Bright Lights of Thessalonica

Romancing Royalty Devotional | Dudley Rutherford

[WhatNot]

Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica, Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.
(II Timothy 4:9-10)

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all
(Isaiah 53:6)

Take an ordinary coffee cup and simply turn it over. When you do, you accomplish three definite, different tasks: One, you make it empty of its contents. Two, you make it awfully dark inside. Three, you make it incapable of any future blessings. The same is true when you turn your back to the Lord. When you turn away from Jesus you do three things: One, you make your life empty. Two, you make it very dark on the inside. And three, you make your life incapable of receiving any future blessings. "Come near to God and He will come near to you" (James 4:8).

In the above text, Demas was helping Paul evangelize, but the devil gave Demas a glimpse of the bright, dazzling lights of Thessalonica and he turned his back on Paul, on Christ and His Kingdom. I don't know if Demas was cognizant of the fact that at the moment he deserted Paul, he was emptying himself of all good things. I wonder if he also knew that by turning away, he was making his soul dreadfully dark and rendering his life utterly incapable of any future, meaningful blessings. Oh the futility, the darkness, the vainness, the senselessness of turning away from Christ.