“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous, therefore, and repent.” Rev. 3:19 KJV
God’s love includes rebuke and to be chasten.
So as God loves us part of that love involves rebuke or elegcho which means to confute, admonish, convict, convince, to tell a fault, reprove (The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, James Strong, L.L.D., S.T.D. Thomas Nelson Publishers).
Part of God’s love is also to chasten or paideuo which means to (by punishment) instruct, learn, teach, to train up a child (see also Strong’s). Chasten also means correcting with words, reproving, and admonishing (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, W.E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, William White, Jr., Thomas Nelson Publishers).
Then this verse says to “be zealous.” Zealous or zeloo means affect (see Strong’s). Affect means influenced or to touch the feelings of (someone) (Google definition).
In the Life Application Study Bible, KJV, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., from the commentary of Rev. 3:19 it states, “God may discipline you to help you out of your uncaring attitude, but he uses only loving discipline. You can avoid God’s discipline by drawing near to him again through confession, service, worship, and studying his Word. Just as the spark of love can be rekindled in marriage, so the Holy Spirit can reignite our zeal for God when we allow him to work in our heart.”
So be influenced by God’s love when He rebukes and chastens you, and therefore repent (or metanoeo meaning to think differently or afterwards, i.e. reconsider — see Strong’s) or reconsider your actions.
God Bless You All!
Brenda A. McGee has attended New York Theological Seminary in New York, NY, and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA as a Master of Divinity student.