Revelation 3:20, It's Time to Stop Misusing This!

It sure would be pleasant to hear Revelation 3:20 used properly.  There is no excuse to misuse the Bible.  We don’t accept it in other activities, nor should we accept it when dealing with God’s Holy Word.  Revelation 3:20 (ESV) reads this way:

“20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Now here is how we hear this used.  The booklet, tract or evangelist is seeking to present the Gospel to an unsaved person.  The implication is this: Jesus is knocking on your heart’s door.  You have the choice. We invite you to open the door of your heart.  The handle is on the inside.  If you open your heart, He will come into your heart and save you.  You will then be on your way to Heaven.

First of all, let’s commend the zeal, the earnestness of the evangelist or booklet.  Calling people to trust Christ is the right thing. “As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”[1]   Many times we share the Gospel and we rarely say it perfectly.  Let’s honor the faithful witnesses who try.  But using Revelation 3:20 is not the solution.

John is writing to the Church at Laodicea.  They were lukewarm and failed to think they needed anything. This is a letter of discipline. “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” (Revelation 3:19, ESV).  They are clearly loved by the Lord.  This is a believing Church desperately in need of revival.  Christ now extends His hands of love to this congregation that they might be renewed in their relationship with Christ, which the claim to have.

Students of this apocalyptic literature know that John borrows extensively from the Old Testament.  That is the Scriptures that these believers had.  The call to open the door to renewed fellowship is an uncanny resemblance to the forsaken lover in the Song of Solomon.  Note the similarity:

Song of Solomon 5:2 (ESV)	Revelation 3:20 (ESV)
2 I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking. “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.”	20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

The lover had made ready for the night. “I had put off my garment; how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet; how could I soil them?” (Song of Solomon 5:3, ESV).  How inconvenient! This is an invitation, not to wed, but an invitation to restore a fractured relationship.  In other words, this is not a call to the unconverted, but to the converted who have allowed something to strain the intimacy of the relationship with Christ.  Dr. Beale writes,

“The allusion to Cant. 5:2 points to a focus on renewal of a relationship, since there the husband knocks on the door of the bedchamber to encourage his wife to continue to express her love to him and let him enter, but she at first hesitates to do so. By analogy, Christ, the husband, is doing the same thing with regard to his bride, the church.”[2]

Not only should we accurately portray the participants, that is, they are Christians in desperate need of repentance and renewal, but this is addressed to a Church, not primarily an individual.  This is pastors, elders, leaders and congregants of a Church that have become indifferent and didn’t know it; who have lacked discernment and were unaware of it; and who have failed to be a testimony in their workplaces and community.   “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7, ESV).

So let’s agree to stop using Revelation 3:20 evangelistically.  Aside from the fact that no unregenerate person can open the door of their hearts; and we rely on the Spirit to do that, the context reveals that this is an invitation to move past a previously strained love relationship and it is a call to a Church to quit kidding themselves.

“To the one who opens the door, Christ will come in and will eat with him, a picture of close personal fellowship.”[3]

  

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ro 10:15). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[2] Beale, G. K. (1999). The book of Revelation: a commentary on the Greek text (p. 308). Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle, Cumbria: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press.

[3] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 2469). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.