In the past three weeks I have learned of four different leaders with different leadership roles who have destroyed their leadership platform. For three of these leaders the verdict is out on whether they will finish well or not. There is a chance of restoration. For one leader the verdict is in as he ultimately took his own life.
What causes some leaders to finish well and others to finish poorly?
At what point do they quit thinking about their influence and the consequences of their choices?
When did they forget that all leadership is leveraged and that their decisions impact an exponential number of people around them for good or for bad?
How do we ensure that we will finish well?
There are three references to a man named Demas in the Bible. Only three. All three references are from the hand of the Apostle Paul. But they are telling. Colossians 4:4 says, “Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas.” In the letter to Philemon, verses 23-24, Paul writes, “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.” In both of these references we learn some things that were true of Demas in Paul’s eyes. Demas was apparently a companion of Luke, the physician whom God used to write the gospel that bears his name and the book of Acts. We also learn that Demas was counted as one of Paul’s “fellow workers.” This was a term of endearment from Paul. At one time he saw Demas as a valuable laborer for the cause of Christ. But in 2 Timothy 4:9-10, likely the last letter that Paul ever wrote, Paul tells Timothy, “Do you best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.”
Demas had gone from being a trusted fellow worker to that of a spiritual deserter. How?
Paul says that Demas had fallen in love with this present world. William Barclay notes, “It may simply be that he loved comfort more than he loved Christ, that he loved the easy way more than he loved the way which led first to a cross and then to the stars.” Dean William Inge, an Anglican priest of the last century, once said “There is no threat so dangerous as the threat of the years to a man’s ideals; and it can be kept at bay only by living constantly in the presence of Jesus Christ.” When we set our affections on wealth, status, power, prestige, accomplishment, accolades, titles, degrees–anything else but Christ–we are in grave danger of finishing poorly. I don’t simply mean we risk moral failure, although that is devastating enough. I also mean finishing with a bitter and cynical attitude, without joy and a sense of contentment.
The first step away from a glorious end is a heart in love with the things of this world.
It seems a short step from fellow worker to spiritual deserter. We don’t know why Demas ran all the way to Thessalonica. We do know that northeastern Greece was a long way from Rome and Paul’s imprisonment. The first step away can lead to a life far from Christ and His cause.
Will you finish well? What are you doing today to make that a reality?
“Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.” Jonathan Edwards
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