How is the Church Doing?

Continuing to see the words to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, we get somewhat of a performance appraisal on the early churches. And once again, we see that the book of the Bible that people usually turn to for answers to the future gives us sound advice for the hear and now. Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us there is nothing new under the sun. Could it be that the problems that faced the early church are still problems it faces today?

Jesus starts by telling the church at Ephasus that they have lost their first love--their love for God and for others (2.4). The fact that they worked hard, didn't fall for false doctrine and patiently endured couldn't compensate for falling out of love for God. To the churches in Pergamum and Thyatira, he takes issue with allowing false teaching and relaxed morality (2:14-15, 20-21). He rebukes the church in Sardis for appearing to be alive but in reality being spiritually dead (3:1-2). Jesus' words for the church in Laodicea are even harsher--wretched, pitiable, poor, blind (3:17)---because the are neither hot or cold in their faith (3:15-16).

Now that we've heard directly from the Lord regarding the condition of the early churches, the big question is--How are we doing? Have we lost our love for God and for others? Do we tolerate watered-down doctrine rather than holding fast to Biblical truth? Do we condone sinful behavior to fit in to today's sliding moral standards? Do we just go through the motions and play church as if it is just another activity in our over-crowded schedule?

Knowing that Jesus loves the church so much that he went to the cross and died for it should makes us take this self-appraisal seriously. Would Jesus praise our church like he did with the church in Philadelphia (3:7-13); finding that we have kept his Word, patiently endured and not denied Him? Our Lord did his part. Let's make sure we do ours.