A Dulling World
The World’s Perspective is……Dulling
The second danger is that the world is dulling. Just as the slow-acting poison of that deadly spider overtakes its victims, the world’s pleasures, possessions, and popularity will gradually dull our spiritual responses. A prime biblical example is Demas, a man mentioned three times in Scripture. In Colossians 4:14, Paul wrote, “Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you.” In Philemon 24, Paul again sent greetings from Demas, listing him as a “fellow laborer.” But in 2 Timothy, when the apostle Paul is imprisoned and facing execution, we find him writing these sad words: “Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:9-10).
Demas didn’t just wake up one day and have a dramatic spiritual breakdown. Something about the world’s influences had been dulling his senses without his realizing how close he was to total spiritual collapse.
David Jeremiah, Signs of Life, p. 103