by Wilson Adams<\/p>\n
We don’t know much about Alexander the Coppersmith except his name, profession, and the harm he did to Paul. Did he at one time co-labor with Paul in teaching the gospel? Don’t know. Personal vendetta? Unsure. At the least, they knew each other and had a connection.<\/p>\n
Something went wrong because Paul said, “he did me much harm<\/em>” (II Timothy 4:14). Some translations render it “much evil.” There was clearly antagonistic evil coming from brother Alexander. Paul doesn’t spell out details, nor does he say some harm, but “much harm.”<\/p>\n He must have spread “much evil,” because Paul warns brethren to beware. Did he misrepresent Paul? Plant seeds of doubt? Work to destroy his reputation? Again, don’t know the specifics.<\/p>\n I’m guessing his “much harm” was not accidental. Did he possess an intimidating personality that swayed some? It happens. Sadly, his M.O. tactics have been around for a long time. Despite his bad behavior, Paul did not retaliate. Instead, he stood faith-strong and held to God’s protection (II Timothy 4:17-18). He was content to leave the coppersmith in God’s hands, which is exactly what we must do.<\/p>\n An inconvenient truth: people will hurt you, turn their backs on you, and purposefully seek to do “much harm.” Paul knew this quite well. To his credit, when he experienced betrayal and wounds, he left any semblance of retaliation to the only One capable of judging fairly. After all, that’s His job, not ours.<\/p>\n Got any Alexanders in your life? Go about your business, pray for them, and don’t fret over them. Instead, leave them in His hands.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Wilson Adams We don’t know much about Alexander the Coppersmith except his name, profession, and the harm he did to Paul. Did he at one time co-labor with Paul in teaching the gospel? Don’t know. Personal vendetta? Unsure. At the least, they knew each other and had a connection. Something went wrong because Paul…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[478],"class_list":["post-88256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-false-teachers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22142,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-were-hymenaeus-and-alexanders-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":88256,"position":0},"title":"What were Hymenaeus and Alexander’s sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What were Hymenaeus and Alexander's sin? Answer: \"This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51956,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-giving-a-warning-about-a-false-teacher-be-gossip\/","url_meta":{"origin":88256,"position":1},"title":"Can giving a warning about a false teacher be gossip?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was reading\u00a0an article written by someone on your website about the subject of gossip. Gossip was condemned by the person who wrote the article. But, what about if you're exposing a false teacher, whether they're well known by others or not? I believe that we should raise awareness\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58617,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/pauls-sons\/","url_meta":{"origin":88256,"position":2},"title":"Paul’s Sons","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Earl Robertson via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 8, No. 6, June 2008. The relationship of Timothy and Titus to Paul as sons is spiritual, legitimate, and true -- \"legitimately born, not spurious,\" says Thayer, pg. 119. They were true sons. Paul said Timothy was \"a true child in the faith,\" showing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31766,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-it-feel-as-if-im-going-through-an-intellectual-exercise-when-i-talk-about-the-bible-to-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":88256,"position":3},"title":"Why does it feel as if I’m going through an intellectual exercise when I talk about the Bible to others?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: As I study the Bible more and talk with people more about it, it seems like sometimes it becomes an intellectual exercise instead of my way of life. It definitely is my way of life; I feel like I'm living properly as far as I can tell, I do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2142,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-cant-judge-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":88256,"position":4},"title":"You can’t judge others!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I think you are guilty of this. With all humility, I come to you out of love so that you may stop preaching and standing with an iron fist as one who judges every individual. You cannot condemn people to hell or preach from the pulpit that so-and-so is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48927,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/didnt-jesus-die-for-our-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":88256,"position":5},"title":"Didn’t Jesus die for our sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This is hard to wrap my mind around for some reason, but didn't Jesus \"die for our sins?\" I thought that Jesus dying on the cross meant that all our sins were forgiven if we believe in him. Answer: It isn't a hard concept, but I can see the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}