Blue is not your Color

Sardis (modern-day Sart, Turkey) was a wealthy, highly fortified city. Perhaps this security led to a lack of watchfulness on the part of the congregants?

Let’s see what the letter to their angel says:

3 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, 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.

In case it isn’t clear to you, yet, the seven spirits of God are our vanities. A spirit is a feeling, or an emotional state. God moves us from lust to chastity, and from pride to humility, until we learn to do it for ourselves.

The congregants of Sardis are reminded that Jesus has complete control of his vanities, which are the Seven Spirits of God, and his communication lines with God’s Messengers are open, and in his heaven, which is his heart.

He tells us that, even though others think we are alive, he is not fooled. He sees right through us, because it takes one to know one, and he was once counted among our congregation.

In fact, he sat in all of the Seven Churches. That’s what gives him the authority to write these letters. He knows us, because it takes one to know one. He loves us, because he loves himself. He knows we can do better, because he learned to do better. He does not live in a fantasy world. He will not accept a sleeping beauty.

In Sardis, we think we’ve gone far enough. We believe there is nothing more to do. We have faced all our demons. We have been saved from our drug addiction, but turn a blind eye to our sloth. We just want a little nap. We’re tired of the road.

If you know the story of Jimmy Swaggert, then you have seen a member of the Church of Sardis. Jimmy was caught with his pants down. His own flock thought that he was the most pure among them. His exposure proved them wrong. He was shown to be a hypocrite. He told them to avoid the very thing he was doing behind their backs. Jesus has a way of making us eat our words. They don’t always taste good. Most of the time, they are hard to swallow.

This passage begs us to shore up what remains. If we only have control of one vanity, then we must be careful not to let it get away from us, and we must recognize that there are six more still on the loose.

If you’re out rounding up sheep in a storm, it is prudent to ensure that the first one you catch won’t escape again, before you go looking for the others.

If you ask him, Jesus will take away your sins, but be careful. There is a catch. You are born with seven vanities. They are a part of you. Casting one out is only a temporary fix. Sometimes we have to send the kids to their rooms, so we can get a moment’s peace. But remember:

Matthew 12:43 “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. 45 Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation.”

Imagine if your kids, after being sent to their room, went out and adopted more kids, and brought them home, and you couldn’t do anything to stop it.

Your evil spirits call you home. They live inside you. You cannot evict them permanently. They will come back. Having your devils cast out, does not mean you will never see those devils again. Their absence only gives you some breathing room. You get a chance to get your house in order, but know that when they find it in order, they’ll want to invite friends over.

You won’t like the friends they bring back.

You’re better off learning to live with the Devils you have. Don’t kick them out. Embrace them. Love them. Get to know them, so that once you fully understand them, you will know how to control them, not vice-versa. Hold what you have. Strengthen the things that are dying. If you use pesticide to rid your garden of insects, you may find that you have only poisoned yourself.

I can give you a perfect example of an evil spirit bringing back seven others that are worse than him. Just go and listen to a former drug addict who thinks they cured themself without help. They are still a drug addict. They’ll admit it. Only now, they are a proud drug addict. Pride is a more potent killer than any drug. They rein in their addiction, but let their pride run loose, off their tongue. They can’t wait to tell every other drug addict just how to beat their addiction. After all, if they could do it, everyone else should be able to do it, too.

The thing is, they had help they can’t see. There was a light inside them that helped them realize their predicament. That view motivated them to change, because first it changed their perspective. Not everyone gets that light. Some people can stare at a mirror all day long and never see a drug addict, even as they’re snorting lines off that mirror.

Pride is incredibly difficult to recognize, within ourselves. We can see it in everyone else, easily enough, but it hides itself behind a mask we call our New and Improved Self.

The first rule of a twelve step program is admitting to yourself, and everyone else in the meeting that you are exactly the thing you don’t want to be. I started smoking cigarettes at fifteen. I quit more than twenty years ago. I’m still a smoker, and will be for the rest of my life. Time never marches in reverse. I cannot go back and stop myself from taking that first puff.

Perhaps you are saying to yourself, “I’m a type-A personality. I could never be a member of the congregation of Sardis!” If so, I would ask you to come down from your high horse, and see yourself for who you really are.

Perhaps you are the type of person that never takes a break, because you don’t want to get lazy, or be seen as a slacker? Maybe your sloth motivates you, only because you hate the way it looks on you? Blue isn’t your color, so you wear violet instead, proudly? Or maybe it’s yellow greed that suits you, because you just can’t get enough?

Could it be the green hue of envy that colors your vision? You’ve overcome your sloth, but only so that you can reach out and take someone else’s stuff. Maybe it’s the end of their life that you want, because all you see is red?

Regardless, just know that the revelation road will lead you to places you never thought you could go. You may wake up one day and say to yourself, “Why am I so blue?”

4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

White signifies purity. Some of you have not lain down on the job and dirtied your clothes. Blue truly is not your color. Your evil spirits aren’t running loose, collecting other evil spirits. You are not dead, you are alive. This is proof that your name is still written in the book of life. You have not spoken from an abundance of pride, but instead give all the glory to your Fiancé. In turn, he is speaking very highly of you, in the places that truly matter.

Remember that Angels are messengers. When this passage mentions them, it means Jesus is contradicting the bad messages he is hearing about you from others. By telling the Angels, he is sending them out to tell other people that they have the wrong impression of you. Like a good fiancé, he’s got your back.