Three times Demas is mentioned by the Apostle Paul. In Colossians he writes, "Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you." Chap. 4:14. In Philemon he terms him, in company with Marcus, Aristarchus, and Lucas, as a "fellow laborer"; and in 2 Timothy he has to say, "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world" (age).
Nothing can be more sad than this closing notice of one who had been identified with such a vessel of testimony as the Apostle Paul. The final break with Paul might have been sudden, but we may be sure that he had been long before in a backslidden state of soul. The very way, indeed, in which he is mentioned in Colossians, after Luke, the beloved physician, would seem to indicate that Paul was not ignorant of his condition. An open failure is always preceded by a gradual decline of spiritual life and energy. It is thus the Lord deals with His people. If they have grown cold, and are turned aside in heart from His ways, He permits them sooner or later to be tested, that their state may be discovered.
This was the case with Demas. His heart had long been upon the present age, and the captivity of Paul and the consequent "afflictions of the gospel" were but the occasion of its manifestation. A time of persecution is always a time of searching, and Demas could no longer conceal his condition. He therefore forsook the Apostle—the Lord's prisoner—and followed his heart into the world. He might have been a real Christian, not merely a professor, but, lacking courage, he lost the opportunity of fidelity to the testimony at such a solemn crisis, and surrendered himself to the influences of the age, all of which were antagonistic to the truth, and to the devoted servant to whom the truth had been committed.
The "age," as distinguished from the world, has generally a moral signification, and is expressive of the sum of the influences that are at work around us in the world at any given moment; and it is precisely these influences that constitute the danger of God's people, and to which so many, like Demas, succumb, and make "shipwreck" of their testimony. It is on this very account that the Apostle writes, "Be not conformed to this world [age]" (Rom. 12:22And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)).