2 Timothy 4:9-10

Paul urged Timothy to join him in Rome soon. He did not expect to live much longer (cf. 2 Timothy 4:6).

"The constitutional method of inflicting capital punishment on a Roman citizen was by the lictor’s axe. The criminal was tied to a stake; cruelly scourged with the rods, and then beheaded." [Note: W. J. Conybeare and J. S. Howson, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, p. 781, footnote 4.]

Demas, a short form of Demetrius (cf. 3 John 1:12, probably not the same man), Paul’s fellow worker, had succumbed to the allurements of the world (instead of loving Christ’s appearing; cf. Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 1:21; 1 Timothy 4:8; Titus 2:12; 1 John 2:15). He had departed from Paul and had gone to live in Thessalonica (cf. Colossians 4:14; Philemon 1:24). He, like Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Timothy 2:17), Alexander (1 Timothy 1:20), and others had not continued to follow Christ faithfully.

"He was not willing to pay the price of hardship and suffering that Paul was paying." [Note: Earle, "2 Timothy," p. 414.]

Crescens had gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia (i.e., Illyricum, modern Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina) presumably in the Lord’s service.

"Tradition says that he [Crescens] went north from Rome into Gaul, founded the churches in Vienne [sic] and Mayence near Lyons . . ., and became the bishop of Chalcedon . . ." [Note: Mounce, p. 590.]