The longer you are a Christian, the harder it is to keep it simple. You grow in knowledge. You grow in your grasp of Christian doctrine, and the Word. You come to church long enough to know when to stand up and sit down. But in all these manifestations of doctrinal, liturgical, and cultural knowledge, take care to keep it simple.
The Ephesian church was in this position. They were established, and they hated false doctrine-mongers. They had a reputation, and a good one. But the Lord admonishes them for falling from their first love. They had not kept it simple.
Finishing strong is only possible if you keep it simple. You can think you are growing in sophistication, while it might just be that you are accumulating clutter of various kinds—doctrinal clutter, liturgical clutter, or heart clutter. In fact, doctrinal and liturgical clutter is usually a sign of some kind of emotional heart clutter. If things are complicated down deep, it is easy to complicate your external life in order to keep people from asking obvious questions.
Rearranging the clutter doesn’t help. Moving it all around doesn’t help. Repent. Simplify. But when you simplify, do it according to the Word. Conformity to God’s standard is key, and not conformity to an abstract notion of simplicity.
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So . . . love God. Hate sin. Love Jesus. Love His people. Do all this by God’s uncluttered gift of gospel grace. That’s what it means to keep it simple.