lp2s

God has called us to be holy as He is holy. Any type of "loosening" or willful compromise with sin that continues without repentance will pull us away from God. In our culture, I think we have two extremes when it comes to voicing moral convictions. One way is calling sin out in a judgemental manner. This isn't very effective, because it causes the other person to be defensive and look for justifications. The other way is what you spoke about and that is not saying anything at all. We need to rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us so that we have a balance of speaking the truth in love. In order to do that, we must first love!

Christ is shown in Revelation to be a King. He is the Head of the churches clothed in majesty and having authority. He judges with his eyes of fire and the Word of God in His mouth. Jesus has the voice of power. He shines in His glory. While Jesus shows us His kind, gentle, humble, loving, meek, peaceful and forgiving side as a man. It evokes a Godly fear and a humble heart in the reader. Because this Almighty King became a man and was obedient unto death on a cross for a world of lost sinners who didn't know Him. And He is declaring His expectations of our lives before Him. There is a penalty to those who won't heed His Word or a blessing for those who overcome. We need to understand Jesus of Galilee to understand we have grace and forgiveness when we fail. And yet we must understand Jesus the King whom we are servants of so that we aren't comfortable with sin. We have to strive to be like Him and depend upon His help to get us there.

Revelation gives comfort to them by giving a promise of reward for those who overcome.

I'm not sure, I have all of the answers. But I'll just share my thoughts. A. We are called to give testimony and witness to the world that Christ died for. He loved us first and drew us to Himself through mercy and grace. God's expectations of us are to reflect His light. Since He is Love, our love for others is a testimony unto them. And the grace we have been shown encourages us to forgive and love those who hurt us. B. He encourages us by His humble journey on earth. He gave up His position to model the way and show us how to persevere through trials. If we are to share in Christ's Glory, we must first share in His sufferings. When we study the way Jesus responds to His persecutors then we understand His expectations of us. C. It seems to me that it would stem from a lack of faith. If we trust God, then why would we worry about losing our job for witnessing to others. If we trust Him, then it's OK if we lose our job because He will provide for us. If we take a pay cut because we lose our job due to our witness then we didn't need that much money to begin with. Or maybe we didn't invest the money He provided for us where He wanted us to. We should always be willing to let Him have His way in our lives to teach us and help us be like Him. I think too many times we want control of our lives not understanding that we'll make a mess of it. Trusting God is the only way to live.