When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas. ((2 Timothy 4:13))

How utterly forsaken the apostle was by his friends!²⁵ If he had no cloak of his own, couldn’t someone lend him one? Ten years before, the apostle was brought in chains along the Appian Way to Rome. Fifty miles before he reached Rome, members of the church came to meet him. When he came within twenty miles of the city, a still larger posse of the disciples came to escort him, so that the chained prisoner Paul went into Rome attended by all the believers in that city. But, ten years later, nobody comes to visit him. He is confined in prison, and they do not even know where he is, so Onesiphorus, when he comes to Rome, has to seek him out. People have so forgotten him and the church has so despised him that he is friendless. The Philippian church, ten years before, had made a collection for him when he was in prison. Now he is old, and no church remembers him. Poor soul, he served his God and worked himself down to poverty for the church’s sake, yet the church has forsaken him! Oh! how great must have been the anguish of the loving heart of Paul at such ingratitude.

What patience does this teach to those similarly situated! Has it fallen to your lot to be forsaken by friends? Were there other times when your name was the symbol of popularity? And has it come to this now, that you are forgotten as dead, out of mind? In your greatest trials do you find your fewest friends? Have those who once loved and respected you fallen asleep in Jesus? And have others turned out to be hypocritical and untrue? What are you to do now? You are to remember this case of the apostle. It is put here for your comfort. He had to pass through as deep waters as any that your are called to ford, yet remember he says, “But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength” (2 Tim. 4:17). So now, when people desert you, God will be your friend. This God is our God forever and ever—not in sunshiny weather only, but forever and ever. This God is your God in dark nights as well as in bright days. Go to him, spread your complaint before him. Murmur not. If Paul had to suffer desertion, you must not expect better usage. This is common to the saints. David had his Ahithophel, Christ his Judas, Paul his Demas, and can you expect to fare better than they? As you look at that old cloak, as it speaks of human ingratitude, be of good courage and wait on the Lord, for he will strengthen your heart.