The fourth epistle is to Thyatira, in which fornication and idols are dealt with. “I have something against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, she who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and leads My slaves astray to commit fornication and to eat idol sacrifices” (v. 2:20).
Spiritual fornication is the union of the church with the world. Whenever the church is united to the world, that is a kind of spiritual fornication. The church has nothing to do with the world and must be absolutely separated from the world. The world is the world, and the church is the church. These are two realms, but Christianity has married them. This is fornication in the eyes of God. The church must have nothing to do with any worldly thing. A local church must be so pure, so utterly separated from worldliness.
Worldliness is always related to idols. If we are united to the world, we spontaneously have idols. The local churches should not have any kind of idols. An idol is simply a substitute of God. Anything that replaces God and possesses man is an idol. Nothing should ever be allowed to replace God in the local churches. We should never have anything that possesses us. Our only Possessor must be God Himself. Our relationship must only be with God; otherwise, we will bring in fornication and idolatry. The local churches must be so pure and separated from the world and idols.
In the fifth epistle, the one to Sardis, the Lord did not rebuke the church for anything wrong. There was nothing wrong, but she was dead. To be dead is more serious than to be wrong.
Allow me to illustrate in this way. Suppose there is a little boy in this hall who is very naughty and wrong in every aspect. But there is also another boy in the hall who is dead. There is nothing wrong with him, for he is adjusted and fully corrected. Which one would you prefer? Would you like to contact the naughty boy or the dead one? Of course, we all would prefer the living one, even though he is wrong.
The Lord hates dead things. He told Sardis, “I know your works, that you have a name that you are living, and yet you are dead. Become watchful and establish the things which remain, which were about to die; for I have found none of your works completed before My God” (3:1-2).
I am afraid that in some of the churches, things are about to die. Their meeting is dead; their prayer is dying; everything is about to die. It is a dreadful situation. If we only have a moral mentality to know what is right and what is wrong, this proves that we do not have the sense of life. God is not a God of the dead. He is a God of the living. A local church must be living, even if it is wrong. Of course, I do not encourage anyone to be wrong, but we must be living.
Leviticus 11 tells us several times that whenever someone touches something which is dead, he is dirty. This dirtiness cannot be cleansed only by water. A certain amount of time is also required for the cleansing. Therefore, to be dirty with deadness is more serious than to be dirty with sinfulness.
There are some who come to the meetings in the local church who are dead. If you touch them, you just touch deadness. I believe we all have had this experience. We must be careful with this kind of person. He is not a living person but a dead one; therefore, we must flee from him. We should run away not only from sinful things but especially from deadening things. Sometimes the things that come from the mouths of some people are just like a dead carcass. Their talk is just like dead bodies. We must not listen to this kind of talk. If we do, we simply touch death. Then for one week, sometimes, we are not able to praise. Sometimes we are even poisoned unto death. We must not be another Sardis. Every church must be living and alive. We must not try to be so right, but so living.
Many, many times in the so-called Christian churches, people are religiously dead. They are dead with religion. Many satanic things in so-called Christianity simply make people religiously dead. When you come to the meeting and have a burden from the Lord to utter something, the religious death says that you should not say anything, but keep yourself quiet. This is a kind of religious killing. I do not encourage you to be mad and to jump and dance. I do not care for that. But we must not be bound by any kind of religion. Sometimes when we come to the meeting, we are so filled with the joy of the Lord that we have to shout, “Hallelujah, Hallelujah!” But simply due to the religious custom we received from our background, we will not shout because we think we should not. This is something religious that kills us. We must not keep any religious customs. Religion kills, and religion is something old. Anything old will soon be dead. We must not make our meetings religious. We all must be very living, keeping ourselves open to the Spirit.
The sixth epistle is to Philadelphia, the name of which means “brotherly love.” In the local churches we need the Philadelphia, we need the love for one another. We love one another because we love the Lord. We need the brotherly love, for in this love we have the open door. The Lord said to Philadelphia, “I know your works; behold, I have put before you an opened door which no one can shut, because you have a little power and have kept My word and have not denied My name” (Rev. 3:8).
In a prevailing local church, the door is always wide open, because the brothers love one another. As long as the brothers and sisters love each other, the door can never be shut. The more we love one another, the more the doors will be opened. If we invite friends to come, it is unnecessary to preach to them; we simply let them see the love that we have with oneness and harmony. This alone will convince them. There is no need for us to preach the gospel to them. They are convinced already.
The way to open the door is to love one another. The open door is set before Philadelphia. If we would have an open door, we must love one another. This will convince the whole world.
Finally, we come to the last epistle, which is to Laodicea. We all know what is mentioned in this epistle. The church was lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. The Lord said to her, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spew you out of My mouth” (vv. 15-16).
Why was the church in Laodicea so lukewarm? It is simply because she was too much in the mind. If Christians are lukewarm, it is certain that they are too much in the mind. They have too many doctrines and too much knowledge. Romans 12:11 tells us the only way to keep from being lukewarm: “Be burning in spirit.” We must forget about our mind and turn to the spirit and say, “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah! O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah! O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah! O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!” If we will say this for half an hour, we will be burned. Then we will never be lukewarm anymore. We must forget about the teachings and doctrines as well as our clear and clever mind. We need to be burned in our spirit!
In Sardis the Lord promised the overcomers the reward of white garments: “He who overcomes will be clothed thus, in white garments” (Rev. 3:5). He says the same thing to the church in Laodicea: “I counsel you to buy from Me...white garments that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness may not be manifested” (v. 18).
What are these white garments? They are livingness. To be alive, to be living, is the white garments. If we are dead, we are dirty. A dead person is the dirtiest one. If we are dead, we are also naked. We need some livingness to cover us. Brothers and sisters, we all need the living garments. The living garments are Christ Himself, wrought into us by the living Spirit. The only way to have these garments is to turn ourselves to the spirit. Then we will be burned and really hot—livingly hot.
From these seven epistles I believe that we have seen what a local church in the Lord’s recovery ought to be.