He reminds Timothy of a fact well known to him already, that he had suffered from a melancholy desertion of friends.

I. THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF HIS LOSS. "All who are in Asia turned away from me."

1. As to its nature. It was not a repudiation of Christianity. It was a desertion of the apostle himself, either through fear of persecution, or through a repudiation of his catholic ideas on behalf of the Gentiles. The Christian Jews seem everywhere to have forsaken him. In one of his prison-letters he can only name two or three Jews who were a comfort to him in the gospel (Colossians 4:11).

2. As to its extent. The Asiatic desertion may have probably taken place in Rome itself, probably at a time when his life, and that of all Christians, was threatened by Nero; probably at the time referred to in the end of this Epistle, when he could say, "No man stood by me; all men forsook me." Those who would identify themselves with the apostle of the Gentiles at such a time would probably be Gentiles rather than Jews. Thus the number of the deserters might not be great. If the desertion took place in Asia Minor, it would only suggest a widespread falling away from the aged prisoner at Rome, but not from the gospel. The apostle singles out two persons quite unknown to us - "Phygelus and Hermogenes" - as the ringleaders of this movement. The fact that so few names are mentioned tends to reduce the extent of the sad misfortune.

II. THE EFFECT OF THIS DESERTION. The apostle does not dwell upon it, but rather dismisses the deserters in a single sentence. Yet:

1. It would be a severe trial to the faith of the aged apostle in his dying days. The desertion of friends is always a sore trial, but when the friendship is cemented by religion, its intensity is peculiarly enhanced.

2. The apostle refers to it with the view of stimulating Timothy to still greater courage in the cause of the gospel. - T.C.

For Paul doth complain against it, and sets it down as a sin to be abandoned of all men (John 6:66; 1 Timothy 1:19; 1 Timothy 5:11, 12). For in so doing we dishonour God; yea, no way more. For will not profane men judge that there is no profit or comfort in serving the Almighty when such forsake their profession? For thus they will reason: if that religion had been good, they and they would never have cast it off. Again, we weaken, as much as in us lies, the Church of Christ; for cut off a member, will not the body be the less powerful? And it gives the devil and his instruments the more encouragement. What? and may such cedars shake, totter, and fall? Then let the weak willows and poplar take heed of the wind. For blessed is he whom other men's harms do make to beware. And it shall not be amiss here to lay down some causes of falling away. And they be either, first, inward, or, secondly, outward. The inward be four especially.

1. Weakness. Thus many have fallen of infirmity.

2. Some affection not mortified. For one such a Jonah in the ship will unsettle all.

3. Infidelity. When men want faith, they are unstable in all their ways.

4. Want of experience of that secret comfort which the Lord enfuseth into the hearts of such as stand resolutely for His truth in an evil time.The outward causes are principally these:

1. Persecution. This hath turned millions backward, who in the days of peace had their faces to Sion-ward.

2. Some wrongs or injuries.

3. Scandal, or offences taken at some doctrine. "From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him" (John 6:66).

4. The example of great men. Doth any of the rulers or pharisees believe in Him? This is a cord that pulleth thousands from the true path and rule (John 7:48).

5. When men have expected great promotion, but seeing their hopes frustrate, they turn aside. This is a great loadstone to draw an iron heart from the path to heaven.

6. Too much familiarity with men unsettled in the truth. Fearfully have some fallen by this stumbling-block. These be some of the main causes, both inward and outward, that have moved many to become back sliders. So that he that will go on constantly and with resolution must have an eye to all these things.

(J. Barlow, D. D.)

What is sweeter than a well-tuned lute, and what more delightful than a faithful friend — one who can cheer us in sorrow with wise and affectionate discourse? Nothing, however, is sooner untuned than a lute, and nothing is more fickle than human friendship. The tone of the one changes with the weather, that of the other with fortune. With a clear sky, a bright sun, and a gentle breeze, you will have friends in plenty; but let fortune frown and the firmament be overcast, and then your friends will prove like the strings of the lute, of which you will tighten ten before yea will find one that will bear the tension and keep the pitch.

(Christian Age.)

The flounder is an ill-looking, dark-coloured, flat fish, which creeps close along the bottom, and frequents, for the most part, banks of mad, from which it is almost indistinguishable. Mr. Agassiz has experimented upon young flounders and their power of changing colour. Placing them upon blackish tiles, they quickly turned mud-colour; moved thence to the "sand" tiles, only a few minutes elapsed before their leaden skins had paled to dull, yellowish white; transferred to the mimic "sea-weeds," in less than five minutes a greenish hue overspread their skins, which would have served well in their native element to keep them unobserved against a mass of algae.

(H. O. Mackey.)

Without constancy there is neither love, friendship, nor virtue in the world.

(Addison.)

(1 Timothy 1:20; 2 Timothy 2:17): — For the devil in all things seeks to imitate the Lord. If God have a Moses and an Aaron, he will have a Jannes and a Jambres. If Christ send out His true disciples by two and by two, Antichrist will do the like. We read of Joshua and Caleb, and of Sanballat and Tobiah: of Paul and Timothy, and of Philetus and Alexander. Because one will toll on and tempt another; for sin uniteth sinners, as grace doth the godly; and by couples they seem to be the less faulty, the more able to defend their false cause. Learn we hence to rise by couples; turn we and allure others to return. For woe to him that is alone when two strong men oppose him or a true cause.

(J. Barlow, D. D.)

Christians, Eunice, Hermogenes, Lois, Onesiphorus, Paul, Phygellus, Timotheus, TimothyAsia, Ephesus, RomeAsia, Aware, Christians, Deserted, Fact, Hast, Hermogenes, Hermog'enes, Including, News, Phygellus, Phygelus, Phy'gelus, Roman, Turn1. Paul's love to Timothy, and unfeigned confidence in Timothy himself, his mother, and grandmother.
6. He is exhorted to stir up the gift of God which was in him;
8. to be steadfast and patient in persecution;
13. and to persist in the form and truth of that doctrine which he had learned of him.
15. Phygellus and Hermogenes, and such like, are noted, and Onesiphorus is highly commended.

2 Timothy 1:15

     8841   unfaithfulness, to people

The Form of Sound Words
The Apostle most earnestly admonished Timothy to "hold fast the form of sound words which he had heard of him in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." I do not suppose that by this it is intended that Paul ever wrote out for Timothy a list of doctrines; or that he gave him a small abstract of divinity, to which he desired him to subscribe his name, as the articles of the church over which he was made a pastor. If so, doubtless the document would have been preserved and enrolled in the canons …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856

Christianity
WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? WHAT is Christianity? The question seems a belated one. It never was more pertinent than now. Its pertinency rests upon two facts. First: the modern drift in Christianity and its absolute failure. Second: the phenomenal triumph of primitive Christianity. The modern drift is antagonistic to doctrine and repudiates the miraculous. It sets aside the virgin birth, has no toleration for atonement by sacrificial death, and positively refuses to accept the bodily resurrection of our …
I. M. Haldeman—Christ, Christianity and the Bible

The Seventh Word from the Cross
While all the words of dying persons are full of interest, there is special importance attached to the last of them. This is the Last Word of Jesus; and both for this reason and for others it claims particular attention. A noted Englishman is recorded to have said, when on his deathbed, to a nephew, "Come near and see how a Christian can die." Whether or not that was a wise saying, certainly to learn how to die is one of the most indispensable acquirements of mortals; and nowhere can it be learnt …
James Stalker—The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ

In Death and after Death
A sadder picture could scarcely be drawn than that of the dying Rabbi Jochanan ben Saccai, that "light of Israel" immediately before and after the destruction of the Temple, and for two years the president of the Sanhedrim. We read in the Talmud (Ber. 28 b) that, when his disciples came to see him on his death-bed, he burst into tears. To their astonished inquiry why he, "the light of Israel, the right pillar of the Temple, and its mighty hammer," betrayed such signs of fear, he replied: "If I were …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Abaelard had Defined Faith as an Opinion or Estimate: Bernard Refutes This.
Abaelard had defined faith as an opinion or estimate: Bernard refutes this. 9. It is no wonder if a man who is careless of what he says should, when rushing into the mysteries of the Faith, so irreverently assail and tear asunder the hidden treasures of godliness, since he has neither piety nor faith in his notions about the piety of faith. For instance, on the very threshold of his theology (I should rather say his stultology) he defines faith as private judgment; as though in these mysteries it …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Perseverance Proved.
2. I REMARK, that God is able to preserve and keep the true saints from apostacy, in consistency with their liberty: 2 Tim. i. 12: "For the which cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." Here the apostle expresses the fullest confidence in the ability of Christ to keep him: and indeed, as has been said, it is most manifest that the apostles expected …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

Elucidations.
(Dinocrates, cap. ii. p. 701.) The avidity with which the Latin controversial writers seize upon this fanciful passage, (which, in fact, is subversive of their whole doctrine about Purgatory, as is the text from the Maccabees) makes emphatic the utter absence from the early Fathers of any reference to such a dogma; which, had it existed, must have appeared in every reference to the State of the Dead, and in every account of the discipline of penitents. Arbp. Usher [9011] ingeniously turns the tables …
Tertullian—The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas

Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity Paul's Care and Prayer for the Church.
Text: Ephesians 3, 13-21. 13. Wherefore I ask that ye may not faint at my tribulations for you, which are your glory. 14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 and that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be strong …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

"And this is his Commandment, that we Should Believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ, and Love one Another. "
1 John iii. 23.--"And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another." It is a common doctrine often declared unto you, that the most part of those who hear the gospel do run, in their pretended course to heaven, either upon a rock of dashing discouragement, or the sands of sinking presumption. These are in all men's mouths; and no question they are very dangerous, so hazardous, as many fools make shipwreck either of the faith, or a good …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Discerning Prayer.
INTRODUCTORY. BY D.W. WHITTLE. To recognize God's existence is to necessitate prayer to Him, by all intelligent creatures, or, a consciously living in sin and under condemnation of conscience, because they do not pray to Him. It would be horrible to admit the existence of a Supreme Being, with power and wisdom to create, and believe that the creatures he thought of consequence and importance enough to bring into existence, are not of enough consequence for him to pay any attention to in the troubles …
Various—The Wonders of Prayer

Assurance
Q-xxxvi: WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS WHICH FLOW FROM SANCTIFICATION? A: Assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end. The first benefit flowing from sanctification is assurance of God's love. 'Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.' 2 Pet 1:10. Sanctification is the seed, assurance is the flower which grows out of it: assurance is a consequent of sanctification. The saints of old had it. We know that we know …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Communion of Saints.
"The Saints on earth, and those above, But one communion make; Joined to their Lord in bonds of love, All of His grace partake." The history of the extension of the Church of Christ from one land to another, and of the successive victories won by the Cross over heathen races from age to age, gives by itself a very imperfect idea of the meaning of the words "The Holy Catholic Church." Because, with the outward extension of the Church, its influence upon the inner man needs always to be considered. …
Edward Burbidge—The Kingdom of Heaven; What is it?

Concerning God's Purpose
1. God's purpose is the cause of salvation. THE third and last thing in the text, which I shall but briefly glance at, is the ground and origin of our effectual calling, in these words, "according to his purpose" (Eph. i. 11). Anselm renders it, According to his good will. Peter Martyr reads it, According to His decree. This purpose, or decree of God, is the fountainhead of our spiritual blessings. It is the impulsive cause of our vocation, justification, glorification. It is the highest link in …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

The Secret Walk with God (I. ).
Pastor, for the round of toil See the toiling soul is fed; Shut the chamber, light the oil, Break and eat the Spirit's bread; Life to others would'st thou bring? Live thyself upon thy King. Let me explain in this first sentence that when in these pages I address "my Younger Brethren," I mean brethren in the Christian Ministry in the Church of England. Let me limit my reference still further, by premising that very much of what I say will be said as to brethren who have lately taken holy Orders, …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren

Predestination and Calling
Eternal Father, who shall look Into thy secret will? None but the Lamb shall take the book, And open every seal. None but he shall ever unroll that sacred record and read it to the assembled world. How then am I to know whether I am predestinated by God unto eternal life or not? It is a question in which my eternal interests are involved; am I among that unhappy number who shall be left to live in sin and reap the due reward of their iniquity; or do I belong to that goodly company, who albeit that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

Twelfth Day for the Spirit to Convince the World of Sin
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Spirit to convince the World of Sin "I will send the Comforter to you. And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin."--JOHN xvi. 7, 8. God's one desire, the one object of Christ's being manifested, is to take away sin. The first work of the Spirit on the world is conviction of sin. Without that, no deep or abiding revival, no powerful conversion. Pray for it, that the gospel may be preached in such power of the Spirit, that men may see that they have …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Pastor in Parish (I. ).
Master, to the flock I speed, In Thy presence, in Thy name; Show me how to guide, to feed, How aright to cheer and blame; With me knock at every door; Enter with me, I implore. We have talked together about the young Clergyman's secret life, and private life, and his life in (so to speak) non-clerical intercourse with others, and now lastly of his life as it stands related to his immediate leader in the Ministry. In this latter topic we have already touched the great matter which comes now at …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren

"That which was from the Beginning, which we have Heard, which we have Seen with Our Eyes, which we have Looked Upon, and Our Hands Have
1 John i. 1.--"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life." It is the great qualification of a disciple, or hearer, to be attentive and docile, to be capable of teaching, and to apply the mind seriously to it. It is much to get the ear of a man. If his ear be gotten, his mind is the more easily gained. Therefore, those who professed eloquence, and studied to persuade men to any …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Now the End of the Commandment," &C.
1 Tim. i. 5.--"Now the end of the commandment," &c. We come now, as was proposed, to observe, Thirdly,(474) That faith unfeigned is the only thing which gives the answer of a good conscience towards God. Conscience, in general, is nothing else but a practical knowledge of the rule a man should walk by, and of himself in reference to that rule. It is the laying down a man's state, and condition, and actions beside the rule of God's word, or the principles of nature's light. It is the chief piece …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Prefatory Scripture Passages.
To the Law and to the Testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them.-- Isa. viii. 20. Thus saith the Lord; Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.--Jer. vi. 16. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

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