“I know your deeds. But..."

Revelation 2:18-3:6 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this:

¹⁹ ‘I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. ²⁰ But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. ²¹ I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. ²² Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. ²³ And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. ²⁴ But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them—I place no other burden on you. ²⁵ Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come. ²⁶ He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; ²⁷ and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father; ²⁸ and I will give him the morning star. ²⁹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

3 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:

He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. ² Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. ³ So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. ⁴ But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. ⁵ He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. ⁶ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Again today as we read the messages to the churches in Thyatira and Sardis, let’s not concern ourselves so much with who they were and what it may have meant to them, but because this is a prophetic message, speaking of a future time, one which has not yet come even now, let’s look to see what the message may be for us today. The first exhortation, to the church is:  “I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.”     As with the previous exhortations, there is a commendation to the church for the things they/we do well. But the Lord doesn’t want us to do some things well. He wants us to be like Him. In Matthew 5:48 Jesus says:  "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”   In Leviticus 19:2 God says:  You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.   Remember the very first exhortation from yesterday’s text in Revelation 2:4:    “I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”    It is not enough that we do some things well in serving God. Jesus says, first and foremost:   “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.” (Matthew 22:37)   The world tries to say that in order to demonstrate the love of God, we need to tolerate the immoral choices of others. The Lord says that tolerance is not love. In fact He holds the tolerance and teaching of immorality against the church. He says:  “I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality.”    Time and patience with sinners is God’s mercy and grace. 2 Peter 3:9 says:  The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.  Romans 5:8 says:  God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  John 3:16 says:  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”    God’s love is not demonstrated in tolerance of immorality and sin. It is demonstrated in that Jesus came and died for our sins. God’s love is seen and known through repentance, believing in Jesus and what He did. The Lord says:  “I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.”          James 4:4-6 says:  You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? But He gives a greater grace.   God’s grace is not tolerance of sin, but rather time to repent. None of us know though when that time will be up either individually or for everyone. Those who tolerate immorality in the church are called to repent.

Along that same line the next exhortation to the church is:   “I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”    This brings to mind what Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23:  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”     Our deeds, even prophesying, casting out demons and performing miracles in the name of Jesus are not complete in His sight if we soil our garments, practicing lawlessness, choosing sin over God’s love and grace demonstrated in the cross.   The Lord says:  Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain.  Like Jesus Himself was raised from the grave, we are called to die to self and walk in the resurrection power of Christ. What remains in us is the in dwelling Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that remains which we are to strengthen within ourselves. The Lord says:  “I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”   Our desire should be that we will hear the Lord say:   “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!” 

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You for Your love and grace, not that You tolerated and accepted my sin, but rather You came and died for it that I might repent and believe. Holy Spirit fill me, be strengthened within me that I might live as a demonstration of God’s love, not tolerating sin, but repenting and calling others to repent. May I walk in the fullness of the resurrection in this world, that I will one day hear You say:   “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!”     Amen.