Articles
Jesus and the churches
Jesus and the churches
John is instructed to write to the seven churches of Asia. ‘Church’ is to be understood not as an organization but as a collection of people. God in His wisdom instructed His people to collect themselves together in groups so they could instruct, comfort, and strengthen each other as they worshiped God together. All of us as people have our own personalities and when you combine people into a church, the church has its own personality. You can see from these letters the personality of each of the churches.
Jesus says to each “I know…” and “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”. To some he also said, “I have this against you…”
“I know..”. This is a comfort to us as we go through the trials and tribulations of this world. He knows. He knows when we suffer. He knows when we struggle. He knows our enemies and he knows our faithfulness. He not only knows those things about the church but also of each individual that makes up a local church. The warning comes from also understanding that He knows our weaknesses, our sins, and our unfaithfulness!
Thus he warns each: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”. Of course, we ALL have an ear physically, but not all are willing to ‘give ear unto the Lord’. As God’s people, we all should have such a hearing ear for God’s teaching. How we ear and how we respond to what we hear are known by Jesus and we will answer for such in the day of judgment. We are not to be forgetful hearers, but doers of the Word (James 1:22-23).
Churches, being made up of people, get their personality from the people. You are part of a congregation and the congregation is what we make it. While we can encourage and admonish each other to better follow the Lord, in the end, we only control ourselves.
If the whole church were of the same character, faith, and personality as you, what kind of church would it be? What would the Lord write to such a church? If the church is like you, is it a godly and holy church? Is it a church that loves to worship? Is it a church that is solid in its faith because of the knowledge of God’s word it possesses? Is the church a lukewarm church?
We need to take our responsibilities as a part of the body seriously. We, as Americans, have put far too much emphasis on ourselves as individuals and have often neglected the responsibilities we have to one another in the church. We need to remember that Jesus knows… We need to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. How is your hearing?
Hugh DeLong
