I taught the early teen Sabbath School class last week on the topic of our identity in Christ. The lesson was based on the illustration of the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat. I believe that it was a significant lesson not just for the early teens but for every one of the Willowdale family. So, I want to share it with you in this week’s Pastor’s Corner.
Do you know the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat? A thermometer reads the temperature in a room. It just tells us how hot or how cold it is in the room. A thermostat, on the other hand, regulates the temperature. It can increase or decrease the temperature in the room by making small adjustments to heat up or cool down the room. (A girl in the class told me that the thermostat at her home can even play music. How smart it is!) If the thermometer reads 18 degrees Celsius, nothing will happen. Then what happens when you set the thermostat to 26 degrees? The heater will start soon running and the room temperature will finally reach 26 degrees.
As one of the signs for the end of the age, Jesus says, “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold” (Matt 24:12, NIV). Like His words, the temperature of love in the world is rapidly growing cold now. We are observing the wars between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Hamas. People are hating and killing each other. People’s hearts are becoming more wicked, and more crimes are being committed. There are too many homeless people on the streets, but not enough hands to help them. Truly, the wickedness is increasing, and the love of most is growing cold.
We are the disciples of Christ who are called to be thermostats of the world. We are not to be thermometers that simply say there is no love in the wicked world. We are to set the temperature of the world to the love of Jesus and to make the world warm and even hot with His love. In other words, we are the salt of the earth to make the world salty and the light of the world to shine the dark world (Matt 5:13-16).
We have just finished upgrading the heating system (as well as the cooling) at church. Now it is the time for us to upgrade our love heating system. The cold is growing both inside and outside the church. Let us set the temperature to Jesus’ love and make the church and the world warm, and even hot. We are His thermostats, not thermometers.
Pastor Dae-Eun Kim