- Chapter 3: "Repent, and Be Faithful"

THE GLORIFIED CHRIST INSTRUCTED JOHN: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the churches.” The risen, eternal Christ of God uses the vision He gave to His servant John to transmit a message of warning and concern to every Christian congregation everywhere. This call of Jesus to the Christian churches to prepare themselves for His return finds its basis in the total integrity of His promise. The Son of man is a person of His word. He said He would return, and He will. He will return to earth and every eye will see Him. Further, all the peoples of the earth will “mourn” because of Him. It will be a day of mourning, indeed, for those who did not prepare—for those who refused to believe that He meant what He said. The more I study the Revelation, the more assured I am that Christ’s love for His church is unchanging and eternal. We are barely into this Christ-centered prophecy before Jesus signifies how important the church is to Him.

Plainly, the living and eternal Head of the Christian church was not asking for some outward show of human perfection in His people. He was not appealing for a merely formal and classic kind of churchmanship—colorful pageantry, familiar ritual. Rather, His message was an appeal for brotherly love, for spiritual warmth, for genuine compassion. It was an expressed hope for sincere repentance, for renewal, for faithfulness among His forgiven, believing people, the children of God. In the light of Christ’s great love for His church, I have tried to review my own concerns for the churches of my pastoral ministry. I am aware that my critics say I have spoken too freely and openly about apathy, shallowness and worldliness in our Christian circles. I have asked myself—and I again ask the critics: “Are words of warning, correction and reproof something new in the Christian family?” The question is rhetorical, of course. We already know the answer. It is an answer inherent in this divine message in the Revelation, addressed some 1,900 years ago to the Christian churches. The congregations named then have often been described as spiritually representative of all churches throughout the centuries of Christian history.