Marginal Theology

Yesterday, our pastor taught out from the second chapter of Revelation. It was a special message that reflected on God’s faithfulness over the first fifty years of Scottsdale Bible Church. Something caught my attention amidst his sharing this great message of encouragement to the church…

Christ’s epistles to the seven churches are especially meaningful because they offer a very cool mostly-consistent pattern:

• He offers a self-revelation that qualifies him as a rightful judge of the church
• He offers a commendation
• He offers a criticism or a correction
• He offers an exhortation with a warning
• He gives a promise of reward for obedience (to the individual & the church)

There are a couple exceptions to this pattern (and they are important exceptions), but that’s subject for another conversation.

There are no exceptions to the pattern established in Christ’s epistle to the Ephesian chruch:

• He reveals himself as “him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven lamp stands.” He is the Keeper of the church and the One who assesses it on an ongoing basis.
• He acknowledges the church’s toil and perseverance. He credits their intolerance for wickedness and praises their testing of doctrine.
• He reveals that they have forgotten their first love, and have fallen.
• He warns them to repent (of their offense), lest he remove their lamp stand from its place.
• He promises the over-comers will eat from the Tree of LIfe.

To illustrate the message, Jamie shared some photos from his recent tour of the sites of the seven churches…specifically Ephesus. These aren’t the exact photos he shared, but here’s a couple “representatively similar photos” that I have culled from the Web. See if you notice what caught my attention:

Here’s what I noticed about the streets, the stadium, the open market (agora), and the public toilets of Ephesus….

They’re empty.

Ephesus is in ruins.

The city is long dead.

The Ephesian church has had its lamp stand removed.

God has given a real world, historically undeniable example that He says what He means and means what He says.

I don’t view Christ’s actions as punitive nearly as much as I view them as consequential. At the time of the birth of the church, Ephesus was already a well-established, even ancient city. Population was estimated at 400-500K in 100 AD, making it a megaopolis. Yet, by 263, the city was destroyed by Goths, and it struggled out a shadowy existence of its former self until the city was ultimately abandoned in the 15th century.

Today, the testimony of the Ephesian church to the world is one told in ruins and ashes. There is no modern tales of a Christian witness, no contemporary stories of miracles and spiritual transformation issuing forth from Ephesus. Sadly, it is an empty lamp stand that humbly declares that God’s warnings are not empty words, and that He will do as He says.

There is a consequence for continuing in religion that has abandoned its love for God. Jesus does assess the work of the church…not just the “what” it does, but the “why” it does it, too. He’s under no obligation to continue to “prop up” any church, any congregation, or even any individual that/who has forgotten the primacy of the love of Christ as the cause for its deeds.

I rejoice that I’m part of a church that loves God so much that it keeps finding new ways to share that love with other people. I pray for the church at large and for the Christ followers who are the “living stones” of it…

• That we not forget our first love
• That those congregations and individuals who have forgotten of their first love, that they would repent.

He is a good God who offers the opportunity to His children to change direction and return to the love God offers.