Excuses, Excuses!

“Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”  Revelation 2:5

Imagine being scolded by Jesus! The church at Ephesus was doing a lot of things right, but something crucial was missing. They were no longer doing good things because they loved Him, they were doing right for wrong reasons. They had slacked off on their relationship with Him, and substituted religious duty. They weren’t trying to sin, but their motives for doing good had become self-centered. Because their behavior was beyond reproach, they made excuses for their coldness. But they were only fooling themselves. They were not fooling God. So Jesus gave them a wake-up call, and His wake-up call applies to us, too. 

Some of their excuses may have sounded like these: “We haven’t been to church in several weeks, ‘cuz our kids have sports.” “I’ll start giving again after I get my bills paid off and our vacations paid for.” “We’d love to serve, but we’re just gone so much on the weekends.” Sound familiar? We didn’t invent spiritual excuses; Ephesus beat us to it. Jesus warned the Ephesians that if they did not repent of their mixed-up priorities, He would cancel all the blessing and fruitfulness He wanted to give them. He warns us too. When we ignore Him, He misses us. Misses our fellowship, our passion, and our love. Without that heart connection, we are only serving ourselves and are no longer beacons of light in the darkness; we become the darkness.

If you heard this warning from Jesus, what might He be referring to? 

.