Together Apart

Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 4:9-13

Demas left Paul because he had departed from the faith. Others left because they were serving the faith. Crescens went to Galata. Titus went to Dalmatia. Tychius had been sent to Ephesus. These all left Paul, just as Demas had, but their departure was for kingdom purposes. They were going where they were needed for ministry purposes.

Often we hear people described as someone “who is always there for me.” While that might be a commendable trait, we shouldn’t judge someone’s love or our relationship with them based on that standard. When we say something like that, we are making ourselves the center of all life. People “being there for us” becomes the way we determine whether or not they care about us.

Crescens, Titus, and Tychius weren’t there for Paul. They were in other places doing other things. Paul gives us no indication that he felt that they had let him down. On the contrary, his acknowledgment of where they were and what they were doing shows us that he wasn’t wanting them to feel any guilt about the situation.

We have to be careful not to make our relationships with people into chains that bind them to us and our physical proximity. God calls some to kingdom work away from us. When they leave it isn’t because they don’t love us, it is because they do love the Lord.

And for that, we should be grateful, even when we miss them.