“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false.” (Revelation 2:2)
God says to the Ephesian church ‘I know’. This phrase has been used in many places in the letters to the churches (2:2, 9, 13; 3:1, 8, 15). When God says “I know” it could mean different things to the listeners depending on their relationship with the Lord. It could be one of joy, fear or peace.
Joy: When God says “I know”, the faithful are happy. His words encourage them to carry on and to gain momentum in their journey ahead.
Fear: It is encouraging to hear God say that He knows. But He knows not only our good deeds but our wrong thoughts as well. Fear springs up in the one who walks in sin and selfishness at His word “I know.” God is omniscient. Before Him, everything is laid bare and nothing is hidden.
Peace: “I know” is in itself an answer for those who are wholly committed to the Lord and know Him in a deeply personal way. In them, the phrase “I know” stirs up a strong emotion that is not easily explained. His words “I know” is all-sufficient for them to go forward in the midst of severe trial. These words carry a deep, silent, yet powerful meaning in their lives.
Once, a poor villager came to the king with a complaint against his rich neighbor. Now this poor man had once saved the king from the attack of a tiger when the king went hunting in the forest near his village. Ever since, whenever the king went hunting, he would visit the poor man in his hut. Over time they had come to share a close relationship. After carefully listening to the man, the king simply said ‘I know’, nothing more or less. The poor man went back to his village in peace.
The message that this story conveys is partially true in the case of God’s ‘I know’ as well. The poor man went in peace because he understood that someone in greater authority had heard his woes. Besides, the king was his friend. His peace sprang from his confidence that given their close relationship, the king would grant him the favor he requested.
But with God, it could be a little different. When God says ‘I know’ we expect Him to solve our problems the way we think or thrust our opponents out of the way. But God’s approach to solving the problem may be different from what we expect. Sometimes it may result in martyrdom as it did for Stephen, or in the release from the prison by an angel as it was with Peter. But when God says “I know”, it means God is strong enough to act in that matter as He desires, which is the best and truly the best for us. Those who live for Him think in this manner, for they do not add anything to the “I know”, for that in itself is their answer.
When a person says ‘I know everything about you’, we consider his knowledge to be limited as we are aware of his limitations. If he is a child, we can gauge the extent of his knowledge. If a person living in another country claims to know about us, then again, we tie in some limitations. But if he is a person we respect for his profound knowledge and he is close enough to know us intimately, we may actually imagine that he knows everything. From such a person, we would not hide anything.
The Psalmist gives a beautiful description on this matter. He acknowledges God as the One who knows everything about him. “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways” (Psalms 139:2-3).
In the letters to the churches when God says “I know” it has takes on a meaning in both senses. ‘I know’ the good works you have done for my Name’s sake. And “I also know” the sins you have committed. Understanding both of these is needful for a believer.
“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil”
God comments positively on their intolerance to those who are evil. But this is a subject that we ought to study carefully, because there is only a thin line between loving and hating the evil people. We may easily stumble over this dividing line unless we are fully aware of what God meant when He spoke thus.
We find both these truths in the scriptures.
“Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies” (Psalms 139:21-22); “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons” (1 Corinthians 5:9); “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
Accommodation of evil people in the church is a common characteristic of a church that is on a spiritual decline. We can find two reasons for this. For one, during such times the prophets would have faded. In other words, the door to backsliding opens at the death of the prophets. Most of the prophets of the Bible were killed by the leadership when they wanted to establish their own kingdom in place of God’s. So they tried to kill our Lord too. The second reason is that the members of the church are no more able to distinguish between good and evil. This blindness is depicted in the church at Laodicea (3:17).
The entry of the evil and evil people to the church as well as into our lives is very slow and happens in subtle ways. This keeps it from being noticed until the church or our life collapses totally. We normally pay little attention to the ‘little foxes’.
Nehemiah was tempted by the same temptation that the leadership of every church is faced with. The enemy wanted to stop the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem. Indeed, the work of the enemy is to destroy the plan of God. Here Satan’s hands were in the form of Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian.
It was the first missile against Nehemiah that “But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king? “ (Nehemiah 2:19). Scoffing brings discouragement. But Nehemiah carried on. The enemy came with a second weapon, a threat this time. “But it came to pass that, when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews” (Vs.4:1).
These weapons are enough to topple many of us to allow the enemy to get into the work of God without a real experience of conversion. But in this, they simply could not beat Nehemiah.
We can see a similar experience in the life of Moses. The Pharoh of Egypt was bargaining with Moses about the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. He presented a number of options before Moses to force him to be ready for compromise. “So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness, provided you do not go very far away…” (Exodus 8:28) “… Your men (only) may go and worship the LORD...” (Vs.10:11), “… Only your flocks and your herds shall remain behind...” (Exodus 10:24). Like Nehemiah, he also stood firm to strictly follow God’s plan to the letter. No compromises.
During Jesus’ time, how is it that the merchants could enter into the temple without the notice of the priest and the temple police? It started as a means of assisting in the temple sacrifice. It was probably right. The question is not what benefit we get from it, but rather whether or not it is ordained by God. Often we find many useful things hindering the Lord’s working. Slowly, these supposedly beneficial things take centre-stage and capture the spiritual focus. Jesus became very angry and chased them out of the temple with a whip.
Loving the enemy does not mean allowing them to do just about anything and everything. Surely the church is meant for sinners in need of a loving God. But God expects them to first come to church to be ministered to by the power of God, not to ‘minister’ out of their worldly wealth or position. As they are nurtured in God’s love, they would also start giving away what they have received. But it so happens that much before they get there, they manage to gain entry into the wrong positions of responsibility because of leaders who lack the fear and knowledge of God. Their money and position in society entice the leaders, who stand to gain favours for the church from authorities through such influence. Such leaders quickly oblige them ‘ministry opportunities’ to keep up their sense of respect and relevance in the new community. This hollow pacification conveys the wrong message to them and to the congregation on who is truly ‘greater in the Kingdom of God’. Assuming they are, slowly they begin to control the leadership, its plans and sadly, even its theology. At this point, it is not likely that anyone will protest. By now, the prophetic voice has completely vanished and is prominent by its absence.
True, our God is a God of love, and He abhors evil. Only those who have the true love of God in them can hate those who do evil with the hatred of God. To understand this better, we must first understand true love. Love is an action that is directed towards the betterment of the object of our love. If so, how can the intolerance of evil doers be an action of love?
1. If we tolerate evil doers, it will essentially hinder their salvation. Suppose your child misbehaves and you put up with it and continue to do for him all that he demands , he will be corrupted beyond all hope. The Bible says: “Folly is bound up in the heart of a boy, but the rod of discipline drives it far away” (Proverbs 22:15). Paul talks about a spiritual discipline which is not common nowadays in churches.In the context of one who was involved in sexual immorality, Paul says, “you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 5:5). Paul is referring to a spiritual action of the church by the authority given by the Lord Jesus Christ. Here the particular person is released from the care and covering of the church into the hands of Satan. We do not have much Biblical explanation on this topic. But Paul explains the purpose behind such a step: Satan will take over and torment him in the flesh. Satan does it not for the man’s repentance and salvation, but rather because it is his nature. But through this, Paul is hopeful of ‘his salvation in the day of the Lord Jesus.’ It is no doubt an action driven by true love.
2. If we tolerate evil doers, it will hinder others in their Christian walk. “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you? … Your boasting is not a good thing. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?” (1 Corinthians 5:1-2, 6).
One of the reasons for the failure of the Israelites in the wilderness was the mixed race or the ‘rabble’. “The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, “If only we had meat to eat!” (Numbers 11:4).
3. If we tolerate evil doers, it could hinder our own spiritual life too.
Do we take a casual stand if our children do not study well, or if someone is trying to misuse them? But when it comes to the matter of spiritual realities, we loosen our position easily.
Jesus Christ and his Apostles clearly warned us that in the last days, apostasy will increase. Unless we are taught and strive to maintain a clear difference between the holy and the evil, we will open widely the door of our life as well as the church. Hear what God says through the prophet Ezekiel, “Its priests have done violence to my teaching and have profaned my holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them” (Ezekiel 22:26).
The Ephesian church was faithful in intolerance towards evil doers just as God was. “Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Revelation 2:6). *→ to be continued next week. Please do visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays to check out new posts!