We all those friends, the ones who will look us in the eye and tell us
straight to our face exactly what we need to hear, whether it hurts us
or not. We often wonder how they can be so brutal but in hind sight we
learn that they had our best interest at heart.
In Revelation 2 we see Jesus doing this in His message to 4 of the 7
churches to whom He instructed John to write too. He is careful to give
them praise for the things that they have done well but He also speaks
bluntly about the areas that they are failing in.
What were these failures that angered the heart of God?
To the Ephesians, it was that they had lost their first love for God.
To Smyrna He spoke of their blasphemy and serving Satan. To Pergamos it
was their following of false doctrine. To Thyatira it was their sexual
immorality.
To all these offenses we may quickly claim that we are innocent but the
same warning is given to each of these churches at the end of their
message: He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches.
We would do well to check our hearts carefully before dismissing the
word of God. Let us rather draw near to God and repent and allow Him to
do a new work within us.
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