Here we start with the first of seven letters written to specific congregations - from Jesus himself! Wow. And while the letters are addressed to these very real congregations, there is much we can learn from them to.
One thing I noticed while reading the seven letters is how Jesus introduces himself in a different way each time that is directly related to what's going on in that church. The effect for them is that it certainly speaks directly to them and their situation and makes a strong point! The effect for me is that I get a really insightful picture of who Jesus is and what He's done through the very words He uses to describe Himself!
He always starts His letters with the positive (assuming there are some) to build them up and encourage them. Isn't this how we too should deal with matters?
"The truth of Scripture is readily available to us. Many of us have known it all our lives. Yet for us too, there exists the danger of taking it for granted and losing it." *
Baptized as an infant and brought up by my parents in the faith, I have never known "not knowing Jesus". I was recently reminded of how precious a gift this is by a fellow sister-in-Christ who related her own story of having fallen away for 10 years of her life. She says it didn't happen overnight - it was insidious. She tearfully recounted having been brought to her knees in repentance to the Lord after this 10 year period and found forgiveness and restoration through Jesus!
May we all find our strength in Jesus' gracious promise, "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." Rev 2:7b
*words written in italics are taken from our devotional book, "Behold, I am Coming Soon!" by Bruce McKenney, Jonathan Meyer and James Rath. Published by Northwestern Publishing House.
5 comments:
Rachel, thank you for the point about the way Jesus introduces himself to each of the churches! I'm excited to explore that in the coming days.
In my experience with Revelation, what is said to the church in Ephesus has been the most relatable to me. I was baptized as an infant and was part of a Lutheran extended family, had Lutheran friends, went to a Lutheran elementary school... You get the idea. Lutheran was kind of assumed to be "who we are and what we do" - in a sense, our culture - rather than "what God has made us by grace through faith in Christ." There wasn't much talk (outside of "official religious discussions - sermons, devotions, Bible lessons, etc.) of the battles being fought inside of us each day between our sinful nature and our Spirit-filled nature, and how our gracious God would daily cover our failures with the righteousness of Christ.
In my circles, we had become really good at working hard and persevering and being intolerant of wicked people and false apostles. We might even be willing to endure hardships for the name of Christ (although we had learned pretty easy ways to avoid those too by separating ourselves from "wicked people and false apostles"...). We had not grown weary (maybe because we were taking the easy road?).
And yet, the passion of "the love we had at first" was missing. Religious activities became "ho-hum."
I like to read the book of Ephesians as the beginning of the story, and then Revelation 2:1-7 is kind of an update or status report on that church. Ephesians describes what the church was like before it lost the love it had at first. Perhaps the advice Paul gives this church in the book of Ephesians is part of the key to remedying what Jesus says he "has against" the church when we fast forward only about 30 years.
And perhaps the book of Ephesians contains helpful advice about how to combat a "ho-hum" attitude in complacent Christians today.
I LOVE your idea in reading Ephesians first and then this section!!! Brilliant:) I am going to do that!
Great idea to reread Ephesians! Always a good read! To get a picture of the conditions under which the church in Ephesus was established, you can also read Acts 19.
Great idea, KG, about getting even more info about the Ephesians and how they got their start in Acts 19. Thanks be to God for giving us so much information about this group of early Christians!
I agree! Thanks for sharing the Acts 19 reference.
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