Our dear friend Luke the physician and Demas greet you.
In the last few verses we have two people that wrote two of the Gospels-- Mark and Luke, and we have another person here Demas. With the benefit of hindsight, we can draw a contrast.
Paul said Demas was a fellow worker in the book of Philemon, but he later told Timothy that "For Demas deserted me, since he loved the present age, and he went to Thessalonica." 2 Timothy 4:10.
Can you hear the sadness in his voice?
Demas rejected being fellow-workers for the kingdom of God for something else. He rejected the praise of God for the praise of man. He rejected the eternal for the temporal.
Another thing to note is that everyone with Paul were not there because of pecuniary gain. They are there because they, like Moses, “persevered as though he could see the one who is invisible.” (Hebrews 11:27).
What happened with Demas? He loved this world. There was something about this world that is appealing to him.
1 John 2:15-16: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world.
The end-point of living this world is material possession, though Jesus said that one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Luke 12:15.
And when Jesus was going to depart the world, He did not promise his people the thrones of this world, or bags of money, or put them in his will or in his trusts, or landed property in their names.
He said he was going to prepare a place for them and he would come back to take them to be with him.
John 14:2-4: There are many dwelling places in my Father’s house. Otherwise, I would have told you, because I am going away to make ready a place for you. And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too. And you know the way where I am going.
The reward is Him. The desire MUST be to be with Him. Do you understand?
That you have the right spiritual orientation means things of this world dims in the presence of the surpassing glory of the knowledge of Christ in the world top come as the reward of following Him.
The devil dangled the glory of this world before Jesus (Matthew 4:8-10), but his spiritual orientation was to do the will of the Father (John 4:34).
We are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our soul, and our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31), but the love of the world is something else: all about boasting, comparing yourself with others.
It’s about measuring yourself based on this things of this world. But that is not the way christians think.
They do not think that their value is in the bank account.
They do not think that being christians is about earthly accolades.
They are not controlled by the need for the approval of men.
They do not try to compare with or strive towards Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s material possession levels.
They are cut from the same cloth as the spirit-focused legacy of Jesus Christ and the apostles, and they give priority to the faith once and for all entrusted to the saints (Jude 1:3).
They do not see anything to lust after in the riches of Solomon, the prestige of David, as they pursue being strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his power (Ephesians 6:10).
They count whatever things were gain to them in this world as dung so that they may gain christ and be found in Him not having their own righteousness derived from the law (Philippians 3:8-9).
But loving the world compels the redefinition of spirituality as based on earthly possession. And the world shames you to pressure you to conform to its priority, in mindset, in pursuit, and in motivation.
But we are told to not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2).
But we have sons of the devil as preachers, who preach that godliness is a way of making a profit (1 Timothy 6:5), who think about earthly things (Philippians 3:19); men who Jude told us has been prophesied about.
They are slick and smooth; they have the crowd; they are on TV. But one thing mark them: they think of earthly things.
Someone might say why don’t you preach your own things and let them preach their own thing?
James did not say that. James recognized the soul damage that those people can do, that is why he said that we should not all be teachers because we would be faced with the greater judgement (James 3:1).
Paul did not mince words when he said that Demas loved this world.
You cannot serve two masters is Jesus’ line in the sand (Matthew 6:24). You cannot is you cannot.
The false gospel that says Jesus wants to give you money so that you can bring people to the kingdom is the devil-wears-Prada situation, where evil is dressed in the garb of holiness.
Jesus said it best. He said Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves (Matthew 7:15).
Jesus said follow me, and not just that, but take your cross and follow me (Matthew 16:24-27). But these liars who preach the demonic teachings (1 Timothy 4:1) would call him a liar, that Christ has a life of bliss for you if you follow him.
What a joke!