#109 The 7 Churches of Revelation 2-3

In Revelation chapter 2-3 there are seven churches mentioned. Of these churches Jesus either commended or warned in some way. Below is a chart showing each of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation 2-3 and the four distinctives to look out for in these letters according to the prompt. The chart is followed by observations about each church group and where my current church would land in light of this passage.

It appears that all the churches have things to work on. Smyrna and Sardis uniquely do not seem to have anything to praise or to be rebuked of. Yet all of the churches have a warning and a promise. It appears to me that the pattern is a warning followed by a promise. God does not send these messages as a way of scaring the churches but rather to give hope after a warning. Yet some of the churches also receive complaints or praise. The praises appear to be that those churches are doing something correctly while the complaints are against not taking your faith seriously. Such as being lukewarm, following wrong teachings, and tolerating bad things.

The good and bad of all of these churches seems to be similarly applicable to churches today. There are churches that are so good at loving that they forget to uphold the truth, others are so focused on the truth that they forget the character of God.

In the church I attend today, the church is good at loving others and being open to reproof. Yet in their efforts to love others well they can be afraid to stand up for what they believe to proclaim the truth of God. It is a sort of timidity brought on by the cultural landscape and wanting to love others. If one of these messages was being written to my church it would commend their humility, rebuke their openness to wrong thinking, warn of the consequences, and then promise to redeem those that hold onto the truth.