There is something very encouraging here. Have you ever made some kind of a blunder in that little meeting where you come from? Have you ever made a mess of things? Have you ever been humiliated in the midst of your brethren? Take courage. Here is a man who has done the same thing. His name was Mark. He started out to serve the Lord, and he became weak-kneed. He got homesick and turned back. That was a sad thing. He certainly missed the mind of the Lord in that. At the time the Apostle Paul was very much disappointed in him and did not have much confidence in him. He had turned his back on the work of Christ. Isn’t it nice to find the Apostle Paul here, near the close of his life, telling the Colossians that Mark was coming and, if he came, to receive him. In a later epistle he says, “He is profitable to me for the ministry.” Mark recovered himself, or perhaps I should say, the Lord recovered Mark. Because he had made a colossal failure, that was no sign that the Lord was through with him.
I remember saying to a brother a good many years ago, “How is it that we never hear your voice in any addresses to the young folks or any ministry?” “Oh,” he said, “I tried it once and made such a miserable failure, that I made up my mind I would never try again.” I sought to encourage him and tell him that because he failed once was no reason why he should always fail. That brother became one of our most valuable and esteemed brothers — one of our most able brothers. We do not need to think that God is through with us because we have failed. Paul did not hold against Mark his past failures.