In the 2nd and 3rd chapters of John’s apocalypse we see some of the most pastorally poignant writing in Revelation: the letters to the churches. These letters were penned to actual churches located in modern day Turkey. And these letters continue to be relevant to the life of the church today; even now you have your faithful Smyrnas pleasing to the Lord, and your lukewarm Laodecias, teetering on the edge of judgment and oblivion.
I want to look at two of these churches: Ephesus and Thyatira. On the surface, you could not find two more different churches: Ephesus with its doctrinal purity and emotionlessness, and Thyatira with its warm, embracing nature and theological heedlessness. Ephesus was in some ways a truly commendable church. The Lord gave them two very meaningful commendations: they could not tolerate evil, and they tested the claims of those who come bearing a word from God. They found them to be false witnesses, and drove them out. Yet, the Lord chided them for “abandoning their first love.”
Thyatira, on the other hand, was a church that was loving. Christ said he knew their love and faith. These were clearly discernible, and flowed out in their service to God and to people. Put in modern words, they were a church intent upon “living the gospel”. Yet, he had a criticism to level against them: they tolerated false teachers. They allowed anti-gospel teaching to infiltrate the church and put the church itself in danger of falling under the wrath of God.
These two churches illustrate a divide we often see today: Love vs Doctrine. Too many churches place such a priority upon “loving people” that they fail to heed all that scripture teaches about the Law, and Holiness, and indeed even about the purity of the Church. In such churches compromises are made, sins ignored or even celebrated as “inclusive” or “tolerant” (both are words God hates in their modern definitions). On the other hand, you have the Ephesuses of the world. These churches practice doctrinal rigor, but in a life choking way. Doctrinal purity, if pursued rightly, is life giving and enhances the vitality of the church. But these churches are so concerned with making sure to check every box that in the process they lose their love for God and for their neighbor, thereby nullifying their practice of the two great commandments.
These are two different problems to which Christ, through John, gives the same solution: repent. Has the love of your heart for Christ grown cold, even while your theological rigor remains strong? Christ says repent, return to your first love. Have you failed to maintain purity, allowing worldly teaching and philosophy to cloud and taint the doctrine of your heart or that of your church? Repent, repudiate the works of the world, cast off every form of worldly inclusivism that may have crept in, and cultivate the zeal for God that caused Christ to drive the money changers out of the temple with a whip.
In a simple way, the answer to all of our problems is the same, though in practice it takes a myriad of different forms. If we slip away, the corrective is always the same: return to Christ. Stop making something in our lives more important than his word, his will, his presence. In Revelation 2 and 3, at the end of each letter, Christ enumerates the rich rewards that attend those who faithfully hold to him. It is my prayer that each one of you partakes of the good things which abundantly flow from the hand of God to those who faithfully cling to him.