Article: The Demas Lesson

II Timothy 4:17“For Demas has forsaken me having loved this present world.”
There is a very powerful lesson to consider from these few words. A powerfully convicting one for each one of us individually and for the professing church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The most important aspect is to examine ourselves very carefully and see if we are a “Demas”. Paul here says that Demas had forsaken him. Probably, the way was too hard, the path too difficult. The first reference to Demas is in Colossians 4:14, here it appears that Demas is laboring together with Paul, but at some point the temptation of the world drew Demas away. Demas was drawn away from the narrow way. He must have missed the comforts of this world. He went not to the work of the Lord.

When I considered this passage I asked myself, am I a Demas? Have I slowly, with the passage of time in almost imperceptible way, become a Demas without really realizing it?

It is so easy to do to slowly be deceived by our own flesh and not realize that we have become a Demas. Has our faith that hungering and thirsting for righteousness? Has it slowly waned without our fully realizing it? Have we become comfortable in the comforts of this world?

The scriptures give us some clear warnings of the dangers of this world. Let us consider in Luke 9:57-62. Here a certain man makes a profession, “Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.” The Lord warns him that if he follows Him the way will be difficult; he may not have a comfortable house to live in; he may have no place to lay his head. He said to another follow me. Christ affirms here that no earthly obligation compares with doing the will of God. Jesus puts it very bluntly, “Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God”. Set all aside to follow him. There is no higher calling than to preach the kingdom of God.:

Another said I will follow thee but he had to go home first to bid them farewell at his home. Jesus responds, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Here is the heart of Demas. He looked back. He saw the way was too difficult that he might lose all earthly possessions and maybe even his own life. He probably remembered his past comforts and turned back in his heart and forsook the Lord. How much have we looked back and forsook the Lord in our hearts. In Luke 17:32, we have a verse with three words, but such powerful words. Words of warning, they cry out to us “Remember Lot’s wife.” She also turned back. She loved the pleasures of Sodom that wicked city, and judgment fell upon her. In a moment she was turned into a pillar of salt. The pleasures of Sodom had turned her heart from the Lord God. She had forsaken Him for this present world.

How much have we waned since our profession of faith? How much has the passage of time caused us to slowly leave our first love? (Revelation 2: 4-5)

Maybe we have become cold and indifferent to our redeemer who paid such a high price to purchase our redemption. Can we truly say as Paul said to the Corinthian Church, “ye are our epistle written in our hearts known and read of all men?” What do men read in us, as the famous puritan preacher Thomas Watson put it, “Surely, were there no other Bible read but the lives of some professors, we should read but little scripture there.” As the Lord Jesus said if the salt lose its saltiness it is good for nothing.

We need to remember Paul’s words to Timothy in I Timothy 6:11-12, “But thou, O man of God, flee these things; (worldly lusts) and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” And in II Timothy 2:4, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath called him to be a soldier.”

Let us remember the words of our Lord in Matthew 10:38-39, “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”

Let us examine ourselves to see if we have deviated from the narrow path that our Lord Jesus exhorts us to walk in. The Apostle Paul chose that narrow way. He put all aside for Christ, that he might win that crown of righteousness. He sold all for that pearl of great price. We ought to follow in his steps and flee from the way of Demas, who forsook that narrow path having loved this present world. The temptations of this world are like bubble, they seem bright and pretty for a short while but very quickly evaporate.Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt Hebrews 11:25-26. Do we esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches, are we willing to be reproached for his name sake. We should not be ashamed to associate our name with the name of Jesus Christ if we truly call Him our redeemer and Lord. Luke 9:25-26 “For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angel’s.

Demas was ashamed to associate himself with the Lord Jesus Christ; he loved the treasures in Egypt more than the reproach of Christ. This present world is the symbolical Egypt or Sodom for us as believers today. We can learn from the examples of the people of faith of old, but we can also learn from the Demas’s, they are our warning we are not follow their example but instead the example of faith, without faith it is impossible to please God. As Hebrews 11:6 states, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” To conclude let us be the followers of the man of faith of old, and of the men of faith today, for the Lord will preserve a remnant who will walk in true faith, and will not bow their knees to Baal. Heb 10:39 says, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”