Poor Paul. Over and over again he had coworkers abandon him in the ministry. We see it in several letters and even in the historical record of the book of Acts.
Here he speaks of the only three Jewish believers who were still sticking with him. Aristarchus, who was in jail with him, John Mark, and Justus stood by his side. In other letters it is a different list.
It is easy to be critical, but if we stop and think about practicality it is also easy to understand what they were going through. If we get all high and mighty we can talk about them being a bunch of quitters and their lack of faith and how they weren’t made enough to stick it out. We can say ‘all you had to be was to be faithful.’
But sometimes we have to recognise that the ministry is tough. It is hard to be critical. Sadly we have seen a lot of people come to Ireland with the conviction that this was where God wanted them.
But this can be a hard place to serve the Lord. We don’t see a lot of ‘results.’ People make decisions and then fade away. We have the lowest percentage of Evangelical Christians of any English speaking country in the world.
Lets not forget that there are very real factors that God uses to direct us out of a ministry. Let’s pray for those who struggle to ‘not lose heart.’
However, those who do stay and keep plugging away, are a source of great comfort.
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