WHEN AN APOSTLE IS CONCERNED Think of some of the "measuring" of the churches that is recorded in the Epistles. -- Tomorrow:
"Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." (2 Corinthians 11:1-4)
EXAMPLES OF DIVINE MEASUREMENT
1. ROMANS. "Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God" (Rom 2:17)."Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God?" (Rom 2:23). "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed" (Rom 13:11). "Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way" (Rom 14:13).
2. CORINTHIANS. "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" (1 Cor 3:3). "Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?" (1 Cor 6:7). "For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it" (1 Cor 11:18).
3. GALATIANS. "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" (Gal 3:1) "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace" (Gal 5:4). "Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" (Gal 5:7).
4. EPHESIANS. "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth" (Eph 4:28). "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Eph 5:14).
5. PHILIPPIANS. "I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord" (Phil 4:2).
6. COLOSSIANS. "Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances" (Col 2:20).
7. THESSALONIANS. "For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies" (2 Thess 3:11).
In the Revelation, the Lord Jesus measured the seven churches in Asia: "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea" (Rev 1:11). He told them of the good things found in six of them, and of things He had against five of them. They were measured. He measured their assemblies, their doctrine, and the individuals among them.
I do not believe enough has been said about these things – things like Paul is saying to the Corinthians. There is too much allowance of things with which Jesus has absolutely no tolerance at all. There is too much contentment with the profession of churches –with their imagined identity with an historical movement, and with the self-professed success. There are standards and expectations that Jesus has established for His churches, and they have nothing whatsoever to do with buildings, programs, attendance, and the likes. If a church – any church – does not measure up to Jesus' expectations, they are in great jeopardy.
PRAYER POINT: Father, in he name of Jesus, grant me grace not to be naive about what you think of the churches.