Prologue

A Repetition Of History

There is nothing more difficult in religious matters than to restore a restoration
movement that has gone astray. Those who are of such movements often pride themselves
in the exactness of their doctrinal beliefs and “scriptural behavior,” and thus they
are often unapproachable in accepting the fact that they have lost their way and their
first love in reference to behavior. Add to this the fact that those of restoration movements
find it very difficult to confess that they have again laden themselves with cumbersome
traditions, the very thing which generated their movement in the first place.
But there is nothing historically new about this. From the time the Spirit shook the
residents of Jerusalem two thousand years ago, the church has undergone departures and
restorations, one of the first being a time in the first century when the early disciples
gave up their first love.
Before the close of the first century, it took the direct intervention of Jesus through
an inspired message to shake lethargic churches into the reality of their impending doom
because they had lost their way. Today, we are indirect recipients of those inspired
oracles, but the message has not changed. Unless lethargic Christians face the reality of
their loveless theology, lampstands will again be removed as churches vanish into the
abyss of being ineffective in their communities.
From statements made in inspired letters during the 60s of the first century, it seems
that the problem of lethargic and lazy disciples had arisen in the church. The apostasy
was so prevalent that it needed immediate attention. It needed such immediate attention
that inspired Scripture came forth from the Holy Spirit to deal specifically with indiffer-
(This series of blogs compose a book that carries the title, “Justified By Works.” )

ent religiosity. You might assumed that this was a theological problem. At first, it was
not. But I suppose, the problem developed its own theology since we seek to create
religion after our own behavior. But this was not a direct theological problem. It was a
life-style problem, a problem with the behavior of some in the church. In the epistles
that were written during the decade of the 60s, we read statements from the Holy Spirit
as “lost your first love,” “be careful to maintain good works,” and “faith without works
is dead.” This was the problem. A culture of inactivity and indifference had crept into
the ranks of some churches and become the norm behavior of a great number of disciples.
From prison in A.D. 61,62, Paul wrote a letter to Titus. In this letter he addressed
the growing problem of indifferent and lazy religiosity. At the conclusion of the letter
he wrote, “This is a trustworthy saying, and these things I want you to affirm confidently
so that those who have believed in God might be careful to maintain good
works” (Ti 3:8). Would Paul have made this statement if there were no problem among
churches with those who were not careful to maintain good works? Because of this
exhortation in conjunction with others in the New Testament that were written at this
time, it seems that an indifferent and lazy religiosity became the pattern of behavior of
some disciples.
Since Paul made the statement, and since there are several other parallel statements
in the Scriptures – we will discuss these throughout this book – then what was it about
the times in which these statements were made that led to a lethargic and lazy culture in
the church? Why were there so many in the church in the latter half of the first century
who were not maintaining good works? Why had some of the early disciples deceived
themselves into thinking that they could be hearers only of the word, and not doers? Is
there something about New Testament teaching that promotes laziness? Or, are there
some teachings that can be twisted to one’s own destruction through indifferent behavior?
Your interest in this subject has surely been aroused by the fact that you have
witnessed the same today. The church in some areas of the world is burdened with
indifferent religiosity. This indifference is a burden to the point that it has in many
churches become the norm, rather than the exception. Churches as a whole are often so
indifferent that the truly zealous worker is intimidated or criticized because of his or her
work as a disciple of Jesus. We call the zealous “obsessed,” or “radical,” or “fundamental.”
New converts come into some churches with zeal and enthusiasm. After six
months in the company of the indifferent, however, they too settle down and take their
seat beside those who have long forgotten what it means to be a committed disciple who
is working for Jesus.
From what Paul and other New Testament writers were exhorting concerning good
works, we conclude that it was a time in the early church that many had resigned
themselves to complacency. Some had become so indifferent that they simply rejected
the needs of others with an attitude of, “Be warmed and filled.” The fact that this was
happening in the early church is without question. But why? Why were even widows
and orphans being neglected in a church that had the early beginnings of disciples
selling their possessions in order to care for the needs of others?
If we are allowed to postulate for a moment, we could possibly discover why there
are so many today who have also deceived themselves into thinking that a pew-packing
Christianity is all that is essential for salvation. You have certainly heard the statement,
“There are too many in the church who are sitting around waiting on heaven.” They
sing “Send the light,” when all they are doing is sittin’ tight. Instead of “trust and obey,”
it is rust and decay. But this is not a new phenomenon. According to the New Testament
statements that we will survey throughout this book, it was also a problem in the
latter part of the first century. Our task is not to prove that the problem existed then and
now. The problem existed then, and it exists now. It is our task to determine why, lest
we deceive ourselves into thinking that indifferent religiosity is pleasing to God.
We need to go back from the 60s in the first century to thirty years earlier at the very
beginning of the church in the early 30s. The problem of spiritual lethargy in the early
church actually started with the legalistic nature of Judaism out of which the majority of
the first converts came who were primarily Jews. The nature of Judaism gives us the
first hint to the problem of spiritual lethargy that haunted the church in the latter part of
the first century. The answer is in the natural swing of the pendulum from a legalistic
strictness in a man-made religion to the extreme of faith-only inactivity that is supported
by a misunderstanding of grace.
Judaism was strictly a legalistic, works-oriented religion. It was the “Jew’s religion”
according to Paul (Gl 1:13,14). It was a religion that was built on the accumulated
precepts and practices of the Jewish religious structure that was built up over the
centuries prior to the coming of Jesus. At the time of the ministry of Jesus, the Jewish
religious leaders were at the extreme of rejecting the commandments of God in order to
keep their religious traditions (Mk 7:1-9). Adherence to the traditions was diligently
enforced. The Jews even rebuked Jesus for the good deed of healing on the Sabbath (Jn
5). To the Pharisaical Jew, adherence to the institutional structure of Judaism was
maintained with cultic phobia. It is not difficult to understand, therefore, that those who
were burdened with such a religion, yearned for freedom.
Under the Judaistic institutional system, the religious laws of Judaism became a
burden that no one could bear. When Peter stood up during the Jerusalem meeting of
Acts 15 and confronted Judaizing teachers who were legalistically seeking to bind
circumcision on the church, he said in reminiscing his past life in Judaism, “Now
therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples that
neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (At 15:10). Peter, and many others of
the early church, had come out of the strict legalism of Judaism. They thus saw the
binding of circumcision on the Gentile converts as an attempt to bring this system of
legalism into the community of God. The Holy Spirit saw this as an attack against the
very foundation of Christianity. As a result, possibly the first inspired New Testament
Scriptures to be written was the letter to the Galatians. In this letter, Paul exhorted,
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be
entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Gl 5:1).
The legalistic rites of Judaism were impossible to bear. Jesus knew this. When we
also understand this, we can understand why He invited people to freedom. “Come to
Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon
you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Mt 11:28-30). He promised,
“Therefore, if the Son will make you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn 8:36). When
Jesus spoke of “rest” and “freedom” in the midst of the religious culture of Judaism, the
people rejoiced with a sigh of relief. He knew what they needed, and subsequently great
multitudes fled to Him for the rest and freedom of His easy yoke. However, the pendulum
for many swung straight through Jerusalem.
Imagine living with the burden of Judaism that was imposed by the strictness of the
Pharisees. Imagine trying to follow the intricacies of what the religious leaders were
binding on the backs of the faithful. Imagine trying to calculate how far to walk on the
Sabbath in order not to violate the “Sabbath day journey” law. There were so many
possibilities to sin against the imposed traditions of the fathers. Judaism was a religion
wherein one was constantly in doubt. There was no sense of security with God in the
minds and hearts of sincere Jews because one always knew that in some minute stricture
he or she would fail to comply with the strictness of the traditions.
When Jesus came with the faith, grace and freedom of His easy burden, one can
only imagine the power His message had in the lives of a people who could no longer
bear the burden of Judaism. They came to Him by the thousands. The early church
exploded into existence with thousands who sought the yoke that was easy and the
burden that was light. They sought freedom in Christ, freedom from the confines of a
legalistic institutional system that stymied their faith and handicapped their love. That
first decade of deliverance from the institutional bondage of Judaism must have been
very exciting. After deliverance from Egyptian bondage, there was singing all the way
to Sinai. But then, rebellion set in and the promised land was denied to thousands who
thought for one moment that they could create religion after their own desires. The
same happened in the early church, and its seems to continually plague disciples to this
day. But today, no ground will open and swallow the rebellious. No destruction will
reign down on our religious centers as Jerusalem in A.D. 70. We will only sit comfortably
until the last trumpet is blown when it is all over. The wicked and lazy servant will
then be cast out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth..
You know the first-century story. The exciting years out of bondage were not
without problems. There were those, as Paul wrote, who “sneaked in to spy out our
liberty that we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage” (Gl 2:4).
These were those Jews who sought to bring into the church the legalistic system of
justification they practiced under Judaism. This heated confrontation between bondage
and freedom took place over a period of about twenty years. It stimulated two inspired
New Testament letters, Romans and Galatians. However, along the way there were
some casualties.
This controversy continued to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. In the
decade preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, many in the church had in behavior went
from one extreme to another because of a misunderstanding of grace. The pendulum
swung so far from the legalism of Judaism to indifferent religiosity that Paul questioned
some in the church in Rome, “Will we continue in sin so that grace may abound” (Rm
6:1)? Or, as Jude defined that some had turned “the grace of God into licentiousness
…” (Jd 4). Paul finally instructed, “For the time will come when they will not endure
sound teaching. But to suit their itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers
in accordance to their own desires” (2 Tm 4:3). “Desires” refers to behavior. They
would thus seek teachers who would teach the desired behavior of the church. In many
cases, the behavior was outright immoral behavior (See 1 Co 5:1ff; Rv 2:18-21). In
other cases, it was simply indifferent behavior. Disciples digressed to being only hearers
of the word and not doers. They lost their first love, and subsequently went in search of
a pew on which to sit and wait on heaven.
The church went from being exhorted by those who were God-called teachers to
calling those who would teach according to their own desires. It went from God-called
to church-called preachers. And when this happens, the church determines who
teaches and what is taught. It is a truth, that if we are not careful, we will create
religion after our own desires and teachers who will condone our desires. And if we
desire to be lazy, we will seek for those pulpiteers who will preach no challenging
lessons that would disturb our comfort.
In response to the works-oriented nature of Judaism, some in the first century
evidently just sat down in their “easy yoke” and started to wait on the coming of Jesus.
Since we are not saved by works of law, they assumed that we are not saved by any
works at all. And herein was the problem. The misunderstanding that is dealt with in
Galatians and Romans was so strong that many discarded good works with works of law
as an essential part of Christian behavior. As a result, many in the decade of the 60s of
the early church were not careful to maintain good works. Many were thus claiming to
have faith, but they did not manifest that faith through good works. Has several years of
teaching on freedom and grace, and a misunderstanding of these subjects, brought the
church today to the same condition?
There are a host of exhortations in the New Testament that were written about
twenty to thirty years after the first believers escaped the confines of a legal, worksoriented
Judaism. Could it have been that some of the early disciples’ erroneous response
to grace and freedom led them to be complacent in reference to their responsibility
as bondservants of Jesus? It is only natural for one to sit down after his or her escape
from the burden of institutional bondage. After centuries of bearing the burden of
Judaism, I think many Jewish Christians just sat down to take a rest. Their understanding
of Jesus’ promise of a yoke that was easy and a burden that was light was to find a
pew on which to sit and a sermon by which to be soothed. They even developed a
doctrine that would clear their conscience: Salvation by faith only.
I grew up in a time when legalistic religiosity was the accepted “pattern” of church
behavior. We lived in the strictness of the traditions, which traditions we slipped in with
the law of the covenant. Perfect church attendance was considered “faithfulness.”
Making sure some sort of contribution was made every Sunday was in the strictness of
the legal system. One could contribute from one cent to one hundred dollars; it did not
make any difference. We just made sure something was contributed, a song was sung, a
prayer uttered, a sermon preached, and a little sip and chip at the Lord’s Table was
performed. We could easily listen to hell-fire-and-brimstone sermons because we knew
that all our legal bases were covered. Only the “denominations” had a problem about
which to worry, for we judged that they had created religiosity out of their own traditions,
assuming that we had no traditions.
We must always be cautious about developing a conscience-soothing religiosity that
brings us into the bondage of our traditions, which traditions we often conveniently
deny that we have. In such a system one can sign off God with a closing prayer and be
on his or her way to the “secular” world and “our time.” This is a convenient religiosity
that makes no demands in an industrial/business culture where possessions become the
god of the “American dream.” Religious convenience and a god who is boxed into an
“hour of worship” is not angry with our indifference. And thus, we are in bondage, but
we do not know it.
This is what is called “institutionalized churchianity.” The bondage becomes such a
way of life that you desire to stay in Egypt. And when you are freed, you want to go
back to bondage. We must not forget that there is always a sense of security in bondage.
Slaves do not have to make decisions or think. They do not have to dig love out of their
hearts in order to work. They are just secure in being told what to do and when to do it.
No self-motivation is needed when ceremonial acts of worship soothe consciences.
People who are set free, but think like slaves, will always go back into bondage.
However, most people know that there is something wrong with being in bondage as
a spectator in an institutionalized church wherein “church work” is done by the professionals
and the “laity” sits idly by in silence. We know that God wants more out of us
personally, for we want more out of ourselves. We know that our spiritual plateaus are
neither acceptable to ourselves nor God. We thus go searching, searching for freedom
from our own institutional confines. But in reaction to the strictness of our religiosity
that we conveniently legalized into a systematic theology, most often make a great
discovery. They make this discovery in the message of words like “freedom” and
“grace.” This is an exciting discovery. I must tell you that this is a great discovery, for
when one is set free he or she truly grows in a labor of love.
During the latter seventies and eighties, grace was discovered and proclaimed from
pulpits across the land. We rejoiced! We could rejoice in the fact that now at last we
found relief from the burden of the legal past. The Red Sea parted, and we headed for
the promised land. There were no more taskmasters, no more burdensome bricks to
make. Freedom and grace were great.
Unfortunately, I think some fell victim to a natural swing of the religious pendulum.
Since there were no more taskmasters to make us make bricks, we assumed that no
bricks had to be made. We relaxed from doing good works as a result of being delivered
from the burden of a legalistically structured institutional religion. We relaxed in the
fact that we presumed that we are no longer saved by any performance, but by the grace
of God. So we threw the baby out with the bath water. Because we failed to make a
distinction between works of law and good works, good works went out the window
with works of law. We reasoned that if one is not saved by works, then we
erroneously concluded that one is saved by no works at all. It was grace only, faith only.
So we sat down in the grace of God, put up our feet with a convenient faith, and hired
the most prolific preacher we could find in order not to disturb our comfort zone. The
warm, white sands of the Sinai felt good.
During the 90s, and to this present day, some are still twitching their toes in the
sands of Sinai, taking it easy on their pews, waiting on heaven. The hell-fire-andbrimstone
sermons are all gone. There are no performance-oriented sermon topics that
shake us into activity. No one any longer knows the song, “To the Work, To the Work.”
Prayers are about me and my needs. Our assemblies now take on the nature of a well
orchestrated concert that appeals to my desires, which desires, when satisfied, will settle
me further into my complacency. The assembly that has the best performance on
Sunday morning is the one that grows as it appeals to the “me religiosity” that I have
instituted for myself. We say to the world, “Be warmed and filled” when no missionary
is allowed to again address the entire church on Sunday morning. The needs of the
world have been relegated to meeting rooms with special committees. No one is allowed
to challenge our budgets that are consumed by a ministerial staff that professionally
ministers to our every need. Special contributions to visiting evangelists are gone
lest our budgets be endangered. In order to generate any “works” (involvement), we
have hired professionals. Instead of being driven by the power of God in our lives, we
are organized, and prompted by the skillful rhetoric of a professional who has been
trained in the skills of communication in order not to offend or drive away any healthy
contributors. So here we are at ease in Zion, thinking that all is well at the foot of Sinai.
We even created a god after our own imagination and started yearning for the comforts
of Egypt.
Are we repeating history? Have we emphasized grace and freedom to the point that
we have led ourselves to believe that we are justified by faith alone, without works? For
some reason many churches have ceased to grow as the evangelistic spirit has long since
departed. Some have lost their first love in an effort to be an acceptable church in the
community with all the frills of a social club that no one could reject. I think it is a time
where the Ephesian Syndrome has set in.
The Ephesian church exploded into existence and growth in Acts 19. Aquila and
Priscilla, with Paul who came later, labored diligently night and day with the disciples in
this city. Paul taught house to house (At 20:20). Elders were exhorted to keep the faith
(At 20:28-38). They had experienced special miracles from the hand of Paul (At
19:11,12). All Asia heard the gospel during a period of two years when Paul stayed in
Ephesus in the early establishment of the Ephesian church (At 19:8-10). An inspired
epistle from the Holy Spirit was later written to the Ephesian church. It had a great
history, from the exciting times of its beginning to the time of the writing of the epistle
of Ephesians. What a great success story.
But something went wrong. By the time Revelation was written, probably twenty
years after the initial establishment, the Ephesian disciples were in trouble. Through the
special message of Revelation, Jesus exhorted the Ephesians, “Nevertheless, I have this
against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you
have fallen, and repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and
will remove your lampstand out of its place – unless you repent” (Rv 2:4,5). The
Ephesian church was dying in its own lethargy. They had left their first love. They had
left their first works. The works were all gone. Death had settled in. Without love and
works, the Ephesian church was nigh unto vanishing away. The only hope was repentance,
and repentance means a restoration of the first love and an activation of the first
works. Without either, it was certain death and doom.
I call this the Ephesian Syndrome. It is the birth and death of a church over a period
of three to four decades. There is initially rapid growth and excitement for the first ten
years. The growth then plateaus for about two decades, and finally, there is death and
decline and disappearance. The lampstand of influence is removed.
Is the lampstand of community influence now being removed in your area as
churches grow grey headed and die? Is history repeating itself as the Ephesian Syndrome
casts a dark shadow over countless churches that have long since left their first
love and first works? The Ephesian Syndrome is not something that is new to our age.
However, in our age it seems to have excelled to the point of taking away many in this
generation of the church. In the next twenty years in the American church scene several
churches will no longer exist as the present aging membership passes on. I recently
discussed this matter with the preacher of one church that the average attendee was
sixty-five years old. Where will this church be in fifteen years?
Our battles with legalistic religiosity were correct. We are not saved by works of
law, but by the grace of God. No one will any longer argue this point. However, in our
battles to deliver ourselves from the burden of legal religion, some have again run
through Jerusalem. We have forgotten Paul’s exhortation of Romans 3:31. “Do we then
make void law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish law.” It is
not that we are turning the grace of God into licentiousness. Neither is it that we are
sinning “that grace may abound.” What is happening is what Peter warned, “Live as
free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but as the bondservants
of God” (1 Pt 2:16). We are free and under grace. But we are free to serve as
bondservants in our appreciation for grace. We are not free from good works. On the
contrary, we have been set free in order to get to work. We are created new in Christ for
work (Ep 2:10). If we think we have been set free to do nothing, then we have used
God’s grace as a “covering for evil.” We must not forget this point as we journey
through the exhortations of Scripture that speak of the Christian’s responsibility to
“establish law” by obedient work.
This is a time, therefore, when we must look again at good works. Our misunderstanding
of grace has made us paranoid about works. When was the last time you heard
a preacher preach fervently on maintaining good works? You have probably heard a
great deal of teaching on grace. But as we look through our lesson outlines as teachers,
when was the last time we taught a lesson entitled, “Justified by works”?
Have we developed an assembly-oriented churchianity that requires only “faithful”
attendance, and a down payment contribution that will maintain the institutional religion
which conforms to our urban business world? I have found that in wealthy cultures,
contribution has often taken the place of personal involvement, and attendance at the
assemblies has redefined “faithfulness.” In such social/economic cultures, the rich are
allowed to give, but not encouraged to become personally involved. But I question this
in reference to my understanding of what God seeks from His children.
When young and attending a school for learning the Bible, I remember the instructors
saying to the class on different occasions, “Boys, the church is being killed by good
ole boys.” I never understood at the time what was being said. Now I know. We have
many “good ole boys” leading churches through fine-tuned business meetings, but no
one is being stirred up to love and good works (Hb 10:24,25). No one is being baptized
as a result of members evangelistically going out and teaching the lost. We live in an
age when attendance will suffice the legal standard by which we are considered a
“faithful member.” We have a house full of “good ole boys” who are void of good ole
works.
Now allow me to explain myself. I am not saying that these “good ole boys” will
refuse to help you when you are in need. The fact is, they will. If you are in trouble, they
are there for you. This is the church bearing the burdens of one another (Gl 6:1,2). One
will often call these “passive good works.” These are good works that might take place
only when the need arises. And we have a great many churches who have developed great
fellowships in taking care of needs that “may arise.”
As we study through the nature of the works that are defined in the New Testament,
however, I believe we will make a startling discovery. “Passive works” are certainly in the
Scriptures. We must take care of needs that “may arise.” But I think there is more, a lot
more. For lack of a better term, I will call these initiated works. In other words, these are
those works that are intentionally planned and accomplished. In fact, I believe the
New Testament teaches that we must meet together for the specific purpose of identifying
works to be done, assigning those works to be accomplished, and making sure these works
are accomplished. Does this sound extreme? It depends on how deep you are slid into a
pew. Initiated works are what define our faith. They determine our sonship and whether
we are identified by love. They are the identity of discipleship. And if one does not have
them in his or her life, he or she is not a faithful disciple of Jesus.
As you study through the remaining chapters, you be the judge. If you are not one who
continually initiates good works in your life, then listen to the countless exhortations in the
word of God concerning the responsibility that we as Christians must take action. We
must take action in our lives to initiate good works in order to manifest our faith and love.
If you find yourself suffering from the Ephesian Syndrome, then the only way out is what
Jesus exhorted the Ephesian church to do. Repent and get busy.
You will not find this to be a “feel-good book.” Initiated work is what defines the
Christian life. And if you have not been initiating good works in your behavior as a
disciple, then your comfort zone is about to be shaken. I will stick to the Scriptures and
explain them as best I can. But I want you to understand that this is something that deeply
disturbs me concerning many Christians in these times. We have developed a passive
religiosity that is void of initiated works. And as a result, we are paying the price in our
lethargy, the death and decline and disappearance of many churches. The earth is filled
with churches that are nigh unto vanishing away. Therefore, it is a time for revival, repentance,
and a restoration of the first love and works.

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