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9 Do your best to come to me quickly, 10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. ~ 2 Timothy 4:9-10
As Paul faces the last days of his life, as he closes out his last epistle, as he writes his last paragraph, people are on his mind. These were the people who made up his life, the people who shared his ministry, the people who were essential to everything that he did. What we have in these final verses of this last letter of Paul is his heart for people.
Years ago I heard Billy Graham say, "There are two things in this world that will last forever: the word of God and the souls of people. We must find creative ways to bring them together."
In v.9 we read, "Do your best to come to me quickly."
This request of the Apostle Paul was made of Timothy who was Paul’s true son in the faith. Paul identifies Timothy as his spiritual son in both the first and second epistle written to Timothy. And the Apostle wanted to see Timothy once more before he dies.
Paul writes, "Do your best to come to me quickly." This Greek phrase means to be in a hurry, to be fast, to get to Rome as fast as he could do so. Paul expresses an urgency here, because Paul didn’t have much time before he was to die. It is one of the richest things that we will ever know in this life when God gives us the privilege of a companion, of a confidante, someone whom we can truly trust.
It has been calculated that we only maintain a few real confidantes throughout our lifetime. And, loneliness, is bad for our health. Studies have shown it increases inflammation in our bodies and weakens our immune systems, which can lead to many illnesses.
In the first part of v.10 we read, "for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica."
The first time Demas is mentioned in the Bible is in Colossians 4:14 where he is mentioned as one of the most intimate companions of Paul. It is obvious that while Paul was writing Colossians from prison in Rome, Demas was there. He had been with Paul for some time. In the letter written to Philemon, Paul refers to Demas as a fellow worker. He was a partner in Paul's suffering to some degree, and I'm sure that he was a partner in prayer.
Demas departed because he loved this world. The verb used for love here is agape. In other words Demas was more committed to the comforts of this world than he was to his friend.
The verb, "has deserted me," starts with a root verb meaning to leave, and then Paul compounds it by adding two prepositions at the beginning of the word, which makes it doubly intense in its action. It not only gives the idea of leaving but desertion in the midst of a dire situation, leaving at the most-inopportune time.
Desertion is always tough for anyone, especially when we are doing the will of God. However, I have always found that human desertion makes me appreciate God's faithfulness a whole lot more. In fact, desertion has been used of God to make Himself more known to and by me. It is the design of human desertion that we might be driven to the Lord most out of necessity. Sometimes, I have discovered, I would not have been so eager to go to the Lord as fast and ardently, had it not been for the desertion of a dear friend.
Demas went to Thessalonica. He is listed in Philemon v.24 with Aristarchus who according to Acts 20:4 was a Thessalonian. So maybe, Demas was going home, to his comfort place. But the point here is not so much where he went but why he went, and why he went was because he loved the comforts of this world most.
Comfort is the number one god of Americans because we have a poor definition for it. We think comfort is a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or dis-ease. You see, we have been trained by the wrong definitions of comfort. When we have the wrong definition of comfort, we become comfortable in our disfunction. God says in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 that pain is a step in the process of being comforted by Him. We try to avoid pain and trouble but pain is an absolute necessity for us to be in the position to be comforted by the God of all comfort.
In the remainder of v.10 we read, "Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia."
We know absolutely nothing about Crescens. Evidently he was a fairly-capable man, and I say that because Paul sent him to Galatia. And, you'll remember that Galatia was an area in which Paul had labored extensively. He went there on his first missionary journey, his second missionary journey, and on the third one as well, each time going back to Galatia.
The fact that Crescens was sent to Galatia could indicate that he had the capability to work with a strong church, that he himself therefore must have been a man of some kind of strength. Yet, he is absolutely unknown. We know nothing about him; this is the only time his name is ever mentioned. And so he represents what we call the faithful unknown, who make up the ranks of everybody’s network behind the scenes. The quiet unknown hero who comes along in spiritual maturity and strength to stand behind someone and do the work unseen.
And, then there is Titus, whose name appears thirteen times in the New Testament, had gone to Dalmatia. Titus thrived in the area of a new challenge. After Paul had evangelized an area, he would send Titus back into that area to identify and build up the leaders, so that they could be used of the Lord to carry on the work in those cities. When Paul wrote Titus, Titus was on the island of Crete where Paul, by the way, had preached.
Dalmatia was on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, north of Macedonia. Paul had preached in Dalmatia, according to Romans 15:19, so the Gospel had been introduced in that area, and that was a perfect setting for Titus to go in and pull it all together, strengthen the church, and build the leaders.
This underscores the fact that we all have individual, daily callings from the Lord. All of life's experiences are used of the Lord, along with our strengths and interests and gifts to accomplish why we are on this earth. And, we do not know how today will unfold, but, that is the excitement of the Christian life is that God is sovereign and He knows all that awaits us today. At the end of each day, we should be able to say, "Wow, look at what the Lord did today in and through my life." Life is worth the living because it all affords us the opportunity to know Him and to make Him known.
