So long, now. Keep loving Jesus.

“The Lord be with your spirit.”

(2 Timothy 4:19-22)

19 Greet Prisca and Aquila,

Aquila was a native of Pontus, near the Black Sea, a Jew, who with his wife Prisca had been forced out of Rome through the edict of Emperor Claudius. During Paul's time in Corinth, he had met this fruitful couple. They were of the same trade as Paul, tent-makers, but more important than that, they were brothers in Christ building the New Testament temple of the Lord, the kingdom of God on earth. They had a church that met in their house. Later they returned to Rome again.

Timothy was in Ephesus when he received these letters. See 1 Timothy 1:3. What this means is that this couple spent time in Rome, Corinth, and Ephesus serving the Lord and His church. Like Paul and Timothy, their lives were a good example of 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

and the household of Onesiphorus.

The same could be easily said about Onesiphorus. As Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1:16-18, “May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me—may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.”

20 Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. 21 Do your best to come before winter.

Erastus had traveled with Timothy in the past into Macedonia on gospel errands, sent on their way together with others by Paul. He was a city treasurer in Corinth. Trophimus was from the Roman province of Asia, today's eastern Turkey. He was with Paul in his travels back to Jerusalem that led to his arrest. Here we learn that he later became very ill and had to be left behind in Miletus, on the coast of Eastern Turkey.

These men were gospel family to Paul. They were fellow builders and warriors together with Him for the Lord's kingdom. Paul loved them, as he did also this son that he was writing to. He wanted them near. That's how we feel about beloved family members with which we have heavenly bonds. So he says, “Do your best to come to me before winter.”

Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.

We don't know anything about the others mentioned here let alone those that are simply called “brothers.” We know this: Christ gave Himself for them. So did Paul in his way.

22The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

There is much that is going on in this world. But Jesus is our constant, and our mission is the same as it was for this team of saints. We must follow the Lord, stay close to Him, and love one another as we serve the body of Christ wherever we may be. We know that the things that are seen are transient, but Christ and His heavenly kingdom, the things that are unseen, are eternal. The Lord be with your spirit wherever you go. Grace be with you.