For some reason, I have been really troubled by why Paul spoke so highly of Timothy as a son to him while having no place for John Mark in his ministry. It has been a painful blessing of honest self-examination.[1]
Here’s what stands out as the difference between the two men:
|
John Mark |
Timothy |
|
Now Barnabas wanted to take
with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to
take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone
with them to the work. (Acts 15:37-38) |
For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel. (Phil 2:20-22) |
The differences are summarized like this:
|
John Mark |
Timothy |
|
·
one
who had withdrawn from them ·
and
had not gone with them to the work |
·
genuinely
concerned for the church ·
seeks
the interests of Jesus Christ ·
served
with servants of the gospel |
John Mark had withdrawn from some obvious work of God and would not go with genuine leaders into the ministry of the gospel and the care of the churches.[2] In Paul’s mind, this disqualified him from participating in the ministry to the churches that was about to begin. There was nothing malicious in this on Paul’s part, only a concern that the care of the churches was too serious a matter to entrust it to someone who might walk away again and not finish the work.
On the other hand, Timothy was just as concerned for the wellbeing of the churches as Paul was, seeking Jesus’ interests for the church, and serving with those who were preaching the good news and caring for the churches. He wasn’t of greater worth than John Mark, but Paul could trust Timothy to be faithful in expressing an agapè-love ministry to the churches, always seeking God’s best for everyone.
It was right at this point in typing these things out that I realized I hadn’t saved my sharing yet, so that meant coming up with a file name. The above suggestion of, “the realness of being useful,” suddenly uncovered junk that needed help. No surprise there. The older I get the more not-yet-like-Jesus-stuff seems to get uncovered as God’s unrelenting work of making me like Jesus requires the Beatitudinal Journey EVERY… SINGLE… DAY![3]
I understand that our worth to God is not in our usefulness, but in our identity as his beloved children. He who initially created us in his own image and likeness,[4] had his love set upon us even before that creation.[5] He wants us to know that we are “beloved children”[6] by our identity, not as something we earn by being good.
However, we cannot escape that living worthy of our new identity in Christ means being useful to everyone.[7] We are saved by grace through faith without works, sure enough, but we are also God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.[8] That means being useful in what we do even though being useful is not what gives us our worth. We have a place in God’s kingdom and in the body of Christ that is our unique distinction to connect the people in our lives to the one true God.[9]
We are useful to the lost because we can tell them the good news of great joy that there is a Savior, who is Christ the Lord![10] We are useful to people living in darkness because we have found the great light and have become the light of the world![11]
We are useful to people who are blind to the glory of Jesus Christ because “we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth,”[12] and Jesus will use the word and our testimonies to open the eyes of those who have never seen these wonders.
We are useful to the hurting because we know the one who heals the brokenhearted and binds up our wounds.[13] We are useful to the weary and burdened because we are ourselves yoked to Jesus Christ for the good of our souls and know how to lead others into that same life of faith.[14]
Each believer in Jesus Christ has a distinctive usefulness based on our spiritual gifts, the local church we are part of (all the believers in our community), and the particular group of people we meet with for daily and weekly fellowship. We will meet people on any given day who may have no other child of God to seek their highest good, to pray for them, to be ready for divine appointments, and to always express the agapè-love that wants God’s best for them.
Even where a number of believers have input to someone’s life, each person has a distinctive usefulness based on their experiences of God’s grace and their gifting to do ministry.
Which brings me back to John-Mark. Whatever his reason for abandoning Paul and the others, that is not the end of his story. Years later, Paul would commend him to the church at Colossae as one of his “fellow workers” who had been a comfort to him.[15] To his friend, Philemon, Paul sent greetings from a number of men, including Mark as one of his “fellow workers”.[16]
And then we find this treasure of grace as Paul unites John Mark with Timothy. He writes Timothy and asks him to “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.”[17] Paul was not saying that Mark suddenly had worth to him, but that Mark had matured sufficiently that Paul now knew he could be trusted to do what was best for the churches without falling away for whatever self-centered reason hindered him in the past.
Every believer in Jesus Christ has a story. One person matures faster than another. Some people have weak faith and need extra care. Leaders must meet qualifications because not everyone is mature enough to lead God’s people. Even the first deacons (servants of the church) had to be “full of the Spirit and wisdom” because handling the finances involved in distributing food to the widows of the early church required spiritual maturity more than financial experience.[18]
My point is that those who are already mature enough to care for the interests of Christ in his church should get busy doing so and those who have failed to walk in these things should make every effort to grow up. Timothies should spend time with Paul’s who can mentor them in ministry. John Marks should spend time with Barnabases who can encourage them and help them grow up.
And, when we can’t find such people to help
and mentor us in real time, God has given us a Book filled with witnesses of
faith who will help us all to mature in our Savior and run the race of faith
with perseverance. Let us all let the word of Christ dwell in us richly and he
will work through his word, and through his church, to transform us daily from
one degree of glory to another so that our unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace helps everyone grow up in Christ.
© 2021 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
[1] I understand that
there is a kind of self-examination that is a horrible and depressing world of
wrong beliefs and judgments about ourselves based on a history of negative messages
from people who have hurt us. However, I am speaking here about the good kind
of self-examination spoken of in God’s word where Paul says, “Examine
yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not
realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you
fail to meet the test!” (II Corinthians 13:5). Not only can we test
ourselves in the fullest way to see if we are really in the faith at all, but
we can also test specific thoughts, beliefs and feelings that come up to see if
they are in the way of faith or in the way of flesh (sark).
[2] Acts 13:13
[3] The Beatitudinal Journey
is that described by Jesus in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12. God will often
show me my poverty of spirit about some aspect of Christlikeness, lead me to
mourn how poorly I am doing in that area of being like my Savior, and continue
the blessing of mourning until I reach a genuine experience of meekness that
knows I cannot fix anything wrong with me. That admission causes me to begin
hungering and thirsting after the righteousness of being like Jesus in the way
addressed (because I now know I can’t make it happen), but with the wonderful
promise of grace that hungering and thirsting after righteousness shall be
satisfied. This then leads me to greater maturity as a merciful person, greater
purity of heart as another blemish receives ministry from the Spirit, greater
desire and effort to be a peacemaker who leads others to have peace with God,
and a greater willingness to not only bear persecution, but to rejoice when
doing so.
[4] Genesis 1:26-27
[5] Ephesians 1:3-14 shows
how God settled our salvation before creation so that we know that salvation
was not an afterthought when God discovered his wonderful little children had
just cursed the world with their sin (see Genesis 3). God knew salvation’s plan
before he expressed creation’s plan.
[6] Ephesians 5:1-2
[7] The apostles make a
clear distinction between the worldly and sarky idea of getting our worth from
what we do and the reality of the work of Christ in which we live worthy of the
grace-by-faith experience of our new life in Christ. See Ephesians 4:1-3;
Philippians 1:27; Colossians 1:9-14; I Thessalonians 2:12; II Thessalonians
1:11-12
[8] Ephesians 2:8-10
[9] Paul makes much of the
distinctive place of each believer as a member of the body of Christ (I
Corinthians 12:1-31). And all believers are to live out their distinctive place
as “a kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6; Revelation 1:6; 6:10).
[10] Luke 2:10-11
[11] Matthew 4:12-17;
Matthew 5:14-16; Ephesians 5:18; Philippians 2:14-16; I Thessalonians 5:5
[12] John 1:14
[13] Psalm 147:3
[14] Matthew 11:28-30
[15] Colossians 4:10-11
[16] Philemon 1:23-24
[17] II Timothy 4:11
[18] Acts 6:1-7
