Holiness: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – 1 Thessalonians 4:3 [Annotated, Updated]

by J.C. Ryle

For lack of counting the cost, Demas left the company of Paul, rejected the gospel, turned his back on Christ, and renounced heaven. For a long time he had journeyed with the great Apostle to the Gentiles and was actually a fellowlabourer (Philemon 1:24), but when he realized that he could not have the friendship of this world as well as the friendship of God, he gave up his Christianity and clung to the world. Demas has forsaken me, Paul said, having loved this present world (2 Timothy 4:10). He had not counted the cost.