Demas
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Col. 4:14) — at first a zealous disciple and fellow-worker of St. Paul the Apostle (Philem. 1:24), who afterward fell away from the faith, or at least from the work of gospel preaching, owing to excessive love of the world (2 Tim. 4:10; 1 John 2:15). Epiphanius says that he became a follower of Cerinthus, Ebion, and others. The Apostle Paul writes of him on this occasion only that he “loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:10). He serves as an image of those believers in whom love of the world stifles the word, so that it becomes unfruitful (Matt. 13:22).