In the beginning of the book of Revelation, we read the letters to the seven churches. In chapter 3, beginning in verse 14, we find the letter to the church at Laodicea, and we see “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! (3:15) That sounds so much like many churches in today’s world. They aren’t necessarily “bad”, but they aren’t “good” – they just ride along with the flow and are like “Whatever…I’ll just do what feels good to me…” They don’t preach against sin, and they certainly don’t talk about repentance. What was God’s message to that church? Look at verse 19, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.”
Repent means to change one’s mind about something. In other words, stop thinking all these “little” and “insignificant” sins are’t really that bad. To realize ALL sin is bad and God hates ALL sin.
What did Isaiah teach us in Isaiah 1:16-17? “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good;…” STOP doing what is wrong, and LEARN to do what is right! Like an army commander might yell to his troops “ABOUT FACE!” Stop heading one way and go the right way! REPENT!
Psalm 34:14 tells us, “Turn away from evil and do good”. Sin is WRONG, and ANYTHING that does not bring honor and glory to God is SIN! We have to stop trying to excuse all of our sins and learn to do what is RIGHT!
I know many people argue “Well, all my friends are doing it….” or even “Everyone in my church is doing it…” However, if God says something is wrong, or the Holy Spirit warns us in that quiet voice “That’s not right!” We MUST REPENT, and learn to do what is right.
It’s not always easy going against the flow and standing up for what’s right when no one else seems to be interested in that – but that’s the way we are commanded to live! We need to stop being like the church at Laodicea, where we just float along in the middle.