Conform to God, not society
Revelation 2:1-7
Michael H. Koplitz
This letter that we find in Revelation chapter two verses one through seven is a letter that was sent to the messenger at the church at Ephesus in Asia Minor. The letter starts with compliments from Jesus about the good works that the church has done. There is also a compliment from Christ to the Church about challenging those who have come to that church claiming to be apostles of Christ.
The actual Greek word that is used here, which is translated as apostles, is “apostogous.” This word is used in the Gospels when referring to the Apostles, the 12, but it really means messenger our envoy. It should not be confused here in that Jesus is not telling the church at Ephesus that some of the original 12 Apostles had been showing up at their door or some who claimed to be and weren’t but rather the church should continue to challenge these envoys who were preaching a gospel different than the true Gospel of Christ.
During the first and second centuries, there were many challenges to Christianity that came from different groups inside the Christian sect that saw Jesus differently. In Asia Minor, one of the strongest heretical groups was called the Montanists. This group of Christians believed that the God of Jesus Christ as described in the New Testament was not the same God as is described in the Old Testament. They went so far as to say that Jesus was not Jewish. Another group that was influential in Asia Minor at that time was the Gnostics. They believed that salvation was obtained by the secret knowledge that Jesus spoke about in the Gospels and had imparted to his apostles. They believed that salvation was not obtained by Christ's death on the cross but rather by the secret knowledge that Jesus imparted to them before his death. Those secrets were the secrets of how to get into heaven.
Another group called the Docetists believed that Jesus was purely divine and what we saw on Earth was just an image that God projected for us. Also, they believed that Jesus did not suffer upon the cross because he was divine. The fourth group that was influential at this time was called the Ebionites. This group believed that Jesus was fully human, never divine. Because he faithfully obeyed God by going to the cross and to his death, God made Him divine when He raised Him on Easter Sunday.
So you can see that four heretical groups were trying to influence the church. So Ephesus is commended that they stayed the course of the true gospel. Also, remember that in the letter that Paul sent to the church at Ephesus, he spoke of this problem of false prophets coming into the church and trying to persuade them to believe other radical positions of Christianity.
God’s problem with this church, which the letter addresses, was that the church had forsaken in its first love. Its first love was to be obedient to the commands of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Why would they have lost their first love? A better question is, what was going on that would cause them to disobey the commands of Christ?
The church at Ephesus, like the rest of the churches around the year 100 CE, had been conforming to the pressure that the Roman society had placed upon them. Why would the church start to conform to the culture of Rome? We have to remember that in 66 CE the first Jewish revolt had occurred. Christianity was considered a part of Judaism until 70 CE when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple to the ground. The Romans also forbid the Jews and the Jewish Christians from living in the province of Judea.
Also, during this time is when Rome burned. Under Emperor Nero, two-thirds of the city of Rome had burned, and Nero blamed the Jews and especially the Jewish Christians for starting the fire. History tells us that the Jews nor the Jewish Christians started the fire. However, the Emperor blamed us for doing it.
These two events and the fact that pagans were coming into Christianity caused Judaism and Christianity to separate companies. Once this happened, Christianity became its own religion. Under Roman Law, there was one religion allowed in the Empire, and there was one religion that was tolerated. We don't know why but the conquerors of Judea allowed the Jews to retain their religion. In the Roman Empire, you either followed the religion of the Empire, or you had better be Jewish. When Christianity officially broke away from its Jewish roots and became its own religion, the persecutions by the Roman Empire began.
The church's strategy at that time was to defend itself by showing the Empire how Christianity conformed to Roman culture and was an improvement to Roman culture. Christian bishops wrote several defenses of Christianity before they were put to death, making this point. We called these writings apologetics, which is taken from the Latin word to mean defense. The most famous apologetic was written by a man named Justin Martyr in 150 CE. From Justin's name, we get the English word martyr. Before he was put to death, Justin wrote an extremely long defense of Christianity showing how Christianity benefited the Roman Empire. The church believed that if it could prove itself as a benefit to the Empire, the persecutions would stop. What was happening was that the church was starting to become a benefit to the Emperor and not a benefit to Christ.
When the church does anything to conform to a society that is not biblically based, we have lost our first love instead of doing what Christ wants. Moreover, this letter was saying to the church at Ephesus and to all churches today. The church of Jesus Christ must be centered on Jesus Christ. It must be guided by the manual of life which God has given to us, which is the double-edged sword that comes out of the mouth of Christ, which we read about last week, which is the Bible.
When the church conforms to society, selecting society’s ways over the Bible, we have lost our first love. For example, when the blue laws, that is, the laws which kept businesses closed on Sunday, were repealed, how did the church react? There was no way that the church was going to stop the blue laws from being repealed. And I'm not debating that we should have stopped the repeal. Nevertheless, rather, what I am saying is when this happened, how did the Christians of Christ's church react to this change in society.
It is clear today that the church and the church members did not boycott those establishments that decided to open on Sunday. We see that today when we go into the mall on Sunday, and we see so many church people there and church people flocking to restaurants and church people flocking to ATMs. We as the church have accepted this change in the holiness of Sunday in our culture which society has done.
The other point I'd like to bring up to you is that it is believed that within the next 30 or so years that an English translation of the Bible will be produced that will not be offensive toward anybody. If you read some of the new translations of the Bible in English that have come out during the past few years, you will see a softening of the commandments that God and Christ have given to us. This softening has been done in an effort to get unchurched people to like the Scriptures, obviously in an attempt by publishers to sell more Bibles. This is being done so that everyone can accept the Bible.
We have lost our first love if we allow this to continue. The fact is that God's law is not for everyone. God's law was written for those who want to obtain salvation and be in heaven for an eternal life with God and who want to obey every command that the Word of God instructs. God did not give us the Bible so that we could pick and choose what we like. He gave us the Bible to create translations so that everyone would like it by removing commandments or obligations that people don't want to adhere to. It is time for the Church to say to society that if you want to obtain salvation, you must obey the law of God as they are written in the Bible in its original language and form and be a true follower of Jesus the Christ.
My brothers and sisters, that is the only way to salvation.
