A Word in Season: When Trophimus Got Sick (2 Timothy 4:20)

Trophimus in Paul’s Ministry Team

You remember Trophimus, right? Trophimus the Asian? Trophimus the Ephesian? No? Probably not many Christians do. He doesn't get that many mentions in the course of the Bible. He's introduced to us as part of a group travelling with the Apostle Paul through Asia.

Sopata of Berea was with him, also Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus, and Trophima of Asia. He was one of those who went ahead and waited at Troas.

He comes again in Acts chapter 21 in verse 29, indirectly getting the Apostle Paul into some kind of trouble, because the Jews in the city had seen Trophimus the Ephesian with the Apostle as he went about, and they assumed that having seen him with Trophimus, that Paul had then brought him into the temple, and for a Gentile then to be in the temple grossly offended the Jews.

Trophimus Left Sick in Miletus

The third and the last time we hear of Trophimus is in 2 Timothy chapter 4, right at the end of the chapter, amongst a group of other faithful men and women. Greet Prisca and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus.

Erastus stayed in Corinth, but Trophimus I have left in Miletus sick. Do your utmost to come before winter. Eubulus greets you as well as Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers. So we don't know a great deal about Trophimus.

We know that he was an Ephesian, so an Asian, and we know that Paul had to leave him in Miletus when he became sick. Good for us then to remember that Christians also get sick. We live in a day when many wild claims are made about all kinds of healings and apostolic ministries, but even the Apostle Paul, who was second to none with regard to the signs of an apostle, had companions who fell sick and were not healed.

It's at least a hint about the kinds of gifts and the way that the Lord God was pleased to use them in his apostles that these men possessed. So Trophimus was left in Miletus sick. He did not receive any kind of miraculous healing, even though he traveled with the Apostle Paul.

There's no indication that Trophimus was left behind because he was in some way behind hand with regard to the companions that Paul had. No indication that he lacked enough faith, for example, to be made well.

Sickness as Part of Life in a Fallen World

Now some Christians down through the ages have been famously sick, or even infamously sick. Perhaps you know the litany, the catalogue of diseases that a man like John Calvin in Geneva suffered from. A couple of pages making him almost a walking medical textbook.

For Robert Murray McChain or Samuel Pearce it was tuberculosis. For Spurgeon it was gout, and he also suffered from depression. But Trophimus, Trophimus was just sick. We don't know what it was that afflicted him, we don't know for how long it lasted, we just know it was bad enough that he had to be left behind in Miletus.

We don't know what he did in Miletus, we don't know how long he stayed there, we don't know what kind of ministry he might have had, we're not told a great deal about his sickness or his recovery from it, or whether or not this was the occasion on which the Lord God called him home.

But it's good for us to remember that a man like Trophimus, otherwise unknown to Christian history as far as we can tell, that this man is not outside of the will of God any more than you or I are should we become sick.

This is not in itself for a Christian some kind of punishment from God, it's not an exposure of spiritual weakness, it's part of the normal course of life in a fallen world. And while we are laid aside, it's a reminder to us that we are still noticed by God, still beloved by the saints, and that there may even be work for us to do that is utterly unknown to the rest of the world.

Serving Christ Faithfully While Ill

Who knows how many people Trophimus told about the Lord Jesus Christ? Who knows whether or not he ministered to saints in Miletus in a way that stirred and encouraged their heart? Who knows whether or not his example was a blessing to them?

And the same could and should be true of us, unknown to the world at large but known to God. If we are left behind sick for a season, let's use that time to the best of our ability for the glory and honour of Jesus Christ.