The Big Reveal: The Light of Our Wisdom

 May 10 2026

Revelation 2:1-7

         Well, I have to admit that with the coming of all of gray hair I thought that I might have more wisdom to offer. I guess that this is a common assumption, you know, that after making a certain number of trips around the sun that we are supposed to be not just older but overflowing with learning and knowledge, a real master of wisdom. The person who comes to mind when I think about being just such a wise person is my late father-in-law, Ted. Even though Ted had grown up poor, and had graduated from the school of hard knocks, he nonetheless made something of himself. But Ted did not just keep what he had learned through the years to himself. No, one of his greatest joys was to have his family and friends gather around him so he could share his stories about the wisdom that life had given him. Sure those stories were slightly embellished but in those stories were always little nuggets of wisdom, something that he had learned or discovered along the way that he hoped would help someone else to make wise choices. 

         Well, when we think about what it means for us to make wise choices, we are faced with first having to define just what to we mean by this thing called wisdom. I guess the easiest way to consider wisdom is to know that the opposite of wisdom is foolishness. It is probably a universal longing to never look foolish before those we hold to be important to us. No one really likes to be embarrassed no matter how often it might happen.  So to be wise is to be certain that our life will be marked by good choices. And as it turns out, it is this search for wisdom, this is he unspoken problem plaguing the church at Ephesus. 

         You see, wisdom is all about living life in a right and good manner. We discover just such a life described for us in the book of the Bible called Proverbs. There in the eighth chapter, the thirteenth verse, we hear a well known saying: “The fear of the Lord is the hatred of evil”. And then in the ninth chapter of Proverbs we find, “The fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom.” So when we learn that that church at Ephesus hated evil, not being able to put up with the evil of others, we might assume that Jesus will praise them for their wisdom. Yet, perhaps much to their surprise, this church at Ephesus is not given two thumbs up as being wise people; no, instead Jesus states that they have fallen from where they had first been. So rather than being complimented on their wisdom they are instead told that they are foolishly headed in the wrong direction. And Jesus goes further by telling them that their foolishness has caused them to walk away from the loving others with the greatest love which Jesus had first loved them. 

         Now, we are left wondering, just what are we to make of such a statement? I mean is it not true that wisdom is found by hating evil? Of course, this must be true. So yes, we should hate evil but the real question is this: just what are we to do with our hatred of evil?  You see, we can use our hatred of evil to either be the cause of division or we can use our hatred of evil as being that which unites us with others. For the church at Ephesus, their hatred of evil was seen as being the reason why they had separated themselves from all those who did such evil. The church at Ephesus had taken their knowledge of evil as used this as an excuse to limit their love of others. Their knowledge of evil caused them to consider themselves superior to those who did not fear the Lord. So when they understood their fear of the Lord in this way, then they had no trouble finding some not just worth the effort it takes to love others with the love Jesus had first gave them when he offered his life upon the cross. 

         You see, our hatred of evil is to never be used as an excuse for withholding love from anyone, far from it. No, the hatred we have for evil is to make us aware that evil is a trap that all people are unable to be free of under their own power. This is the tragic conclusion discovered by the people of Israel, who even though they could state that the wisest choice was to fear the Lord by hating evil, they nonetheless, ended up being so evil that they had to be thrown out of the land promised to them by God. The law God had given to them clearly outlined what was forbidden yet the people of God seemed powerless to do the good that was set before them. This is what Paul explains at the end of the seventh chapter of Romans, where he says, ‘For we know the Law is spiritual, but I am under the power of the desires of my flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. I do not do what I want to do, but instead I do the very thing I hate.” Here Paul appears to be giving a nod to wisdom, because the very thing that he hates is evil, yet even the fear of God is unable to move him to obedience. What Paul concludes is this, “I know that nothing good dwells in me through doing what my flesh desires. I may have the desire to do what is right but I do not have the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good that I want to do, and the evil I do not want to do, the evil that I hate, this is the very thing that I keep on doing.” When we listen to Paul lay out the dilemma that all of us face, we all can cry out with Paul, “Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” This is where our hatred of evil is to bring us, to this point where we do hate evil yet knowing that we stand in need of someone who will set us free from the terrible hold which evil has on us. This is why we hate evil because it is a force that has imprisoned us, all of us. And it is this evil which is what ruins any hope we might have of a future with God.

         To this rather somber account of our situation, Paul then exclaims this wonderful declaration as found at the beginning of the eighth chapter of Romans,  “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. Jesus does not hate us for the evil we have done but instead, out of his great love for us, Jesus offers us forgiveness. Now it follows that if Jesus does not condemn anyone then neither can someone condemn or judge anyone else as being unworthy of the forgiveness of God. To judge another person as being worthy of condemnation and then  justify our action because of our hatred of evil will only cause us to place ourselves under the judgment of God. This is why Jesus sternly warns us in the sixth chapter of Matthew that we are not to judge others for the measure of judgment we use on others will be the measure of judgment that will be used upon us. 

         You see, when the church at Ephesus received this letter from John, they were supposed to ask the question, “Where do we see ourselves in this revelation that John has shared with us?’  Well, it is rather obvious that when they heard of the Lamb who is slain, they would have remembered the great love that Jesus had for those he considered his friends. This love compelled Jesus to offer up his life as a shield to cover our life with his very own.  So how could the church at Ephesus forget this love which they had experienced from God when they had first begun their relationship? This was the love they had abandoned and clearly in this heavenly scene, Jesus is inviting this church to return to this love they experienced when they first encountered him. They were to remember that before Jesus, the future held securely within the scroll was not open to them. As they listened to what was revealed to John they were to know that what has forever opened up this future is this great love Jesus has for all people.  Jesus alone is worthy to create for us future, for he is the one who offered his life for us, becoming for us the Lamb who is slain. Only the life blood of Jesus, poured out for all of us, only this could pay the price necessary to redeem us from our slavery to sin and death. Thus it is only Jesus who is able to take those caught up in the slavery of evil, and transform them into being kings and priests to God. This is the power of the love of Jesus, his agape love, the love of God that is without limits, reaching to all people, in all places, at all times. Jesus, in the fifteenth chapter of John, tells us this, “The greatest love is this, that one would offer up his life for his friends. And you are my friends if you do what I command you, and you go and love with this same great love, offering up your life for your friends.”  This love of Jesus is a love which moves him to take his life and place it over our life, covering us from harm so that we might experience a security like no other. So as the church at Ephesus found themselves in this story they would have been confronted by the fact that when they had abandoned this love of Jesus then they had walked away from the life that Jesus had secured for them through this very love.

         As the church at Ephesus refused to love others as Jesus had first loved them, they forgot the very source of this life God offers us. In doing so, the very basis for our worship of God, that God is the giver of life, this has been lost when the church at Ephesus walked away from their first love. All they were left with was just a knowledge of evil without any hope of a future beyond this evil. Gone was the praise to God for his great love that thought nothing of giving his only Son so that we might not perish, but instead have a life eternal. So when the church at Ephesus abandoned this love they had first had received from God they no longer could worship as they do in heaven, finding God worthy to receive the sum total of their life. And this then affected how they served God through their love of others for they no longer loved others as God had first loved them. No longer did the church at Ephesus witness with their lives that there is a source of love which can transform us into people who can love with a love that has no limits, loving all people in all places and all times. No, they instead they decided to place limits on their love, withholding love from all those they judged as being controlled by the evil they thought they knew so well. In that decision, the church at Ephesus forgot that they too had once been people who had been controlled by evil, in that time before they had experienced the unlimited love of Jesus. 

Now just as this church at Ephesus were called to find themselves in this story, I believe that all who read this revelation of John are to do the same. We must consider just what does this story say to us as the church in America?  We too must remember the love of Jesus who became the Lamb of God slain for us. We must allow this love to confront us and cause us to consider if we, like the church at Ephesus, have perhaps walked away from loving others with this greatest love? I believe that if we are honest, there are signs that do indicate that we have much in common with this church at Ephesus. I say this because it appears that the lost in America seem to know way more about all the behaviors that the church hates and they are so unaware of just how unlimited is this love with which the church is given to love others. How tragic it is that all some people know about the church is that it seems that the church hates people who aren’t like them, looking down on all those who don’t follow our ways of doing things. Somehow the church never seems to get around to just loving others without judgment as Jesus first has done for us. The problem is that there are simply too many who claim to be followers of Jesus who keep looking for ways to limit their love of others believing that all that is necessary is for us to just love the people who look like us and act like us. Yet if Jesus had used this same standard with us then none of us would have made the grade for none of us can claim to be without sin, as he is.

Now why it is so crucial for us as a church to return to loving others without limits is that unless we do so, Jesus warns us that we will be removed from the lamp stand. The reason why Jesus would do such a drastic measure is simply that the church at Ephesus, and all the churches who are like them, have stopped being what Jesus expects that they should be. When we think about the church being a light in a lamp stand , how can we not hear the words of Jesus found in the middle of the fifth chapter of Matthew, “ You, the church, are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. People do not light a lamp and then hide that light under a basket. No, they take and place that light in a lamp stand so that it gives light to the whole house. In the same way let your light shine before others, so that they may see what is good and give glory to God.” You see, as we live in an evil world it is not enough for us to merely stand and curse the darkness, which is all that we do when we point out all the ways people no longer fear God. No, God expects that our life will witness to his goodness, this is how we demonstrate that he alone is worthy to receive all the glory, honor and praise. If we have experienced the goodness of God, if we have known of his great love for all of us, and we refuse to demonstrate this goodness to others then Jesus warns us that we will be like salt which has lost its flavor, no longer good for anything but to be thrown out into the street to be walked on. This is the dire future for all churches who follow in the footsteps of the church at Ephesus.

You see when we realize that God expects our lives to radiate with a holy difference called goodness, then what we see revealed in heaven begins to make sense. If we return to the opening of the seals which open up to us our certain future, when we come to the fifth of those seven seals being opened we see an unusual sight. John tells us that he sees that there under the altar are the souls of those who had offered up their life on account of the word of God and because of their witness before the world. Now clearly, the altar represents Jesus, the Lamb who gave himself as a once-for-all offering for us. When Jesus describes this act of love he says this greater love is a love which moves someone to set their life over another, covering another person’s life with their own life. This is what we see when the followers of Jesus are seen to be under the altar, an image of being covered by the very love of Jesus. These who are sheltered by the very presence of Jesus respond to this act of love by doing two things. The first is that they obey the word of God. I believe that in this instance that this refers to the word of judgment that Jesus teaches us when he says that we are to hunger and thirst for righteousness and that we are to be merciful to others as God is merciful to us. The righteousness we are to long for is a world where all people are found to be equally deserving of life. This speaks to the unlimited nature of the love of God. This love then, is seen living in us as we offer mercy. To those considered to be the least of these in an evil world, we are to offer them the life the world has no problem taking from them. And to those who oppose our efforts to offer life, those who refuse to have anything to do with loving others without limits, this mercy is offered to them by the forgiveness of their trespass against us. The reason why we choose to obey this teaching is solely because of  the mercy God has first shown to us. When we love like God just as he first loved us, then we witness to the goodness of God in a world held captive by evil, becoming a light the world so desperately needs. This is what Jesus expects from the church at Ephesus, and all churches like them. True wisdom is for the church to be a light for our dark world. Only as we shine can we be part of the future that is dawning before us.So as our Lamb has conquered, let us follow him. Amen!