SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/9/2025 9:27 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Demas, The Unfaithful Deserter”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Tim. 4:10a
Message of the verses: “For Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica;”
I begin to look at a man called Demas who was at one time a friend of the Apostle Paul, but no Paul is warning Timothy about this man, and in this partial verse you can read the story of Demas, a man who fell in love with the world, and it seems fell out of love with the Lord Jesus Christ.
So Paul goes from writing about Timothy, the most faithful to the most unfaithful. MacArthur writes “It is possible that Demas in some way had been valuable to Paul and to the ministry in Rome and that the apostle wanted Timothy to come soon in order to pick up the work that Demas had abandoned.”
Let us look at Colossians 4:12-14 “12 Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. 13 For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis. 14 Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings, and also Demas.” We can see that in this letter that Paul did not say anything bad about Demas, so something had to have changed from this letter that Paul writes to the Colossians and this last letter that Paul will write to Timothy. I think that knowing what is known about Paul in the Word of God that he had to have spent much time teaching Demas and so that is why we can see that Paul is upset and very hurt about what happened to him.
John MacArthur writes: “At that time any friend of Paul, especially a co-worker, risked sharing persecution and prison with him. As the risk increased, Demas’s resolve decreased, because he loved this present world more than he loved the Lord, the Lord’s people, or the Lord’s work. He may not have been a true believer at all. ‘If anyone loves the world,’ John says, ‘the love of the Father is not in him’ (1 John 2:15). Demas’s heart may have been a rocky place, covered by just enough soil to superficially accept the seed of the gospel but not enough to bring full salvation. When the heart of the world’s ‘affliction or persecution’ became too fierce, he withered and fell away (Matt. 13:5-6, 20-21). Or perhaps his heart was thorn infested; and when ‘the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches [chocked] the word,…it [proved to be] unfruitful’ (Matt. 13:7, 22). His reaction to the deprivations faced in his physical life eventually exposed the depravation of his spiritual life.”
I guess the truth is that we really don’t know if Demas was a believer or not but from what Paul wrote we certainly can suspect that he may never really trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior at all. So in any case, his cowardice was greater than his commitment, and he deserted Paul. MacArthur states “Deserted is from enkataleipo, a strong verb that means to utterly abandon and leave someone helpless in a dire situation. Perhaps the sacrifice of many comforts, including the probable loss of his own freedom, became too high a price for Demas. He was a fair-weather disciple, who had never considered the cost of genuine commitment to Christ. He may have been caught up emotionally with the idea of a noble cause, which he did his part to serve when the demands were not great. But when the cause became costly, he was nowhere to be found.”
I realize that the cost of being a follower of Jesus Christ is high and even though at this time living in the USA and having a President who respects and indorses being a true believer, things can change and I often pray that if the time came when I had to give up my life for the cause of Christ that the Holy Spirit would fill me with His power so that I would not be like a Demas.
MacArthur concludes “His reason for fleeing to Thessalonica is not given, but he must have considered it to be safe haven. Perhaps that was his home (see Philem. 4), in which case he may not have been known there as a Christian, or believers there were not yet persecuted. He may have renounced Christ altogether and rejoined the world. Whatever the case, he brought great disappointment and anguish to Paul.”
Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today: I desire to be strong in the Lord and serve Him in a way that will bring honor to Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord will keep me on the right path, and strengthened me to live for His glory and honor.
8/9/2025 10:01 AM
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