Back to the Basics

Revelation 2:4 (NIV) 

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 

These words were spoken to the Church in Ephesus. They are strong words and probably cut to the core of the Believers in that city. They lived in a world filled with idols and idol worshippers. Sin was all around them and they had to stick to the basics of their faith and keep close to God.

Whenever we get off track, the thing I need to do is regroup. When I start to carry over a balance on my credit card each month, I know it is time I return to the basics of my budget. Pay off the card and never spend money I don't have. This just makes good sense. 

When my spiritual life gets off track and I have spent too much time in the world, I must turn back to the basics of my faith.  I must spend more time with God, investing in my relationship with Him. Getting back to the basics always puts me in a better frame of mind and it just makes good sense.

Revelation 3:3 (NIV) 

Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

Is there such a thing as getting too comfortable? Is life ever so sweet that we feel we have it all under control and we need not work any harder? Does God ever tell us in Scripture to sit back and take it easy, you've done all you need to, so take a break?

The letters to these two churches show how much God cares about His church. Life Application Study notes points out the Lord of the universe knew each of these churches and its precise situation. I would take that even further and suggest He knows and cares about our churches too.

He praised believers in Ephesus for their successes and told them how to correct their failures. Just as Jesus cared for each of these churches, he cares for yours. He wants it to reach its greatest potential. The group of believers with whom you worship and serve is God's vehicle for changing the world. Take it seriously—God does.

Revelation 2:1-7, 3:1-5

Back to the basics!

“I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?  Are you so foolish?  After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?”  Galatians 3:2-3

When my golf shots start taking on an unwelcome pattern – a consistent slice, for example – I stop, think about the fundamentals learned from my swing coach, and slow things down ... and my shots begin again to go where they’re supposed to go.  But then what happens?  You guessed it!  With the ball flight looking good again, I get enthralled with my own success and start swinging like a madman.  The result is not pretty.

Fundamentals work.  Be it in sports, business, music, science – you name it – the fundamentals work.  It’s when we get away from the basics that things go awry.  Often, we can self-correct, but sometimes we need someone to steer us back toward what works.

The churches in Galatia had started well in the faith, but veered severely off the course.  “Swinging like madmen,” they needed someone to guide them back to the basics.  The Apostle Paul was that someone.  (I can picture their bumper stickers now: “Paul is my swing coach.”)

So what mistake did "the coach" see the Galatians making?  Bad habits had replaced the fundamentals.  Having received salvation by faith, the believers were inexplicably hacking away at sanctification through their own effort.  It is a flaw still common today, and the result is not pretty.  In fact, nothing is more repulsive to an unbeliever than a Christian who feels compelled to display a piousness of his or her own making.  God’s not impressed with it, either.  "Double bogey."

And to what fundamentals did Paul redirect the Galatians?  “The righteous will live by faith.”  When we simply believe in “Christ crucified,” his righteousness is credited to us as righteousness.  His Spirit lives in us and works through us in a freedom deeply compelling to a world that still seeks it.  No longer laboring over our own right standing, our spirits soar.  "Eagle!"
 
We are not saved by our own effort, nor can we sanctify ourselves.  God does both; it's called grace.  Think of it as "Kingdom fundamentals."