Five Guys - Demas

Tom Shrader explores the tragic account of Demas, Paul's fellow worker who deserted the apostle because he "loved this present world." Drawing from 2 Timothy 4:10, Tom warns that even those closest to ministry can be pulled away by worldly temptations. He offers six practical lessons for maintaining faithfulness, including the importance of community, preparing for adversity, and keeping an eternal perspective in a world that constantly competes for our affections.

“You may be flying along like Demas, traveling with the apostle, knocking it out of the park - that doesn't mean that you're guaranteed that you'll finish the course and keep the faith.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Standalone Teachings

Recorded: 2014

Duration: 41 min

Themes: faithfulness, worldliness, temptation, perseverance, community, apostasy, eternal perspective, discipleship, ministry worker, struggling with worldly desires, mentor, pastor, facing adversity, young adult, new believer, feeling spiritually dry

Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:10, Colossians 4:14, Philemon 1:24, 1 John 2:15-16, James 4:4, Genesis 3, Matthew 13:7, Matthew 13:22, 2 Timothy 2:3-6, 2 Timothy 2:4, 1 Timothy 6:6-7, Acts 15

Theological Themes: sanctification, spiritual warfare, biblical character study, apostolic ministry, pastoral epistles, falling away, christian maturity, eschatology

Full Transcript

I am number three in the Five Guys series, so it is exactly what the title says. Five different guys highlighting and commenting on the life of five biblical characters. I didn't ask that, I made that assumption that it was people from the scripture. It seemed obvious when Tim first came to me to say, "I'd love to have you do one of these." I said, anytime I can teach, I love it, so I appreciate that opportunity.

I wasn't sure what character to do, and Tim said, "I know you did a series on Joseph, I know you did a series on Daniel. You could kind of condense that and do it." I thought, yeah, I could, but I want to do something where I'm starting from scratch.

Choosing an Unexpected Character

I had two characters in mind, and they're not the obvious ones. Chuck Swindoll has a series of biographies out, they're great, he's such a great writer. But I found the order: David, Esther, Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Paul, Job, and Jesus. I didn't pick any of those. I had two guys who for a long time have kind of interested me, partially because we don't know much about them.

One, and this is not the one I chose, is Enoch. Enoch is a very special biblical character. What do we know about Enoch? He walked with God. That's about what we know, and I thought, well, that would be an interesting study.

But then there's a second guy who has intrigued me from the first time that I read about him, and he was the guy that I chose. There's not much information about him in the scripture, but I think there's a strong takeaway. So that's what I want to do today, is look at this fellow, understand the setting and the circumstances around him, and then draw six lessons, six things that you can take away from today and apply to your life.

The Three Biblical References to Demas

We find him mentioned three times in the New Testament. Here are the first two references. They're from the Book of Colossians chapter four, and the second is from Philemon chapter one, verse 24. Both are pretty standard to Paul's writing. In both cases, he has some of the guys around him that he's included in the conclusion of the letter.

From this, we see him mentioned there. He's coupled with Luke in Colossians chapter four, and then he's identified as "my fellow worker."

Demas: Paul's Fellow Worker

Here you go. Demas, as far as I can tell, I've got four points here that we can get from him. Number one, he was Paul's fellow worker. Some of the translations will say co-laborer. It's a strong word. Literally, the word implies two people that work closely together, partners, sharing work. There's even a suggestion of equality in the relationship. So they're fellow workers.

Paul travels with Demas, or Demas with Paul. During Paul's first imprisonment, dates are around 60, 61 A.D., Demas is present with Paul. Now, that doesn't mean prison, a little bit of a different setting there. He was under house arrest. So there's some who could come and go, and he could take visitors, but Demas is one of the ones that stayed with him. He was the recipient of a heavy investment of Paul's time, energy, effort, I presume money that was spent on him as well. So there's a closeness of relationship over a period of time.

One author writes this insight: together they worked, enduring various troubles and persecution, and the objective here was to extend the kingdom of God. This speaks highly for Demas at this point, for Paul was very selective and very careful with whom he labored for the Lord.

Paul's Selectivity in Choosing Coworkers

This is apparent since he rejected John Mark for his past unfaithfulness. If you at some point want to look that up, it's Acts chapter 15. What's happened there is Paul and Barnabas have gone on their first missionary journey. Somewhere in that journey, Mark says, "I've had enough." Barnabas brought Mark along, he was a relative of his. Barnabas, the son of encouragement, brings Mark along for this first expedition, and Mark blows out.

In Acts chapter 15, what happens is that Paul and Barnabas are about to set out on their second missionary journey. Barnabas says, "Why don't we take Mark with us?" And Paul says, "No, I've seen this movie before, he can't cut it." In the scripture, it says, Paul kept insisting that he wouldn't take him, and the words were literally "a sharp disagreement arose between the two of them." What happens is Barnabas and Mark head off in one direction, Paul and Silas in another.

For years, we had this kind of undercurrent discussion of who is right, Paul or Barnabas. In my early days, I tended to side with Paul. As I got a little older and maybe mellowed a little bit, I saw that the reality is, both of them were looking at the same guy, but from two different perspectives.

Two Valid Perspectives

Barnabas said, "Listen, this is a young guy with a lot of potential. Paul, I know you, you're continually pouring into young men. Mark is worthy of it. Yeah, he's screwed up, I got it, but Paul, do we want to run down your list of mistakes?" Paul's saying, "Listen, this is tough work, pal. You know what it's like, we're in danger constantly, and we have a track record here. It's not just my suspicion. In the last opportunity he had to stand up big and put on his big boy pants and move to the big table for Thanksgiving dinner, he went in exactly the opposite direction. So no."

Well, with that backdrop, we can assume Paul becomes very selective and careful in who he's going to have around him. He knows he has a finite amount of resources, time, energy, effort, and money, so he's going to be as discerning as he can possibly be up front. Demas not only makes that cut, he travels with Paul for a long period of time.

Open your Bibles, if you would, to the book of 2 Timothy. One of my favorite books, Paul's writing to this young protege.

Paul's Final Letter to Timothy

Paul identifies Timothy as "my son." It's not his biological son, but his son in the faith. I would argue Paul's favorite person on the planet. I think you can build a case for that. Paul has used Timothy in Philippi, he's established him as a pastor in Ephesus, and now he's writing to them.

He's writing against this backdrop. Here's what intensifies this letter and this setting: "I'm already being poured out as a drink offering, the time for my departure has come." In other words, Paul senses that he's about to die, and the time is there, it's near. In fact, this is the last written communication we have from Paul.

Paul's Life Assessment

Verse 7: "I've finished the good fight, or fought the good fight, finished the course, kept the faith." That's an amazing assessment, and I want you to see this - this is Paul's assessment of himself. You'll hear people say, "At the end of my life, I want to hear, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.'" Me too, I do too. But how incredible it would be, at the end of your life, for you to evaluate your own life, and this is the conclusion you have of your life. Not somebody else's.

Paul's saying, "Listen, I've been there, and I got to tell you something, I hung in there to the end." He didn't just wake up one morning and go, "Well, golly, look how that turned out." I would say this is the result of planning and preparation. Paul says in Philippians 3 that "I forget what lies behind, I press forward, I do this one thing, Christ, Christ crucified." That's all I'm concerned about, so no matter what the topic - marriage, family, kids, business, recreation - it doesn't matter. It's my relationship with Christ and how it plays in that.

So Paul said, "Here's the backdrop." And I just added in verse eight: "In the future there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day." If we stopped right here, we could kind of go, "Good for you, Paul. We're excited for you. How about Paul? Wow."

But He adds this by way of encouragement to you and me: "And not only for me, but also to all who've loved His appearing." That can be your resume. That can be a one paragraph biographical sketch of your life.

Paul's Desperate Situation

That's the backdrop. That's the intensity. Paul's in prison again. He is isolated, lonely. Look at verse nine, and this is the verse I want to get to. We said there's three references to Demas in the New Testament - two very positive, as Paul's traveler, co-worker.

Second Timothy chapter four, verse nine: "Make every effort to come to me soon. For Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me."

I remember the first time I read that, knowing who Demas was, because we were doing a study in the other books. And I'm going, "Wait a minute, how can this be?" This isn't just a guy who studied Bible. This is a guy who didn't just go and hear Paul preach. He is in the trenches with him. He's up close and personal. He's been through imprisonment already with Paul. He's been with Paul, and I presume at the same time, fighting the good fight and working on the course, keeping the faith. And now he's deserted him in the midst of difficult situations, dangerous situations.

The Meaning of Desertion

In the midst of this, he has - and the word's a fascinating word - deserted me. It's also translated "forsaken." It's the idea to leave somebody in a dire situation, to utterly abandon someone.

One scholar writes this: "The verb 'has deserted me' needs our attention for a moment. It's a strong verb. It starts with the root verb, meaning to leave, and then compounds it by adding two prepositions at the beginning of the word, which makes it doubly intense so that it has been translated in a sort of American slang to 'leave me in the lurch.'"

The idea is not just leaving or deserting in the midst of a dire situation, but leaving at an inappropriate time. At the worst possible moment - back to verse nine - at the worst possible moment, in terrible circumstances, with the worst possible timing, Demas deserts the man who was his fellow worker and traveler and prisoner and was his mentor.

Understanding Demas's Motivation

Now, in preparing for today, I read 23 different translations or paraphrases of this section of 2 Timothy. Most of them translated the verse very similar to this: "Having loved this world, he's deserted me." Here are two paraphrases that maybe are a little bit helpful.

The Message paraphrases it this way: "Here, get here as fast as you can. Demas, chasing fads, went off to Thessalonica and left me." The New Living: "Timothy, please come as soon as you can. Demas has deserted me because he loves the things of this life."

So you start to get it. The idea of "I'm chasing a fad" or "I'm chasing after this world." "I love the things of this life." Back to the New American Standard: "Having loved this present world."

Paul, interestingly enough, doesn't lay out the specific kind of love that he has, or the thing that really pulled him away - Demas - away from Paul. Maybe for a couple reasons. One, not to embarrass him any further. But two, just as a teaching point, if he laid out a specific thing, our flinch would be, "Oh well, that's not me." Paul said no, it's this generic, broad, but powerful love of this present world which oftentimes pulls us away. Certainly a tension there.

The Biblical Warning About Worldliness

When I read that for the first time, I was relatively new to the faith and I was studying hard in a variety of different areas. I would find repetitive phrases and try to link them together. So when I read that and tried to unpack what's going on in Demas's life, I thought immediately of 1 John chapter two, verse 15 and 16, where John says, "Don't love this world or the things of this world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father's not in him."

So here's what John's telling us: there's a collision course here between the things of the world and the things of God. James warns us in James chapter four, verse four, that friendship with the world is an enemy of God. Don't love the world.

Now the word "world" can mean different things. It can mean the globe. He's not saying don't love the planet or don't love the universe or the people, but He's talking here about the world and the world system. Don't love the world, the world system, the way the world looks at things, the values.

Years ago, a guy by the name of Tony Campolo wrote a book called "Who Switched the Price Tags?" The title came from a personal experience that Campolo had growing up. He and his buddy used to go to the local drugstore and they would find two items—a ballpoint pen that sold for two bucks, and a transistor radio that sold for ten. One would go and distract the clerk. The other would go and switch the price tags. That thing that was really valued and worth $10, they could buy for two.

Campolo, in this book, says then I grew up and went out in the world and I looked around and I discovered somebody switched the price tags on everything around us. The things that God says are valuable, the world says are not so valuable. The world says this is really important and God says not really. There's that tension between the things of God and the things of this world. So He said, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father's not in him.

Three Elements of Worldliness

And then He begins to define at least three elements of this: "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, it's from the world." So let me break this down for you. The word "lust" is often associated in a sexual context. That's a small part of it. It's the idea of an evil desire, a compulsion, an evil desire that manifests itself in three ways.

The lust of the flesh—that's man's natural desire for rebellion, for gratification, for immediate gratification. The lust of the eyes—that's the avenue, the way of temptation, the way in. Something that looks so appealing. Usually it's something that I don't have and maybe somebody else has and I want it even though it isn't mine. And then the boastful pride of life—the arrogance over our circumstances, the attempts to oppress others, the besetting sin.

I personally, this is my experience in my own life and in dealing with a lot of other people, think that pride becomes the driving force in so much of our sinful behavior and so much of just bad life decisions. It's that pride, it's that desire to have others look at me and say, "Wow." It's the idea that you can take responsibility and credit for just some of the circumstances in your life.

The Problem with Pride

I am a free market capitalist pig. Now, let me tell you the problem with people like me. Not me, but people like me—they can become very individualistic and can start saying, "Hey, listen, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps," when, in fact, there are millions of people who don't have any bootstraps to grab. Or the guys that get on the radio and say, "You can be whatever you want to be." I don't want to burst your bubble, buddy, but that's not true.

Most of us are average. That's what "average" means. If most of us aren't average, then the word doesn't mean anything. You didn't come into the world and just—if you want it and you work for it, you can get it. That's not true. Do you think, for a second, that LeBron and I—I really need to finish the illustration. I mean, that's all I need. The only shot I got is if they turn off the air conditioning and he goes down. That's the only shot I got. I can get around him then.

But it doesn't work that way. That's not life. It's not an excuse to not work. You know I'm not teaching that. It's to say, don't think that you're so hot that you can be anything you want to be, or if you have some level of success, you're responsible for it. It's that boastful pride of life.

Satan's Standard Operating Procedure

Now, how basic is this to life? I'll go all the way back to the beginning, Genesis chapter 3, and look at it play out here. What's happened here is the serpent has come, and the serpent has tempted Eve. He's cast doubt on the word of God, and there's the background, and now here's the narrative: "When the woman saw the tree was good for food"—what is that? Lust of the flesh. "And it was a delight to the eyes"—lust of the eyes. "And the tree was desirable to make her wise"—boastful pride of life. She took the fruit and ate it.

It's Satan's standard operating procedure in your life. That's his playbook. He's got three plays. That's it. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, boastful pride of life. And she took it and ate it, and then she gave to her husband, and this guy plunged us all into ruin.

I had somebody the other day, and this happens all the time, saying to me, "Boy, you know, when I get to heaven, I want to ask God..." And I'm going, you know, I don't think it's going to work that way. I think when you get to heaven, you're going to be in awe. I don't read Isaiah 6 and see Isaiah going, "I'm going to talk to you about some of this stuff."

One Question for Adam

But I would like to ask, if I had a Q&A, I'd like to ask one question to one guy. To Adam, I'd like to go, "What were you thinking, man? I mean, you have messed us all up." That's what we spend—I was in a meeting the other day, and I was trying to make a point in my life personally, but in our life as a team or as a business or as a country, we spend all our life trying to manage sin. So we got laws and rules, and we protect ourselves and hide.

One of the commentators asked, "What would Jesus say to Demas or about Demas?" And we just looked at it in Matthew 13. Remember the parable, the seed and the sowers? The third seed in Matthew 13:7 said, "Other seeds fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up quickly and choked them out." And we go, "Oh, what does that mean?" Well, Jesus interprets it in verse 22. He said, "The one

On whom the seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Now, here's what I don't want to do, and I didn't do it anywhere in here. I'm not trying to figure out, was Demas really a believer who walked away? Does Demas ever come back? There's some who suggest that he is, in fact, Demetrius, who's mentioned later by John in his epistles, which we find at the end of the scripture. I don't care about that.

The minute we enter that, it provides you an opportunity to start debating about Demas and forget to look at your own life. I'm not asking you to figure out if Demas was really a believer or Demas ever came back. I'm talking about you and me. And I'm saying to us, if this can happen to the guy who is the co-worker and the traveling companion and in prison with Paul, that temptation must be so strong, we better fully understand it.

And what is that temptation? It's the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. It's the worries that come along. I would take the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and call it life. And all of a sudden, it comes along, and our eye moves off the cross and onto the circumstances around us. Even in the good things, it's the deceitfulness of riches. It's the idea that I think stuff is going to make me happy.

Six Lessons from Demas's Story

Now, we could go further with that. I've got 14 minutes. Let me give you six lessons that I got out of this.

Number one, the Christian life is a team sport. We see Paul with Timothy, Paul with Demas, Paul with Luke, Paul with Barnabas. At the end of his life, in the last chapter of the last book that he writes, the last paragraph, his mind is on people. And this is that Paul-Timothy mentoring relationship. It's older men with younger men, not necessarily chronologically older, but spiritually older. It's older women with younger women.

What experience has taught me, by the way, is that the key to this are the olders, the mentors. The protégés are all over. And I haven't been around women's ministry here in an organizing fashion for a while, but when I was involved in it, here's what we found. We found it really hard to find older women who were willing to spend time with younger women. And I find it with men all the time. And the idea is, oh, I'm an old person, they don't want to be with me. Not only do they want to be with you, they need to be with you.

Don't Be Surprised by Adversity

Here's the second thing. Don't be surprised by adversity or betrayal. Don't be taken back when you have something in your life that comes as a fiery ordeal. Those are exactly the words that Peter uses in 1 Peter. Don't be surprised by the fiery ordeals that come around you. James says it this way: Count it all joy when you encounter various trials. They're coming.

Don't be taken back, by the way, by the betrayals. Ray Steadman, in his commentary on this section, writes this. I received a letter last week from a man who used to work alongside me and loved this present world and departed. And he wrote back, and he wrote of his life. And Steadman observes this: You will have in your life a Demas, or two, or three, or more. Somebody you pour your life into, somebody you think is on the team, somebody outwardly doing ministry who brings you deep hurt, deep pain, and sometimes deep confusion until all of a sudden it becomes apparent that they love the world, and they leave. Demas is part of your network, and mine too.

Past Performance Doesn't Guarantee Future Results

Here's the third thing. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results. I love infomercials. I love when they're selling stuff on TV. And the pattern is always before, after, a testimony, here's the product. So I'm watching one the other day, and there's a before picture, and it's like I'm the eternal before picture. So it's a guy like me, and then there's a guy there, and he's all ripped, and he's just looking studly. And on the bottom is some very alarming copy. It's in very small print, so small that many people don't even bother to read it. But on the bottom, what does it say? Well, results may vary. Well, you mean I'm not going to be more muscular than him?

Here you go, you hear it in economic ads all the time. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results. You may be flying along like Demas, traveling with the apostle, knocking it out of the park. You're a spiritual hall of famer. That doesn't mean that you're guaranteed that you'll finish the course and keep the faith. This battle is over when you die, not until then. And that's hard because there's a tendency to ease up and the minute I ease up, the enemy will come in. The minute I back off, that temptation will come, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, boastful pride of life.

Failure's Not Fatal

I want to give you the flip side of that, failure's not fatal. Some of you are sitting here right now and you're flying high and some of you are going, you know what, I'm Demas, I've blown it. We mentioned a guy earlier, his name was Mark, and so was the drift between Barnabas and Paul that Mark, in the midst of this, becomes the dividing issue. And Paul says, get him out of here.

Now I want to take you back into the context we're in. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 11, Paul's writing to Timothy, he said, only Luke is with me, pick up Mark. It's the same guy, because he's useful for service.

You may have heard since you were a little kid, you're nothing, you'll never amount to nothing. You may have tried many, many things and with them comes inevitable failure. You may be told by everybody around you that you are a loser, and maybe you are, but you don't have to stay there. Failure's not fatal. There's one thing that we have as biblical Christians, and that's grace and forgiveness. It's not that God is stunned by your failure and go, well, I don't want anything to do with you, we believe in the doctrines of grace here.

In Romans 8 and 9, that God chose you before the foundations of the earth, and He knew everything about you. It's not that He's sitting there today going, "If I'd have known that, I would have never picked you." Failure's not fatal. Look, those are rich words. "Pick up Mark, bring him with you, for he is good for service." People may let you down, but I don't think you give up on them.

The Best Defense Is a Good Offense

Two more things: the best defense is a good offense. Here comes the world with the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. Rather than sit there and pick those off, let me give you an offensive strategy.

Again, it's in this very same book, 2 Timothy 2, verse 3 through 6. Paul says to Timothy, "Suffer hardship with me." It's kind of a recurring theme in this book. You find it again in chapter 2, verse 9, the idea of suffering, and in chapter 3, verse 12, Paul writes to Timothy, "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." So the adversity, the suffering, the hardship, the temptation—that's all normal. That's all a normal part of life.

But he said, "Here, do this, here's some advice." Second Timothy chapter 2, verse 4—man, this is one of those circle verses, this is one that you make a note on. If you do Bible study, or you do a quiet time, or you're just thinking, this is a verse to go over again and again: "No soldier in active duty entangles themselves in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier."

Three Pictures of Focus

Paul uses, to Timothy here, three pictures, and we get this. This, to me, is the offense: no soldier is involved and entangled in the affairs of everyday life. That's part of what they do in the military. They take away a lot of those daily choices.

You're down at Fort Huachuca this morning, you walked up, you didn't go to the closet and say, "Well, what should I wear today? Maybe a snappy black and white shirt, like Tom?" If you go to breakfast, and you go, "What is that?" And they tell you, "I don't want that." "What is that?" "I don't want that." "Okay, lunch is at 11:30, this is all we got."

Our life can get so entangled together. I use this illustration this week: I go to Eggington's every six weeks, maybe, and when I go, one of the things I order on the menu is the plain and simple. Here's how it'll go in real time. Order will come up, if you decide, "Yes, plain and simple." "How would you like your eggs?" "What are my choices?" "Poached, over-easy, over-hard, over-medium, fried, scrambled, poached." "Meat, you want meat with that?" "What are my choices?" "Well, ham, sausage, bacon." "I'll have sausage." "Link, patty?" "Patty." "Toast?" "What are my choices?" "Well, white, and wheat, and rye, and marble rye, and sourdough, and nine-grain." And I'll say, "I ordered the plain and simple, right? That was the order, plain and simple, isn't that what I ordered?"

Life, and that's a great illustration. Life will just pull you in to the entanglements, and all of a sudden, you won't be able to please God.

Training Like an Athlete

So like the soldier, be focused and dedicated. Like the athlete, compete by the rules. What he means there is by a strict regimen, not by the rules of the game, but by discipline and preparation.

Sandy and I celebrated our two-year anniversary last week, and we were in San Diego, and part of that is Sandy ran the half marathon. My responsibility is to get her to the start line on time and make sure my Kindle is charged. So that's my responsibility. She and 30,000 other people ran this race. To do that, everybody's different, but to do that, she prepared, and ran, and trained, and then she got to my favorite part of the preparation. This is what I do best. What is it? Taper. I'm the best taper in the world. I can do that.

Like the athlete, you need to have training and self-control. Like the farmer, you need to be hardworking and diligent. The best offense here is to be a dedicated, focused, self-controlled, diligent follower of Christ.

An Eternal Perspective

Then the last thing: you need an eternal perspective. Not look at the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen, because the things that are seen are temporal. The things that are unseen are eternal.

You're in 2 Timothy. Just turn to the left of 1 Timothy to one of my go-to passages when I have a chance to teach it. 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 6: "Godliness is actually a means of great gain when it's accompanied by contentment. We brought nothing into the world, we can't take anything out of it. If we have food and covering, with those, we should be content."

The Missing Ingredient: Contentment

Contentment. Sandy and I were just in Colorado and did a coaches conference, high school and college coaches. We were talking about how difficult contentment is when there's a metrics, in this case, wins and losses. Contentment—missing ingredient in most lives, I think.

How do I find contentment? I had this insight about a month ago. It was one of those that I thought was really profound. To this point, I'm the only one who seems to think it's profound. But I'll share it with you. You look like bright people. You may get it.

There are two guys, one's named Job, he lost everything. The other's named Solomon, he got everything. Both of them concluded this: naked I came in, naked I'm leaving. Paul tucks it right there in 1 Timothy 6:7. If you're going to be content, you better get—you came in with nothing, you're leaving with nothing.

He's not saying this world's not important. He's just saying it's not the most important and it doesn't transition with you until eternity. It's not worth deserting for the love of the world.

Five guys—maybe I should have taken Joseph or Daniel, but I found it easier to relate to Demas myself. So I'll offer that to you.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for that. Help us understand that this Christian life requires us being with other people and we will suffer and there will be betrayals. We'll be on both ends of that. There'll be time where people disappoint

Help us be faithful to You and to those who are counting on us in times when we disappoint them. Help us not be carried away with past successes or be overwhelmed by failure. God, let us be diligent, dedicated, self-controlled. And Father, keep our eyes on You and on the cross. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.