The Apostate.
I. Consider the history and fall of Demas. Men live after they are dead, some in their good deeds, others in their bad. Many a man would have been unheard of, but for his crimes; living but for these in happy obscurity, and going down to his grave unnoticed and unknown. But the case of Demas is not that of one who owes the world's only knowledge of him to his crimes, like a felon whom a scaffold raises above the heads of the vulgar crowd who have come to see him die. This is not the first time we hear of Demas, and, indeed, had St. Paul written no second letter to Timothy, or had God in His providence been pleased to allow this epistle to perish with other writings of the Apostles, Demas might have given a name to Protestant churches; he might have been sainted in the Romish calendar, and had devotees soliciting his prayers, while they burned candles and offered gifts at his shrine. The fall of such an one as Demas, like some tall cliff which, undermined by the waves, precipitates itself, with the roar of thunder, headlong into the boiling sea, must have startled the Church at the time, and wakened from their slumber those that slept in Sion; and still, as if its echoes were yet sounding round the world, let us listen to its warning. It teaches the highest of us to take heed lest we fall; the happiest of us to rejoice with trembling, and all of us to watch and pray, that, keeping our garments unspotted from the world, we may not enter into temptation.
II. Consider the cause of Demas' fall he loved this present world. It is not the world, observe, nor its money, nor its honours, nor its enjoyments, that the Bible condemns, but the love of them.
III. Learn the lesson the case teaches. Give your hands to the world, but keep your heart for God. It is a very good world if kept in its own place; like fire and water, a useful servant, but a bad and most tyrannous master. Love it not, and yet love it. Love it with the love of Him who gave His Son to die for it. You must make the world better, or it will make you worse.
T. Guthrie, Speaking to the Heart,p. 201.
References: 2 Timothy 4:10. J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. ix., p. 231. 2 Timothy 4:11. G. Calthrop, Words to my Friends,p. 297; J. A. Carr, Church of England Pulpit,vol. xxi., p. 52; H. C. Nelson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. ix., p. 350; Ibid.,vol. xix., p. 381; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vi., p. 317; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 211; vol. v., p. 32. 2 Timothy 4:13. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ix., No. 542; J. Thain Davidson, The City Youth,p. 141; J. Stalker, The New Song,p. 90; Expositor,1st series, vol. i., p. 286; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. x., p. 132; Homiletic Magazine,vol. xi., p. 273. 2 Timothy 4:15. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 195. 2 Timothy 4:16. A. K. H. B., Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson,3rd series, p. 85. 2 Timothy 4:20. Ibid., Sermons,vol. xxv., No. 1453. 2 Timothy 4:22. Homilist,3rd series, vol. vii., p. 225; W. Walters, Christian World Pulpit,vol. i., p. 168..