I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
Revelation 2:19
The inescapable reality of the first few chapters of Revelation are the Jesus calls His people to account for their activity. And the individual churches are examined by Him. He comments on what is good. He chastises them for their respectable sins. He promises them what is good for a repentance and renewal.
Jesus knows my church. I wonder what He might say about us? Are our works characterized by love, faith, service, and patient endurance? I could easily pick on the evangelical church as reflected in its various leadership movements. But that is not what Jesus did in this context. He walked congregation by congregation through the individual churches of Asia Minor and made His assessments. I have to think He does the same today.
I find an interesting analysis in the ESV Study Bible that might serve as a pattern for evaluating my own congregation:
So what does this all mean? I think the big issue is to brace for what He will say. And know that with repentance comes forgiveness, new grace, and the chance to honor Christ.
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