days. As I read over these last verses of 2 Timothy it seems to me that the words that Paul wrote were more meaningful that the endings of other letters that he wrote in the New Testament, and I suppose that was because of the situation he found himself in, knowing that he would soon be with his dear Lord.
8/17/2025 8:28 AM
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