Do you measure up? Some of you may remember a yard stick that was given out to the church many, many years ago. It was definitely BB (Before Bob), but they were long and red and had that double meaning of planting a seed within your mind, while at the same time recognizing that there is a sense in all of us that we want to measure up to what God would us to be. But we simply cannot measure up!
This Scripture begins with a measuring rod for those within the temple. Isn’t that interesting. The Scripture says don’t worry about those outside of the temple, that is where the nations gather and they aren’t really those who are held responsible for the following of the kingdom of God. I absolutely agree with that. Those of us who are in the church should without a doubt be held to a higher standard. Now, we will never live up to that standard, but we need to be held to that standard. If we are uncomfortable with being measured differently from those who may not be in the church, we simply need to get over that and ask the question, why are we not wanting to be held accountable?
The measuring stick that is used in Revelation is one that measures our faith, it measures our devotion, it measures our commitment to the kingdom of God. It is hard to measure up, but we need to be held accountable. There will come a day when these words will be used against me, and against all of us. But we need to recognize that even with the recognition that we ought to be measured and held to a higher standard and that we will never fulfill that standard, we still need to strive for that.