Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you,and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. - Philemon 1: 23-24 (ESV)
Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. - 2Timothy 4: 9-10 (ESV)
There is a certain level of religious arrogance and spiritual apathy today that are leading many people astray. Breeding a lazy entitlement Christianity that costs us nothing and reinforces cheapness. The grace of God being treated so cheaply as to be regarded in relative contempt. People sticking their chest out in self righteous pride about who they think they are in Christ. Like the barren fig tree however it is all leaves and no fruit. Following liars and hustlers straight into hell. The Bible commands us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling not arrogance and apathy. Fear of the Lord however is simply not taught anymore because it has been deemed seeker unfriendly. Greasy grace preachers will actually mock the idea of needing to have a healthy fear of the Lord. What does the Bible teach us about thinking we got it all together?
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. - 1Corithians 10: 1-12 (ESV)
The last verse is the crucial one. We have far too many Christians who think they are standing but have fallen and cannot tell the difference anymore. I provided the entire context here because it is crucial. God is actually explaining to us through the Apostle Paul, why He included some of the historical narratives in the Old Testament! We are not supposed to read them, turn them into Veggie Tales, and then never apply them to our lives! They are provided for our benefit! To learn from! Examples of how those who followed God fell away over and over again. There is nothing new under the sun beloved. We are falling away just as often and often, not even realizing it ourselves. Thinking we are standing is the arrogance I speak of. This attitude that we have it all together and we do not need any guidance. We do not need any correction. We are simply unteachable. Oh not me preacher! It will never happen to me! For us today I present the case of Demas, whose story appears in our key verses.
The first set of verses is when Paul writes the letter of Philemon in approximately 62 AD. As he concludes he references five fellow workers. These must have been important people to Paul for him to mention them. These were not casual followers of the fledgling Christianity. The second set of verses however are from Paul's second letter to Timothy, which was penned approximately in 66 AD. In this letter it seems that things have radically changed regarding Demas. Now he has fallen prey to the temporal world. He appears to have abandoned Paul; deserted him. We know that God does not waste a letter in His Word so these two instances cannot be happenstance. Outside of a non consequential mention in Colossians, these are the only two references to this man named Demas.
What do these scant verses teach us? That we better take heed if we find ourselves so arrogantly thinking we are standing firm. That our salvation does need to be worked out with fear and trembling. We do not know exactly what happened between 62 and 66 AD but we do know that someone who was such an ardent follower of Christ that he worked with the Apostle Paul managed to fall completely away. What a sad testimony. And what is the presented reason? He was in love with this present world. There is still nothing new under the sun beloved. We too can fall victim of this if we are not careful. When you look out across Christendom and see the plethora of false teachings leading people astray the single element running through them is worldliness on some level. The prosperity heresy teaches a love of the material things of this world. The greasy grace heresy teaches free reign in this world to do as we please. The false prophetic paradigm enamors people with carnal signs and lying wonders instead of the supernatural move of God. Even the heretical bridal paradigm reduces our spiritual relationship with Christ to a worldly sexual affair.
The spiritual apathy merely reinforces the false teaching. People do not want to do the work of a Berean. Instead, they line up to defend the false. You can present them with Scripture all day long and it simply will not matter. The broad road is the comfortable road. The narrow path takes work to walk. We need to take heed not only if we fall but if we have already fallen. This is not a game. Few find the narrow gate. In under four years Demas went from being a hero of the faith to completely falling away and back into the world system. I think his name appears in these two sets of verses to teach us to be very careful regarding our salvation. Be very careful with our flirtatious nature with the world that hates us and the devil who wants to destroy us. We must not put Christ to the test and learn the lessons God has so graciously included in the Bible for us. We must disrobe our arrogance and put on humility. We must mature past our inclination towards apathy and work our salvation out. I do not want to end up like a footnote. I do not want to end up like Demas.
Rev. Anthony.
