Demas...A Fallen Leader

The References:  Colossians 4:14     Our friend Luke the doctor and Demas send greetings.

                                2 Timothy 4:10      Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me.

The story that emerges:

Paul wrote both epistles while in jails. He wrote Colossians during his first prison term in Rome, about the year 62. He was freed and went on to Spain. During his time away, Rome experienced the devastating fire under Nero in the year 64. The Emperor, needing a scapegoat, put the blame on the Christians and had many of them put in prison. On his return from Spain Paul was one of these imprisoned. He wrote the second letter to Timothy about the year 66 while jailed in deplorable conditions and awaiting his execution. 

The profile of Demas gives us opportunity to examine a Christian leader who fails in a key opportunity to stand with a Christian brotherin extremis.We might wish Paul had given a hint as to what caused this failure. There is all the greater value in his silence since, sadly, there are a myriad of ways to fill in the blanks. But that does allow the fertile imagination of this writer to step in. :-)

I will list the most probable and frequent reasons that cause leaders who fall. John Piper names three in the title of one of his books—money, sex, and power. To that I add a fourth--faith that has become lukewarm. I do this with a heavy heart. This is more than a list; these are causes of lives marred by one or another of these, lives of friends, of leaders, of people once admired and listened to. 

1.    Money.

·     Envy and covetousness.

·     Church leaders are rarely overpaid, but there are ways to inflate our income. Gratuitous gifts make life easier from devoted parishioners, and they don’t fit any of the categories of the 1040 Form of the IRS. Of course, we can object that they are so unnecessary but so gratefully received…

2.    Sex.

·     Lasciviousness and gluttony.

·     Clergy give to emotionally strained church members. They share their own emotions and they give up time—the time and emotions that belong at home. Ways to lose one’s balance are “crouching at your door” (Gen. 4:7). I remember simple advice given for when that an inappropriate advance comes—jump out the nearest window!

·     The evil industry of pornography captures and addicts in no less a way that does heroin. Like heroin, the body always wants more. There are ways to keep porn hidden, but it cripples intimacy and injects the snake of shame into the relationship with the Lord.

3.    Power.

·     Pride and vanity.

·     Clergy are ascribed respect, especially when wearing clerical collars. But when preaching becomes “three feet above contradiction,” and compliments are waited for, pride and vanity have taken over. Then listening to the flock and discerning the message from Scripture matter less and less. That is when we need to hear the Lord’s admonition, “You cannot serve two masters.” 

4.    Lukewarm Faith

·     Fear and protection

·     This may well have been the sin of Demas. Circumstances had changed after Spain. After the fire all Christians in Rome were in danger of imprisonment and conviction. Any associates of Paul ran the risk of the death sentence. “Demas deserted me.”

·     Today orthodox Christianity is maligned and marginalized. The temptation is to accommodate, to be neither hot nor cold. Too hot puts me in company that makes me uneasy. Too cold denies my faith. Ever wonder how God sees the lukewarm? He will “vomit them out of my mouth.”  Hmmm. Paul praises the Philippians because they held their faith “without being frightened by your opponents” (1:28).

This range of options is deliberately brief, since each of us must expand the list from our own experiences and temptations. We must review and reset our defenses. And the first and most wicked temptation is, “That can’t happen to me.”

The lamentable result is dishonor to the name of Christ and distrust toward His messengers. Tarnished is the Church of Jesus Christ, for it bears His name.

Demas and I sat beside each other on my heavenly bench and kept silence for some time. The purpose of the interview was painfully evident. My place was only to listen. 

After a few minutes he opened up. It became clear that he knew this spiritual territory well. Those boundaries revealed the shape of his state of mind. He brought up David and his adultery, Nathan who confronted him, and David’s Psalm of contrition. He moved to Peter and his thrice denial, and how the Lord reinstated him by the shore of Gennesaret. He did not leave out Peter wishing to die not as the Lord had, for his feeling of unworthiness. Only then did he speak of Paul—Paul who shared his first prison reflections with him, Paul who was later confined to a rancid cell, Paul whom he had left there alone.

He could not undo or redo any of that. He knew he had received forgiveness from the apostle, which helped to remove the shame. He hoped that his story would carry lessons and warnings. And the most lasting lesson to us all comes from the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, who assures us that after all sin is confessed, His grace does much more abound.