Do you ever find yourself with complaints against the church? You’re not alone! In the book of Revelation, John writes seven letters to seven churches. In most of these letters, Jesus begins with an encouraging statement for the church and then points out a complaint He has against them. We would be wise to read through the complaints Jesus had against the church so that we do not end up making the same errors that offended Jesus about the early churches.

To the church in Ephesus, Jesus says:

“‘But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!’” (Revelation 2:4)

This happens for a lot of people. We get excited about Christ when we first accept His payment for our sins and we decide to follow Him, but if we don’t work at it, that excitement can fade. Jesus tells the church to come back to Him and encourages them to do the works they did at first. They lost the fire and this happens to so many new Christians. We can slip into this passivity and coast on the fact that salvation is a free gift. While that’s true, it’s also true that faith without works is dead and the branches that belong to Jesus that don’t produce fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire. The way to guard against this slide into passivity is to do good works, to do work for the Kingdom of God and not just sit by and coast on the free gift of salvation.

To the church in Pergamum, Jesus says:

“But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin.” (Revelation‬ ‭2‬:‭14)

Jesus’s complaint was that the church was tolerating teachings that were contrary to Jesus’s teachings. We’re told constantly that we shouldn’t be intolerant. We’ve bought into the idea that “come as you are” means continue sinning and sinning. The church has tolerated a lot of ideas that are contrary to Jesus’s teachings and it is this tolerance that Jesus holds as a complaint against the church. He holds the same complaint agains the church at Thyatira.

“But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. (…) But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (‘deeper truths,’ as they call them—depths of Satan, actually). I will ask nothing more of you” (Revelation‬ ‭2‬:‭20‬, ‭24‬)

Did you catch what people who were teaching falsehoods called their teaching? “Deeper truths.” False teachers use the same language/justification today, some two thousand years later. They merge their sinful desires with God’s word to try and make it okay and they call it a deeper truth—like the blasphemous attempts to call transgenderism okay by saying that Jesus was transgender, or openly gay pastors who say that love is love and God is love so homosexuality is acceptable—they twist and lie about the Scriptures to justify choosing to live a sinful lifestyle and it’s all wrapped up in the idea that they know “deeper truths.” As Jesus said, these are not deeper truths but they are from the depths of Satan. Jesus had complaints against the church and it would do the Church well to know what those complaints were so that we can examine ourselves to make sure we aren’t making the same mistakes that distressed Jesus about the church. Keep watch. Jesus is coming soon. Make sure He doesn’t have a complaint against you.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.