“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.” Revelation 3:20
There’s a saying that “a text without context is a pretext.” The way this verse is often used by Christians is a classic example of that. This passage is often referred to in evangelism. A Christian approaches an unbeliever and says, “Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart. Won’t you please allow him to come in? Invite Jesus into your heart.” That way of speaking supposedly comes from Revelation 3:20.
Except it doesn’t. Revelation 3:20 says nothing about the door of your heart. Read more»
Wes Bredenhof | “Christ Is Knocking” | November 11, 2025
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So, if an unbeliever reads this, hears in it an evangelistic call from the Lord and then asks me about it, should I be careful to tell him, “No, no, no! That’s not for you!”
John,
The Dutch have a saying, “the Lord strikes straight blows with crooked sticks.” I heard this passage abused for several years when I was in the SBC. I don’t doubt that people came to faith, even though this passage was abused.
We ought to be zealous to see people come to new life and true faith, but we are also to be faithful to the intent of the passages of scripture that we are handling.
We need not choose between those two things.
I think many of the churches like Ephesus had forgotten their first love and first works.
They had forgotten that apart from Christ Jesus we can do nothing. This is so prevalent in our day. Many churches have become institutionalized.