2 Timothy 1

All in Asia turned away—Wesley: those who had attended Paul at Rome for a while. What, from Paul the aged, the faithful soldier, now prisoner of Christ! This was a glorious trial.

Turning away is a free act of people who had stood near the apostle. Names are given because desertion is not a theory. Grace received in Asia did not make apostolic loyalty automatic.

Paul tells Timothy what he already knows. Fair-weather companions left the chained apostle; Phygelus and Hermogenes are not anonymous.

God can use desertion as a trial that displays the gospel’s worth. The turning of many does not overturn the purpose and grace of vv. 9–10; it shows how much the Spirit of power is needed.

Mercy is asked for the household of Onesiphorus as well as himself. He often refreshed Paul—Wesley: both at Ephesus and Rome—and was not ashamed of the chains.

Application: refreshing the prisoner is love that refuses shame. Mercy for a household is sought in prayer, not presumed as a family entitlement. Kindness to Christ’s servant is a path along which God is pleased to show mercy.

May the Lord grant mercy. Calvin: good offices done to the saints are not thrown away, even though they cannot recompense them. Not ashamed of the chain is liberality and zeal: he exposed himself to danger and reproach to assist Paul.

God remembers mercy shown to His imprisoned servant. The prayer is itself a teaching: the Lord is the one who grants mercy; Onesiphorus’s courage is not a wage that binds God, yet it is not forgotten.

He arrived in Rome, searched earnestly, and found him. This is unashamed love with feet.

In practice: earnest search is the opposite of Asia’s turning away. Grace that produces such seeking is to be imitated; it is not a private badge of a closed list.

Earnest searching in Rome is the proof of the zeal Calvin named. Finding Paul was costly; the sentence runs on into the prayer of v. 18.

God often uses a determined friend as the means of refreshment. The very Lord who guards the deposit (v. 12) sent a man who would look until he found the prisoner.

The Lord grant to him to find the Lord’s mercy in that day. The same “that day” as v. 12. Service at Ephesus is already known to Timothy.

Mercy on that day is still asked, not treated as an already-locked verdict Timothy need not pray about. Onesiphorus’s service is no illusion; the mercy is the Lord’s to grant. Prayer for that day is fitting for a faith that must be kept until the appearing.

Calvin: he who has been merciful to his neighbors will receive such mercy from God to himself. The prayer infers that God is not unrighteous to forget labor of love.

“That day” is the same horizon as v. 12, when God guards what is entrusted. Asking mercy for Onesiphorus is how the church speaks when it knows the Judge is also the Savior—the Lord who grants what He has pledged to those who belong to Christ.