DEMAS THE WORLD-LOVER

#061                                                           DEMAS THE WORLD-LOVER                                                                                  

Scripture  Philemon 24; Colossians 4:14; II Timothy 4:10 NIV                                               Orig. Date  12-31-61

                                                                                                                                                                       Rewr. Dates  1-6-88 

Passage:

Philemon 24, NIV

²⁴ And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers.

 

Colossians 4:14, NIV

¹⁴ Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.

 

2 Timothy 4:10, NIV

¹⁰ for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

Purpose: Showing that the best way to avoid straying from our faith is to continually re-examine it by the light of the way we are living.

Keywords:          Biography, Demas            Faith                      Worldliness                        Revival                  Faithlessness

Introduction

                I was a proud young man after completing my work at Louisiana College.  A significant time had come in my life.  Ann and I were already married.  We had a baby daughter named Fritha.  Soon I would begin my next level of preparation for the pastorate. 

                In my mind, at least, seminary would offer a different perspective of preparation.  There, so I thought, I would gain through the experiences of others.  My professors were to be graduate theologians.  Most had served pastorates.  Some had even taken advance studies in the finer theological schools of Europe.

                While I had been active in my home church after receiving Christ at age 16, I had reached the ripe age of 24, having left my home, and home town, and fellowship of believers to enter the military.  From there, I had gone to work in industry in Baton Rouge.  So, for six of those years prior to entering seminary, I had not had a close and uplifting experience with a pastoral role model.  Seminary would offer me that, or so I thought. 

                I now know that what I wanted was someone to lean on, someone who would serve as an occasional crutch.  But, as early as my first seminary class I discovered that there would be lots of competition.  There were 2,000 students at Southwestern, needing, more or less, someone to lean on.  And there were only about sixty faculty members.  And most of them felt that it was not in their students’ best interest for them to be leaning posts.

                I wonder if Demas looked at Paul, and Luke, and the others as someone to lean on.  I wonder if he held them in such reverence that he never found time to seek the Lord for the daily needs of his own life.  Paul had addressed this very issue with the Corinthians.  “Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in  the name of Paul?”  Demas may have missed that lecture.  What he needed, we need—a daily walk with our Lord.  Loving the world is the alternative.

I.             When First We Meet Demas, He is Called Co-Laborer.  Philemon 24 “Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow-laborers.”  Clearly, there were prior years of good effect.  We know nothing of his prior years, only that this is the first of three listings.  This is chosen as the first because the object of this letter, Onesimus, is mentioned in Colossians 4:9, “a faithful and beloved brother.”

                Knowing so little, we try to piece together a life.  I watch and read with interest the scenarios of paleontologists and archaeologists who take a bone, a bead, a tool, and attempt to build a culture. Law enforcement uses artists to draw  up likenesses from slender shreds of evidence of witnesses.

                We can conclude a few things.  Philemon, written from Rome, was written first, some suggest during an early imprisonment.  Perhaps Demas was enamored of this man Paul.  Remember, at first Paul “was in his own hired house” (Acts 28:30).

                It is possible that hardships were minimal. Demas was a piece of clay being molded, not yet experiencing the heat of the kiln:  As someone (Lockyer p91) says, “like a piece of soft iron, temporarily magnetized by the presence of a magnet.”

                It would not have been difficult for any of us to revere a man like Paul.  And too many of us have revered those who unlike Paul had “feet of clay.”

                Little can be said, therefore, about Demas’ conversion.  Some would conclude that Demas had not been converted, and would be quick to say so.  They fear, I suppose, that he would thus be an example of one who had “fallen from grace.”

                But we Baptists know the truth.  We know that one cannot fall “from” grace.  Hebrews 6:19, “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.”  But we know that the believer can fall “in” grace.  I Timothy 4:1, “Some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits.”

                It remains a sad commentary that some who walked the way of faith lost their zeal for the walk.  But for now, Demas is a coworker, along with Philemon (Philemon v1), Clement (Philippians 4:3), and Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25).

II.            When Next We Find Him, it is with a Cosmopolitan Spirit.  Colossians 4:14 “Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you.”  Imagine, being mentioned in the same breath with a great Christian like Luke.  Interestingly, like Demas, Luke is mentioned by name only three times—the same three passages.  What a remarkably significant difference in these two men. 

                Imagine, as well, having the opportunity to learn scripture from such men of knowledge and spirit.  According to the best information, Luke’s gospel had been written a year or two earlier: Gospel of Luke in 60 A.D., and Colossians in 61 A.D.  Perhaps it was already being circulated. 

                It should not escape our notice that Mark is also mentioned in these three passages.  And his gospel was written first.  Luke enlarged upon it.  I checked a couple of New Testaments: Mark and Luke comprise 80 pages, Paul’s writings 90 pages. The total in the New Testament is 360 pages.

                Demas is with three who wrote half the New Testament.

                No better place than this to digress.  How seriously do we take scripture?  How long has it been since we engaged in regular Bible study?  What will be our response three weeks from now when we study Malachi?  Have you read through the Bible? The New Testament?  Have you resolved to do better in 1988?  Whom do we choose as a role model? Paul? Demas?

                Here was an opportunity to learn scripture from a man likewise skilled in science.  I love science, do you?  I have a grasp of what it means to reconcile science to scripture.  Notice, I said “science to scripture.”  If we have to reconcile scripture to science, then what’s the use?  I owe science no apology for my faith.  If my faith means nothing, then science is nothing more than separate irresistible forces on collision course. 

                We still turn out to hear scientists who are also believers, believers who are scientists: Willie Ley at Louisiana College, George Schweitzer at Southwestern Seminary.

                And this particular scientist was “beloved.”  It was a word used of Jesus in Matthew 3:17.  It is used of believers: Romans 1:7, I Corinthians 4:14.  Will you be thus remembered?  One of the pluses of the pastorate is from people who do not forget. I had a letter from a Riverside church member in New Orleans, Bonnie Williamson, kindly expressing appreciation.  People have that kind of love for family doctors also.

                Brother Doctor Luke was easy to love.  Demas was working on becoming a world lover.

III.           Finally, We Find Only a Vapor Trail of Where He Has Been.  II Timothy 4:10, “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world and is departed unto Thessalonica.”  Perhaps as many as five years have passed.  At what point he left we do not know.  The spirit of his leaving seems to have been desertion.  Surely Paul would have yielded up this brother in pursuit of the will of God.

                We do know that circumstances have changed for Paul.  Clement of Rome (30 years later) says he was exiled.  Tradition affirms that he was released, but to what is conjecture.  Paul himself gives us a hint.  II Timothy 1:16f, “May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me; he was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched . . . and found me.” 

                Do you think Demas had become “ashamed” of “chains”?  Aischuno is the Greek word that means “shame,” or a feeling of “fear.”  “Chain,” or halusis, refers to a literal binding.  Are we ashamed of what we perceive as “chains” binding believers today?

                Thus, emerging from this Christian cocoon is a world-lover.  It does not suggest that he became worldly, only that he decided that being an outspoken Christian was dangerous.  He put his church letter in his trunk and took out for home, betraying Paul, but more important, denying  his Lord.

Conclusion

                The point of Demas’ life has nothing to do with falling from grace.  It has little to do with salvation.  It has everything to do with growing in our faith:  With sanctification if you please.  We must take care that Demas’ mistakes do not become our mistakes.  We should, and must, move in those circles that exemplify our Lord, and that ensure spiritual growth, not a kind of religious tedium that is revoltingly commonplace.