The Blue Church

Imagine you are a very wealthy person. You live in a beautiful house. You drive an expensive car. You eat the finest of foods. You want for nothing. Each day you feel content and secure and the most you have to wonder about is what pleasure you will experience next. Then, one day, you decide that you will go to the bank and withdraw all of your funds so that they may be transferred to another financial institution which will give you a higher return. You arrive at the bank and meet with the branch manager. Shortly after the meeting begins you notice that he is glancing at you in an uneasy manner. After he does this two more times you feel compelled to ask him what is going on. With a clear sense of distress he replies, “I am sorry, but your spouse came in this morning and all your funds have been withdrawn.” In that moment, your world crashes. You and your spouse recently separated after a nasty fight and both of you were determined to divorce, but you never imagined that they would do something so underhandedly. As the days pass, you find out that they have left the country with your money and you may never see your spouse or money again.

 

While this scenario may seem somewhat far-fetched, it is a tale about a person who thought they were rich, and found out that they were poor. They believed they were secure and well off, but things were not as they seemed. In life, sometimes people believe that in certain areas of their lives, they are doing better than they actually are. Perhaps they think their relationship with their spouse is solid, when it is not. Maybe they think they are doing great at their job, only to find out the next day they have been fired. Perhaps someone thinks they are healthy, until they have a routine check-up at the doctor’s office that brings surprising news. We often live under the illusion that we are fine and things will continue as they always have. We like it that way.

 

This can be true of our spiritual lives as well, as evidenced by these words to the church in Laodicea from Revelation chapter 3:

 

“These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. ¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷ You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”¹⁹ Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.”

 

Wow! How could this church’s view of themselves be so far off? Were they overly proud? Were they misinformed about what mattered to God? Whatever the case, they saw themselves as well off. Perhaps this is why God calls them blind. It is interesting to note that despite their appraisal, God’s view is radically different. His words are startling. Wretched. Pitiful. Poor. Blind. Naked.

 

I wonder what instruction we should take from this passage? How can believers guard against such errant self-appraisals?

 

God’s Word gives us some answers:

 

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” Romans 12:3

 

God has a wonderful way of knocking our prideful knees out from under us. He knows we are quick to see ourselves as well off, even special. Therefore He says to us that it is all about grace. I like how Eugene Peterson paraphrases this verse:

 

³ I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

 

So, as we consider carefully and truthfully who God is and what He has done for us, we are standing on good ground. If we go further and exclude from our appraisals what we do for Him, we will be able to see ourselves from a clearer vantage point. This isn’t to say that our service to the Lord isn’t important. It is more to say that we are prone to look at our service to God and find that our Ego is puffing up like a big ole’ balloon. How easy it is for us to go down that road. No, it is better to say that all that I have become and all that I do is by the grace of God.

 

Perhaps the problem with the church in Laodicea was that they were an active church, but their pride was swelling through the ceiling of the church. Maybe they saw themselves as the main source of the good things they were doing. Maybe they were wretched, pitiful and poor because they were impoverished when it came to seeing that God is to receive the praise for all things and that He alone sustains us.

 

It is ironic, but there is a danger to those who do much for the church. They perhaps are the most susceptible to seeing themselves more highly than they ought. We need to pray that God will guard us from such prideful appraisals and if He answers our prayer, that will be because of His grace as well.

 

For Him,

 

Rob