October 07, 2026 | Be Connected
A Team of Influencers
Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:9-15(NIV)
9 Do your best to come to me quickly, 10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 12 I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
14 Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. 15 You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
Devotional
In a previous devotion (Week 33, Day 5) we looked at many of the people from this cast of characters. Today, let’s focus only on the two mentioned in verse 11. Their names are Luke and Mark.
Mark, otherwise known as John Mark, embarked with Paul on his first missionary journey. Mark had been present at his mom’s house in Jerusalem when Peter knocked on the door in the middle of the night after God miraculously delivered him from prison. This was during a time of severe persecution, when Herod put the Apostle James to death. Mark left Jerusalem with Barnabas and Paul to return to Antioch in Syria. From there, he departed with them on the first missionary journey.
Partway into the mission, John Mark left the team and returned to Jerusalem. We don’t know why. But his decision upset Paul so much that he refused to take Mark with him on the second missionary journey. This caused a rift between Paul and Barnabas, who was Mark’s cousin. As a result, Paul chose Silas to replace Barnabas and set off for the famed second missionary journey. Barnabas took John Mark and sailed for Cyprus on their own mission.
John Mark remained committed despite the tension. He wrote the Gospel of Mark.
The other noteworthy name in today’s passage is Luke. Yes, he wrote the Gospel of Luke, as well as the book of Acts.
As a doctor and a learned man, Luke joined Paul for parts of his second and third missionary journeys. In the book of Acts, the pronoun “we” often shows the times the author was with the missionary team. When Paul wrote a letter to the Colossians from house arrest in Rome, he said, “Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings” (Col. 4:14). And when Paul wrote another prison letter to Philemon in that same city of Colosse, he penned, “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers.” (Philemon 1:23).
Paul, Mark and Luke were responsible for sixteen of the twenty-six books of the New Testament. They helped shape Christianity as we know it. No wonder, as his execution was looming, Paul wrote, “Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.”
Who are you teamed with as you carry out God’s mission? Take time to thank God for them, and ask that they be commissioned and empowered to do everything the Lord desires for them to do.
