TOPIC:“Demas the Deserter”
“For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica.”
Dr. Raymond Edman, past President of Wheaton College, used to make it a practice of giving a chapel talk by this title at least once a semester: “It's Always Too Soon To Quit.” I can well imagine how many students under the pressure of college life found this message to be extremely helpful to them. Such a word of encouragement should have been given to this man by the name of Demas.
If Peter is know as the denier, then Demas must be know as the deserter. Of Demas we know very little, but for the fact he was a Gentile Christian who was believed to have been converted to Christ in the church at Thessalonica. He is mentioned only three times in the entire Bible. He was a fellow worker of Paul (Philemon 24) at Rome and a fellow companion of Luke (Colossians 4:14). His name means “popular.”
Let us examine the life of this man Demas whom Alexander MacClaren, the famous preacher of the past, called “a faithless friend.”
To begin with, consider the DANGER of spiritual RETREAT. As Paul makes his final arrangements before his departure to Heaven, twice in verses 9 and 21 he urges Timothy to lose no time to come to him. Why? Because when Paul needed Demas most we read these sad words about him: “For Demas hath forsaken me” (v. 10). The NIV has it: “has deserted me.”
In Philemon 24 Paul writes of Demas as sharing fully in the work when he describes him as “Demas…my fellow worker.” But in Colossians 4:14 Paul writes these words: “And Demas.” Here in this gallery of Christians whom Paul has intimate knowledge of having worked with them, he has not one word of commendation, not one remark of any kind to say about Demas. Strange isn't it!
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