The Vigilant Christians

Eternity Online: John Edmiston (Editor)





The Vigilant Christians

Rev 2: 2,3 "I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not, and you found them false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary.
Jesus commends the Ephesians for being vigilant Christians. Later on He also says "Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitains, which I also hate." So we see the unusual phenomenon of Jesus commending a church not for what they love but for who they hate! Jesus commends the Ephesians for not enduring evil men, for sifting out false apostles and for hating the Nicolaitans. True Christianity is not marshmallow nice, it has a stern side which exposes deception and rebukes evil.

The Ephesians seem to have majored on apologetics and minored on love for which they are later corrected. Some conservative evangelical congregations today have similar tendencies. It is good to major on apologetics if we also major on love. Its "both and" not "either or".

Vigilant Christianity is a good thing and we should be careful to rebuke that which is immoral or heretical in our midst. Outsiders are best left to God. (see 1 Corinthians 5:9-13) I think "niceness" is a dangerous thing because it leads to sin not being rebuked but being seen as weakness or being "accepted" . Acceptance can undermine holiness and the balance is shown in Hebrews 12:14 which says "Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.". We are to seek peace - but holiness is an ultimate priority.

Two final points. Jesus says that the Ephesians "put to the test those who called themselves apostles and are not". Many people now are tentatively claiming they have an "apostolic ministry" and some may well have such a ministry. I do believe that some lesser form of the apostolic gift survives today. See http://www.eternitymag.com/apostle.htm for an article on this. However those claiming apostolic giftings should be tested by their church/denomination before their ministry is accepted. It is a high and rare calling. The other thing the Ephesians were commended for was endurance and perseverance. In fact they are twice commended for their perseverance. Right from the start being a Christian in Ephesus was risky. With its enthusiastic worship of Artemis, its multitudinous magicians and sorcerers it was about as "dark" a place spiritually as you could imagine. The Ephesian church had always had to be a light in a dark world and it was. From it the whole of the province of Asia heard the gospel. Now under the persecutions of Diocletian it was suffering again. It is a commendable example to the modern believer of a vigilant church that endured the fire.

Prayer:
Lord give us the grace to be vigilant and awake to spiritual things exposing deception and rebuking sin. Let not our love grow cold in the process though! And please give us the strength to persevere in a world that seems to be getting darker each day. Amen.

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John Edmiston ([email protected])
Editor - Eternity Online Magazine http://www.eternitymag.com/
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