ALEXANDER THE COPPERSMITH : A NASTY PIECE OF GOODS
Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will requite him for his deeds (2 Timothy 4:14).
My guess would be that you have not heard many sermons on the above text. A first glance might suggest that it is unfruitful ground for edifying Christian ministry. The verse though is as much a part of the Word of God as John 3:16.
Humanly speaking, 2 Timothy 4:14 was written by the Apostle Paul to Timothy, a young, Christian pastor. They are among Paul’s last recorded words, and were written from a Roman prison cell, as he approached his impending execution. Paul had been found guilty of loving and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. We also know however that ‘All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching …’ (2 Timothy 3:16). And God the Holy Spirit has ensured that this verse was both written and preserved for our enlightenment. The verse teaches us much about God Himself, our human condition and, by implication, the attitudes and behaviours God requires from His children. ‘The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man’ (Shorter Catechism).
- Alexander’s Action
‘Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm …’ A certain Alexander then – a man who was a metal worker by trade – took it upon himself to bring a great deal of hurt and harm upon God’s Apostle Paul. The nature of this harm is unspecified. It could have been physical. It could have been psychological. It could have been by what he organised. It could have been by what he could have done but did not do to make Paul’s life easier … Whatever he did, it left Paul wounded in some way. Paul warned Timothy ‘Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message’ (2 Timothy 4:15).
The message of the gospel – that we are sinners who need to be saved – is a blow to human pride. ‘The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot’ (Romans 8:7). Alexander is part of an unholy succession who, not liking the message, seek to attack the messenger. It is a well known ploy of Satan. Slandering the messengers of the gospel is one way in which unbelievers may seek to justify their unbelief and manifest their opposition to the gospel itself.
‘Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm …’ Our fallen human nature is such that, sadly, we all have the potential to harm one another: Cain murdered Abel (Genesis 4). Shimei cursed David and threw stones at him (2 Samuel 16:5,6). Jeremiah was cast into an empty cistern (Jeremiah 38:6). The citizens of Nazareth attempted to throw the Lord Jesus over a cliff (Luke 4:29), and the apostle Paul was left damaged by Alexander the coppersmith.
God moves in a mysterious way …
The fact that God’s people do suffer harm – even as they go about doing God’s appointed will – brings us face to face with the mysterious nature of some of God’s providential dealings with us. That God does not always shield His children from earthly harm is a fact of Scripture, history and experience. Ultimately, the earthly harm that comes to us can be traced beyond all secondary causes, back to the good hand of God Himself. His providence is all-embracing – ‘for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things’ (Romans 11:36). The Westminster Confession reminds us:-
God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass…
But then gives the important caveat:-
Yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures …
John Calvin allegedly used to say that even the devil is God’s devil! Whilst stating that Christians are not exempt from harm and abuse though, we have to confess our ignorance as to why God permits this to happen in any specific case. God is God. He states ‘My ways are higher than your ways’ (Isaiah 55:9). A confession of ignorance here is a sign of spiritual intelligence! We have to say ‘Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been understood’ (1 Corinthians 13:12). What we do not know though should not detract us from what we do know. For all Christians may take the stance of faith and affirm with Romans 8:28 ‘We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.’
‘Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm …’ Note Alexander’s action. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. If we belong to Jesus we are sure to come across those who oppose us, seek to harm us and even cause us actual harm. ‘Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse …’ (2 Timothy 3:12,13). If such has the effect of drawing us closer to God, – to prayerfully seek His grace, wisdom and help – they are unlikely sources of blessing from heaven.
- The Apostle’s Reaction
How do we act and react against those who leave us damaged? The world says ‘Don’t get mad, get even.’ This though was not the reaction of the Apostle Paul – and this is not to be the reaction of every born-again believer. Paul, you will note, simply handed Alexander and what he had done over to God. Quoting Scripture he said ‘the Lord will requite him for his deeds.’ The Apostle here is actually practicing what he preached, for he had previously written ‘Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the |Lord’’ (Romans 12:19). Paul is telling us here that taking vengeance on those who harm us is God’s prerogative, not ours, and that it is infinitely better to hand our enemies over to the One Who is infinite in wisdom, knowledge, mercy and justice, than to seek to make amends ourselves.
In stating that ‘the Lord will requite him for his deeds’ Paul was not uttering an imprecation – a desire that God would take vengeance on his behalf – as some Psalms do. Psalm 7:6, for instance, reads ‘Arise, O LORD, in Thy anger, lift Thyself up against the fury of my enemies; awake, O my God; Thou hast appointed a judgment.’ Rather, Paul was just uttering a logical and theological fact based on what He knew of the righteous character of the God whom he loved. Paul did not pray ‘May the Lord repay’ but made the affirmation ‘the Lord will repay.’ Paul could assert and affirm this as, steeped in Scripture as he was, he was well aware of the infinitely righteous character of the God he loved and worshipped: ‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?’ (Genesis 18:25). ‘The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He’ (Deuteronomy 32:4).
The infinite righteousness of the divine character is such that He can only react to unrighteousness and mete out His justice. Hence Paul’s calm confidence that his God would deal with Alexander in His own way, and deal with him aright. Paul had written some years earlier ‘Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap’ (Galatians 6:7):-
If God is a moral governor; if sin is a reality; those who know themselves to be on God’s side cannot help a feeling of joy in knowing that evil will not always triumph over good (NJB White, 1974).
A Gospel to Embrace
Paul’s reaction to the buffeting he received from his enemies was a Scriptural one. It is written of the God of the Bible ‘Thou dost requite a man according to his work’ (Psalm 62:12). That God will do this is, paradoxically, most comforting – as we have considered – and also most disturbing. It is disturbing because we are all sinners and – to quote another Psalm – ‘If Thou, O LORD, shouldst mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?’ (Psalm 130:3). The answer to the Psalmist’s question here is: ‘None of us,’ for by nature ‘None is righteous, no, not one’ (Romans 3:10). We would all be condemned to a lost eternity if God should indeed ‘requite us for our deeds’ …
The Christian however has no fear of divine condemnation, for the gospel affirms ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1). On the cross, Christ Himself died in our place and was Himself ‘requited for our deeds’ – or rather, our ‘misdeeds’ – in our room and stead, so that God’s justice might be satisfied, and we might be spared God’s wrath. When our misdeeds come and haunt us, how grateful we are for the redeeming work of Christ and His imputed righteousness. When we consider the certainly of God’s judgment, bound up as it is with His just character, how grateful we are that there is a gospel of divine grace – a gospel of justification:-
Justification is an act of God’s free grace wherein He pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone (Shorter Catechism).
A Glory to Expect
‘Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm …’ This fallen world is full of harm. The good news is though that, according to the Bible, it will not always be so. In God’s time, redemption will be cosmic as well as personal. When Jesus comes again to bring in His eternal kingdom, thorns and thistles will be eradicated – ‘Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle’ (Isaiah 55:13), and nature will no longer be ‘red in tooth and claw’, for ‘The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid …’ (Isaiah 11:6), and God’s redeemed people, living on His redeemed earth, being forever free from indwelling sin, will fully, finally and forever lose the capacity to hurt and harm each other. The Bible tells us so: ‘They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea’ (Isaiah 11:9). Truly then, the hurts and harms of this life notwithstanding, if we belong to Jesus ‘the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us’ (Romans 8:18).
Timothy Cross
