Colossians 4:14 - On Samwise Gamgee and cotton candy...

"Luke is greeting you, the physician beloved, and Demas."

-Luke is mentioned elsewhere (2Timothy 4.11, Philemon 24), but it is only here that we learn of his occupation as a Physician.  Paul calls Luke, "beloved."  He is not overly sparing in describing people this way (27x in his letters), nevertheless the word does convey a depth of gratitude and connection and relationship that Paul has with Luke.  To his credit (but sadly) there will come a point when Luke will be the only one of these companions still remaining with Paul.  Whatever the circumstances surrounding the departure of the others, faithfulness is a precious commodity indeed.  Loyalty.  Firm allegiance.  Steadfast devotion.  Newlyweds promise it.  Businesses covet it.  Leaders insist on it.  Dogs are loyal, devoted to one master their entire lives.  This kind of devotion is in rather short supply these days.  Samwise Gamgee was faithful.  Reepicheep was faithful.  Old Faithful is faithful.  But folks today are more fickle than faithful it seems, fair-weather fans, far more subject to winds of whim and caprice, easily offended, ready to find fault and complain and leave for greener pastures, better opportunities, better results, a better show, more flash and panache (or less, depending on your tastes).  

-And then there’s Demas.  Oh, Demas.  He is also mentioned in the companion letter to Philemon (Philemon 24) and in Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy (2Timothy 4.10), but it is there where we learn that eventually Demas will desert Paul.  He will abandon Paul and the work of the Good News over love of ‘the world’.  He got what he thought was a better offer apparently - disloyalty at its finest.  He had harbored or cultivated a taste and an appetite for something the world offered, a nice tuft of cotton candy, a tasty morsel of manure, something temporal, something less inconvenient and less uncomfortable no doubt, and he chose that instead.  Oh, may the Lord grant me the grace to avoid a similar fate, to choose the eternal over the temporal, to steadfastly pursue what He wants and to be found faithful till the end when i will see Him face to face, to hear Him say, ‘well done’...