With Arms High and Heart Abandoned

As you know, I started studying Revelation a few weeks ago. I am really loving the study of this book -- there is so much to grasp and there is a ton of concepts that I can apply to my life now. It is not just a book about the end times of the world as we know it and our future -- it is a book that can encourage and teach us. Chapters 2 and 3 talk about seven different churches and the things they are doing right and the things they are doing wrong. We can learn from each of them.

1. The Church in Ephesus -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE CARELESS CHURCH. This church had a lot of works - they served. They also endured patiently and did not grow weary in their works for God. However -- they were not motivated by love. They may have done great works for the church, but they did not do them out of love -- it was more of a duty or a labor. They had lost their passion for Christ. We must continually grow and continually immerse ourselves in our first love - Christ. We must not lose the passion we have - the passion we may have had when we first believed. It is easy for it to fade, but we must keep reminding ourselves to not let it fade.

2. The Church in Smyrna -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE CROWNED CHURCH. Symrna was an important center of the Roman imperial cult and any person refusing to acknowledge Caesar as lord would be outcast. There were also a lot of Jews here that persecuted Christians. Thus, this church was feeling persecuted from all sides - the Jews and the Romans. This church was told to not fear the suffering - and if they were faithful unto death, then they would be given the crown of life. We may feel persecuted in our own lives -- most likely not to the point of death as they were - but emotionally - we must remain steadfast and keep our hope in the future. We must remember that "when we have assurance for the future, we have stability in the present."

3, The Church in Pergamum -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE COMPROMISING CHURCH. Some in this church held fast to the name of Christ, however, others in the church compromised and held to the teaching of the false god of Balaam. We may not have false gods in the same way in our lives or our churches -- there may not be a statute that people are sacrificing to - but there are other gods in our lives -- it could be a relationship or reputation or work or friends or tv or whatever. Anything we put ahead of Christ is a compromise. And anything we do in order to appease those around us that goes against what we believe is a compromise.

4. The Church in Thyatira -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE CORRUPTED CHURCH. This church's main issue was that they tolerated evil among them. They allowed and condoned those in their church to openly sin. They tolerated it. They did not speak the truth and come up beside their fellow church members to try to encourage God's ways and they did not intervene when members were tolerating the evil among them.

5. The Church in Sardis -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE FEEBLE CHURCH. This church was living on their past glory. "When church leaders get accustomed to blessings and complacent in the ministry, that is when Satan comes in." This church apparently used to have an amazing reputation, but they became complacent. They did not continue to grow. It was as if they had died. We need to be continually growing and not rely on the fact that we have been believers for many years. Each day we must take our faith and grow it. We must wake up.

6. The Church in Philadelphia -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE FAITHFUL CHURCH. I love verse 8b of this section - "I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name." This church knew that they may be weak, but with the power of Christ they were strong. They did not deny Christ. They lived His name out.

7. The Church in Laodicea -- Warren Wiersbe calls this THE FOOLISH CHURCH. This church had become lukewarm. They were not hot -- they were not on fire for Christ, living for Him. They were not cold - they were not hating Christ. They were just lukewarm. They made no difference. They took no stance. They lost their vigor. They lost their vision.

Looking at all of these seven churches, it is clear that we can learn something from all of them. It seems to me that the main issues of the churches were that they did not continue to grow, they did not keep their passion for Christ alive. They became lukewarm. They began to tolerate sins among them. They became complacent. There are issues in our churches and in our lives today. We must become accountable to each other and to ourselves in order to stop such a cycle from continuing.