The Message to the Church in Ephesus
There has been much in the news recently about the decline of the Christian Church. The recent Episcopal Church convention in which the delegates approved a rite to bless same-sex unions and the blessing of pets while voting down a proposal to proclaim Jesus as Lord is perhaps the worst example. But you don’t have to go to these extremes to see churches that have lost their way.
I was once an Episcopalian, and not just a pew sitter. I was a senior warden which is like an eldest elder. At one time the church I was a member of was the finest example of a new testament church I had ever seen and will probably ever see, but that group too lost its way. The forgot their first love and starting loving the idea of being a “special” group.
All kinds of churches, liberal and conservation, Protestant and Catholic, denominational and nondenominational are losing their way. They may not have strayed as far as the Episcopal national church, but they have strayed.
In every instance, the straying begins when they lose their first love, Jesus. That is quickly followed by the true sign of their discipleship, they stop loving each other. They can, at first, still nail the existence of heresy and evil in others, but they can’t see how they have drifted. Before they know it they too are lost in a sea of heresy, far from the gospel that saves.
The Gospel is about Jesus, the love He has for us that He proved on Calvary. The true church consists of those who respond to His love by turning away from evil, making Him Lord, and beginning the long, difficult, but the only rewarding path of following Him. Everything else is a waste.
The current state of the church is as predicted in the Book of Revelation. Our job isn’t to point out examples or shake our heads and complain, but to took in the mirror and make sure we’re the exception to what has become the rule.
Be blessed.
Nick
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