Revelation Chapter 2:1-11 As noted in the Introduction to this series some commentators interpret the letters to these churches as describing successive stages in church history, for example the church at Sardis refers to the Reformation period (1500-1700 A.D.). Nothing in the text remotely suggests such an interpretation, in addition, the Reformation period and the emergence of Protestant denominations has nothing to do with the church revealed in the Bible (Matthew 16:18). It is an unscriptural assumption to contend that the emergence of the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant denominations are included in the history of the church that Jesus established, rather these letters are to actual historical congregations. Seeing that truth does not change, God’s standards and expectations still apply to churches of today. 2:1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write”: “Ephesus was wealthy, prosperous, magnificent, and famous for its shrine of Diana. The city was located near the western coast of Asia Minor, on the Aegean Sea and near the mouth of the Cayster River. Its harbor in the days of its glory accommodated the largest ships. Moreover, it was easily accessible by land, for Ephesus was connected by highways with the most important cities of Asia Minor. Ephesus was for a long time the commercial center of Asia. The temple of Diana was at the same time a treasure house, a museum, and a place of refuge for criminals” (Hendriksen p. 60). Paul visited this city in Acts 18:19-21 and left Priscilla and Aquila here (18:19). On this third journey Paul spent three years in this city (Acts 20:31). Paul wrote the Ephesian letter about 60-63 A.D., and left Timothy in Ephesus sometime after that (1 Timothy 1:3). In the first century Ephesus had a population of approximately 250,000. 2:1 “The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this” This church is reminded that Jesus rules and knows exactly what happens in each congregation. “This expression tells us of Christ’s unwearied activity in the midst of His churches” (Barclay p. 75). “Holds”: Indicating complete control, that is if a church submits to Christ it will never go wrong.
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2:2 “I know your deeds”: Jesus had knowledge of their positive traits. The term “know” here means “a fullness of knowledge, to know perfectly”. 2:2 “And your toil”: “Indicating strenuous or wearying labor” (Hailey p. 121). See 2 Corinthians 11:27; 1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:8. “Labor to the point of sweat, to the point of exhaustion, the kind of toil which takes everything of mind and sinew that a man can put into it” (Barclay p. 75). Are we truly laboring for Christ? (1 Corinthians 15:10; 15:58). 2:2 “And perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men”: “It is worth special note that this church is also praised for its ‘intolerance’” (Hendriksen p. 62). “This attitude toward evil men is commendable; if they will not be transformed, let them be transferred. Bigoted, no; intolerant, yes, but an intolerance commended by the Lord” (Hailey p. 121). This sort of intolerance is not an option for Christians (Matthew 18:15-17; Titus 1:9ff; 3:10; 2 John 10-11; 1 Corinthians 5:1-11). 2:2 “And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false” The Ephesians were warned by Paul concerning apostasy even among the eldership (Acts 20:28ff), therefore we should not be shocked that some in Ephesus claimed to be apostles. Definite qualifications existed for apostles (Acts 1:21-26), as well as definite miraculous abilities (2 Corinthians 12:12). God always gives His people objective tests for truth so that we are never at the mercy of false teachers (see Deuteronomy 13, 18; 1 John 4:1ff; Galatians 1:6-9). In the second century the writer Ignatius commended the church in Ephesus for its loyalty to the truth that had effectively prevented any false sect from gaining a hearing among its members. 2:3 “and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake”: “Enduring for His name’s sake and for His glory makes bearing the trials and tests of faith commendable. It was not a self-serving patience which sought the glory of men” (Hailey p. 121). All endurance is not commendable, the motivation is critical. 2:3 “and have not grown weary”: They had avoided the pitfall of discouragement that has ensnared others (Galatians 6:7ff; Hebrews 10:32ff). 2:4 “But I have this against you”: Obedience in one area does not make up for disobedience in another. God will not accept 80 or 90 percent obedience. Though Jesus had only one criticism, the Ephesians cannot have the modern attitude that no one is perfect or complete obedience is impossible. Nothing else matters if Jesus has something against us!
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2:4 “You have left your first love”: This is either love for God, love for their brethren, or both, seeing that these two loves cannot really be separated (1 John 4:20). It seems that love for God was not longer their primary motivation for persevering, toiling or teaching the truth and without love, all our efforts are in vain (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). God does not accept “duty” as a substitute for love. Some writers have sought to argue that their insistance upon sound doctrine had made them loveless, but this claim has its own agenda. Jesus commends them for their soundness, and resisting false teachers was a good thing, such was not the reason why they have left their first love, anymore than toiling and persevering were. There is always the danger that a group of Christians can lose their original fervor and enthusiasm for God and fail to love God with their entire being. 2:5 “Therefore remember from where you have fallen”: The good news is that the “first love” can be regained, Christians do not have to settle for an inferior relationship with God. It is not mandatory or inevitable that as a Christian ages their passion for God decreases. “We may hopelessly feel that no fine thing can last with its first luster and its first bloom, and we can, as we would say, accept the inevitable” (Barclay p. 79). There are many things that God expects us to “remember” (see a concordance). The failure to love God with all our heart is to “fall”! Not loving God as we should is an apostasy from the faith. 2:5 “Repent”: This involves the admission that the fault is ours, with no excuses, and no blaming others (Luke 15:18). “The hardest thing about repentance is the acceptance of personal responsibility for our failure and our fall, for once the responsibility is accepted, the godly sorrow will surely follow” (Barclay p. 79). 2:5 “Do the deeds you did at first”: This “first love” that is mentioned included specific deeds, thus they had fallen from more than just an attitude, one cannot fake a genuine love for God and neither can pure duty motivate one to serve God faithfully. The good news is that repentance is possible and that no one has to settle for anything less than a right relationship with God. The proof of repentance is a changed life, “no man need stay the way he is” (Barclay p. 80). These are deeds fitting repentance (Acts 26:20). Thus three things are necessary, remember, repent, and do. 2:5 “Or else I am coming to you”: This is obviously not the Second Coming. 2:5 “Will remove your lampstand out of its place”: “Repent or be removed” (Hailey p. 123). Removing the lampstand would appear to mean not that the church would be physically removed or cease to exist (for many apostate churches have existed for a long time), but rather, Jesus would cease to acknowledge this congregation as His own. In addition, when a congregation ceases to reflect God’s truth, it has ceased to serve its purpose (1 Timothy 3:15).
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2:5 “Unless you repent”: There is only one way to fix this situation. 2:6 “Yet this you do have”: Jesus is fair and is not merely wanting to find something that is wrong. 2:6 “That you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans”: There is a “hatred” that is blessed by God, that is, the hatred of evil (Psalm 119:105; Romans 12:9 “abhor what is evil”). Yes, there are things that God hates (Proverbs 6:17-19). “If we love anyone with passionate devotion and intensity, then we will necessarily hate anything which threatens to ruin that person in body and in soul” (Barclay p. 80). “His people must follow this divine pattern, for with the same intensity that one loves, he also hates. The child of God who does not hate wickedness does not love righteousness, however strongly he may boast of his love” (Hailey p. 123). 2:6 “The Nicolaitans”: Very little Biblically is known about this group, yet they were apparently numerous and influential (Revelation 2:15). Ancient writers outside the Bible describe this sect as living lives of unrestrained indulgence. There were many groups in the first century who were trying to argue that grace just covered the Christian no matter what he did (Jude 4; 2 Peter 2:18ff). 2:7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”: Jesus taught the same thing while upon earth (Matthew 11:15; 13:9; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8). No one can listen for us, each individual is completely responsible for his or her own hearing and obedience. Notice the plural “churches”: “Each epistle must be read by all the churches and not merely by the one for which it is primarily intended” (Hendriksen p. 63). 2:7 “To him who overcomes”: “This implies the continued successful resistance of the world’s corrupt moral and spiritual influence” (Gregg p. 65). “The conqueror is the man who fights against sin, the devil, and his whole dominion and in his love for Christ perseveres to the very end” (Hendriksen p. 63). 2:7 “I will grant to eat of the tree of life”: This tree signifies eternal life and fullness of life (Genesis 3:12-24; Revelation 22:2). “It is recalling the state of affairs in the garden when man had unbroken fellowship with God” (McGuiggan p. 50). 2:7 “Which is in the Paradise of God”: Compare with Luke 23:43 and 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. “Paradise” is originally a Persian word and meant a pleasure garden, full of pleasant parks and meadows, with stately trees and flower gardens. Seeing that the tree of life is in heaven (Revelation 22:2), this “Paradise” then must be heaven itself.
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The letter to Smyrna 2:8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna”: “Modern Izmir was the second largest and reputedly the most beautiful city of Provincial Asia and is the only city of the seven that is still in existence today” (Gregg p. 66). Smyrna was a rival to the city of Ephesus, some thirty miles to the south and from the beginning of Rome’s rise to power, even before its days of greatness, Smyrna was its loyal ally and was recognized as such by Rome. “The faithfulness and loyalty of the Smyrnians become proverbial” (Hendriksen p. 63). This congregation may have been founded around the same time that Paul was in Ephesus (Acts 19:10 “so that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord”). 2:9 “The first and the last”: “Because Smyrna claimed to be first and would brook no rival, Jesus introduces Himself with this designation. His primacy must be universally recognized; Smyrna would have to revise all her ambitious claims” (Hailey p. 125). “Here is the death of human pride. Beside the glory of Christ all our human titles are things which are of no importance, and all our human claims become ridiculous” (Barclay p. 99). Once again, Jesus uses a title that is used of Jehovah in the Old Testament (Isaiah 44:6; 48:12). 2:9 “Who was dead, and has come to life, says this”: McGuiggan notes that the most popular god in Smyrna was Dionysus, the god of wine. Each year the death and resurrection of Dionysus was acted out in public plays. “The Christians there knew the difference between myth and solid, indisputable historical fact!” (p. 53). Jesus has experienced the worst that life could do to Him. “No matter what happened to the Christians in Smyrna, Jesus Christ had been through it before. Jesus Christ can help because He knows what life is like at its worst, nothing has happened to us which has not already happened to Him” (Barclay p. 100). 2:9 “I Know”: That is, Jesus knows well and intimately. Though God may seem distant during times of trial, He is not. 2:9 “Your tribulation”: “Tribulation is not a headache. It is not a inconvenience. It’s pressure. Grinding, crushing pressure” (McGuiggan p. 53). 2:9 “And your poverty”: The term here rendered “poverty” means very poor, destitute, the person who has nothing, not simply nothing extra. This poverty may have been the result of persecution (Hebrews 10:32-34). For these people, becoming a Christian was truly an earthly sacrifice, that meant poverty, hunger, imprisonment, and often death.
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2:9 “But you are rich”: Yet they are not allowed to feel sorry for themselves. While they are materially poor, they are spiritually rich (Matthew 6:20; 19:21; Luke 12:21; James 2:5). 2:9 “And the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not”: The city of Smyrna contained a very influential and hostile Jewish population, in fact the largest Jewish population in Asia Minor of any city. Often in the book of Acts we find unbelieving Jews persecuting Christians (Acts 13:50; 14:2,5,19; 17:5; 24:1). “Heavy on the word ‘say’” (McGuiggan p. 53). They were physical ancestors of Abraham, yet they were not Jews in the true sense of the word (John 8:44; Romans 9:6ff; 2:28-29). In the ancient world Christians were commonly falsely accused of being: 1. Cannibals: Because of the language associated with the Lord’s Supper (“this is My body”). 2. Immoral: Because of the preaching concerning brotherly love. 3. Tampering with family relationships: Because the gospel often caused divisions in families when one person converted but the other did not. 4. Atheism: Because Christians did not acknowledge any of the gods or idols in the ancient world. 5. Politically disloyal: Because they refused to say, “Caesar is Lord”. 6. Incendiaries: Because they claimed that the world would end in flames of fire. 2:9 “But are of a synagogue of Satan”: This is what these Jews were in reality. They were not worshipping God, nor doing His will, rather they had become the tools of Satan. This statement is not very politically correct and it is very offensive to some people today, but Jesus said it, for the truth is far more important than people’s feelings. “How can anyone say that the Jews of today are still, in a very special and glorious and preeminent sense, God’s people, is more than we can understand. God Himself calls those who reject the Savior and persecute true believers ‘the synagogue of Satan’. They are no longer His people” (Hendriksen p. 65). The same type of expression would be true of churches that cease following Christ and who actually stand in the way of those who are trying to teach the truth and save the lost. 2:10 “Do not fear what you are about to suffer”: God will allow very faithful people to suffer. These Christians would join the long glorious list of the faithful that is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11. See Luke 12:4; 1 Peter 3:14. 2:10 “The devil is about to cast some of you into prison”: Behind the Jewish and Roman persecution in this town was the devil himself. When people are opposing God and His people, they are actually doing services and favors for the devil. We should remember that prison in the first century was often nothing
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more than a prelude to death. “In those days the state would not take the trouble to look after prisoners” (Barclay p. 96). 2:10 “So that you will be tested”: The devil was seeking to destroy the faith of these Christians, God would allow this persecution, for it could strengthen their faith (1 Peter 1:6-8). 2:10 “You will have tribulation for ten days”: That is, a definite, full, but brief period of testing. This does not mean ten major persecutions by Roman emperors. “In ancient custom ten days was an expression for a short time which was soon to come to an end. So this prophecy is at once a warning and a promise” (Barclay p. 96). McGuiggan notes that Daniel was tried 10 days (Daniel 1:12-16), Jacob was tested 10 times (Genesis 31:7), and Job was tried ten times by his accusers. Here we see where those who claim to take the book of Revelation literally, are not consistent. Concerning this statement, Premillennial writers take it figuratively, yet they routinely boast that the Premillennial viewpoint is the only method of interpretation that consistently interprets the Bible literally. We should remember that life for Christians in the first century was very unpredictable. A Christian might live in peace for a long time but a Roman governor or mob might suddenly start a round of persecution. “In those days a Christian was a man who lived with a sword poised over his head” (Barclay p. 96). 2:10 “Be faithful until death”: That is, faithful even if such faithfulness results in death, not merely faithfulness until the natural end of one’s life. 2:10 “I will give you the crown of life”: Compare with James 1:12; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 2 Timothy 4:8; 1 Peter 5:4. This is the crown that consists of eternal life, in contrast to the temporary and fading crowns of laurel that the victor in the games received (1 Corinthians 9:25). Christians will receive a reward and a victory that never passes or fades. For eternity we will be perpetual victors. 2:11 “He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death”: The second death is equivalent to hell (Revelation 20:6,14; 21:8), the destiny of the wicked. There are only two choices, be faithful unto death or end up in the lake of fire. Among the Sadducees and among some Greeks it was believed that after death was absolutely nothing, in contrast, Jesus knows that after death, for the unbelieving, is a lake of fire.
Concluding Thoughts
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“In comparison with all of the other letters except Philadelphia, the call for this church to ‘repent’ is conspicuous by its absence” (Gregg p. 67). The existence of this congregation in Smyrna is proof that a congregation can serve God faithfully. This congregation did not have any problems, no hidden sins, no hypocrisy, no error, and no bad attitudes. In contrast to those who try to muddy the water by saying, “We are all in error on some point”, Jesus says that this congregation was not in error on any point. Among historicists and some futurists, Smyrna is believed to represent the church during the period of persecution under the Roman emperors from about 95 to 313 A.D. Yet as noted previously, nothing in the context even suggests such an interpretation.
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