“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.
Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”
Revelations 2:2-5
Church, we wonder why we feel tired. We wonder why the simple commandment of loving people seems so complicated. We wonder when this season will end, and when the Lord will bring forth a brighter, better season. We wonder when our pastors will change, when our church members will change, when our squad leaders, team members, and AIM staff will change. When will the people around us get on the same page as us? When will everyone else ‘get it’?
Here’s the hard truth, the problem isn’t with everyone else, it’s with us. We’re sick and we’re dying. We rely on our good works, our holy exterior, yesterday’s testimonies and yesterday’s obedience to keep us afloat for today. We think because we obeyed the Lord once long ago, that that will be good enough for the rest of our lives. That’s a lie, Church, and if we rest our faith on that lie we will soon find ourselves immobilized.
We need to die daily to ourselves. Daily. We need to grow up, stop being tossed and turned by every circumstance and person’s whim (Ephesians 4:14). Stop being satisfied drinking milk, start eating meat.
We say we’re not ready to eat meat, we say we’re still children that need spiritual milk—but what exactly is hindering us? Is it God, hoping and plotting against us? Does our good and gracious Father desire for His Church to wallow in immaturity and childishness? Is He throwing up roadblocks in every direction so that we can remain stagnant in the Kingdom? Or is it our own selfish desires to choose the permissible pleasures of this world that hinders us?
How long, Beloved, how long? How long will we refuse to see that the King has set out His table with His best and all are invited to come and dine (Matthew 22:8-9)? How long will we be bent on grabbing our best so that we miss His best? Our best is mud and sticks compared to the treasure of His best. All pleasures flow from His right hand (Psalm 16:11), every good and perfect gift comes from Him (James 1:17). When we look for pleasure apart from Him, we’re filling ourselves with a paltry imitation that lasts for but a moment. Not only that, but when we justify ourselves, we are calling the darkness light.
Don’t call black white, and white black. It’s impossible to never sin; but don’t use our human nature to purposefully sin, because we’ve been called to be holy as our Father is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16). Walk in the light, for we are children of the light. A tree is known by its fruit, and if the fruit we bear is not good or non-existent we should not be so arrogant that we refuse to re-examine ourselves and admit error.
Humility. An honest assessment of ourselves where we know exactly who we are in Jesus Christ, not more and not less (“Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.” Numbers 12:3. You know who wrote that? Moses did, and it made it into the Bible.). It’s foolishness to think of ourselves higher than we ought to, and it’s despising His sacrifice to think less of ourselves than what He’s called us. In our own strength we can do nothing, but in Christ we can do all things. Be humble, Church. We’re a people group full of liars, cheaters, and schemers; but with the redemptive blood Christ we have been called saints.
We must be honest with our weaknesses so that Jesus Christ can be glorified through them. He never receives glory out of our strengths, we get that glory. Our strengths are useless to the Kingdom. The Lord is interested in our weaknesses so that at the end of the day we can point to Him and say He gets all the credit.
I struggle with the sins of pride and anger, and I like to drink too much—but you know what? God loves honesty because it is the starting place for Him. He uses me anyway, regardless of my faults. And that’s how I know, and the world knows, that His love can overcome all things. God has little to no use of perfect people, but He has great use of broken people. He chooses the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, so that no flesh should glory in His presence (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).
For us, everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial (1 Corinthians 10:23). Children can only handle the first half of that verse, adults consider the Scripture in its entirety. Are we seeking our own well-being, or the well-being of others (1 Corinthians 10:24)? Do we selfishly look for loopholes in the Scripture to behave as our flesh desires, or do our spirits answer the call to holiness? We often think of holiness as a boring list of do’s and don’t’s, and in that thinking we’ve missed the mark. Holiness is about being different, being set apart, moving closer to God and away from the world. Salvation is at hand, Beloved, there’s no time to waste in being ordinary.
Do we love our own skins more than God? Do we love the favor of men, the accolades of the world, more than the favor of the Lord? Are we a people that are willing to love others as the Lord Jesus has loved us?
Jesus is not a hybrid Easter-bunny-tooth-fairy that hops around the world waving a magic wand that fills people with cupcakes and rainbows. He is the Rock of Offense (Romans 9:33). His love is offensive. It’s offensive to forgive sinners; it’s offensive to invite prostitutes and tax collectors to the table as friends. It’s offensive to hope in the midst of tragedy. It’s offensive to rebuke someone with the Word of God. But can’t you see, Church, that the heart is love?
Love sticks its neck out for others. Love does not seek its own (1 Corinthians 13:5). Love doesn’t let its brothers and sisters wallow in sin and self-pity, when there is a glorious inheritance that awaits them. Love means being willing to walk alongside people in their mess, but it also means being willing to light a fire under people’s butts to get them going towards heaven. Sometimes loving people well means being willing to piss everyone off with the Truth. Not the truth (little ‘t’) of what’s right or wrong, but the Truth (big ‘T’) of God. The Truth that calls us the Body, where every member is needed. The Truth that we are called to be holy and to be light to the world. The Truth that we are so well loved by the Father that there is no reason to behave like a spiritual orphan.
God doesn’t need undercover, wishy-washy, lukewarm Christians (Revelations 3:16) who can’t make up their minds as to whether or not they’ll really surrender everything to Him (If you’re not surrendered, maybe you’re not saved. But don’t worry, the invitation is still open—take it!). He needs sons and daughters who know the solid foundation they stand on and that their final destination is heaven. And not heaven in the post-life sense, but heaven in the “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10) sense. Heaven is waiting for us to call it down to earth; it’s our inheritance and privilege to do so.
So today, Church, I ask you: Have you forgotten your first love? Is there rebuke, feedback, whatever you want to call it, that you have been withholding from your brother or sister for fear that they will hate you? If what you have to say is speaking the truth in love, then their offense is not with you—it’s with God. Is there a lifestyle change you need to lay down or take up in order to love the Body better? It’s love to call each other into the greatness that God has for us, it’s cowardice to allow each other to live ordinary, mundane lives.
If you say you love God but you hate your brother, you’re a liar. Don’t be mad, I didn’t write that—God did (1 John 4:20). If that offends, it is time to take a look at that offense and consider that what’s offended is our love of self. Let’s read the Bible and do what it says. We need to stop loving our own skin, our dignity, our reputation, our finances, our life more than the Man, Jesus Christ.
Let us repent, Beloved Ones, and enter into the goodness of God. Let us throw off the yoke of oppression—our love of self—that we have willingly endured for so long. The King awaits to take us from glory to glory. Why not be free (John 8:36)?
