Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. [Revelation 2.29]
Are we listening?
In John's record of what Jesus said to the first four of the seven churches, we who are reading the One Year Chronological Bible already see some clues to help our understanding of how this applies to us and prompts our proper response today.
The good things done in these first four churches are not overlooked. In fact, they are recognized and commended first and foremost. Jesus undeniably encouraged each of these churches. Of these first four churches however, only Smyrna was not scolded. The other three had "complaints" addressed to which were assigned an action item to correct. That action item was repentance.
Are we listening?
The outstanding complaint against the Church at Ephesus was that they had grown lax in their love of God and each other.
But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. [Revelation 2.4-5]
I will point out that in the Church today, there exist non-Biblical ideas about "putting up with people." These ideas suggest that we "love" people, but distance ourselves from their drama. While this all sounds great to modern society and makes widely appealing social media memes, it has no Biblical foundation (ref. 1 Corinthians 13.4-7). In fact, if we are not exercising Biblical love toward our brothers and sisters in the Church, there is simply no foundational understanding for how we are to love God. Just in the last couple of days we read in the OYCB the following passage:
If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers. [1 John 4.20-21]
The other complaints listed in today's OYCB reading have to do with "sexual sin" and "food offered to idols." These problems were noted in the churches of Pergamum and Thyatira. Mind you, Jesus did first encourage and commend these two churches (as with Ephesus and Smyrna), but there were indeed stern words eliciting repentance in the areas of sexual sin and food offered to idols.
For us today to deny the presence of sexual sin in the Church would be ludicrous. With the increased availability of the internet and the lack of accountability associated with it (not to mention the overwhelmingly universal use of sexual appeal and innuendos in modern marketing of goods and services), even otherwise 'strong believers' struggle with sexual sin. Does this mean they are hopelessly lost? It would not seem so simply because Jesus first commended the churches involved in such sin before mentioning the "bad." However, without genuine repentance (turning away) from such sin, any person practicing it cannot expect blessings from God, but instead obstacles of Divine proportion.
Because sexual sins are both desensitizing and infectious, we must exercise our knowledge and trust of God's Word to help us recognize their presence so that we might turn away from them. This means that if we feel like we are "fighting against God," or live in a continue "bed of suffering," sexual sin might just be the cause (whether the things we justify seeing or hearing arouse us or not). Curses do not come without a cause. And, before we mindlessly declare, "Grace!" we MUST understand the following words of Jesus for the seven churches ARE FOR THE CHURCH TODAY IN THE AGE OF GRACE:
Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth. [Revelation 2.16 (said of Pergamum)]
Therefore, I will throw her on a bed of suffering, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer greatly unless they repent and turn away from her evil deeds. [Revelation 2.22 (said of Thyatira)]
Are we listening?
The "food offered to idols" presents a challenge for us to contemporize to our modern day. However, anyone who has followed along with me in this last year has seen my increased recognition of idolatry's current presence among us. Idolatry is arguably more prevalent today than at any other time in history but it's just not as identifiable as it once was because of its infiltration in almost every facet of contemporary life as we know it. The fact that Jesus addressed this to the seven churches tells us that He is addressing it to us today. It begs then to be understood that the idols of our day are nefariously masked against detection by anyone except the most Bible-knowledgeable Christ follower.
We "consume" goods and services we have neither yet worked for, nor can afford to maintain. We "consume" health remedies from companies whose motives for true healing are questionable at best without the slightest inclination to repent (because sickness and disease are curses). And we "consume" ease to the point of mindless and workless existence. Debt, insurance, medicine and technology all offer and sell at a premium to us their "food" for what God said He would supply in His Kingdom economy of love and justice. Eating "food offered" to the idols of debt, insurance, medicine and technology is our unbridled wholesale consumption of their benefits. It is no secret that the largest of these industries also promote themselves in godlike fashion while supporting and openly encouraging God-less lifestyle.
Are we listening?
Jesus didn't make His repeated statement to John for no reason! JESUS' WORDS ARE TIMELESS AND THEREFORE APPLY TO US TODAY!
Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. [Revelation 2.29]
The prevailing remedy to all that may be found wrong in the Church today is repentance. In fact, for this reason, repentance should be part of every gathering of believers BECAUSE IT IS WHAT THE SPIRIT IS SAYING TO THE CHURCHES!
Father, forgive us for our participation in all that is wrong in the Church today. We have succumbed to sexual sins and have eaten food offered to idols. While confessing "I repent" is a start, may our actions prove our repentance by continually exposing and turning away from these sins at their relentless onset and solicitation. May we be found humble and repentant always so that You might have Your way in and through us. So be it.
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