Commendation of the Churches

In the book of Revelation, Jesus comments on the conduct of seven of His churches in Asia. Although he compliments and encourages some of them for their righteous conduct, he also reprimands some of them for their failures and shortcomings. He saw problems in His churches that demanded immediate attention and action. But the problems weren't unique to those churches. Similar problems may and do exist in the churches of Christ today. Problems that carry the same consequences and warrant the same responses as those mentioned in Revelation. So let us look to the failures of those churches and learn what to guard against in the church today.

One of the problems Jesus pointed out was their ""lukewarm"" Christianity. ""Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth"" (3:16). In what ways were they lukewarm? The church in Laodicea had some members who placed more faith in their riches than in God. They were rich physically, but poor spiritually. They failed to see just how dependent they actually were on God, and therefore did not try to develop their relationship with Him. To the church in Ephesus Jesus said, ""you have left your first love"" (2:4). Here's an example of people who loved Christ initially, but eventually let that love become dull. They were probably insincere and ritualistic in their worship. And to the church in Sardis He said, ""You are alive, but you are dead. I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God"" (3:1-2). They appeared to be faithful on the outside, but inside they were useless. Obviously, they were not putting enough effort into their walk with God. They were half-hearted and not growing as they should have been.

Another problem reprimanded by Jesus was the toleration of false teaching in the churches. The churches' false teachers were compared to Balaam (2:14) and Jezebel (2:20) whose teachings placed stumbling blocks before the people. The motivation behind their teachings was money, popularity, and other selfish desires instead of the pursuit of truth and sincere worship. But the emphasis here is not so much on the false teachers themselves as it is on the toleration of false teaching. The churches were allowing false teachers to remain in their presence. As a result, the churches eventually became passive to the teachings, or they believed and participated in things that were contrary to the will of God. What the churches were failing to do was discipline their members. Jesus said, ""Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline"" (3:19). If we truly love Christ's church and its members and want to do what is best, we'll do likewise. So, as soon as error was first introduced into the congregation, the false teacher should have been confronted and the error should have been removed.

A third fault mentioned in Revelation to be a problem in the church is a lack of repentance. After pointing out the errors of the churches Jesus offered each of them the opportunity to repent from their sins before He would take action against them. Unfortunately, not everybody was interested. Jesus said about the false teacher at Thyatira called Jezebel, ""I gave her time to repent; and she does not want to repent of her immorality"" (2:21). Jesus said that she would be punished for her stubbornness, and that any who continued following her would be punished as well. We do not know whether the other churches heeded Christ's warning to repent or not, but we do know that they would have been punished for their refusal.

Jesus has clearly revealed to us his desire for the conduct of His churches. But how many churches of Christ do we see today that suffer from ""lukewarm"" attitudes toward God, high tolerances for sin and false teaching, and members who do not care to repent of their sins? If we don't learn from the mistakes made by these churches, we are doomed to repeat them and suffer the same consequences.