for Demas has forsaken me, having loved the present age, and is gone to Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
Paul writes as a prisoner, listing the men who are no longer at his side. Only one name carries a reason: Demas left because of what he loved.
Demas appears earlier in Paul's letters, and the three mentions together tell their own story.
The apostle mentions Demas three times. In Colossians he writes, "Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you." In Philemon he calls him, along with Mark, Aristarchus and Luke, a "fellow worker." In 2 Timothy he has to say, "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world" (age). Nothing can be sadder than this closing notice of one who had been linked with such a vessel of testimony as the apostle Paul. The final break with Paul may have been sudden, but we can be sure he had been in a backslidden state of soul long before.
The same writer looks at what lay behind the break.
This is how the Lord deals with His people. If they have grown cold, and have turned away in heart from His ways, He allows them to be tested sooner or later, so that their real state shows. This was the case with Demas. His heart had long been on the present age, and Paul's imprisonment, with the resulting "afflictions of the gospel," was simply the occasion when it showed. A time of persecution is always a time of searching.
The verse says "this present world," but the word behind it is "age." One writer explains what that word covers.
The "age," as distinguished from the world, generally has a moral meaning. It expresses the sum of the influences at work around us in the world at any given moment. These influences are exactly what endangers God's people. So many, like Demas, give way to them and "make shipwreck" of their testimony. It is for this very reason that the apostle writes, "Do not be conformed to this age."
Another writer points to a word Paul left out, and to how ordinary the drift looked.
Note this: Paul did not say, "this present evil world," as in Galatians 1:4, but this present world. We do not accuse him of anything outrageous. We do not even suppose he stopped breaking bread, but sadly he was out of true fellowship with the Spirit of God. He settled down quietly into the course of things down here. He largely gave up the good fight of faith, and after this we hear no more of him. Demas went to Thessalonica, and then silence falls. We do not doubt that he went to heaven, but what about earth? Now is our only chance of witnessing for Christ.
The verse says Demas deserted Paul. One writer weighs what that does and does not mean.
It does not say that Demas had forsaken Christ. But he could not go on with such a devoted representative of Christ and keep in with the present world at the same time. He had to give up one or the other. Sadly, he forsook Paul and chose the world.
Paul names three men who have gone. Only one of them gets a motive.
The two latter, Crescens and Titus, had gone; but they had not, like Demas, forsaken Paul. They had no doubt gone on the Lord's service. But Demas had grown cold, giving way to the influences of the age. He no longer cared to be a "partaker of the afflictions of the gospel," or to stand with God's vessel of testimony, now a poor despised prisoner. Under some excuse or other, he abandoned the apostle and went to Thessalonica. He loved this present age. What an epitaph!
One writer says nothing is easier than this drift, and names when it presses hardest.
Nothing is easier than to be like Demas, who forsook Paul, "having loved the present age." As a Christian, Demas would not love evil, but he loved the age and wanted to get more fully in touch with it. But whether for Demas or for us, this means going back to what the gospel called us out of. If we have any leaning that way, we may be sure the devil will make sure we get plenty of chances to return... These occasions often come with special force in middle life.
Another writer sets the crown Paul waited for against the choice Demas made.
The "crown of righteousness" was laid up for the apostle. But he could say it was for "all who have loved His appearing." Do we love Christ's appearing, or this present world?
- Loved. Demas loved the present age, and that love decided everything that followed.
- Cooled. The break looked sudden, but the state behind it was long-standing. Paul's imprisonment brought it into the light.
- Chose. Demas could not keep both Paul and the world, so he gave up the man — though the verse stops short of saying he gave up Christ.
- Contrasted. Crescens and Titus also left, but on service; only one departure gets a motive attached to it.
- Warned. The same love reaches us in ordinary form: settling down quietly into life here. The test is whether we love His appearing instead.
Luke alone is with me. Take Mark, and bring [him] with thyself, for he is serviceable to me for ministry.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.