By Spencer Clark
Each year, companies, governments, and other entities spend somewhere north of $300 billion to buy your love, attention, and gain access to your wallet. They want us to not only pay attention to them, but integrate their values and products into our lives. When we don’t, we are made to feel left out and even become an enemy in their eyes.
Paul once had a friend who succumbed to the allure of worldliness. At the close of his life, he wrote a second letter to Timothy and noted how one man, Demas, had fallen in love with the present world and abandoned Paul (2 Tim. 4:10). Demas was a man who appeared alongside names like Luke, Mark, and others (Col 4:14; Phlm. 24). He stood beside Paul during his imprisonment in Rome but later abandoned the Gospel because he loved the present world.
When Demas fell in love with the world, he revealed at that moment the love of the Father was not in him and he did not belong to Christ (1 John 2:15; John 15:19). By seeking to be a friend of the world, he became an enemy of God (Jas. 4:4). Although the world may villainize us for our adherence to the Word of God, stance on moral issues, or Christian way of life — I would much rather be an enemy of the world than an enemy of God.
Demas should serve as a warning against our fascination and affection for the pleasures of this life. The hundred-billion-dollar machine wants to devour every ounce of our attention, energy, money, and love to use it for their greed and sinful purposes. Even in the face of this massive foe, we can stand securely in the arms of God. Demas, unfortunately, lost his battle and became an enemy of God. But that doesn’t have to be your story. Whose enemy would you rather be?