Are we worthy of the name? |
|
As a child I pored over maps, tracing the highways and looking for unusual cities and towns. Imagine my joy one day when I found “Singleton, Texas.” I showed my parents, my brother, and my sisters the little dot half-way between Bryan and Huntsville. “Someday,” I told them, “I am going there for a visit.”
Two summers ago I had that opportunity. Because my wife Cindy and I were in that area, we made the time to drive from Huntsville out toward Bryan. We looked up the road and to both sides, but there was no downtown, no post office, not even a country store with gas station. In fact, we had to look hard to find the one house nearby. “I don’t know where the name came from,” the young man there said, “It’s just always been called Singleton.” The old graveyard lacked even one Singleton among the markers. Across a dirt road from it stood the rotting ruins of a clapboard house. Nothing else. The sign was all that was left of Singleton, Texas. It was a bitter disappointment. Jesus told the church in Sardis, “I know your deeds: you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (Rev. 3:1). The Christians in Sardis were a bitter disappointment to the Lord. Why? Because they had not fulfilled the work Jesus had given them to do (3:2). He warned that if they did not wake up and finish the job, he would come to them unexpectedly and punish them (3:3). We make a big deal of the name “Christian,” and rightly so. Christ deserves all of the credit we can give him. But bearing that name commits us to a Christ-like lifestyle and a Christ-honoring mission, worship, and body-life in our congregation. Let’s examine the work God has given to us and find the joy in fulfilling the challenges He presents to us. Otherwise, we are just another Sardis. Just another Singleton, Texas. |
| —Steve Singleton DeeperStudy.com |
Want to go deeper?The Greek word onoma "name" has a number of uses in the New Testament. In the above context of Revelation 3:1, it means "reputation," as in our expression, "He made a name for himself." Do your own investigation: what does it mean in these verses: Matthew 6:9; 7:22; 10:22; 12:21; 18:20; John 3:18; 12:28; Acts 2:38; 4:12. Find other occurrences using a good concordance. Recommended for purchase:
Invoking Martin Luther's treatise On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Michael Horton fears that the church in America has also been willingly taken captive. The captors are American culture and ideals: consumerism, pragmatism, self-sufficiency, individualism, positive thinking, personal prosperity, and nationalism. Though these are antithetical to the gospel, we have often made them part and parcel with it. Horton argues that while we haven't yet arrived at Christless Christianity, we are well on our way. Though we invoke the name of Christ, too often Christ and the Christ-centered gospel are pushed aside. The result is a message and a faith that are, in Horton's words, "trivial, sentimental, affirming, and irrelevant." This alternative "gospel" is a message of moralism, personal comfort, self-help, self-improvement, and individualistic religion. It trivializes God, making him a means to our selfish ends. Horton skillfully diagnoses the problem and points to the solution: a return to the unadulterated gospel of salvation. Here is a must-read for anyone concerned about the state and future of Christianity and the church in America. Recommended for free online reading:William James Reid. "The Epistle to the Church in Sardis", lecture 8 in his Lectures on the Revelation (1878). Reid provides an excellent, text-based exposition, calling on all of us to examine whether, despite our claims and our frenetic activitiy, we are spiritually alive. ©2009 Steve Singleton |
One right turn and four miles later, I pointed and shouted, “There it is!” We pulled off the two-lane road and parked the care beside the green and white sign that said, “Singleton.”
