Commonly Misunderstood and Misapplied Verses: Jesus is Knocking . . . But at the Wrong Door . Revelation 3:20

 

           It is a very popular verse to use in evangelistic messages. Many a pastor has quoted it at the end of their sermon to appeal to any unbelievers present in the congregation to receive Christ. Several of us can picture in our minds the painting which has Jesus standing at a door without any handle from the outside and having His fist in the air as if He were patiently knocking on it. The verse is Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” It is clear here that Jesus certainly is knocking on a door. The only problem is that the way it is often used and applied has Him knocking at the wrong door! Hence why I include this verse as one of those “Inigo Montoya passages”: “You keep quoting that verse. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

 

            As always, context is the key. When we look at the verses surrounding this one, we discover that Jesus is not knocking on the door of an unbeliever’s heart hoping that he or she just might finally let Him in. No. It is a door of a church. And not just any church at that but a very lukewarm one which is described as being neither cold or hot in relation to the Lord leading God to desire to spit them out of His mouth just like people did of the dirty water of the city there (vv. 15-16). It was a very prideful worldly church thinking that they were doing well and had all that they needed only to be ignorant of their true poor and needy spiritual condition (v. 17). This was the church of Laodicea. One of seven churches Jesus has John write a letter to at this time. Jesus even explicitly specifies at the end of the letter that this message is what “the Spirit says to the churches” (v. 22). So, this is not a call for unbelievers to be saved but a group of believers to repent and be renewed again in their zeal for the Lord (v. 19). This church had become so preoccupied with other things that they had in essence pushed Jesus out of the congregation with Him now being on the outside so to speak knocking to be let back in!

 

Some believe that Jesus here may be alluding to Song of Solomon 5:2 where the husband there knocks on the door of the bedroom to encourage his wife to let him in and continue to express her love for him. If Jesus did indeed intend to direct us to that picture, He could be showing that the same thing is happening with them. He is there as their husband knocking for them to open the door and express their love for Him once again. That love which had become so putridly lukewarm. It could also be connected to the parable Jesus told of slaves who were waiting eagerly for the return of their master from a wedding to open the door to him immediately when he comes back and knocks. The master then will have them sit at the table with him serving them (Luke 12:36-37). This is very similar to the image Jesus gives to this lukewarm church of Laodicea. Jesus may be reminding them that His coming is very near so they better be ready to let Him in. And the only way to do that would be to answer His call to repent of their worldly lukewarmness and self-righteous self-sufficiency (Revelation 3:19).

 

Rather than this being an evangelistic plea, it serves as a warning to believers in the church today. For us to guard against becoming lukewarm in our devotion to the Lord and succumbing to the thinking that we are something spiritually when we are not. To entertain the thought that we have what we need on our own and no longer need Christ when the reality is that we are nothing without Him (Romans 7:18), have nothing without Him (1 Corinthians 4:7), and can do nothing without Him of any value for His kingdom (John 15:5). The last thing we should want is for it to appear that Jesus is on the outside needing to be back in to dine or fellowship with us.

 

Furthermore, nowhere in Scripture are we ever told that Jesus is simply standing outside the door of our hearts patiently knocking hoping we might just let Him in. In fact, it actually is the opposite. Luke tells us that it was the Lord who opened up Lydia’s heart to pay attention to the things spoken by Paul (Acts 16:14). He didn’t wait for her to open up her own. If He doesn’t open our heart, we would never let Him in. He certainly wasn’t patiently knocking on the door of Paul’s heart when He confronted the man on the road to Damascus and dramatically changed and transformed him (Acts 9:3-7). We are never instructed to open our heart to let Jesus in. But we are continually, over and over again throughout the pages of Scripture, called to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation (Mark 1:15; Acts 2:38; 20:21; 26:20). That should be the evangelistic appeal for us to make. Not one that hadn’t been given to unbelievers in the first place. I’m not even sure it is helpful to direct unbelievers to ask Jesus into their heart for that matter. What does that even mean? And can that be done without repentance and genuine faith in Christ which alone saves? I think the many who have done so without bearing any fruit of repentance and persevering living faith which results in works (Matthew 3:8/Luke 3:8; Matthew 13:8, 23; James 2:14-26) provides the evidence that it indeed can be without such and give a countless number a false assurance of their salvation which they do not possess. I’m not saying that someone who has prayed to ask Jesus into their heart isn’t necessarily saved. Just that it wasn’t from them doing or asking such. It would have been through coming to Him with an attitude of repentance and placing their trust in Him alone to serve as their Savior and Lord. I probably prayed a dozen or more times to ask Jesus into my heart in my youth before I realized what repentance and faith really meant and looked like. And it was that repentance and faith that actually made the difference.

 

So, the questions we should be asking ourselves are as follows: “Have we pushed Jesus out of our fellowship so to speak where He is left outside knocking to come back in?” “How may we have become lukewarm or began to be such like the church Jesus stood knocking at?” And “What can we do to ensure that this doesn’t happen to our congregation as well as us as individuals?” Remember the blessed promise of restored fellowship He gives to this church as well as any others who allow themselves to grow lukewarm in their affection for Him. “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him to and will dine with him, and he with Me.” As G. Campbell Morgan well said, “The only cure for lukewarmness is the re-admission of the excluded Christ.”

 

Love in Christ,

Pastor Lee

Commonly Misunderstood and Misapplied Verses: Does God Promise Not to Give Us More Than We Can Handle? 1 Corinthians 10:13

            How many times have you had someone tell you when you are feeling overwhelmed to remember that God promises not to give us more than we can bear? Or that God must think you are so strong for Him to allow you to go through the difficult time or trial at the moment? They may even quote 1 Corinthians 10:13 to go along with it. “No temptation has overtaken you but such is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” All this is said as a well-meaning attempt to be encouraging and make someone feel better about their present situation or circumstances. The only problem is: 1) it is not true, and 2) it is not what that Scripture even says. Such has become another one of those “Inigo Montoya passages;” “You keep quoting that verse. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

            The first issue with these supposedly comforting words is that they simply are not true. God doesn’t promise anywhere in Scripture that He will not give us more than we can handle. In fact, the opposite is typically the case. Everything we face in life is too much for us to bear in our own strength and might. Even the Apostle Paul confesses in 2 Corinthians 1:8 that he and his travel companions faced such struggles during their time in Asia that they “were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live.” Sounds to me that he thought himself to be given more than he could bear or handle there. So much so it made life itself a chore or difficult for them to carry on. The Bible never teaches that we are strong enough to bear the weight and burdens of this life ourselves. Jesus made it clear that “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). This is why we sing, “I must tell Jesus all of my trials; I cannot bear these burdens alone; In my distress He kindly will help me; He ever loves and cares for His own.” Our hope lies not in our strength and what we are able to carry but in Christ’s strength and what He can help us with. Without Him, we don’t stand a chance making it through whatever trial or trouble comes at us. The fact of the matter is that even the young “grow weary and tired” and “stumble badly” (Isaiah 40:30). We need the One who Himself “does not become weary or tired” to give us weary people His power and might so that we can “mount up with wings like eagles; run and not get tired; walk and not become weary” (vv. 28-29; 31).

            It’s actually discouraging to tell someone that they have been given what they can bear or are strong enough to handle it. Because that encourages them to look to themselves for the ability to face the difficulty when they should be directed to Jesus instead. To recognize that what they can’t do, He can. The reason Paul gives for being put in the place where he got to the point of being so completely drained of his strength that he despaired of life itself was “so that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9). It very well may be that God’s purpose in giving us more than we can bear is so that we have to look to Him for the necessary strength to endure it instead of inside of us as Paul reports God did with him.

The truth of the matter is not that God will not give us more than we can bear but that we will never be given more than His grace is sufficient to help us in our time of need. Paul learned this as well when he was begging the Lord to remove the painful annoying persistent “thorn in the flesh” as he refers to it in 2 Corinthians 12:7-8. He doesn’t specify what this thorn was but clearly it was something he felt he could not bear and wanted rid of. And while God doesn’t answer His prayer in the way he asked it, He reminds him of the blessed and glorious truth that “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (v. 9). Perhaps that would be a better verse and encouragement to give to that believing friend or family member who is struggling right now. Not that he or she has the strength to handle whatever it is but that the reality is that they do not but God’s grace will prove sufficient to get them through the trial and His power will be demonstrated in their weakness.

            Now, what about that 1 Corinthians 10:13 passage? What does it really say and mean? Well, when you read it carefully, you will see that it is not talking about God giving us ANYTHING more than we can bear generally but only that of being TEMPTED specifically. The promise is that God in His sovereignty will not permit us to be tempted beyond what we are able to resist. It is almost as if He is holding back the tide of temptation that wants to mount itself against us to drown us and filtering through His hand so to speak just enough that we can withstand it. And God shows His faithfulness also in providing the way of escape so that we don’t have to ever give into the temptation. There is always an off ramp with Jesus for all the temptations we may ever face. We can look to Him and flee from it, whatever the temptation might be. That’s the encouragement this verse gives us in our fight against sin. That temptation is not an insurmountable foe for us that will always win. Let’s be sure to use the verse to provide this encouragement rather than discouraging others (and ourselves) by pointing them to themselves for what it takes to get them through their trials instead of outside and away from themselves to Christ. He is the One we need to make it through every trial and withstand each temptation. We must continually look to and rely on Him.

Love in Christ,

Pastor Lee