May 24, 2026 - “An Uncommitted Missionary”
Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:7-11 (KJV)
⁷ I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
⁸ Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
⁹ Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:
¹⁰ For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
¹¹ Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
An Uncommitted Missionary
Paul writes these words from a prison cell, facing execution, and the loneliness in his voice is hard to miss. He has fought the fight. He has finished the course. He has kept the faith. But in the same breath, he names a man whose story took a very different turn — Demas.
Demas was no stranger to ministry. He was a fellow laborer with Paul, an associate of Luke, a trusted name in the work of the gospel. He had a promising start. But somewhere along the way, something shifted. Paul tells us plainly what happened: Demas "loved this present world." He didn't fall because the work was too hard. He didn't stumble over doctrine. He simply set his affection on the wrong things and drifted toward Thessalonica — a wealthy, cosmopolitan city full of everything the world had to offer.
Have you ever been deserted? Paul had. And his question hangs in the air for all of us this morning: what happened to Demas? What turned a faithful friend into a missing man at the very moment he was needed most?
The answer is the same answer Scripture gives us again and again. Friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4). Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world (1 John 2:15). Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2). Demas didn't lose a theological argument — he lost his first love. His motivation was misplaced. He served out of duty instead of devotion, and when the going got hard, duty wasn't enough to hold him.
That's a sobering word for any of us who have raised our hand to follow Christ. It's possible to start well and finish poorly. It's possible to look the part, to sit in the right pews, to labor alongside the right people, and still walk away when the world calls loud enough. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.
So the question turns to us: how can we desert such a great salvation? How can we walk away from the One who has been a bridge over troubled water, a rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm? How can we turn our backs on the One who woke us up this morning, put food on our table, made a way out of no way? The God who is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent — taking care of your family in one place and mine in another at the very same time — how could we possibly trade Him for anything this world has to offer?
The race is not given to the swift, nor to the strong, but to those who endure to the end. Don't give up. Keep on keeping on. Look to the hills from whence cometh our help — all of our help comes from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. May it never be said of us, as it was said of Demas, that we loved this present world more than the One who gave His life for us.
To God be the glory.