Sometimes the people closest to us are struggling with the enticements of the world and jump ship. It’s hard; it’s grueling; it’s heartbreaking. This is all the more reason to keep a close eye on ourselves.

Demas was one of the Apostle Paul’s fellow workers. Paul mentions Demas in his final greeting to the Colossian church and to Philemon. By every indication, Demas was working alongside Paul in his gospel ministry.

Then things took a turn.

In 2 Timothy 4:10, the Apostle Paul gives a heartbreaking update on Demas. “For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica…” (italics mine).

This is not a situation where Demas decided he’d be better off on a different missionary journey. Demas didn’t decide he’s better of as a Presbyterian than a Baptist. Further, he didn’t have a mere disagreement with the Apostle Paul and had to go a separate way. Demas—”in love with this present world”—jumped ship. He abandoned the faith. He was done. He’d had enough. Demas was so enticed by the temporary pleasures of this world—whatever it was in his case—that he decided it was worth pursuing against following the Lord.¹

John Piper wrote,

We don’t know [why Demas left]. Here’s what we know: Demas didn’t leave out of love for Jesus, but out of love for the world. That’s why everybody leaves. He didn’t leave to follow Jesus. He left Jesus to embrace the world, the pleasures of the world, the entertainments of the world, the kickback of the world, the praise of the world, the friends of the world. Some of your partners in ministry will do that.

Is this perhaps not a warning for us all? Each day we are met with the allurements of the culture, the enticements of the world, the temptations of society. And if we seek to follow Christ in a world that hates Christ—if we strive to live godly in an ungodly world—then we have to turn our back to the world. We cannot love the world and God (1 John 2:15).

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