“I Know Thy Works”
Revelation 2:2
If
I profess faith in Christ, but by my works deny him, my profession is an
abomination to God, and I am reprobate (Tit.
The Hypocrite’s Terror
For the
religious hypocrite, these words are terrifying - "I know thy works." "The
eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good"
(Pro. 15:3). His eyes are a flaming fire and darkness is light before him. A
man may deceive his pastor, his family, and even himself; but the Son of God is
not deceived. All things are naked and open before him (Heb.
He sees through
the facade. All your “righteous” deeds, those things by which you hope to
appear righteous before God, are filthy rags in his sight. Your
self-righteousness is an abomination before God. He looks upon your prayers as
blasphemy, your sacrifices as sacrilege, and your works of religion as evil
works. In the end, our Lord will expose every hypocrite (Luke
The Believers Comfort
For the believer, these words are full of comfort and cheer - "I know thy works." What a delight! Our dear Savior looks not at our works themselves, but at the motive behind them. He looks into the heart and sees why we do the things we do. And he is well-pleased with the most feeble efforts of sincere, believing hearts. By the merits of his blood and righteousness, he makes our works a sweet smelling sacrifice to God, acceptable and well-pleasing in his sight (1 Pet. 2:5).
Imagine that, God is well-pleased with the faltering steps of believing sinners for Christ's sake, because they are steps toward him! A father’s face beams with joy, approval, and delight as his child takes its first steps, not because they are perfect steps, but because the child is his child and it is walking to him. So, too, our heavenly Father delights in our faltering steps to him. He washes our feeble works in the blood of Christ, robes them in his righteousness, and declares, “They have wrought a good work on me…They have done what they could” (Mark 14:6-8)
Believer,
God will not forget your works of faith and labors of love (Heb.
Don Fortner