“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’”
Revelation 2:1-7
In Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus, with “eyes of flaming fire,” speaks to 7 churches. 5 out of the seven, 70%, received a warning with severe consequences if they didn’t make significant changes. Jesus didn’t find fault with the last two churches and encouraged them to keep going.
He began with the church of Ephesus. They were strong in the truth, didn’t tolerate sin, and persevered through tough times, yet, Jesus hit them with “Repent or else I will end you” (my paraphrase) for allowing their love of doctrine to surpass their love of God. Moreover, when a church is hyper-busy, doing, doing, doing, the first thing to go is often the prayer life, the main power line of our love for God.
Recently, I heard a pastor say we should “make the Bible our first love.”
I love God’s word, but my first love is the God who penned the Bible through His people. As Jesus stated, you can be all about the truth but still shoot wide off the mark. Just ask the Pharisees, many of whom ended up in hell.
”You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”
– John 5:39-40
“A person’s soul is in grave danger when the knowledge of doctrine surpasses Jesus, avoiding intimate touch with Him.”
– Oswald Chambers
“It is true that some of the most cantankerous and cold-hearted Christians are loudest in their censure of false doctrine. Nobody in pulpit or pew needs revival more than a bitter-spirited fundamentalist with his dispensations right and his disposition wrong.”
– Vance Havner
Up next were the churches of Pergamum and Thyatira, who were confronted for allowing sexual sin to continue unchallenged and standing by while false teachers corrupted the church with lies. As a result, they were on the receiving end of more “repent or else” warnings. Pergamum was given, “Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth” (2:16).
When Jesus goes to war, He never loses.
Thyatira heard: “I gave her (Jezebel) time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead.”
Don’t breeze by those warnings to those who are engaging in sexual sin. “Striking her children dead” wasn’t an idle threat.
Vance Havner nails the core issue with these two churches:
“In Pergamos and Thyatira we find broad minded, tolerant church members who never take a stand against Balaam or Jezebel, spiritual worldliness, or false doctrine. They think the status quo in the church should never be disturbed, that we should accentuate the positive and never deal with or discipline delinquency. Our church rolls are loaded with worldlings—baptized pagans who love the world and the things of the world, whose gods are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Some have never been saved and some are backsliders.”
Havner wrote these words in 1953.
Next up was Sardis, who “had the reputation of being alive but are dead.” It was a well-dressed corpse. How do Christians get in this place? By allowing the love of the pleasures of this world rot them from the inside out, wallowing in sin, and having little to no prayer life. Jesus hit them with “Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.” (Rev. 3:3)
The people of the church of Sardis heard the truth but didn’t live it or obey it. The church is meant to be a holy boot camp, not a comfort-driven entertainment venue.
Laodicea was the last of the five Jesus confronted:
“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” (Rev 3:15-19)
Many scholars believe that to be “cold” is to be an unbeliever. How could it be that Jesus would rather they be spiritually dead than lukewarm?? An unbeliever can be brought to the end of themselves and saved. But the lukewarm, who have little hunger for God, dabble in prayer, compromise with sin, are entertainment and comfort driven, yet think they’re good with God, may be significantly harder to bring to repentance.
“Hot” has to do with “Fervid, burning, boiling.” We’re either all in for God or we’re faking it. Jesus used some of the strongest words seen in Scripture to describe a church when he called them vomit.
“Hot” doesn’t mean walking around with a fake smile and acting like life is a breeze. This is the way of the lukewarm. No one was hotter than Jesus. He surely wasn’t smiling when He prayed in agony in the garden of Gethsemane or when He flipped over tables and whipped the salesmen in the temple. A hot Christian is one who is committed to a life of surrender, prayer, suffering, and obedience, no matter the cost or what others do. God is their first love, far above everyone and everything else. You will find a hot Christian on their knees while many other believers are glued to their screen.
Now we come to Smyrna and Philadephia; the two churches the Lord had nothing against. Jesus described them as poor (2:9), and having “a little power.” They were under intense spiritual oppression. I imagine a small church with a plain building and few material resources when I read about Smyrna and Philadelphia. Those who have little to nothing in the physical realm are more apt to put a heavy emphasis on the things that matter and have true spiritual power, such as prayer meetings, heart-level fellowship, and teaching all of the truth. Since Jesus didn’t find fault with Smyrna and Philadelphia, we can believe that they kept their love for God first, stood for the truth, didn’t run from sexual sin, were “hot”… burning, boiling with love for Him, and willing to endure suffering and persecution.
The 5 churches Jesus confronted must have been shocked. They thought their teaching, works, programs, and growing church attendance meant they were right in God’s eyes. Maybe they had a strong missions program, a good worship team.
“Repent or else” must have hit hard.
Hopefully, they took his warnings seriously and made significant changes.
Just because a church has a gifted communicator for a pastor, a big building, or all the other bells and whistles doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t be one of the 70% Jesus confronted. If we apply the math from Revelation 2 and 3 to the present day, every modern church has a 70% chance, if not higher, that they would hear “Repent or else.”
Some believers might think, “Naaah, my church is fine. It’s other churches who have those problems, not us.” Umm, yeah, with 70% of men (including many pastors) and one third of women viewing porn, youth hitting the exits for decades, 10% of professing Christians reading the Bible daily, little equipping in spiritual warfare, and many churches without one prayer meeting, only an arrogant church would dare to assume they wouldn’t be on the receiving end of Jesus’ warnings.
But let’s make it personal.
Where is your relationship with God on the hot/lukewarm/cold thermometer?
Boiling-fervent and paying the cost of discipleship, barely registering any warmth and pegging the lukewarm middle, or bottom-cold?
Are you compromising with the world and playing with sin?
How’s your prayer life? Hours of entertainment and minutes in prayer doesn’t bode well that God is your first love.
Is there spiritual fruit from your life? Is your passion to make your life count for eternity, no matter how intense the spiritual warfare might get?
The time to ask these questions is today, not when your life is expiring. For all you know you might have several months to live. These black and white questions demand black and white answers; Jesus’ warnings are razor-sharp and not to be ignored.
Even so, look for Jesus’ heart in His warnings.
He didn’t abruptly take out the 70% of the churches he confronted. He gave each of them a way out and time to take the action steps needed to change.
Revelation 3:19 show us His heart:
“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.”
He loves His people. He knows we’re weak and prone to allowing the influences of this world (and even misguided churches) to throw us off the rails.
Focus on “zealous.” Repentance requires taking immediate, all-out, no-compromise, action steps. Turn off your phone/TV/device and fire up your prayer life. Get help if you’re in bondage to sin, now. Break off relationships that take you into sin. Go hard after God. Soak in His word every day. Forgive. Release. No more compromise with the world, regardless of what other Christians are doing or saying. Count the cost and pay the price. Focus on the eternal.
