Whether you take your cue from the Great Commission or the first and second Greatest Commandments, the duty of the Church is to serve. We are to make disciples, love God, and love our neighbors. All of those are action words, words of service.
We as individuals, and the church body as a whole are not simply called, but commanded to serve. You can reference I John 4:10, Romans 12:4-8, James 1:22 and many others to see this. Serving is not optional. It's not a matter of choice or convenience. It is our duty. We are servants, and our Master expects us to serve.
What happens to a servant who fails to serve their master?
They are punished. Our God is no different. This is a side of God the modern Church doesn't like to talk about, but it is as undeniable as His mercy and His grace. God expects obedience, and while He is patient and merciful, His patience does have limits.
Do you not want to believe that our God has limited patience? Read Revelation 2:20-23. The woman Jezebel was given time to repent, and she refused. God's patience ran out, and she was punished. No endless warnings, no more red lines in the sand. She had her chance to repent, and missed it. Her punishment was exact, and brutal.
As for the rest of her church in Thyatira? They faced the same penalty if they failed to turn themselves around. Repent, or suffer the same fate as that adulterous false prophet. Christ said they must serve Him, or pay the price.
All churches face the same danger.
In the second and third chapters of the book of Revelation, Christ dictated 7 letters to 7 seven churches. In 5 of those letters He repeated this phrase: "I know your deeds." In 4 of them, that was not a good thing. Only the church in Philadelphia was told to keep doing what they were doing. Only their deeds, their service, was sufficient in the eyes of Christ, and then only if they continued on.
As for the other four? Ephesus was warned unless their service once again reflected their first love (what is the Greatest Commandment?--love God), He would come and remove their lampstand from its place. Thyatira, we already said, was threatened with severe punishment if they did not repent. Sardis was told to "wake up," or else Christ would come to them like a thief in the night. And Laodicea was warned they were about to be vomited out of the mouth of Christ.
If Christ comes to your church like a thief in the night, removes your lampstand from its place, or vomits you out of His mouth, its over. That it. A church that doesn't serve Christ is of no use to Him, and He will not tolerate it. That's a lesson we learn from the seven churches in Revelation.
To him who overcomes, there is a reward. To him who doesn't . . .
Whether it be to eat from the tree of life, to be free from fear of the second death, to be written in the Book of Life, or any of the other promises made in those seven letters, he who overcomes by serving faithfully will be rewarded. He who doesn't, on the other hand . . . I don't want to know what happens.
What I do know is that, according to what we've seen above, if a church as a whole isn't serving Christ faithfully, the outcome is boarded up windows and weeds overgrowing the parking lot. It's done. Empty. Lights out forevermore.
I don't want to see that happen to my church. Not to my local church, or the larger Church of my country. That second, I am afraid, may indeed be in danger. We need to do something. Now.
Christ is patient.
He gave those churches a warning, a chance to repent. I believe we have the same.
I pray we respond to His warnings quickly enough.
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