Revelation 3:2
2 Be[ginomai] watchful,[gregoreuo] and[kai] strengthen[sterizo] the things which remain,[loipoy] that[hos] are[mello] ready to die:[apothnesko] for[gar] I have[heurisko] not[ou] found[heurisko] thy[sou] works[ergon] perfect[pleroo] before[enopion] God.[theos] KJV-Interlinear
2 'Wake up, and strengthen the
things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds
completed in the sight of My God. NASB
Wake up, be watchful, means to be vigilant or to
resume your vigilance, be alert, recover your alertness. The Christians has fallen away (died) to
their spiritual functions in life. They were behaving just like unbelievers,
imitating them in their patterns of life.
Wake up, get back into fellowship. Christ is addressing believers
remember.This is not an appeal for them
to believe in Christ all over again.We
believe once in our life and that is sufficient to have salvation. Once saved always saved.
So their problem is not salvation, but fellowship. Their attitude toward Bible doctrine is found
wanting.Lacking substance they are mere
shadows and have no staying power in life.
Their works are hollow, empty.
They may be doing good deeds but they are selfish deeds without true
charity of soul.Their deeds are from
their self righteousness and not from Gods righteousness.
Their prayer is empty, without holiness. Any prayer offered while out of fellowship is
worthless and is not heard.The only
exception is the confession prayer where God then restores you into fellowship
and thus you become powerful, but not from your own strength, but from Gods
strength.Their inward affections do not
match their outward acts.They may be
saying and doing the right things, but their motivations are not from Bible
doctrine, they are from the sin nature.
God examines the soul and by this, evaluates the
person.Your soul is the key to your
life.
What is in your soul? Bible doctrine or just earthly academic data,
earthly philosophies, rational or logic thought processes.
Though you may know a lot, you really know nothing.
Without doctrine, there remains no frame of reference with which to apply your
knowledge.Therefore all your earthly
production is wood, hay, and stubble.
Those are the things which God will burn away at the Judgment Seat of
Christ. They have no value and no
future.
So, wake up, is the call. Confess your sins and resume your spiritual
life.And remain awake
(study) in your attitude toward Bible doctrine.
Wake up and conduct yourself responsibly in life by following a
regimented daily Bible study.Follow a
regular review process of your own life, by evaluating yourself with regard to
sin and your attitude toward God and your Bible study. Keep yourself in fellowship (confess), study,
learn, apply, and do it all over again throughout the day, throughout your
life.
God looks not for the actions that any person can
perform, He looks for the foundation upon which those actions are based.
God looked at the Sardinians and found them lacking
in the things which they should have had, in order to receive a proper
evaluation.They lacked spiritual
progress.God uses prepared
believers.He promotes and blesses them, based on the doctrine they have accumulated in their
souls and based on the usefulness of that doctrine which they have applied in their life.
So, are you positive toward Bible doctrine? Do you evaluate yourself constantly in order
to maintain your fellowship status with God?
Or, are you asleep (dead) with regard to Bible
doctrine?
Then wake up, get back with your study program and
re-strengthen the things you once knew.
Don't let what you know now, die out (fade away
as forgotten) on you.If you get away
from doctrine for short periods, you will have a tendency to forget some
things, but you will remember most of what you have learned. But, if you get away from Bible doctrine for
an extended period of time, then you will forget more and more. And sooner or
later you will forget everything you once knew.
So, do not risk losing it all. The more you lose, the more difficult it is
to recover in your spiritual life.
An adult person cannot return to his infant
state.Well perhaps a person can become
immature and act childish again in life.
An older person can get really helpless and childlike.
So it is with your spiritual life. You can return to spiritual infancy and have
to re-learn everything you once knew.
Re-learning takes time and you have to go through your growing up
process all over again.This is not
worth the trouble, so stick with your current study and do not fall back or
lose ground in your spiritual life.
Those in Sardis forgot their Bible study and were
at risk of losing all they had learned.
This in turn causes them to lose out on the rewards and crowns and
blessings, they had gained to their own account for eternity. This also, caused them to have to go through
the growing up process again, to re-build their faith, to recover the spiritual
life they once had.
Time is short, and Christ will emphasize this in
the next verse.We have already seen the
warning from chapter 1, Christ's hand is on the lever
of human history.Do you remember that
study?
And history, or even your
own physical life is hanging in the balance.
Do not waste time in this life. And certainly do not lose ground through
indifference or laziness in your studies.
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