2 Timothy 4:11 - Exposition

Useful for profitable, A.V.; ministering for the ministry, A.V. Luke ; probably a shortened form of Lucanus. Luke was with St. Paul in his voyage to Rome ( Acts 27:1 ; Acts 28:11 , Acts 28:16 ), and when he wrote the Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon ( Colossians 4:14 ; Philemon 1:4 ), having doubtless composed the Acts of the Apostles during St. Paul's two years' imprisonment ( Acts 28:30 ). How he spent his time between that date and the mention of him here as still with St. Paul, we have no knowledge. But it looks as if he may have been in close personal attendance upon him all the time. if he had been permitted to write a supplement to the Acts, perhaps the repeated "we" would have shown this. Take Mark. Mark had apparently been recently reconciled to St. Paul when he wrote Colossians 4:10 , and was with him when he wrote Philemon 1:24 . We know nothing more of him till we learn from this passage that he was with or near to Timothy, and likely to accompany him to Rome in his last visit to St. Paul. He is mentioned again in 1 Peter 5:13 , as being with St. Peter at Babylon. The expression, "take" ( ἀναλαβών ), seems to imply that Timothy was to pick him up on the way, as the word is used in Acts 20:13 , Acts 20:14 ; and, though less certainly, in Acts 23:31 . He is useful to me, etc. ( εὔχρηστος ); as Acts 2:21 (where see note). This testimony to Mark's ministerial usefulness, at a time when his faithfulness and courage would be put to a severe test, is very satisfactory. For ministering ( εἰς διακονίαν ) . It may be doubted whether διακονία here means "the ministry," as in the A.V. and 1 Timothy 1:12 , or, as in the R.V., more generally "for ministering," i.e. for acting as an assistant to me in my apostolic labours. The words, "to me," favour the latter rendering. The sense would then be the same as that of the verb in Acts 19:22 , where we read that Timothy and Erastus "ministered unto him," i.e. to St. Paul, and that of ὑπηρέτης applied to Mark in Acts 13:5 .