19-year-old Grant Williams lived in New York and owned a pet reptile, a 44-pound python. He was preparing to feed the 13-foot snake as he had done many times before. He had brought home a live chicken in a box. He removed the lid from the box, and the python, a constrictor, in a flash wrapped itself around its victim. But the surprise victim was Williams himself. A neighbor found him in the hallway of their apartment building, bleeding, with the python wrapped around him. Rescue workers were called, and they were able to pry him loose. But it was too late for Williams, who died an hour later.
There is no such thing as a safe python.
Demas falls away
Similarly, the fallen world is never safe.
We learn something important about the spiritual dangers of the world from the story of a fellow worker to the apostle Paul named Demas.
We first hear of Demas when Paul was imprisoned in Rome and wrote letters to various churches and friends. The short letter to Philemon included in the New Testament includes these final words: “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers” (Philemon 1:23–24).
So, in approximately 62 A.D. the apostle calls Demas a fellow worker. He is one of four key workers mentioned by name, so he has history with Paul, and he was probably not a new believer. He had maturity and correct knowledge, having heard the apostle himself teaching others for a long time. He knew Christian doctrine, and he had seen the power of the Holy Spirit at work many times, healing the sick, casting out demons, working miracles.
Paul writes in another letter, this one to the church in Colossae, during the same imprisonment: “Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas” (Colossians 4:14). So, Demas was well known by everyone in the Colossian church. He had many brothers and sisters in Christ, many friends to whom he sends greetings. He is not a lonely man.
Even so, the third and final time that Demas makes his way into a letter by the apostle Paul, things have changed. Approximately seven years after the first two letters, Paul is in prison again, and this time it appears certain to him that he will not be released, as happened in his last imprisonment, but will soon die as a martyr. He writes his trusted protégé Timothy: “Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica” (2 Timothy 4:9–10).
Paul’s trusted assistant had deserted him. And Paul tells why Demas deserted him: Demas was “in love with this present world.” What happened? What changed? We do not know, but there are lessons for us.
Lessons for today
The world will never stop trying to make a comeback in your heart.
How deceptive is the allure of the world. It can lead us to desert Christian brothers and sisters, friends, and the church. Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 silver coins. Demas deserted Paul for some fleeting pleasure in Thessalonica.
The allure of the world can derail even those who are leaders and workers in gospel and church work. Demas had worked with Paul in gospel proclamation and church planting for years. He knew the gospel. He knew the Scriptures. He knew one of the most godly men in history in the apostle Paul. But somehow the world still appealed to him.
That is why we cannot open the door in the slightest to the world, for once its foot gets in the door, its deceptive power can work on us, even if we have successfully kept the world at a distance for a long time.
This is why Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13–14 ESV).
The allure of the world deceives people to think the world is preferable to the ministry, preferable to Christian leaders. The fallen world will pass away; your godly treasures will remain forever.
We always have a choice between God and the world, between the church and the world, between God’s work and Satan’s world. Demas had a choice, and he chose wrong.
Paul does not say that Demas deserted him because of the hardships and sacrifices of God’s work but because of his love of the world. That is the captivating power of choosing to follow evil pleasure. The battle is won or lost in the heart; we must not make the initial choice to follow sinful pleasure, greed, and pride. Once you start down that road, you may never come back.
It is never safe to resume loving the world. No matter what you have done well in the past, it can all be lost before you finish the race, through a reawakened love of the world. You must remain dead to the world till the day you die.
For flirting with the world is like kissing a coiled, quiet python.
