The Lord Requires a Choice

From his prison cell, Paul wrote to the Christian in Colossae, and to us, these words of encouragement: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.” (Colossians 3:16)

To “teach” in Paul’s view meant to teach the message of the gospel—God’s love and grace revealed in Jesus and his death, burial, and resurrection.

To “admonish” in Paul’s view was to teach morality—the teachings of Jesus, the law and the prophets, and moral living as revealed by the Holy Spirit.

While in prison (likely in Ephesus, although that is debated) Paul wrote this message of challenge and encouragement. (“I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand,” he wrote at the close of his letter. “Remember my chains,” a reference to his being chained in prison. This leaves a question for us to ponder, since God delivered him from prison in Philippi, why didn’t God deliver him from this prison from which he wrote to the Christians in Colossae?)

Paul set forth this challenge for them, and for us, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:17) We can whine and complain, but that leads to more whining and complaining. Or we can find ways to resolve our problems, or learn to live with them, and live a life filled with thanksgiving to God. Instead of whining and complaining about what we don’t have, we should be thankful for what we do have. Living a life of thanksgiving gives us an entirely new attitude about life, and opens up a world of joy and beauty.

At the end of his letter to the Christians in Colossae, Paul sends greetings from his fellow workers, including Luke the physician—a name familiar to most of us—and Demas. Who is Demas? We know little about him, except he worked faithfully with Paul in sharing the gospel. (See Colossians 4:14.)

Luke and Demas are mentioned again as fellow workers with Paul in his missionary efforts in the letter to Philemon (vs. 24).

However, in the greetings in 2nd Timothy, Paul has a different word about Demas, “Do your best to come to me soon,” he wrote to Timothy, “for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” (Again Paul is writing from prison, but where? The details are too sketchy to make a definitive answer, but it could have been from Rome…emphasis on “could have been.”)

Demas left. Demas left and went to Thessalonica. Why? Paul wrote that he was “in love with this present world.”

There are a lot of things that draw us into this “present world.” Life is filled with temptations.

People have a tendency to judge other people in some kind of attempt to declare the sins of others are worse than their own. Some people take on the role of moral police and are always looking for the sins of others, while clearly ignoring their own. And, we have a tendency to overlook the sins of those we care about, while magnifying the sins of those we don’t like.

One of the great “turn-offs” of the American political process is the rampant hypocrisy of our politicians. But, in reality, we encourage it and approve of it. Everyone talks about how politicians lie, but we know that lying has become a necessity to get elected to office. A so-called political lie is still a lie. And while we disparage those with whom we disagree for doing so, we applaud and approve those with whom we agree. Hence we are where we are today with a dysfunctional Congress. But I digress.

Why did Demas leave Paul?

Despite having seen the great work of God in the world, and despite having participated in that work along side Paul, Demas chose to leave. He went to Thessalonica. Why? Was there something or someone in the Greek city that called him back? Why did Paul believe Demas left because he was, “in love with this present world?”

In the letter to the church in Ephesus in the Revelation, the risen Christ declares, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Like Demas, some in the church in Ephesus chose to abandon—in Ephesus they abandoned the great love they once had for the Lord and his work, and in the case of Demas he chose to abandon the missionary work with Paul and go back to this present world, because he loved this present world more than he loved the Lord.

We shouldn’t be too hard on Demas. We must not judge him too harshly. We are often guilty of the same.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of embracing the ways of the world instead of the ways of God.

It’s easy to become filled with bitterness, hate, greed, deception, anger, and such, instead of being filled with the Spirit and contentment, love, generosity, truth, joy, and such. The world calls us to bitterness, because of the unfairness. It calls us to hate, because of our differences. We are called to greed, because of our desire for more stuff, and our desire to have what others have. Deception calls us because we choose not to live with the truth. And the world calls us to anger because of the injustice around us.

But God calls us to give thanks for what we have; to love one another as Christ has loved us; to practice generosity out of thanksgiving; to live with truth because it is the truth that sets us free—not lies and deception; and to live with the joy of knowing Christ as our Savior and our Lord.

For every believer, like Demas, the ways of the world call us every day. And as we see others “enjoying” this world, we, like Demas, can easily fall in love with it. Doing the right thing doesn’t always bring the desired results; for sometimes doing the right thing causes pain.

But, as Christians, at some point we have to come to the realization that the ways of the world, the noise of the world, and the “hype” of the world are not the answers to life’s greatest questions.

If we have chosen Jesus as our Lord, then Jesus must be our Lord, and there can be no other. We cannot choose to follow the ways of the world, the lords of this world, with one side of our lives while following Christ with the other side. We can’t live applauding and approving the ways of the world one day, while proclaiming the word of the Lord the next.

The Lord requires a choice.

“Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me…”

What about you?