Revelation 2:1

Verse of the Day Devotion:  Revelation 2:1  

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:” – Revelation 2:1 

Over the seven days, I will be looking at what John wrote, by the inspiration of God, to the seven major churches in Asia Minor.  In these seven letters, God gives a message to each that is specific to each and speaks of issues that could fit the Churches throughout history.  It is important to look at these and examine our church and ultimately ourselves to see where we stand regarding these. 

We will start this series with the Church in Ephesus.  “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:” Revelation 2:1.  We know from chapter one what He is referring to.  “As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” Revelation 1:20.   There are many ideas regarding what the seven stars representative.  However, a reasonable explanation is that as the lampstands are the Churches, the angels probably refer to the leaders of each church.  Also, notice the wording in our focus verse.  “To the angel of the of the Church in Ephesus”.  Revelation 2:1a.   

This starts out stating what is good and honorable. “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake and have not grown weary.” Revelation 2:2-3. Christ is telling them through John that He knows the hard work they are doing, the deeds they are doing for Christ.  They are commendable works that show the overall manner of their life.  They had toiled long and hard and patiently bore the hostility of a society at odds with their goals.  And they uprooted those who claimed Christian beliefs and of being apostles, placing themselves within the Church but were wicked people whose only goal was to lead true Christians astray.  And in all this, they did not grow weary, but persevered in the work of the Church. And this was not all that easy, for Ephesus was home to the emperor’s cult and the worship of the Greek goddess Artemis.

However, He had one thing against them which required correction. “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Revelation 2:4.  Jesus commends the Ephesians for their many acts of good and hard work.  They tested teachers to see whether their professions were real, and  they endured hardship and persevered without growing weary. But they had lost their warmth and zeal for Christ, which caused them to simply go through the motions of good works, motivated not by the love of and for Christ, but by the works themselves. What was once a love relationship cooled into mere religion. Their passion for Him became little more than cold orthodoxy.  And being surrounded by so much paganism and false teachings, they had many opportunities to correct doctrines that were false and confront the false teachers. But these things became, in some ways, the focus of their work and not their love for Christ. 

Christ then says one more good word to them.  “Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” Revelation 2:6.  These were men who encouraged each other to eat that which was sacrificed to idols as well as committing various forms of sexual immorality. Christ called these to repent and return to Him, and commended the Ephesians for standing strong.

 And we face this same challenge the Ephesian Church did, and there are few churches that are not in danger of having a certain number of false teachers. However, it is essential that we reprove these teachers in love. And we can only do this if our focus is on our love for Christ and for our neighbor and not on the act of the false teachers. It is essential that what drives us is our love for Jesus and not anything else.  The Ephesians became toi focused on everything else but in the process neglected their love for Christ.  And when this happens, we leave the love that brought us to Christ and we focus on everything else.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries. 

Proverbs 29:11

Verse of the Day Devotion: Proverbs 29:11 

“A fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds it back.” – Proverbs 29:11 

This life we live can be difficult at times.  It seems that many are so stressed that the simplest things can cause them to become angry and tell us what they really think about us.  Work environments are much more difficult and can be very stressful.  Political conversations can start out amiable but end up with yelling and other non-complementary actions.  It can be so easy at times to lose our temper and say things that should never be said.

I remember when I was in the Air Force and I was a roommate with a Seventh Day Adventist.  We agreed to attend each other’s church once and afterwards discuss our thoughts.  I will not get into any details, but I made a huge mistake which caused him to walk away from the faith.  I found an issue that he somewhat agreed with and I, in essence, beat him over the head with it.  He believed Jesus died on the cross for his sins.  He definitely lived the life of a Christian, probably more than I did at the time.  To make a long story short, he left his church and Christianity all together and started living a life separate from Christ.  I tried talking to him, but I could not get him to understand.  Now I did get angry during parts of the discussion, and I believe this was the major reason for his decision, and  I have regretted it ever sense. 

Today, it seems that it does not take much to end up quarreling with people.  And unfortunately I have seen this behavior between Christians.  And the majority of time it has to do with doctrinal disagreements.  Some over simple things like pre-tribulation verse post-tribulation rapture, or one that is very fiery (unfortunately) is the idea of Calvinism.  However, we must be careful of how we address these for several reasons.  First, if a brother or sister is in error doctrinally, yelling or insulting will only exacerbate the issue.  They may turn away and not listen to us anymore.  If what they believe is false doctrine, in love, show them their error.  If we argue in anger or yell, we may lose them and strengthen their belief in the heresy. 

And if we are speaking to a non-Christian regarding Jesus and how He died for us to provide salvation, we may end up in a debate because they do not believe in Him at the time of our conversation.  If we raise our voice and/or insult them in any way, we may lose the opportunity to share the gospel and turn them away from desiring Christ.  You see, if Christians treat people badly during times of evangelism, or if they see that we give up on them quickly, then we have no doubt lost the right to speak into their life.  And this may eliminate anyone else from ministering to them as well.

We are called to spread the good news of Christ and the salvation He provides and the invitation He has given us.  And we are called to disciple those new to the faith.  Moreover, we are to do both with a heart filled with love and patience, for many times it will take longer to reach them then a single meeting.  They must see we ourselves live the life we are inviting them to live.  And we must take whatever time is needed in order not only to lead them to Christ but help them grow in the faith.  Our Lord spent as much time as necessary to teach those He came across.  As our focus verse says, “A fool always loses his temper, But a wise man holds it back.” Proverbs 29:11  Do we speak in love to those we come into contact with?  Do we wisely present the truth so as to help them truly understand?  Do we patiently help people understand or lose our patience and act as such in unwise ways?  Do we lose our patience with people (fool), or do we hold back our anger (wise)?  If the latter, we are doing well.  If the former, then do the latter.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.