Monday: Rebuke, Repent, and Reward
Daily Lesson for Monday 30th of March 2026
“ ‘As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten,’ ” Jesus tells us in Revelation 3:19. “ ‘Therefore be zealous and repent’ ” (NKJV). None of us, for even a second, could justly say that Jesus doesn’t care about us or our future. How much easier it would have been for Jesus to give up on humanity and not travel the painful road He chose on this earth. It’s precisely because He loves us so deeply that He rebukes us in our current state. He wants a much stronger, deeper relationship with us. He’s not satisfied with our on-and-off attitudes, our “I’ll come to Him when I need Him” approach.
Instead, Jesus rebukes us for our own good. He tells us to repent. But we can’t repent unless we realize that there’s something wrong. Yet, He’s told us exactly what’s wrong with us: we think we’re rich, but we’re actually “ ‘wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked’ ” (Revelation 3:17, NKJV).
Read Revelation 3:20. What are we promised here? But what must we do to receive that promise?
Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com
This is such a beautiful and extraordinary word picture. The God of the universe wants to sit down over a meal with you, with me. He desires mutual engagement and conversation over good food. He wants a close, abiding relationship, and Jesus invites us to have this with Him.
Jesus stands patiently waiting and knocking at the door of your heart. Perhaps you’ve seen pictures of this in children’s books—a tall, graceful Savior, knocking gently. He doesn’t barge in and force you to talk with Him. He doesn’t impose on your time or your busy life. Time is short; so, if you hear Him, open the door. He will be there to step into your life.
This metaphor illustrates the kind of relationship Jesus wants to have with each of us. But one day, when you meet Jesus face-to-face, when you cast your crown at His feet in adoration and praise with thousands upon ten thousands of others in worship to the Creator (Revelation 4:9-11, Revelation 5:11-14), when you think back to your earthly trials and see that they dim into insignificance—do you think at that point you’ll ever regret the time you spent with Jesus on earth?
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Right now, Jesus is knocking. He is calling. You, though, have to make the conscious choice to open your heart to Him. How can viewing the Cross and thinking about what it means inspire you to make that choice? |
When I was a chemistry student we often did titrations in our lab work. The idea was to do each titration 3 times and average the results. It was expected that the three results were pretty close together. On one occasion I remember being rebuked quite severely because I had written over the top of one of the results with a result that was closer to the other two. My tutor said that if the result was inconsistent, I should record it and then do another measurement and record that one too. I could then write an explanation for the inconsistent result. He pointed out that I could be accused of fabricating a result and it was important to record inconsistent results and not just cover them up.
I learned a valuable lesson that day, that laid a significant foundation to my research career. It is not about getting the “right” answer, it’s about doing it with honesty and integrity. (And I have seen some science go horribly wrong because that principle was not applied.)
The rebuke to the Laodiceans was in many ways the same. They thought that acting or appearing religious was the aim, but Jesus saw through their self-deceit and essentially told them they were fooling themselves with a paint job rather than making the changes needed at the heart. If the rebuke applies today, how much of our spirituality is a paint job rather than living with integrity and honesty.