Have you ever noticed that each of the passages to the seven churches of Revelation (chapters 2 and 3) includes the following phrase: “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the spirit says to the churches.”
I find that fascinating. To me, that indicates that while these two chapters are addressed specifically to those seven churches, the lessons we can discern from these chapters are also applicable to us today.
One of the first things I notice is that all seven churches are told by Jesus, “I know … [something about them].”
Jesus is intimately familiar with everything about our churches: what we do, what we think, how we feel – yes. But it’s more than that.
Jesus also knows how hard we work, whether we are persevering, what afflicts is, our financial strengths and weaknesses, our spiritual strengths and weaknesses, the persecutions we are going through, and who is persecuting us, the physical geography and history of where we are, how much we’ve matured or not matured, our reputation and whether it is legitimate, he even knows what we are capable of achieving, and what we falsely think we have accomplished or need.
In short, Jesus knows our churches – everything about them. Even if he is angry with a church that is doing everything wrong – Jesus knows them – from every angle.
And, when you come to the realization that the church is really just the followers of Jesus … that’s a very sobering thought. Jesus knows ME!