Be Careful!
Submitted by Steve Clark
August 14, 2025
Phm 24 Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.
Col 4:14 Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.
2Ti 4:10 For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
Spiritual defection occurs when someone abandons their church and the people that have been part of the fellowship and friendship for them. It’s a cycle that has been repeated over and over again, and it will continue to be this way until the Rapture occurs.
So what can we learn from Demas?
Backsliding can happen to you. It doesn’t happen just overnight. It starts gradually. It starts with a dwindling prayer life, lack of time in the Word, not participating in church or its activities, and then, missing church all together.
That’s why we must pay attention to the little things! Make sure you’re not making little concessions, little indulgences, or just plain choosing the world. We must be very careful because sin is a powerful force! It hardens and sears the heart, and then you are doing things that you wouldn’t normally do.
Demas was a great witness for Christ, and yet he defected to the world! And why? Because he loved it! Be careful lest you love it as well.
You could be a Spiritual Defector. Demas was with some amazing people! Philemon 1:23,24 Epaphras, Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas. On top of that—Paul!
Even with all these great influences around him, Demas had a sad ending. 2Tim 4:10—He “loved the world” and its ways and that is always dangerous ground.
1Jo 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Demas’ defecting to the world would not have been limited to just him either. Others would have been tempted to fall into sin just as he did.
Question: How does your testimony affect others? We have a responsibility. Others are watching everything we do. Others. There’s so much more to this that we can’t cover in this short devotion but here’s what it all come down to—we must stay close to God! Don’t listen to the wooing call of the world like Demas did. He was tempted to sin, and then he acted on it. Don’t let it happen to you. Be Careful!
Reflection—The trouble with many is that during trying times... they quit trying.
