2 Timothy 4:9-11,13-18 NASB
Make every effort to come to me soon; [10] for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. [11] Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service. [13] When you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments. [14] Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. [15] Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching. [16] At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. [17] But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. [18] The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
The word “rescue” that Paul uses in verse 18 literally means “to deliver.” Paul proclaims very confidently that the Lord would rescue him or deliver him from every evil deed, and yet this very chapter speaks about evil deeds by others that hurt Paul. He said in verse 11 that Alexander’s deeds did him much harm, and then he talks about the fact that at his first trial before the Romans no one supported him but instead, everyone deserted him.
I think about Paul’s account in 2 Corinthians 11 of all the things that happened. He talked about imprisonments, how he was beaten times without number, often in danger of death, scourged by the Jews five different times and was three times beaten with rods, stoned one time etc. etc. These all sound like evil deeds to me and yet Paul said that he was confident God would deliver him from EVERY evil deed. Obviously, Paul was not saying that bad things wouldn’t happen to him even by the actions of other people. Instead he was trusting that God would deliver Him, that is his inner man, from being touched by the evil deeds. No matter what you might be going through, the number one priority shouldn’t be for God to deliver you from the situation, though that might be on the prayer list for sure; but the number one priority should be that God would deliver you in the situation from evil deeds touching your soul. The prayer that you want to pray first and foremost is that when you come up out of this wilderness you will be found leaning on your beloved and, and as a result will have been transformed substantially into the image of Christ. What God delivers us from physically in this physical world is always just temporary, but what God does in us spiritually through times of testing will last for an eternity. An example of what I’m talking about is the fact that Paul did not seem to have any bitterness or anger towards Alexander even though Alexander did him much harm. He left Alexander in the hands of the Lord for the Lord to deal him, and when all of his friends and disciples abandoned him at his first trial Paul was not angry with them. Instead, he prayed that God would not hold it against them. God delivered Paul from the evil deeds like bitterness and resentment that the enemy wanted to slime Paul with. The evil deeds and the attacks of the enemy only touched Paul’s outer man for Paul knew the truth that even though our outer man is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day, for these momentary light afflictions are producing in us an eternal weight of glory.
Many of you know that Olivia and I are in a battle for her health every day on a number of fronts, and the external environment is therefore ripe with intense responsibilities and the spiritual warfare that the enemy rides in on. I pray continuously, as Olivia does, for her healing, but at the top of her prayer list for herself and the top of my prayer list for me is that God would deliver us both from evil deeds. We both want to come out of this place not just healed physically but more importantly transformed internally. In the book of Daniel three Jewish men were bound up and thrown into the furnace and the furnace was turned up seven times. Instead of burning up they fellowshipped with Christ who was in the midst of the furnace with them. When they came out all the things that had bound them had burned off, and there was not even the smell of smoke on them. This is what Olivia and I are praying for in our own lives. We want to come out of this furnace having been set free from things we might have been bound to before, without even the smell of smoke on us, with our testimony being that during the most intense heat the Fellowship of Jesus was the most real thing we experienced. Be blessed.