It's still the first term of the academic year at colleges and universities. College roommates are still discovering one another. There are plenty of weird habits and idiosyncrasies for roommates to overlook in one another. One roommate is strangely tolerant of dirty dishes. Another roommate is having a hard time tolerating the other roommate's tolerance! But for the young people with whom I work, the message we have all heard is loud and clear: only judgmental, close-minded people can't tolerate one another. The idea that we would expel from our midst someone with whom we disagree is nigh unconscionable for us anymore.
It's still the first term of the academic year at colleges and universities. College roommates are still discovering one another. There are plenty of weird habits and idiosyncrasies for roommates to overlook in one another. One roommate is strangely tolerant of dirty dishes. Another roommate is having a hard time tolerating the other roommate's tolerance! But for the young people with whom I work, the message we have all heard is loud and clear: only judgmental, close-minded people can't tolerate one another. The idea that we would expel from our midst someone with whom we disagree is nigh unconscionable for us anymore.
In today's passage, the risen and glorified Jesus, whose eyes blaze like fire and whose feet are like refined bronze, warns a church about their toleration of an old foe: idolatry. False teaching and idolatrous practices came to be tolerated even in a church whose Christian activities were flourishing. Jesus himself employs terrifyingly harsh words for those who fall under idolatry's spell. A dreadfully harmful influence has been let in the front door of the church in Thyatira. Its seductive power leads even active Christians away from their God. Idolatry, it turns out, is a very big deal for those who succumb to it are no longer worshippers of the one true God! In these verses, Jesus seems to have a laser-like clarity about and concern for the welfare of his people. And in his characteristic gracefulness, Jesus offers repentance for idolaters like us and encouragement for all who resist idolatry!
What kind of clarity, courage, and community must it have taken for people to resist idolatry and to receive a promised reward from the Lord Jesus? In our efforts to be an inclusive people who even care for those with whom we disagree, how far can we go? When must we draw the line and call idolatry out by name? Should we? May Jesus guide us as we consider what it takes to be a church that triumphs over idolatry.
To His Glory,
Jeff Liou
Pastor of College and Young Adults Ministries
