2 Timothy 4:10

Ver. 10. The reason follows why he would have Timothy to make such haste to come to him: he now peculiarly needed his sympathy and support. For Demas forsook me, having loved this present world ἀγαπήσας, the participle as expressive of the cause = because he loved, or, through his love of, the present world. There can be no doubt, therefore, that this withdrawal of Demas was the result of carnal influences, and was regarded by the apostle in the circumstances as a dereliction of duty a kind of desertion of his post. It must have been all the more painful to Paul, as Demas had formerly stood near to him, and had once and again been mentioned with honour among his fellow-workers (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 1:24). Yet we should perhaps press what is said here too far, if we inferred from it that Demas had made total shipwreck of the faith in Christ. His unworthy conduct at this time may have been the temporary result of the violent measures which in the last mad days of Nero had begun to be taken against Christians at Rome. Demas was meanwhile alarmed at these, and under servile fear withdrew to a safer region: he is gone (says the apostle) to Thessalonica. But with what view we are not informed. It may have been, as Chrysostom states, his home; or it may have been to do some ministerial work, where it could be done with less risk; or, finally, to look after some worldly interest. The stress laid by the apostle on his love to the present world, renders the last supposition fully the most probable. And in that painful uncertainty as to his real state and future career, the notices we have respecting him leave us; and to make positive affirmations, either on the favourable or on the unfavourable side, is unwarrantable.

Crescens [is gone] to Gaul, (This is the reading of א, C, εἰς Γαλλίαν, also 23, 31, 72, 73, 80, several Latin codices, and has the distinct testimony of Euseb. Hist. iii. 4, Epiph. H. 51. Tisch. adopts it in his eighth edition. Even if Galatia were retained in the text, as it undoubtedly is in the larger number of authorities, we should probably have to understand by it Gaul, as Theodoret expressly states: εἰς Γαλατι ́ αν· τα ̀ ς Γαλλι ́ ας οὑ ́ τως ἐκα ́ λεσε adding that the ancients were wont so to call it. So, for example, Plutarch, Cers. c. 20; Polybi us, iii. 77, 87. Coupled with Thessalonica on the one side, and Dalmatia on the other, it is more likely that Gaul was meant by the word (whichever form was used) than the province in Asia Minor.) Titus to Dalmatia the latter a part of the province of Illyricum, on the eastern side of the Adriatic coast. Why these brethren left is not stated. They are not included in the blame associated with the name of Demas, yet we cannot say with Theodoret that they were absolutely free from blame, and that they were sent into those regions to preach the gospel. The probability is, that they did go with this design; but the language of the apostle implies that they went of their own accord, not that they were sent by him. Of Crescens no mention is made elsewhere, nor have we any reliable traditions of him.