Saint Paul’s Last Words of Grace

The final verses in 2 Timothy 4 are Paul’s last recorded words to the church. I am sure that Timothy treasured these words, just as we treasure the last words and letters of our loved ones before they leave this world.

As a prisoner of King Jesus, Paul had been cast into a dungeon by Caesar Nero. He knew he was going to be executed in the near future. The Lord Jesus was with him to comfort him, to strengthen him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, to rescue him from every evil attack, and, through his execution, to bring him safely into Christ’s heavenly kingdom.

Yet Paul was not bitter or unhappy. To him, in Jesus Christ, death had been transformed. For Christians, death is gain, death is better, death is to be present with the Lord in paradise, death is precious in the sight of God, and death is a blessed condition. For Christians, death is to experience the second phase of our salvation in heaven.

As Paul wrote his last letter to the church, he was ministering grace and love to the people of God. God’s family members, those born of God, justified and adopted, are known for their love for the Lord Jesus, our older brother, and for all true members of God’s family everywhere, especially all those we know by divine providence through our local church.

We read about the family of God in Matthew 12:46–50: “While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, ‘Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.’ He replied to him, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ Pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’”

Those who belong to God’s family obey God and love one another. Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). Thus, John wrote, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 John 3:16). Is this true of us?

So we remember God’s people. We pray for them, we communicate with them, and we support them in their severe need. In doing these things, Paul, from the dungeon, was ministering grace, not only to Timothy but also to us, the family of God.

1. Saints Love One Another

In these verses, Paul was asking Timothy to greet certain people of the church of Ephesus whom he knew personally, and he was sending greetings from the saints in Rome to Timothy. In these greetings, we see the love the saints of God have for one another.

Greet Prisca and Aquila

First, Paul commanded Timothy to convey his apostolic greeting to Priscilla and Aquila (v. 19). In Romans 16, he greets about thirty-five people by name, beginning with Priscilla and Aquila (Rom. 16:3). Now he was saying, “Tell this godly couple that I remember them, love them, and pray for them. Tell them that I will see them in heaven, for, in a short while, I will be leaving this cold dungeon and going to heaven.”

Prisca is a diminutive form of Priscilla. She was the wife of Pastor Aquila, a Jew from Pontus in Asia. Their names appear as a couple six times in the New Testament. We see them first in Acts 18, where they met Paul in Corinth. Claudius had banished all Jews from Rome in AD 49/50. Aquila and Priscilla, like Lydia of Acts 16, were business people. They made tents, and Paul also was a tentmaker. So Paul worked with them, stayed with them, worshiped with them, and traveled with them.  It is reasonable to suppose that Paul even brought them to faith in Christ. Aquila and Priscilla were rich, and they used their wealth to support the church, which met in their house.

From the biblical references, we know that Aquila originally moved from Pontus to Rome, then to Corinth, where he met Paul. Later, he went to Ephesus, then to Corinth, then to Rome, and back again to Ephesus, where we find him in 2 Timothy 4:19.

Aquila had been a pastor of a church in Rome, as we read in Romans 16:3–5, as well as in 1 Corinthians 16:19: “The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.” They were an ideal godly couple who both worked at their tent business and served in the church. They were theologically literate, for they taught the gospel more accurately to the great scholar Apollos (Acts 19:26). They loved Paul and risked their lives to save him, as Paul himself wrote, “They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them” (Rom. 16:4).

So Paul was directing Timothy to greet them first in Paul’s name because they were his old friends in Christ. Jesus himself calls us his friends: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

Friends do not forget friends. We do not forget our brothers and sisters in God’s family or drop them. We do not stop caring for them, loving them, and praying for them. If we do, we are not good Christians. Sacrificial love is the first fruit of the Spirit. John writes, “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:19–21).

Greet Also the Household of Onesiphorus

Then Paul directed Timothy to greet the household of Onesiphorus (v. 19). Paul had spoken of Onesiphorus earlier in this epistle: “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! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus” (2 Tim. 1:16–18).

When Onesiphorus learned that Paul was in a dungeon in Rome, he traveled there from Ephesus, leaving his family and his business behind. He searched diligently until he located the dungeon where Paul was. He stayed with Paul for several days, refreshing him with fellowship, food, and clothing, spending much of his own money. Some scholars think that Onesiphorus, as a friend of the criminal Paul, was killed by the authorities. So Paul sends his greetings only to Onesiphorus’ household in Ephesus.

We are to love God’s people as Jesus loved us and died for us. Love is not just an emotion. Love is self-sacrifice for the well-being of others. Onesiphorus was not ashamed of Paul’s chains, for he knew that Paul was the Lord’s prisoner and his apostle.

So Timothy was to greet, in the name of Paul, Prisca, Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. Greeting is not just a meaningless formality. It conveys grace to the saints of God. For example, Boaz greeted his workers (Ruth 2:4). He said, “The Lord be with you!” And the workers responded, “The Lord bless you!” Jesus greeted the apostles on the day of his resurrection: “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’” (John 20:19). By his death and resurrection, Christ reconciled us to God, and now we have peace with God. Paul writes, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1–2). Jesus is our peace. Paul declares, “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Eph. 2:17–18).

Greetings from Paul to Timothy

In verse 22, Paul greets Timothy himself: “May the Lord be with your spirit. Grace to all.” About this prayer Chrysostom comments, “There can be no better prayer than this. [Paul is saying,] Grieve not for my departure. The Lord will be with thee.” (“Homily 10”; NPNF 13:516).[1]

Timothy had been with Paul during his first imprisonment in Rome and he made friends there. So now Paul was saying, “Timothy, your friends in Rome greet you too. They remember you, love you, and pray for you. They told me to send their greetings to you.” As we said, we do not drop our brothers and sisters in Christ. So in verse 21 Paul lists the Roman saints who were sending their greetings to Timothy: “Eubulus greets you in the Lord. Pudens greets you in the Lord. Linus greets you in the Lord. Your sister in the Lord, Claudia, greets you. And the brothers in the church in Rome greet you.”

Timothy, Make Sure You Come Quickly to Me

In verse 21, Paul also writes, “Do your best to get here before winter.” This is the second time in this epistle that Paul requested Timothy to come soon (see 2 Tim. 4:9). Paul felt the urgency of his situation. He wanted to see his son in the faith for the last time on earth before his execution so that he might be filled with joy (2 Tim. 1:4).

So Paul said, “Make sure, Timothy, you come before winter.” During the winter season, which lasted from November to March, navigation and shipping stopped in the Mediterranean because of the possibility of storms. No doubt Paul recalled his own disastrous trip to Rome in the winter, which we read about in Acts 27: “When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved” (Acts 27:20). At that time, both ship and cargo were lost, although God in his great mercy spared the apostle, his friends, and all the other passengers.

Our Christian family relationships matter. So Paul was urging Timothy to come soon, saying, “Bring Mark with you, as well as my cloak and the books, so that I might have some physical, mental, and spiritual help from you before I am executed.”

2. Trophimus I Left Sick at Miletus

Not only do these verses tell us about the love of the saints for one another, but they also tell us about sickness and healing. In verse 20 Paul tells Timothy, “I left Trophimus sick at Miletus.”

Trophimus was a Gentile believer from Ephesus. His name means “nourishing,” that is, “one who encourages people.” As Paul’s assistant, Trophimus traveled with the apostle to Jerusalem with the offering for the poor. The Jews saw Paul and Trophimus together in the city and assumed that Paul had brought this Gentile believer into the temple area beyond the Court of the Gentiles. This resulted in Paul’s arrest and his voyage to Rome to face trial before Caesar as a Roman citizen. In due time, Paul was set free and continued his missionary work until he was rearrested and thrown into a dungeon.

Now Trophimus had been traveling with Paul. When they stopped at Miletus, a port on the east coast of Asia, near the Meander River, Trophimus fell ill. No doubt physician Luke ministered to him but could not heal him. Paul the apostle anointed him with oil and prayed for him, but he was not healed. In this case, there was no miracle or healing, though Paul was given the things that mark an apostle: signs, wonders, and miracles (2 Cor. 12:12). So Paul had to leave Miletus without Trophimus.

At other times, God had healed people through Paul’s ministry. In Ephesus, he healed many people, as we read: “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them” (Acts 19:11–12). But he could not do anything now. The apostle and Dr. Luke failed to heal Trophimus.

Paul himself was not always healed. In 2 Corinthians 12, he says that he was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment him. Paul prayed for healing three times, but no healing came. He wrote, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me’” (2 Cor. 12:7-8). But the Lord did not take it away.

We must understand that God may not heal us every time we pray. God heals or does not heal, based on his own sovereign will, which has to do with his plan for our eternal good. God’s eternal purpose is to make us holy and blameless, so that we may fellowship with him forever. Paul writes, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28). The Hebrews writer states, “Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.  No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:10–11).

Paul also spoke about his illness to the Galatian believers: “As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.  Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn” (Gal. 4:13–14). We must never think that we will not get sick or that we will always be healed, even if we use medicine.

Yet some people are healed. Epaphroditus was a messenger sent from the church of Philippi to Rome to Paul when he was in prison. Epaphroditus came to take care of Paul but, instead, he became ill. The apostle prayed for him, but he was not healed immediately. Eventually, though, Paul could write, “Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow” (Phil. 2:27). God showed mercy and finally healed Epaphroditus.

Timothy himself was frequently ill. (PGM) Some would say he was a semi-invalid. Paul did not perform a miracle to cure his stomach problem. Instead, he prescribed the use of medicine, probably based on counsel from Dr. Luke: “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses” (1 Tim. 5:23).

When Hezekiah became sick, God healed him in answer to prayer through the use of medicine. We read, “Then Isaiah said, ‘Prepare a poultice of figs.’ They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered” (2 Kings 20:7).

James counsels, “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven” (James 5:14–15). Even this scripture does not ensure our healing. James’ counsel brings healing only if it is the Lord’s will. The oil can be seen as medicine also. It is likely Paul anointed Trophimus with oil, but he was not healed. Not all sick people will be healed when elders pray and anoint them with oil. Otherwise, God’s people would live forever without dying. The Bible tells us that it is appointed for man once to die; it also speaks of a sickness unto death.

In the Old Testament we read that the prophet Elisha became sick and died: “Now Elisha was suffering from the illness from which he died” (2 Kings 13:14). Elisha had performed miracles, but there was no miracle for him. It is utter foolishness to teach that true faith in God is the faith that rejects all medicines and the services of doctors. It is God’s will to use medicine, and it is ultimately God who heals, whether directly, or through doctors and medicine.

True prayer is always effectual. What if God does not heal us, as he did not heal Paul? God will then give us grace. Paul writes, “But [Jesus] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

We need grace—grace to live and grace to die. How do we get grace? The Hebrews writer says, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16). The time is coming when we may suffer and die. But God will give us grace.

There is a danger is trusting in doctors and medicines alone and not in God, who heals through medicine. Yet when our work here is done, our triune God will take us home through death to enjoy eternal bliss in fellowship with him. This is why we must make our calling and election sure.

3. Our Sufficiency

Paul ends his letter, saying, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you” (v. 22). What is our sufficiency? The Lord and his grace. Demas may abandon us. Our friends and fellow believers may forget us and forsake us out of fear. Alexander the metalworker, like Judas, may betray us, and Nero, like Pilate, may condemn the innocent. But the Lord who was condemned to the death of the cross is raised from the dead to reign with all authority. He is with us. He promised, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the ages.” He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is our good shepherd, and so we lack nothing. “Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil, for the Lord is with us and his rod and his staff will comfort us.” Through all the trials, he will bring us to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

The Lord is with us by his Spirit, no matter where we are, whether in Ephesus, or in a dungeon in Rome, or in a hospital undergoing multiple operations, or facing our moment of death. Paul was saying, “Timothy, do not worry, the Lord will be with your spirit.” This was the great prayer, as Chrysostom says. In other words, Paul was saying, “The Lord will be with your spirit as you sleep, as you wake, and as you travel. The Lord who is with me in this dungeon will be with you, not far away from you. He will be with you to comfort you, to guide you, to empower you, to rescue you from every evil attack, and to bring you to heaven when your work on earth is done.”

Then he says, “The grace of the Lord will be with you.” This greeting was written to Timothy and to all the saints. Paul was greeting all the saints in Ephesus and everywhere else through that scripture. The Lord is the one who builds his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

“Grace be with you all.” God’s grace is not empty words. We need grace, and grace is all that we need. It is the grace of the Lord who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. We have been set free from our fear of death by his death on the cross for us.

Without the Lord and his grace, we can do nothing to please God. But we can do all things through him who gives us strength. He gives grace to the humble, and his grace is ever sufficient.

Elsewhere Paul writes, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8). There is no guarantee that God will give us a lot of money. But he will give us grace and make us strong. So Paul wrote in another place, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen” (Phil. 4:23). The Lord is with us, and his grace is with us; thus, we are more than conquerors.

Consider God’s wonderful promises to us through the prophet Isaiah: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you.” We need the Lord to help us. “I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. . . . For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, ‘Do not fear; I will help you.’” Pretty soon we are going to fear. The doctor is going to say we have cancer. And we trust in God and remember this: Do not fear; I am with you. “‘Do not fear; I will help you. Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you,’ declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel” (Isa. 41:10, 13–14).

We also read, “But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. . . . Do not be afraid, for I am with you” (Isa. 43:1–5). We can trust God, for he cannot lie. Let God be true and all men liars.

Peter says, “The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet. 5:10–11).

We have spoken the word of God to you. Through me, God is calling you effectually today. Therefore, get rid of all hindrances, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will help you and save you. May the Lord comfort and strengthen you with his words of grace this Lord’s Day, the words of Paul, which are his last words to Christ’s holy church.

[1] William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, Word Biblical Commentary series (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2000), 601.