| Geneva Study Bible Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry. People's New Testament 4:11 Only Luke is with me. Of my traveling companions. The old friend is faithful to the last. For more of Luke, see topic 9154. Take Mark, and bring him with thee. John Mark, so well known. He seems to have been at this date at Ephesus. For more of Mark, see topic 9153. Wesley's Notes 4:11 Only Luke - Of my fellowlabourers, is with me - But God is with me; and it is enough. Take Mark - Who, though he once departed from the work, is now again profitable to me. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 11. Take-Greek, "take up" on thy journey (Ac 20:13, 14). John Mark was probably in, or near, Colosse, as in the Epistle to the Colossians (Col 4:10), written two years before this, he is mentioned as about to visit them. Timothy was now absent from Ephesus and somewhere in the interior of Asia Minor; hence he would be sure to fall in with Mark on his journey. he is profitable to me for the ministry-Mark had been under a cloud for having forsaken Paul at a critical moment in his missionary tour with Barnabas (Ac 15:37-40; 13:5, 13). Timothy had subsequently occupied the same post in relation to Paul as Mark once held. Hence Paul, appropriately here, wipes out the past censure by high praise of Mark and guards against Timothy's making self-complacent comparisons between himself and Mark, as though he were superior to the latter (compare Phm 24). Demas apostatizes. Mark returns to the right way, and is no longer unprofitable, but is profitable for the Gospel ministry (Phm 11). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 4:9-13 The love of this world, is often the cause of turning back from the truths and ways of Jesus Christ. Paul was guided by Divine inspiration, yet he would have his books. As long as we live, we must still learn. The apostles did not neglect human means, in seeking the necessaries of life, or their own instruction. Let us thank the Divine goodness in having given us so many writings of wise and pious men in all ages; and let us seek that by reading them our profiting may appear to all. | 
