⁹ Make every effort to come to me soon; ¹⁰ for Demas, having loved this present AGE, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. ¹¹ Only Luke is with me. Take along Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service. ¹² But I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. ¹³ When you come, BRING THE OVERCOAT which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially those parchments. ¹⁴ Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. ¹⁵ Be on guard against him yourself too, for he vigorously opposed our teaching. ¹⁶ At my first defence 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 through the ages.  Amen (2Tim4:9-18)

My text for today is 2Tim4:13 – “When you come, BRING THE OVERCOAT which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially those parchments”. On second thoughts, may be not. Paul’s writing here lacks depth and spiritual profundity. The point I’m playfully making is to demonstrate what I pointed out a few posts ago that Paul would not have regarded himself as composing Scripture. These are pastoral letters and need to be understood in that context.

Humanly speaking, some might wish that Paul (and all NT writers) had written a series of systematic theological treaties such as you would find in a catechism. They would be less open to wildly divergent interpretations. Better still if Jesus Himself had written a Book to be passed on to the Church through the ages. If either were the case I may well have remained a supporter of “Sola Scriptura”, believing also in the related Protestant maxim regarding “the perspicuity of Scripture” – the idea that that the essentials of what the bible was imparting would be understood by everyone. If such had been God’s strategy rather than the bible in the form it has taken, whilst there might still have been heretics and misdemeanours amongst those who regarded themselves as Christian, the Church herself is more likely to have remained one united body through the centuries.

God’s final mystery [cf. Rev10:7]

But that was never God’s purpose or intention, any more than it was that the world should be devoid of sin, evil and suffering (cf. Rom8:20). In terms of the Church, God is bound to have known (as to an extent did Peter in 2Pet3:16) that Paul’s writings in particular were likely to be misunderstood by many and result in division amongst God’s people.

And so history has proven, especially through the influence of Augustine and a certain German Augustinian monk a thousand years later, both of whom construed their theology, anthropology and presentation of the gospel through the prism of their own innovative interpretations of the Apostle to the Gentiles’ writings. As to the mystery of why strategically God appeared to facilitate such divisions within the Church and disasters in the world (cf. Is45:7), it has been made very clear to me and I endeavour to explain the Rationale in the final two chapters (6 &7) of “The Little Book of Providence”.

World/Age/Earth

The only other point of relevance to the project in hand that I can make from these concluding remarks of Paul concerns his reference to Demas as having “loved this present age”, or as it more usually translated “world” (e.g. NASB). The Greek  “αἰών”   is strictly “age” not “world”, but that’s fine providing it is understood in the sense of κόσμος  (world order and its moral state) not  γῆ  (planet earth). God’s good earth is to be loved and cared for – those who most contribute to its ruin have been warned of the consequences (Rev11:18).

The Lord Jesus Christ, on the other hand shall bring an end to “Κόσμος” (the current world order) when He comes with His saints to initiate a new “αἰών”. At that point Christ together with those who have been fitted for the role (Rom8:29)  are to reign within “a new heaven and renewed earth where righteousness dwells” (2Pet3:13; cf. Rev5:10).

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