{"id":5453,"date":"2020-11-23T02:37:15","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T02:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/?p=5453"},"modified":"2021-08-17T14:45:17","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T19:45:17","slug":"aaron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/23\/aaron\/","title":{"rendered":"Ephesus and Thyatira"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.7.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221;][et_pb_row _builder_version=&#8221;4.7.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.7.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221;][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;4.7.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221;]<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 In the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> and 3<sup>rd<\/sup> chapters of John\u2019s apocalypse we see some of the most pastorally poignant writing in Revelation: the letters to the churches.\u00a0 These letters were penned to actual churches located in modern day Turkey.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0I want to look at two of these churches: Ephesus and Thyatira.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Ephesus was in some ways a truly commendable church.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They found them to be false witnesses, and drove them out.\u00a0 Yet, the Lord chided them for \u201cabandoning their first love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0Thyatira, on the other hand, was a church that was loving.\u00a0 Christ said he knew their love and faith. These were clearly discernible, and flowed out in their service to God and to people.\u00a0 Put in modern words, they were a church intent upon \u201cliving the gospel\u201d.\u00a0 Yet, he had a criticism to level against them: they tolerated false teachers.\u00a0 They allowed anti-gospel teaching to infiltrate the church and put the church itself in danger of falling under the wrath of God.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0These two churches illustrate a divide we often see today: Love vs Doctrine.\u00a0 Too many churches place such a priority upon \u201cloving people\u201d that they fail to heed all that scripture teaches about the Law, and Holiness, and indeed even about the purity of the Church.\u00a0 In such churches compromises are made, sins ignored or even celebrated as \u201cinclusive\u201d or \u201ctolerant\u201d (both are words God hates in their modern definitions).\u00a0 On the other hand, you have the Ephesuses of the world.\u00a0 These churches practice doctrinal rigor, but in a life choking way.\u00a0 Doctrinal purity, if pursued rightly, is life giving and enhances the vitality of the church.\u00a0 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u00a0These are two different problems to which Christ, through John, gives the same solution: repent.\u00a0 Has the love of your heart for Christ grown cold, even while your theological rigor remains strong?\u00a0 Christ says repent, return to your first love.\u00a0 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?\u00a0 Repent, repudiate the works of the world, cast off every form of worldly\u00a0<span style=\"color: black;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"white-space: pre-wrap;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"> 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 In the 2nd and 3rd chapters of John\u2019s apocalypse we see some of the most pastorally poignant writing in Revelation: the letters to the churches.\u00a0 These letters were penned to actual churches located in modern day Turkey.\u00a0 And these letters continue to be relevant to the life of the church today; even now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"<!-- wp:divi\/placeholder \/-->","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[154,155],"class_list":["post-5453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-ephesus","tag-thyatira"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6304,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5453\/revisions\/6304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}