I love you, but…

Posted by brandonwilson on July 2, 2010

As we progress further along into John’s letters to the seven churches, it’s interesting to notice a pattern developing. Jesus is quick to praise each church for the good they are doing, then letting loose on the things they need to change. It seems that churches haven’t really changed that much… we all only want to focus on what we’re doing right and sweep our failures and mistakes under the rug. If we’re as right with Jesus as we often lead others to believe, we should be willing to listen to His corrections in our lives. We, just like the church at Thyatira (Acts 2:18-29), are full of Christian arrogance.

Yes, God gives “authority over all nations” to those who hold tight and obey ‘til Jesus returns, but we tend to overlook those verses that chastise us. The Thyatirans showed great love, faith, service, and patience – all awesome characteristics – but also embraced the current culture of their day, which happened to be filled with idol worship and extensive sexual immorality. Sound familiar? It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the things in our surroundings that appear trivial… but as much as we justify our actions, these seemingly harmless things inevitably lead to actions that aren’t so trivial. Here, we see Jesus blatantly calling people (and us) out.

One of the greatest things to notice here is that though He calls us out, He does it with immense and incomprehensible love and mercy. Verse 21 even goes to tell how He gave the not-so-lovingly-called Jezebel of the city (who claimed to be a prophetess and was openly trying to entice people to join her in her “embrace” of the culture, all in the name of God) plenty of time and opportunities to turn from her immorality. If Jesus punishes her only after she completely refuses to accept His offer for forgiveness, how much more grace will He offer us who admit that we’re not always going to make the right choices, yet accept His offer of forgiveness?

Temptation is called temptation for a reason… none of us are immune; we all fall short and make mistakes. The question is, do we love God enough to call sin, sin?

Grace and peace, friends!

PJ