READ: 1 John 2:15-17
“Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee.” – Psalm 73:25
Demas loved the world. That is why he deserted Paul. If you love somebody , you will eventually gravitate towards that person. If you love the world––its money , its women, its men, its glitter––you will find yourself gravitating towards these things. It is therefore important that the Christian should not have any strange love in his heart.
I have one “love” for my Lord, and a second “love” for my wife. I cannot allow any other “love” to exist in my heart. Strong desires are dangerous. There are many Christian ladies who have such strong desires to marry that they will sacrifice all principles and all the rules in order to get married. To lust after something is to have a strong, excessive desire for it.
Usually, it is an uncontrollable, sometimes obsessive desire for a particular thing. One dictionary calls “lust” an animal desire. Be wary of any form of lust, whether it is financial lust, sexual lust or power lust. Lust corrupts. Remember the Scripture, “…Having escaped the CORRUPTION that is in the world THROUGH LUST” (2 Peter 1:4).
Often Christians feel they are missing out on something in the world – money , sex, glamour and so on. Apart from the love of Christ, if you have any other love in you, you need to be careful of it. If you have any strange lusts in you, you must kill them now, or they will grow up and take over your life. Kill them now , when they are small and harmless. If you allow them to grow and develop, they will destroy you one day.