I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
Jesus declares that He sees the works (the deeds) of this church. He acknowledges that they are well-known, possibly because their works are praised by the community as being charitable and good social works; works that any community would be proud to claim. He says their works are proclaimed, by the world's standards, to be full of life.
But He says that their works are not perfect according to God's standards of holiness, and as a result, the church itself is dead!
Imagine being in your church that is a hopping busy church full of all sorts of programs and works, and Jesus walks in and declares you and your church to be DEAD.
What can Jesus be talking about; why is this church of reputable works, declared to be missing God's standard (not perfect) for a church?
Perhaps John 15:5-8 gives some understanding:
He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.....by this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
We can gloss over a lot of things in the Word of God by not really meditating upon and understanding key words used, such as: ABIDE.
The simple definition of ABIDE is: to accept or act in accordance with.
Some synonyms of abide (meaning the same thing basically) are:
comply with, obey, observe, follow, keep to, hold to, conform to, adhere to, stick to, stand by, act in accordance with, uphold, heed, accept, acknowledge, respect, go along with, defer to.
This church was doing a lot, but according to Jesus it was nothing, meaning it had nothing to do with HIM. The members of this church were not abiding in Christ; they were not observing Hiim, complying with Him, holding to Him, conforming to Him, adhering to Him, acting in accordance with Him, acknowledging Him, respecting Him, deferring to Him in the things that they were doing.
Yet they were popular in their community. All of which goes to show us that when we are really something special according to the world's standard, we should be worried because it can't possibly be right according to God's standard.
But it should tell us something else as well: who do we think we are to do anything without being led by Jesus whose servants (slaves) we are? It doesn't matter if a slave does something good, if it is not what the master wants at the time and place that He wants it. It is simply evidence that the slave is doing his own thing and not his master's thing.
This is who we are in Christ; just as He was to the Father: always observing the Father, constantly on guard to the Father's desires, never failing to hear the Father above all others, first and foremost, never putting man (or man's ideas and thoughts) before the Father.
Until we follow Jesus as He followed the Father, we are not abiding in Christ.
Until we are abiding in Christ, all that we do is worthy only to be burned, it doesn't matter how GOOD we think we are or how GOOD the things are that we do. We are not judged by the world's standards, but by our Creator's. His is the only opinion that should matter to us.
We can know if we are abiding in Christ, by whether or not we are in His Word, whether or not He consumes our day, whether or not we communicate with Him through prayer ceaselessly, as Paul tells us we should, throughout the day, whether or not we are able to hear His voice telling us : "Go there!"
Being a disciple of Christ is not a part-time job. It is not something we can do only when we have time. It is all or it is nothing.
If Christ is not ALL in your life, it is not too late to repent and make Him ALL. You won't be popular with other people around you, but Christians cannot abide in the world and abide in Christ too. It just does not work. We are to be in the world, but not of it and abiding in the world implies being of it, just as abiding in Christ implies being of Him.
But we can be a LIGHT to the world if we carry Christ in us (abiding in us) who IS the LIGHT. And those in the world will receive LIFE from that LIGHT of CHRIST.
I believe abiding in Christ is a very difficult thing for us Americans who are so blessed. We hustle and bustle constantly, always doing, always buying, always busy. I think those who have nothing find it easy to make Christ everything.
But we must persevere. We must struggle to remain separate from the world and abiding only in Christ. We must not lose sight of what it will take to hear those words spoken to us one day by the only One who matters when He says to us individually: "Well done, good and faithful servant!"
The church in Sardis is a dead church because it is of the world and not of Christ.
Jesus declares that He sees the works (the deeds) of this church. He acknowledges that they are well-known, possibly because their works are praised by the community as being charitable and good social works; works that any community would be proud to claim. He says their works are proclaimed, by the world's standards, to be full of life.
But He says that their works are not perfect according to God's standards of holiness, and as a result, the church itself is dead!
Imagine being in your church that is a hopping busy church full of all sorts of programs and works, and Jesus walks in and declares you and your church to be DEAD.
What can Jesus be talking about; why is this church of reputable works, declared to be missing God's standard (not perfect) for a church?
Perhaps John 15:5-8 gives some understanding:
He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.....by this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
We can gloss over a lot of things in the Word of God by not really meditating upon and understanding key words used, such as: ABIDE.
The simple definition of ABIDE is: to accept or act in accordance with.
Some synonyms of abide (meaning the same thing basically) are:
comply with, obey, observe, follow, keep to, hold to, conform to, adhere to, stick to, stand by, act in accordance with, uphold, heed, accept, acknowledge, respect, go along with, defer to.
This church was doing a lot, but according to Jesus it was nothing, meaning it had nothing to do with HIM. The members of this church were not abiding in Christ; they were not observing Hiim, complying with Him, holding to Him, conforming to Him, adhering to Him, acting in accordance with Him, acknowledging Him, respecting Him, deferring to Him in the things that they were doing.
Yet they were popular in their community. All of which goes to show us that when we are really something special according to the world's standard, we should be worried because it can't possibly be right according to God's standard.
But it should tell us something else as well: who do we think we are to do anything without being led by Jesus whose servants (slaves) we are? It doesn't matter if a slave does something good, if it is not what the master wants at the time and place that He wants it. It is simply evidence that the slave is doing his own thing and not his master's thing.
This is who we are in Christ; just as He was to the Father: always observing the Father, constantly on guard to the Father's desires, never failing to hear the Father above all others, first and foremost, never putting man (or man's ideas and thoughts) before the Father.
Until we follow Jesus as He followed the Father, we are not abiding in Christ.
Until we are abiding in Christ, all that we do is worthy only to be burned, it doesn't matter how GOOD we think we are or how GOOD the things are that we do. We are not judged by the world's standards, but by our Creator's. His is the only opinion that should matter to us.
We can know if we are abiding in Christ, by whether or not we are in His Word, whether or not He consumes our day, whether or not we communicate with Him through prayer ceaselessly, as Paul tells us we should, throughout the day, whether or not we are able to hear His voice telling us : "Go there!"
Being a disciple of Christ is not a part-time job. It is not something we can do only when we have time. It is all or it is nothing.
If Christ is not ALL in your life, it is not too late to repent and make Him ALL. You won't be popular with other people around you, but Christians cannot abide in the world and abide in Christ too. It just does not work. We are to be in the world, but not of it and abiding in the world implies being of it, just as abiding in Christ implies being of Him.
But we can be a LIGHT to the world if we carry Christ in us (abiding in us) who IS the LIGHT. And those in the world will receive LIFE from that LIGHT of CHRIST.
I believe abiding in Christ is a very difficult thing for us Americans who are so blessed. We hustle and bustle constantly, always doing, always buying, always busy. I think those who have nothing find it easy to make Christ everything.
But we must persevere. We must struggle to remain separate from the world and abiding only in Christ. We must not lose sight of what it will take to hear those words spoken to us one day by the only One who matters when He says to us individually: "Well done, good and faithful servant!"
The church in Sardis is a dead church because it is of the world and not of Christ.
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