one other time, in 22:15 (but ten times in John’s Gospel). The most undeserving of all the churches is the one for which Christ declares—most emphatically for the I is stressed—the kindest feelings! Yet his declaration of love is balanced by a severe expectation of rebuke and discipline. Proverbs 3:12 is perhaps the basis for this: “The LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” This church must repent of its self-sufficiency (the verb form suggests a decisive act) and