Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me. (Rev 3:20)I can hear the question now. "That's your 'scary verse'?" That's because it is almost always used as an invitation. "Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart. Won't you let Him in?" Which isn't scary at all ... but that's not what this verse is saying.
The text was written to the church at Laodicea (Rev 3:14). Laodicea had a problem. They believed, "I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing" when Jesus believed, "you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked" (Rev 3:17). Quite a contrast. Jesus warned, "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent" (Rev 3:19). And then comes verse 20. Jesus was not standing at the door of hearts. Jesus was standing outside the door to the church at Laodicea. They were all inside, thinking they were fine, when they desperately needed help. The "Christian" church left Christ out.
Some have argued that the 7 letters to the 7 churches (Rev 2-3) are historically arranged -- a picture of the church through history. I think that's a stretch. I think all 7 church-types exist today. But the Laodicean church is certainly present today. Self-styled Christians have gathered and locked Christ out, thinking they're doing what's right. They think they're okay. They're not. They think they're on track. They're not. For too many churches with "Christian" applied these days, Jesus is standing outside, asking to be let in. That's frightening. There are churches and there are people who are moving along, quite confident that they are fine -- they need nothing -- and they are without Christ. Don't be that guy.
6 comments:
Like many other times, it is a warning with a message of hope in it. Jesus and the Apostles seemed to like to do that a lot.
I agree that Jesus knocking on the door so that He can come in and make major changes can be scary. Yet, the fact that those changes are the result of His love for believers and the Church should give us hope.
Many years ago, I sat under teaching of Rev. 2-3 that included the idea of the seven churches roughly representing seven phases of church history. While that application was interesting and insightful, the fact that the state of the Church at large has not been consistently uniform over the centuries rules out that interpretation as the full meaning of those chapters. Instead, the teaching moved on to show that all seven messages will apply in some degree to the universal Church at any given moment, until Jesus returns.
I concur that Rev. 3:20 (in fact, the entire letter to the Laodiceans) is indeed “scary”--to know that a whole group of complacent and misguided “religious people” are not truly in Christ and enjoying fellowship and intimacy with Him is frightening. Jesus’ depictions of this final church--revolting Him to the point of “vomiting” (Rev. 3:16)--sound uncomfortably familiar. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”!
The scary part is that the church in Laodicea didn't notice that Jesus was on the outside. There are too many churches today where Jesus is on the outside.
That is definitely one of the scary parts. Especially for churches today.
Maybe to the spiritual but not religious crowd?
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