Bryan Loritts is the pastor of Fellowship Memphis, a multi-ethnic community of faith in Memphis, TN. He is also the author of God on Paper and A Cross Shaped Gospel as well as a contributing author for the book entitled Great Preaching.

We came to Memphis because we had a passion to plant a church planting, multi-ethnic church. . . . Like any city, it’s got some scars underneath the surface.

Tim Keller says that whenever you walk into a city, you should look for the idols. And unfortunately in Memphis, that idol is racism. But we wanted to bring together a gospel-centered, Christ-centered, multi-ethnic church . . . bringing together a taste of heaven. Heaven is going to be a multi-ethnic experience. Jesus tells us to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” He’s saying that we’re to make a preview of heaven here. Like my Grandma says, true religion has shoe leather on it. It does something.

Gospel-centered people understand that because they were once orphans themselves, they have a heart for orphans, both spiritually and literally, in this world. . . .

Let me set the expectations: I am not a sociologist, I am a preacher. I want to walk you through Matthew 25:31-46:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?” Then he will answer them, saying, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

William Wilberforce was at a party with his friend William Pitt. And at one point they say, “Hey, let’s run for parliament.” Wilberforce wins his seat, and for 50 years, never loses his seat. At 25, he becomes a follower of Jesus Christ, and experiences a conundrum:

“On the one hand, I am a newfound follower of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, I cannot reconcile my newfound faith with my vocation.”

I cannot reconcile leading a country that is thriving off the injustice of slavery, he thinks. So he thinks maybe will quit his position and become a pastor. But luckily he was being discipled by a man named John Newton—a man who was in the providence of God involved in the slave trade himself—that is the man Wilberforce goes to see with this conundrum. And Newton tells him that he can redeem his vocation to accomplish God’s purposes in life. These words strengthen him and he gives a six hour lecture in the parliament saying that he will not rest until he sees the abolition of the slave trade.

And they’re looking at Wilberforce, thinking, “have you lost your mind?” He’s beaten, voted down, sometimes beaten within an inch of his life… but eventually abolition is passed by parliament.

Two days ago, I sat at a pro-life banquet . . . and I came away realizing that the issue of fatherlessness and abortion is our 21^st century issue of slavery. Two miles from my office is a planned parenthood center, where last year 9,000 abortions were performed. And the tragedy is that most of those were performed by African-American women who were handed down a legacy of fatherlessness.

I don’t want anyone to leave here thinking that fatherlessness is an African American issue. I need you to understand that I’m not playing victim, but I need you to know that the American history of slavery has left a legacy of broken families. The whole system of slavery was predicated on the breeding and separating of families.

Fatherlessness, broken families, orphans, have been part of the African-American families from the beginning.

Richard Pryor, the great comedian, made everyone laugh, but his story was anything but funny. His mother had him out of wedlock. His father left at an early age. His mother tried to care for him, but had to give him up because she was a prostitute. His grandmother took him in… but she ran a brothel. His earliest memories were growing up in a brothel. . . . He was once asked how he views women, and he said, “I see women as taxis, I get in and out of them all day long.” And so we have this legacy, and someone has to step in and say this curse ends here. This legacy ends now.

I think it’s beautiful that many of you have decided to adopt across ethnicity . . . but don’t be like the Drummonds on Different Strokes. The problem with Arnold and Willis is that they were never introduced to their culture. I don’t lead with my ethnicity, but make no mistake, I am a black man—it means I do things differently.

Here’s what I want you to understand—I’m different. And no I don’t lead with my ethnicity because as Paul wrote, in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile… he is not arguing that there is no difference, but what he is saying is that at the foot of the cross, there is no extreme.

I meet so many kids who grew up in white homes who have deep-seated identity issues because their parents have not done the hard work of exposing them to their culture.

All that was not planned for, but here we go. Let’s lay down some theological points. When we come to Matt. 25, we’ve got a major problem, right? It seems like Jesus is preaching works-salvation.

Now one of the rules of good hermeneutics is that you never build a doctrine on one passage. You have to look at what the whole Bible says—and the consistent pattern of Scripture is that salvation is by faith, from Genesis [to] Romans [to] Ephesians…. So seen in its proper context, it’s not salvation by works. So what is it about?

Salvation is a mystery. Jesus is talking to some religious people who did all sorts of great things in his name—and Jesus said, “Thanks, I never knew you.”

Here’s a scary thought: There’s going to be lots of religious people in hell who preached sermons, went to conferences, were virgins….

So how do I know if I’m saved? Fruit. A changed and changing life that is directly connected to the presence of the Spirit of Christ in my life. And if the only sign I’ve got of my salvation is my praying a prayer and burning my M.C. Hammer cassettes, then can I be too sure?

One theologian says about this passage that “our passage deals not with the root of salvation, but with the fruit of salvation.” Genuinely redeemed people as a manifestation of the Spirit in me, I care for the poor, I contemplate adoption… it’s not because I have to, it’s because I get to.

I was that person! I was adopted. I was hungry… a gospel-centered person understands that they don’t sit on it, they give it away!

And for any Christ-follower to not contemplate adoption, Jesus says it’s totally incompatible with faith—it’s not I adopt, so I’m saved, it’s I’m saved, so I consider. I contemplate.

So how do I do this? Here’s my two points:

It’s going to take a deep heart for God. I’m reading through my Bible and I’m being struck by all these verses on the orphan, the widow, the alien…The Bible isn’t concerned with how they got there, it says love them. There are over 2000 verses in the Bible that talk about the poor, the widow, the fatherless. Grudem says that the Bible is the transcript of the heart of God. And I can’t claim to have the heart of God if I don’t care about the fatherless.

We’ve for so long preached a false gospel that says you can be as greedy as you want… I’ve never seen a case of church discipline for being greedy. I’ve never heard of someone being disciplined because of materialism. Materialism is so much a part of American culture that trying to explain it to an American Christian is like trying to explain water to a fish. And it’s totally incompatible with the gospel.

When it comes to adoption, economically, it’s ridiculous. The economy of it is ridiculous. And if we’re going to get there, we’ve got to learn the art of leaving margin in our budgets. We have to learn to wrestle with the issue of enough.

Wesley committed to living off of 28 pounds in a year. Whatever he made over that, he’d give away. One year, he made 1500 pounds off his books. He kept 28, gave the rest away. He learned what was enough.

We have to wrestle with this—how much house is enough. How many rounds of golf is enough…

Secondly, it’s going to take a profound love for people. My mother is the fruit of an adulterous relationship between an 18=year-old girl and a 26-year-old navy soldier. My grandmother got pregnant and we can say fairly certainly is that she contemplated abortion. We can say that because she had five. . . . Broken homes was such a part of my mother’s culture, that she remembered listening to her cousin give a tutorial on how to give yourself an abortion with a coat hanger. My grandmother was abusive . . . my mother was bounced from home to home. And my grandmother had one rule—while she was sleeping off her hangover, the kids had to go to church. And so my mother and her brothers would go to the Presbyterian church, the only black kids at the church, and an elderly family began investing in her and they brought her to faith in Christ. She came to faith because an elderly family got Matthew 25. . . . Friends, if we’re going to be a part of seeing God’s will be done here as in heaven, its’ going to take an army of families.

Dan Cruver is the director of Together for Adoption and provides thought-leadership on the theology of adoption as a team member of ABBA Fund. Before co-founding and directing Together for Adoption, Dan was a college professor of Bible and Theology. He has also served as a pastor of family ministries. As one who has been adopted by God and has adopted two children, Dan founded Together for Adoption to equip churches and educate Christians theologically about orphan care and horizontal adoption. Dan regularly writes and speaks about the Gospel and its implications for solutions to the global orphan crisis. He is the editor and primary author of Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living Through the Rediscovery of Abba Father, wrote the foreword to Heirs with Christ: The Puritans on Adoption by Dr. Joel Beeke and is a regular contributor to The Gospel Coalition Blog.

I want to put you in the real world. So here’s the question: What in the world are you talking about?

…All the deadlines, because of the very bad economy, because of the very difficult family situations seem like the real world and the reality of our adoption through Jesus Christ feels like a very distant country.

What we are doing at this conference and what we are doing right now is we are reminding ourselves what the real world is. God’s story, massive, cosmic story of adoption IS the real world. That is the story that Psalm 36 is going to usher us into:

Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil.

Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O LORD.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.

Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart! Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the evildoers lie fallen; they are thrust down, unable to rise.

A British theologian named Mike Reeves in a recent sermon asks this question—what does God want from you? And I’m going to apply this context and ask what does God want from us, primarily thinking about orphan care and adoption. [quotes Psalm 82:3, Isaiah 1:23, James 1:26-27]

So what is it that God really wants from us? Are these verses our answer? What about these ones:

Matthew 2:27—what does God really want? He wants us to love him with all that we are. Psalm 126—He wants from us praise and adoration for he is good. And I could go on and on…

But I have a confession to make: I’ve set you up intentionally. That is a trick question. What does God really want from you? The question is not what does God want from us. The question is, “Who is God?”

Psalm 36:9—”For with you is the fountain of life. In your light do we see light.”

Does a fountain want anything from you?

The very nature of a fountain is that it gives and it never, NEVER stops giving. . . . The question is Who is God—and He is an eternal fountain. And he did not become a fountain when the world was created. This is the God who is fundamentally, intrinsically a giver. That’s what he is—he gives!

We can’t live the Christian life well if we think of God as primarily wanting from us.

In the context of caring for the orphan: To serve the orphan well, we must think of God, experience God, primarily as Giver.

Now why this Psalm at a conference on adoption and orphan care?

Four reasons:

1. There is a strong connection to what the Scriptures call Sonship. Sonship has to do with the idea that we all gain the rights and privileges of the Son.
2. Drinking from the lavish light of the fountain of God’s love for us empowers us to live on the razor-sharp edge of our world’s profound brokenness.
3. Orphans need Christians who feast on the abundance of God’s house and drink from the river of God’s delight
4. Christians who experience God as Giver are much better equipped to love the child who comes from or lives in the hard place

Two questions:

1. Who is this God who takes?
2. Who is this God who gives?

We learn about this God who takes in vv. 1-4. Here David is describing the wicked person—and he’s referring to someone living within the covenant community. And yet, this is how their minds operate. They are not serving a God who gives—they are serving a God who takes. These gods are needy. They make demands. They demand that you serve the God of comfort, or you serve the God of power… and they cannot talk, they demand everything from you. And those who make those gods become like them. This person serves this god and becomes one who takes.

You’d think that David would go from this person who takes and this god who takes and go to the person who gives. But he doesn’t do that—he goes to the God who gives.

Psalm 36:8—there’s one word in this verse, and it’s a wormhole—it takes you into a world that is bigger and richer than anything we can imagine. It transports us into what happens to be the real world. It’s the word “delight”. The Hebrew word—“Edens.” “Those who take refuge in the shadow of his wings,” he causes them to drink from the river of his “Edens”.

And what comes screaming out of this is The Fall.

Eden was the place where God created his son (small “s”) where they were supposed to enjoy eternal communion with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is saying that this man, this woman were to live in this love that is greater than Niagara Falls… and then you have the Fall. And there is a death sentence at the edge of Eden. An angel with a sword.

So we have a big problem here—how can David say that God can let us drink from the river of his Edens? If we try to get back in, we die. And if we die, we don’t drink. So what does David say?

The first part of verse 8: “They feast on the abundance of your house…” There was one place on earth where man could have communion with God—the Temple. That’s the house he’s talking about. But what happened there—blood had to be spilled! There is one place in heaven and on earth where God and man can meet—Jesus Christ, the God-man. Heaven and earth are brought together. In Jesus, we don’t just get Eden, we get Edens…

What we get in him, we get Eden on steroids.

God is the giver. And he has given us Jesus. In Jesus, God and man perfectly united. God is a Giver. And those who take refuge under the shadow of his wings, he gives them to feast on the abundance of his house and he causes them to drink of the river of his delights and you cannot begin to diminish the supply of his delight. All the millions and millions of people who by God’s grace have been brought to faith in Christ drink of the river of God’s delights and we can’t begin to diminish the supply of God’s delights because God is a giver!

When we think of God as one to whom we give, we end up living in a world that is not real. What orphans need is Christians who by the grace of God, by the Spirit, drink of the grace of God. That will motivate us, it will move us, to give because God is THE Great Giver.

God’s love come to us in Jesus extends to the heavens so that wherever you cry, “O wretched man that I am,” whenever you cry it, there is no far off country, no far off land where God’s giving does not supply every need you have in Christ Jesus. He is the giver. And it’s in him that we serve the orphan and the poor.

Let’s take a look back in time and see the most-read posts from September. Go check them out:

1. Everyday Theology: God Won’t Give You More Than You Can Handle
2. Everyday Theology: God helps those who help themselves
3. Book Review: Innocent Blood by John Ensor
4. John Piper on Mark Driscoll & John MacArthur
5. His Name was Smeagol
6. Book Review: Love Wins by Rob Bell
7. The Essential Edwards Giveaway!
8. Four Things I Learned While Writing a Book
9. (Cheap) Christian E-Books for Your Kindle!
10. Everyday Theology: Preach the Gospel always, if necessary use words

And just for fun, here’s the next ten:

1. The Gift of Dead Mentors
2. Book Reviews
3. Book Review: Radical Together by David Platt
4. Book Review: Give Them Grace by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson
5. Who Writes This?
6. Preaching and the Successful Local Church
7. Twisted: Reviewing Andy Stanley’s Twisting the Truth
8. Book Review: The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight
9. Every Member a Minister?
10. Join the Awaiting a Savior Blog Tour

There was a lot of good (in my opinion at least) content this month and it’s really nice to see that so much has been being read. This week’s review of Innocent Blood by John Ensor is seeing lots of traffic (you should really read that book, by the way); the four things I learned while writing Awaiting a Savior also seemed to resonate with a lot of people, something I’m grateful for. Also nice to see that some older material is continuing to pick up steam, like “Preach the Gospel always, if necessary use words” (had a discussion about that the other day, interestingly enough…) and the Radical Together review.

Looking forward to seeing how October turns out. There’s a lot of great stuff coming down the pipe, including live blogging the Together for Adoption conference in three weeks and sharing the reviews of Awaiting a Savior!

That’s enough from me—now it’s your turn: If you have a blog, what were a couple of the highlights for you in the past month?

But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.—Rev. 2:14-16

Although grace is surely amazing, it is also subject to distortion, especially by those who use it to excuse loose and licentious behavior (see Gal. 5:13; Jude 4). The justification comes in a variety of forms [but] perhaps the most egregious expression of such justification was stated rhetorically by Paul himself in Romans 6:1: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” God forbid!

The church at Pergamum was infested with people who thought in precisely such terms. They were called Nicolaitans. They were evidently licentious and antinomian and advocated an unhealthy compromise with pagan society. . . . The Pergamemes had welcomed them into the fellowship of the church and given them freedom to propagate their destructive ways.

There’s no indication these false teachers had openly denied the “name” to which the others at Pergamum held fast. . . . Rather, they were guilty of turning the grace of God into licentiousness. [They] had dared to insinuate that freedom in Christ granted them a blank check to sin. The fault of the Pergamemes was not so much that they had followed this pernicious teaching but that they had allowed it be vocalized in the congregation. This matter of indifference to the licentiousness of the Nicolaitans was of grave concern to the risen Lord.

But why not just live and let live? Is it really necessary that the faithful in Pergamum confront these libertines? Why rock the boat? Doesn’t Christian love call for tolerance and minding our own business?

I’ll let the words of Jesus answer those questions: “Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth” (Rev. 2:16).

Two things deserve comment. First, the repentance Jesus calls for entails immediate acknowledgment of the error in their thinking and the lack of courage in their stance regarding the antinomians. “Recognize and confess,” says Jesus, “that you are doing no one a favor by overlooking and allowing such sin in your midst! Confronting the Nicolaitans may be uncomfortable for you, even painful, but not nearly as painful as the judgment they will suffer if they remain in their sin.” This call to repentance may also include the ultimate expulsion from the church of the Nicolaitans should they choose not to respond favorably.

Second, notice that Jesus says “I will come to you” soon, but will “war against them.” The faithful at Pergamum aren’t off the hook. If they don’t repent Jesus will bring discipline against them, in precisely what form we aren’t told. But the Nicolaitans will be the focus of judgment. It is against them that Jesus will make war. Such language suggests that their lack of repentance would be evidence of a lack of saving faith. Their persistent licentiousness and morally compromising behavior undermines their claim to know Jesus in a saving way.

The Christians in Pergamum had sacrificed the ethical purity of their congregation on the altar of “love” and for the sake of some nebulous peace they feared to lose. Purity often comes at an extremely high price. But we must be prepared to pay it. Confrontation is never pleasant, but it often reaps a bountiful harvest. By all means, pursue love, but not at the expense of truth or in such a way that overt sin is left to fester and spread in the body of Christ.

 Adapted from Sam Storms, To the One Who Conquers: 50 Daily Meditations on the Seven Letters of Revelation 2-3, Kindle Edition

Every Friday, Ligonier Ministries offers a selection of excellent resources from R.C. Sproul, Joel R. Beeke, Sinclair Ferguson and many other gifted Bible teachers for $5 each. These resources are fantastic gift to believers seeking to dig deeper in their faith. There are some fantastic deals this week, so check them out:

The Expository Genius of John Calvin by Dr. Steven J. Lawson (eBook download)

Looking to the past for outstanding Bible-based, Christ-centered, and life-changing preaching, Dr. Steven J. Lawson focuses on sixteenth-century Geneva, Switzerland. It was there that John Calvin ministered for decades as a faithful shepherd to a flock of believers.

Here is an intimate portrait of Calvin the preacher-the core beliefs that determined his preaching style, the steps he took to prepare to preach, and the techniques he used in handling the Word of God, interpreting it, and applying it to his congregation. In the pulpit ministry of the great Reformer, Dr. Lawson finds inspiration and guidance for today’s church and calls on modern pastors to follow the Reformer’s example of strong expository preaching.

“I heartily recommend this book by Steven Lawson as an impetus to the recovery of expository preaching. It is an especially good gift for pastors and seminary students.”
—R.C. Sproul

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Christian apologetics is that which deals with answering any and all critics who oppose or question the revelation of God in Christ and the Bible. This study explores a whole host of doctrines important to the church and defends them all against common objections and misconceptions. Working through this series will challenge and equip you to defend the faith.

John H. Gerstner (1914–1996) was a Professor of Church History at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Knox Theological Seminary and an authority on the life and theology of Jonathan Edwards. He pastored several churches before accepting a professorship where he taught church history for over 30 years. He was also a visiting professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill., and author of many books and articles.

The Five Dilemmas of Calvinism by Craig R. Brown (Paperback)

After a brief survey of the historical development of the theological school now known as Calvinism and a comparison of Calvinism and Arminianism, Brown turns to a consideration of five dilemmas that Arminians typically associate with Reformed doctrines. The author then attempts to demonstrate that these “problems” are largely misunderstandings of Calvinism.

Written in a winsome and engaging style, Brown’s work is an excellent primer on Calvinism and some of the critiques that have been leveled against it. As such, the book provides both apologetic help for Calvinists and answers for Arminians with honest questions.

“Craig Brown battles misunderstandings that have dogged Calvinism for long years. In so doing, he provides apologetic help for Calvinists stymied by the misinformed questions of their Arminian friends. And, of course, he kindles light for those who have never considered alternatives to the Arminian system.”
—From the forward by R.C. Sproul

Ligonier’s $5 Friday sale runs until 8 a.m. Eastern Time Saturday morning.

Note: This is not a paid post, however, I am part of Ligonier’s affiliate program. As such, I earn a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Challenging conversation between Michael Horton, Tim Keller and Matt Chandler about the idea of “every member being a minister,” and whether it truly reflects Scripture and the best interests of the church:

What’s your take: Does the idea that “every member is a minister” or “every sheep is a shepherd” free us to serve and express our gifts or does it hinder us in our service to others?

HT: TGC

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Revelation 2:4-5)

What we see in the church at Ephesus was how their desire for orthodoxy and the exclusion of error had created a climate of suspicion and mistrust in which brotherly love could no longer flourish. Their eager pursuit of truth had to some degree soured their affections one for another. It’s one thing not to “bear with those who are evil” (Rev. 2:2), but it’s another thing altogether when that intolerance carries over to your relationship with other Christ-loving Christians!

Our Lord does not leave the Ephesians and their problem without a solution. Note the three terse commands of verse 5. Before doing so, however, observe what he does not recommend: he does not suggest that they become theologically lax, tolerant of error, or indifferent toward truth! In other words, don’t try to cure one problem in a way that will create another.

So, then, here’s his counsel. First, “remember . . . from where you have fallen” (v. 5a). Here their love is pictured as a height from which they had descended. To remember is to reflect and meditate on the peak of brotherly affection they once enjoyed. Recall the former fervor and let the memory of its joys and satisfaction stir you again to mutual devotion. Second, “repent” (v. 5b). Simply put, stop . . . then start. Stop the coldhearted disregard for one another—and for Jesus—and start cultivating that affection you formerly had. Third, “do.” In particular, do “the works you did at first” (cf. Heb. 6:10).

How important is it that the Ephesians strive by God’s grace to cultivate and sustain a passionate affection for both Christ and Christian? I’ll let Jesus answer that question. If you don’t repent, he solemnly warns, “I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place” (Rev. 2:5).

What this means is that failure to comply will lead to the imminent termination of their influence or public witness (cf. 11:3–7, 10; see also Mark 4:21; Luke 8:16) as a body of believers. The “coming” of Jesus in verse 5 is not the second advent at the end of history but a “coming” in preliminary judgment and discipline of this church (cf. 2:16); the second advent, however, is probably in view in 2:25 and 3:11. It may even be that Jesus is threatening the end of this congregation’s historical existence. I trust that such is enough to convince us all how important “love” is in the body of Christ!

Doctrinal precision is absolutely necessary. But it isn’t enough. May God grant us grace to love others with no less fervor than we love the truth.

 Adapted from Sam Storms, To the One Who Conquers: 50 Daily Meditations on the Seven Letters of Revelation 2-3, Kindle Edition

“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. . . . you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.—Rev. 2:2,6

Does love have its limits? Are there places it won’t go, people it won’t embrace, ideas it won’t endorse? Or is true love indiscriminate, universal, and all-inclusive? These questions are clearly and decisively answered in our Lord’s words to the church in ancient Ephesus. And his perspective is anything but politically correct!

Jesus had already commended the Ephesians for their hard work and perseverance. He now turns his attention to their orthodoxy. Far from being blinded by love, they had 20/20 discernment. They hated evil—period. No ifs, ands, or buts. Whatever form evil took, whether ethical or theological, they stood resolute in their opposition. No compromise. No cutting of corners. Their love was revealed in their intolerance. Unsanctified mercy had no place in the church at Ephesus. . . . This was their most stellar achievement. No heretical concept could ever raise its ugly head in Ephesus without being decapitated by the swift stroke of biblical truth.

The Ephesian believers [were not] so naïve as to believe that Christian charity can tolerate such false teaching. Note also the contrast: they “bear” trials and tribulations for Christ’s sake (v. 3), but they cannot “bear” the company of these evil men (vv. 2, 6). They endure persecution but not perversion.

There are many lessons here, but one in particular stands out: Jesus hates moral and theological compromise. Any appeal to grace to justify sin is repugnant to our Lord. Any attempt to rationalize immorality by citing the “liberty” we have in Christ is abhorrent to him and must be to us. True Christian love is never expressed by the tolerance of wickedness, whether it be a matter of what one believes or how one behaves.

Much is being said today about the extent of the church’s engagement with culture. To what degree should we be involved? How narrowly should we draw the boundary lines for what is permissible, on the one hand, and what is off limits, on the other? There are no easy answers, but of one thing I’m sure. If “cultural relevancy” threatens in any way or degree to undermine your single-minded, wholehearted devotion to Christ, end it. To the extent that being “in” the world drains you of the necessary strength to resist its temp tations or diminishes the purity of your relationship with Christ, turn and walk away.

Don’t expect me or anyone else to identify on your behalf those activities or ideas or events or persons from which or from whom you should withdraw. If they are not explicitly noted in Scripture, or cannot be deduced by good and necessary reason, to legislate for others what is and is not permissible would be legalism. I can only make that decision for myself.

May God grant us the discernment to identify the “Nicolaitans” of our day and the moral conviction and love to be intolerant of their destructive doctrines.

Adapted from Sam Storms, To the One Who Conquers: 50 Daily Meditations on the Seven Letters of Revelation 2-3, Kindle Edition