The Loveless Church of Ephesus

Introduction

Perhaps we all know a person or a business that starts with the best of resources and the best of possible intentions that ends up becoming a disaster and hurts, rather than helps those people around it. We can think of companies that started with products created to help people but then become corrupt in corporate scandals involving greed. We can think of politicians who simply wanted to make their country better but then became willing to cut corners or mistreat those who they thought were making their country worse. Maybe we can think of ourselves where we tried to “fix” something and ended up making it worse!

We saw last week that the church at Ephesus had the best possible person in the apostle Paul to encourage and guide their future, especially their leadership. Paul warned the Church at Ephesus that “wolves” would come from within their own ranks and seek to tear apart the flock. Keith Ford list’s the “Four D’s of Shepherding” as 1) Disciple, 2) Directing to Jesus, 3) Defend and 4) Discipline. The apostle Paul demonstrated these to the elders at Ephesus. He noted to them in Acts 20 that his own life was a model to be imitated (v18), that he taught them publicly and privately (v19), he taught them Jesus (v21,27) and he taught them discipline in guarding the flock by watching the leadership (vv28-31). The apostle Paul left them with a tremendous amount of resources, which included his own example and the Scriptures.

In fact, one of the leaders that emerged as a young pastor at Ephesus was Timothy, Paul’s travel and ministry companion. The letters written to Timothy are written to him in the context of his ministry at Ephesus. You can take some time to read through those, along with Acts 19 and 20 to refresh your memory about this very vibrant and thriving church. We did not get to hear from Pastor Gama last week because he was ill, but he was going to mention that the church at Ephesus was already “particularized” (as we say in PCA circles!) as it had formal leadership of a plurality of elders.

The question we want to ask is what happened to this church? Why is Jesus so harsh with this church? He basically threatens to de-church this church. What did they do?

As we go through this letter, something to keep in mind is that the book of Revelation is a letter, but a prophetic letter. Prophecy is not merely, or even primarily about “foretelling” the future. It is more about “forthtelling” the word of God in order to obey. That is, God’s word comes to us and gives us options to obey or disobey, but nothing in between. There is no neutrality once God reveals his will.

The letter itself will guide our exposition this morning. Let’s look at the greeting and what they got right in verses 1-3, what they got wrong in verse 4, Jesus’ exhortation to repent in verses 5-7. What they got right, what they got wrong, a chance to change.

What They Got Right

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write…” There is a lot of questions about who or what this “angel of the church” is. Is it the pastor? This does not seem likely as the second person pronoun, “your,” is plural so this is while angel is singular. All we can say is that there is a cosmology that the Bible presents for us in which a single angel is in charge of corporate bodies. This is not unfamiliar as you see “angels” in charge of or representing nations in the book of Daniel, chapter 10. G. K. Beale suggests, “The point of this seems to be to remind the churches that their primary existence is spiritual and that they have help ready for them in heaven.”

“…write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.’” This image of Jesus has already been introduced in 1:12-20. Although Jesus is all that he describes himself as in chapter 1, he uses a particular description of himself to confront this church. The point of Jesus’ description of himself as one walking among the churches is that Jesus knows the in’s and outs of every single church. He is intimately aware and involved with each church. This evaluation, therefore, is above reproach. They have no possible retort in justification for their emphasis and neglect. Jesus, the king of the church, knows all that goes on in the church.

Thus, his next words: “I know…” Jesus knows. Jesus sees the dark spaces of the church that remain hidden. Jesus sees the hearts and minds of those tasked to lead it. Jesus sees those who are also marginalized in the church.

“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary…”

There is a lot to commend with this church. Jesus lists nine things that this church does right. Most of them are doctrinal in nature, particularly their guard against false doctrines as well as their willingness to endure suffering and even persecution because of their doctrinal stances. They have persevered in guarding the internal doctrinal purity of the church.

Although we did not get to hear from Gama last week regarding the rest of Acts 20, one of the things that the church of Ephesus was warned against was the rise of wolves from within their own ranks (both leaders and the flock) who would seek to tear apart the church. Notice what Paul told them to pay attention to in Acts 20:28: “Pay careful attention to yourselves…” Paul does not explicitly say to pay attention to doctrine, but to their whole lives. Why? Because doctrine is one part of the Christian faith but not the only thing. It is quite possible for a person to hide their sin behind all the right doctrines! They are exhorted here to pay attention to themselves, especially. They were to watch their lives and how they live. Paul demonstrated how to live among them as an example already. He had showed them how to be servant leaders not taking anything from anyone, even taking up part time work to live and support his own ministry.

Does this mean that doctrine can be neglected as long as I live a “good looking” life? No. Each one properly forms the other. Remember that “good works” are works done for the kingdom of God in the name and through the power of the king. If we misrepresent the king, then the works are not kingdom oriented and are not “good” in the sense that the King defines as good. When you read the letters to Timothy, the young pastor at Ephesus, Paul tells him as well to “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching” (1 Tim. 4:16). You can read through those letters to see how important “sound doctrine” is.

So this church gets an “A+” when it comes to their doctrine as well as their church discipline when it comes to handling those who deviate from “sound teaching.”

We need to commend this today. There are churches today that deviate from the sound doctrines of the Bible. There churches who do not believe in the Jesus that the Bible teaches even though they use his name. In fact, they are misusing his name. For instance, Jesus is not a genie in a bottle that we can say whatever we want to happen, attach “in Jesus name” to that desire and think that God has to comply simply because we invoke his name. Jesus does not owe you healing now, or money now, or a good life now. Every day is NOT a Friday!! The best is yet to come! We live in the overlap of the ages when the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit has already broken into this age but without overtaking the old just yet. Things are renewed from the inside out. Many people who profess Christianity today do so for selfish reasons: because they think this is a way out of suffering. They are wrong. To be a Christian is to be at war with the powers of this age, the world, Satan and his minions and our own sinful flesh. There is nothing “comfortable” about that. Christianity gives us tools to suffer well, here and now and enjoy the life to come in the midst of our enemies. The Bible says, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” However, they will form weapons against you. They will not prosper, but those weapons are forged and used!

There are churches that are built not on doctrine but on music styles. Time to step on some toes. There are churches that do not monitor the pulpit or their teachers because they attract people to their services based on the music style (entertainment) that they offer. Let’s be real: many people do not come to sound churches because they do not have a stage with a full band.

Let me give a local example from years ago. A local author and pastor, Raul Euresti, I decided to write a book against the doctrine of the Trinity. I wrote a 21 page review/critique and bebuttal of his work. I put it up on a blog. He contacted me and wanted to meet to discuss. We did and it was peaceful BUT we both agreed that our views of God and Christ were different. He was also in the middle of planting a church and focal point of his growth was their band. They sang all the top worship songs of that time (this would be around 2011-12 or so) and their band even won a “battle of the bands” held at the former “Trinity Worship Center” off the expressway. They ended up planting a church in Mission. I have not kept up with them for a few years, but people were willing to go to that church because of their awesome band and neglected their view about Jesus and how he relates to the Father and Holy Spirit.

I’m sure we could multiply examples, but the point needs to be made that doctrine matters. There is a body of teaching that is Christian and that excludes other teachings from it. We do not get to make up our doctrines. They must come from the Word of God, the Bible.

So sound doctrine is good. I’m thankful for things like Confessions and Creeds. They are great summaries of some of the teachings of the Bible. Since the Reformation, Protestant and Presbyterian bodies especially have come up with some excellent Confessions and catechisms. The Westminster Standards that the PCA follows are excellent, but not exhaustive of everything the Bible teaches as we will see. If you have never read through these documents, I would encourage you do so. There is also the Heidelberg Catechism or the New City Catechism which we have used here as well.

If you are a Christian and have not built up your doctrine, let the encouragement that Jesus gives to this church be your encouragement to do so as well. Know what you believe. Know what Christianity is so that you can discern what it is not. That is commendable about this church and what they got absolutely right. Don’t be fooled by the postmodern spirit of the age that we each have our “truth” or our “own interpretation” and hence cannot come up with Truth (capital T).

What They Got Wrong

To Reformed and Confessional churches, this church already sounds ideal. I know people who would already be salivating trying to become a member of this kind of church. In fact, this church almost sounds like Reformed and Presbyterian handling of doctrinal heretics. I mean think about Protestant history, and I’m not against it. But Protestant pride themselves in recognizing the false doctrine of Rome - and it is false. But Protestant history after that is the history of people breaking away from false teachers. Presbyterian history is not pretty by any means but conversative Presbyterian bodies do enjoy the fact that they call out the false teachings of other bodies.

According to the Reformers, the marks of a true church are the right preaching of the Word of God, the right administration of the sacraments, and the right exercise of church discipline. Just tuck that away for a second.

I’m all for doctrinally pure churches, please don’t hear me saying otherwise. However, we can become so good at recognizing heretics that we become the monster. Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster…for when you gave long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” What did he mean? He meant that you can become the thing that you hate. It is completely possible that the warnings to the church at Ephesus became their identity. They were the “heresy hunters.” They were the gatekeepers of doctrine. They were so wrapped up in that, that they missed something. They had become so introverted, so inward focused, so wrapped up in their own purity that their witness to the world was lost. They had just become an overzealous community of people who loved deciding who was “in” and who was “out.” Listen to Jesus:

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

What was this love? Who was it for? I think the way that we tend to want to understand this is that this is their love for God. In a sense, this is true. But it is also the easy answer. It is easy to say that, “you don’t love God the way you used to.” Why? Because that seems like something private and easy to fix. It is something that we can do on an individual level. I admit, that the first time that I taught through this text I proposed that Jesus was telling the church that they had abandoned their love for him and that they just needed to rekindle “that loving feeling.” However, when we let Scripture speak and tell us about the “first love” of the Ephesians, we get a totally different picture.

In Ephesians 1:15, we are told about the amazing love among the Ephesians that they were known for. Let’s read that together: “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints…”

The beginning of the church was always riddled with difficulties concerning Jewish and Gentile converts. They had race issues just like we have today. Jews very much wanted to retain their place at the head of the table within the people of God. We have already seen that in going through the book of Acts how much trouble Jews had in allowing Gentiles to be considered “Christian.” Peter had to be convinced by God himself through a vision that Gentiles had equal access to the covenant blessings. In Acts 15, Paul and other apostles were summoned to Jerusalem in order to “hash out” whether Gentiles needed to be circumcised in order to be considered “full members” of the new covenant. The book of Romans deals with Jew and Gentile issues. Galatians deals with problems between Jews and Gentiles. But Ephesus seems to be the church that got it right. I’m going to say that they got multicultural ministry right.

I’m saying that because they loved one another as Paul clearly states in Ephesians 1:15. How they did is what got Paul’s attention. When you read Ephesians, notice how Paul mentions the plan of God as uniting all things in heaven and earth together (1:10). The rest of chapter 1 and 2 go on to describe how God has united Jews and Gentiles into the same salvation and the same blessings being citizens of the same Kingdom. Even into chapter 3, the “mystery” of the gospel is that the Gentiles are “fellow heirs” of the “same body” and “partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (3:6). Even Paul’s famous prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 is because the church needs strength to continue loving each other as they are from different cultures and backgrounds. Churches around them are struggling to understand this and live it out, and the Ephesians started out right. Jews and Gentiles loved one another as a witness to the gospel and love of God.

Hopefully, the love that Jesus is talking about is clear from the text in Ephesians. If we let Scripture interpret Scripture, I don’t have to force the text in Revelation to say something the Bible does not. I let the Bible say it. Ephesians 1:15 is clear that the Church at Ephesus started out with a notable love for one another between Jewish and Gentile believers.

However, we need to say a little bit more about why this love was so incredible. It was so incredible because it was a powerful witness to Jesus and the gospel. This is what Jesus said in John 17:34-35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Not by your great doctrine, not by your great Creeds and Confessions, not by your cool buildings and programs. Love for each other is the great apologetic witness to the gospel. Despite the claims of many things, only Jesus Christ brings people truly together because he unites us together by the Holy Spirit.

Somehow, along the way, the Church stopped loving each other. They let something come in the way and they stopped treating each other with love.

Excursus about Love

What is love? Let’s let the Bible say a few things about love. First, let’s let the Bible tell us what love is from 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

The Greek word used for love here is agape, and is the highest form of love that is commanded. This kind of love is commanded which means that this is not the kind of love that leads with emotions or waits for emotions. It is a love that is a choice. It is a choice that wills the benefit of the beloved.

1 Corinthians tells us what this love looks like in action. The Corinthians had a boasting problem against each other as people tried to outdo others based on their spiritual gifts. They started to look down upon each other and create false heirarchies in the church and in the kingdom of God that God himself did not make. Paul told the Corinthians that they were missing the glue that could hold them all together: love. Love in action is patient and kind; versus quick to judge, cold and calculating. Love is not irritable or resentful versus quick-tempered, jealous and unforgiving. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing and seeks to correct it versus the kind of attitude that gets happy at wrongdoing because it gets to practice heavy-handed responses to sin. Love rejoices in the truth versus a culture that does not like to talk about hard truths to face because it is too concerned about image management before others. Why can hard things be faced and talked about? Because love bears all things. Love sticks. Love says something like, “I see your sin but I love you and we are going to get through this together” versus the attitude of “I see your sin and you’re not worth being part of us” or “You see my sin and I need to make sure that you forget about it quickly at all cost, even if I hurt you…”

Do you love the people of God? This should be part of our witness, and it is part of our witness whether we like it or not. Jesus gave the church the secret weapon for witnessing: your love for one another. Nowadays people want to make their Christianity known through their political stances, but Jesus never said our American politics - Republican or Democrat would be how people know we are disciples of Jesus. If our politics comes out more than our love for other Christians in particular, then we are really disciples of America and not Jesus. They will know YOU by your love for one another, which is the body of Christ. The Church has to love its own people especially. Yes, we love those outside as well, but not the same. We must love the body of Christ more and show it more. Sometimes we show more love to outsiders than we do to insiders. This is not acceptable by Christ standards.

The Reformers said that the marks of a true church were the right preaching of the Word of God, the right administration of the sacraments and the right exercise of church discipline. How come they did not mention love for each other? How come they did not mention simple getting along? I can’t answer for them all but can only say that they missed something vital that was important to Jesus: love for one another. Let’s continue…

Time to Repent

While we do not know how particularly this church neglected their love for each other, we do know that it affected their witness to Jesus. Remember that the primary task of the church is witnessing as per Acts 1:8 and Matthew 28:18-20. All of these things are a witness to the risen Christ. The Church at Ephesus had become so self-absorbed in its own purity that they missed each other and they missed Jesus in the midst of the Church. They had essentially exalted their own abilities to spot false doctrine and remove it but lost their witness to Jesus.

In all the letters to the other churches, every church is graded on the purity and extent of their being able to witness to Jesus. That’s one of the reasons why the churches are “lampstands” in chapter 1: because they are to be light-bearers. They are not the light, but they hold out the light for others to see (Think Jesus’ words to his followers: to be light on a hill). There are two churches, including Ephesus which are severely threatened. Three churches are considered in an already compromised state but not as severe as Ephesus. And only two churches - Smyrna and Philadelphia - are considered to be faithful witnesses in the midst of suffering and persecution.

Your witness is more important than you think. The corporate witness of the local church and churches is more important than you think.

I once taught a series on Jonah and titled a chapter something like, “The Church befor the watching world” in which Jonah was rebuked by the unbelieving sailors for not being a faithful servant of his God, Yahweh. In our individual culture, we do not think that what one person does from a group matters. We think individually, and not corporately. However, what people think about Jesus is directly affected by how Christians treat each other and how they relate to those outside the Church. Our American individualism has caused us to think that our actions or the actions of churches do not make a difference in the world. But they do. American Christianity is not one of the best witnesses to Jesus as we want Jesus to bless us with “the good life” and want material things. The prosperity gospel is interestingly American though the seed of it is certainly older than we know. People have always wanted a quid pro quo relationship with God or their idols. Many people think that Jesus really is a magic formula for blessing because of how popular and pervasive those teachings have become. It’s quite possible that some of us here have been involved in those teachings and still carry them with us.

Jesus tells this church to “Remember therefore from where you have fallen….” Ephesus had a history of love to remember. Not every church does. Let me bring up a historical example that can make us uncomfortable but we have to talk about. Ephesus was a multicultural church. It brought many nationalities and ethnicities together in Christ. America has not been a good witness to the multicultural unity that the gospel brings (Eph 2:11-22) (See, love tells the truth!). The history of American Christianity is tied to the history of racism, unfortunately. It was European Christians who excluded slaves and natives from the gospel in the name of Jesus. There are politicians who campaign on “learning the history of how the United States became the greatest country in the world,” but we need to talk about our sin and the things that the formation of America did in the name of Jesus to become “the greatest.” Christians stole. Christians raped. Christians murdered. Christians excluded from the gospel based on skin color.

True story: in the early in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, Black Christians were not allowed to worship or pray in particular spaces in the churches. This happened in all the mainline denominations in the United States. At one point, some Black Christians arrived early enough to worship near the front of the Church but when the white members began to arrive, they told them that they had to go upstairs to the loft area that was toward the back of the church. Recognizing their full rights and access to God from the Bible, Richard Allen and Absolom Jones walked out and started their own church where they could “draw close” to God. This is the history of the Black Church in America. This rift has never been healed.

Remember from where you have fallen. We have to recognize that we are part of a larger body of people, we are connected to the entire Church across history. We have to learn our history. We are part of American church history. We are part of European Church history. We are part of Mexican Church history. We are part of Scottish Church history. The church is organically connected across time. We are all one. How do you think about and treat other Christians?

In our day and age, the church can be more divided than ever. We find so many things to divide ourselves by including carpet colors! I’m serious too! Church splits get that ridiculous. Remember from where you have fallen. Remember the ideal that Jesus set for his church that we are to be one with him and one with each other. Other churches are not our enemies! Are they different? You bet they are! But can we work together and get along in Christ? We better! All we have to consider is Jesus’ words to this church that is so inwardly focused on itself and its own purity, its own brand that they neglected their witness in love for each other. So remember is the first admonition to fix the problem.

Second, is to repent. Repent. To repent means to have a change of mind. It can include stopping particular behaviors which will happen when mindsets that lead to the behaviors are changed. To repent includes fixing what you broke. Reparation and restoration (cf. Numb. 5:5-10). A lot of people think repentance simply means to “stop” doing something. It means more. With a change of mind comes a change of attitude to the effects of the acts that were committed. The best example is Zaccheus in Luke 19. When he realized that he had been defrauding people through over taxation, he decided to restore “four fold” what he had taken to make things right. He did not just “stop” taking money and keep what he had already taken. He confessed, repented and restored.

Third, do the works you did at first. Again, we do not have access to know all that they did and how they got along and so that part is lost for us. However, the command to repair and return to the things that ought to be done - which this church did right at the beginning - validates what I had just mentioned about repentance. Repentance and restoration go together. Return to the things to the proper condition before sin disrupted.

There is a stern warning if this church will not listen: “If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place, unless you repent.” Jesus tells them he will come and de-church this church. “They will cease to exist as a church when the very function that defines the essence of their existence is no longer performed.” Tradition has it that the apostle John, who wrote the book of Revelation was a pastor at Ephesus at the end of his life. When you read his letter of 1 John, have you ever noticed how much he talks about love? He says, things like, “whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness” (2:9); “whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother” (3:10); “And this is the commandment that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he commanded us” (3:23). Tradition has it that the apostle John, in his old age, would simply say, “Little children, love one another” to this congregation at Ephesus. I can’t tell you if the letter to Ephesus from Revelation was written first before he wrote his other letters. But it would seem that John was at least aware of the lack of love in the church at Ephesus and did everything he could to help that church repent and love one another so they could do the works they did at first. The familial language of “loving your brother” seems to allude to the story of Cain and Abel. That could be a hint of what kind of behaviors this doctrinally extraordinaire church was behaving amongst each other: rising up against one another with vengeance in their hearts.

Relationships in the church can be tough sometimes, believe me I know. But remember that Jesus died for each and every member of his church. The Church is comprised of those people whom Jesus laid down his life for. That means it cost Jesus his life so that you could be a member and others with you. The gospel reminds us that we have no right to kick out those who are blood bought believers. Yes, Christians do sin and sometimes church discipline is necessary to bring people to repentance but restoration is the goal, not vengeance or even punishment. Jesus took our punishment. Once repentance is achieved, church discipline ends. There are some people who think that church discipline is about punishment. There are some people who misuse church discipline to handle petty differences. This goes against the gospel. Ephesus had good reasons for conflict against those whose teachings were anti-Christian. However, they had horrible reasons for conflict as well, namely they had stopped loving one another. James 4 says, “What causes quarrels among you? Is it not that your passions are at war within you?”

Remember the gospel. Remember that Jesus took all of your sin and the sins of all his people. We have no right to boast against others and they have no right to boast against us. Do not hate the one for whom Christ died. Look at Christians through the lens of Jesus. They are forgiven. Yes, relationships in the church can be messy but Jesus bought them to be there just as much as he bought you. This is not a license to sin but rather a license to compassion toward others to want them to be what Jesus bought them to be. So you want their sanctification, not their destruction.

Jesus gives the church a bit of encouragement in their repentance. He says, “Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitan, which I also hate.” We do not know who or what this group was or what they did or believed. They could have been some of the early Gnostic groups that were pulling people away from Christianity and whom John refers to their teachings as “antichrist” in 1 John 2. But Jesus also offers a better and lasting value than their “heresy hunter” identity that they are stuck with: “to the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Those who respond to the message are promised final salvation.

According to historians, the church at Ephesus died in the middle of the second century. When you read the writing of Ignacio’s of Antioch and his letters to the church at Ephesus, they appeared to have done well in responding to the admonition to repent and love one another again. He wrote as late as 140 A.D. It would seem that shortly after he wrote, the church fell apart and ceased to exist for a time there.

Conclusion

Our witness to the gospel through our love for one another is serious business. Many churches are tearing each other apart based on things that are not the gospel but reflect idolatrous aspects of our culture. I will mention American politics again because many people who profess to be Christians will judge other people’s authenticity of their Christian faith based on which side of the political spectrum they fall on. They are willing to commit spiritual violence – even physical violence - against their brothers and sisters as they choose the way of Cain rather than to love each other. The divisions of our nations have become the divisions of the Church. Does that witness to Jesus or to America? I’m not saying to hate America, but we must know the place of the nations when it comes to the kingdom of God. Where is our love really being directed to? Do we just love our own kind or can we make a choice to love our other brothers and sisters who are not completely like us and show that the gospel is for all nations and for all people and tribes and languages and not just for those that look and talk like us be it form our nation or from our own denominations. Jesus said, “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even tax collectors do the same?” (Matt. 5:46). Now you can see why I said, the “God is your first love” interpretation is so easy because we can all say that we do it. We can all say we love God individually, but loving other people is hard.

If you haven’t seen Encanto, its a children’s movie that tries to make this point from within the dynamics of a family. Everyone in the family Madrigal has “gifts” except for Mirabel. The house they live in is an enchanted house (an Encanto) and the family is held together by it, so it seems. When the house starts to fall apart, nobody - except Bruno who has the gift of being a whisteblower - wants to acknowledge that the house is falling apart because of the broken relationships within the family. In order to save the house and the family, the giftless Mirabel is the key to fixing everything. When her and Bruno are looking for all the Mirabel has to do, she is excited to do a task to help. But when she realizes that she has to mend her relationship with her sister Isabella, she dreads it immediately. She was willing to do a task that did not involve relationship. Many Christians are willing to read more Bible, go to more church, serve more in ministries, etc… but not mend their relationships with each other. Jesus says, “if you don’t fix this, if you don’t love one another, then I’m taking my church from you because you are here to witness to me and the power of my gospel to restore and repair and unite things that seem forever broken. If you won’t, then you are useless to me.”

Church, do not lose sight of why you are here. You are here to witness to king Jesus and that we live under his rule. This church became so caught up in right doctrine and exposing false doctrines that they began living for themselves and their own but without loving their own. They began infighting. They began to live for an identity of purity and were willing to throw other each other under the bus missing the point of their witness to Jesus. When people look at how we love each other, are they drawn to it because it is different? Are they drawn to it because it is the same love they get in the world? Do people walk into church looking for something thats the same as they are? The same politics? The same culture? The same skin color? Jesus said Ephesus had it right at first: they loved each other as Jews and Gentiles and found their unity in Christ and that was a powerful witness against the world to the life transforming gospel of Jesus. May the church around the world take heed to what the Spirit says to the Churches! May the Spirit grant us ears to hear what the Spirit says. Amen.