We’ve never lost a home, but leaving a home can be hard. You leave behind friends and memories- your first home together, the place where your children were born, the remodeling project you worked so hard on.
We’ve had friends who’ve lost homes to fires or tornadoes. Sometimes they’ve lost everything they had. Nothing can be salvaged from the rubble.
Imagine losing your home, losing everything. Not only that, but you can’t rebuild. You have no money to buy another place. Instead, you are shut out of town where you live in a tent.
This is what life was like for Christians in the ancient city of Philadelphia. Jesus’ letter to Philadelphia is one of only two in which Jesus has no words of rebuke. Jesus says, “Job well done.” What great work had they accomplished? They simply stayed true. Sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is hold on.
Earthquakes and persecution had shut these believers out of their homes, their city and their livelihood, but Jesus makes some incredible promises to them and to us. He promises them an eternal home where they’d never have to leave.