Today, I am reading and commenting on  Revelation 1-3.

It is important when we read the Book of Revelation to pay attention to the symbolism.  So, I want to note that seven churches in Asia Minor were chosen as the recipients for this letter because seven is the number of divine perfection.  Yet, these churches were not perfect.  I want to spend a little time looking at what was written to these seven churches.  John was given nothing negative to write about two of them, and nothing positive to say about two more.  Let’s look at what he wrote about the two churches about which John wrote only good things.  About one of those churches, the church in Smyrna, he writes that they are poor, but rich.  About the other, the church in Philadelphia, he writes that they are weak, but that God has opened a door for them that no one will be able to close.  In both cases, the message is that if we dedicate ourselves to serving God, we will succeed even though by the standards of this world we do not have the strength or resources to accomplish that for which we strive.  Now, let us look at the two churches about which he has nothing positive to write.  At the first of those, the church in Sardis, he writes that they have a reputation for being alive, but aren’t.  And about the church in Laodicea, he writes that they are neither hot nor cold, they are just indifferent.  Further, he says they are the opposite of the church in Smyrna…they think they are rich, when in fact they are poor.  In both cases the church had lost its first love for God and they were merely going through the motions.  John writes that it would be better to make no profession of faith than the half-hearted one they currently had, it would be better to be one of the three churches about which John writes both good and bad.  The churches about which John had nothing good to write had avoided the failings of the three churches about whom John gave mixed reviews. but they also failed to do any of those things for which he praised those churches.  We will be better off being enthusiastic disciples of Christ who fail in some areas, than lackadaisical ones who do nothing particularly wrong, but also nothing particularly right.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.