This church had rejected the Nicolaitans who said, "it doesnt matter how we live so long as our doctrines are correct." It had a population of over 250,000. But then Jesus said, "I am of My Father, and if you were of My Father, you would know Me, but you are of your father the devil" ( John 8:39 , John 8:44 ). The promise itself seems to be that those who remember, repent, and repeat the first works (Revelation 2:5) will partake of the tree of life. The Christians of Smyrna hold his memory in great veneration, and go annually on a visit to his supposed tomb, which is at a short distance from the place of his martyrdom. What is still more in John the significant point, they lost all the truth of a real life given to us in Christ. When Galen was mentioning favourite oaths, he said that people commonly swore by Artemis of Ephesus, or Apollo of Delphi, or Asclepios of Pergamum. What said the Lord? Here is a church that was trying to dwell in the world. First love overleaps all barriers--it gives and never counts the cost. (b) Pergamum was particularly connected with the worship of Asclepios, so much so that Asclepios was known as "the Pergamene god." To the *church in Thyatira. Revelation 2:1-29. This is not at all the way in which His coming is spoken of for His own. The laver in which the priests would wash was made of brass. But no: it is confessed to John by Jesus as the word of God and His own testimony. But this interpretation must be rejected because the evidence for inserting sou ( G4675) is not good enough. "And I gave her space that she should repent; and she will not repent of her fornication. Inevitably it was a great trading city. They were conveniently located on a circular trade route which made it easier for the letters to be circulated and then dispersed throughout the province. But suddenly he remembered what he had been, and realized what he was. I do too. "He that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations." Revelation 2:7 - To the Church in Ephesus - Bible Hub "These things saith he that is holy, he that is true." And please, if you are a Roman Catholic or have a Catholic background, don't be angry with me, because we are going to lay it on the Protestants when we get to Sardis. (iii) Ephesus was the centre of the worship of Artemis or, as the King James Version calls her, Diana of the Ephesians. He said, "Unless your righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you are not going to enter the kingdom of heaven. (1-3) Holding back judgment until the servants of God are sealed. "God is a Spirit.". "What thou seest, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. John tells us that when the Jews said to him that their fathers had eaten manna in the wilderness, so receiving bread, and Jesus said "I am the bread of life" ( John 6:31-35). When we began to study the letter to Thyatira we saw that anyone coming into that Church for the first time would have believed it to be surging with life and fruitful in every good work. They will come against them in judgment with His Word. When we go on to Numbers 31:16 we find that seduction definitely attributed to the evil influence of Balaam. "So then because thou art neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Elijah 5:6), and this metaphor continues to be used by Christian authors (T. Jacob 7:24). This is a passage of which there are almost endless interpretations. Their labor was done in the name of Jesus. 1. The Greek is: ten ( G3588) gunaika ( G1135) Iezabel ( G2403) . Let us see, then, the factors which gave it its preeminent greatness. Satan's synagogue. 152.]. Here is the death of human pride. 41, 69; Thomas, Revelation 1-7, pp. To the angel of the church of Smyrna write; these things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive ( Revelation 2:8 ); Remember the description of Himself, "the first and the last"? At the same time another way of looking at the book is by taking "the things that are" as already past and gone. It stood at the end of the road which crossed Lydia and Phrygia and travelled out to the far east, and it commanded the trade of the rich Hermus valley. The Protestant reads the Bible more at liberty, which is a real good and precious boon; but for this very reason, the Protestant incurs no light responsibility. Long before Rome was undisputed mistress of the world, Smyrna had cast in its lot with her, never to waver in its fidelity. In the days of the French Revolution, Madame Roland uttered her famous cry: "Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name!" When the church was seeking the place of public glory, the encouragement to faith was the hidden manna. It afterward, however, suffered greatly from earthquakes and conflagrations, and has declined from these causes, though, from its commercial advantages, it has always been a city of importance as the central emporium of the Levantine trade, and its relative rank among the cities of Asia Minor is probably greater than it formerly bore. Believers who hold to their testimony conquer the dragon (Revelation 12:11) and the beast (Revelation 15:2). They wanted everything that was precious: "gold" or divine righteousness in Christ "white raiment," that is to say, the righteousnesses of saints; "that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see." Revelation 2:7 - Commentary, explanation and study verse by verse Mere orthodoxy does not suffice, but His person, though absent, and the glory due to Him. Thus he introduces himself here, not as a joint partaker of God's promise in Christ by the gospel, but in His kingdom and patience in Christ. 1:12-13,16) will act in judgment and bring the church to an end (4-6). A few manuscripts have after gunaika ( G1135) the word sou ( G4675) , which means "your." the state of those that bore His own name was such that He was obliged to deal thus sternly with them. You should have a deeper relationship of love with the Lord tonight than ever before. Hence what judges Protestantism is this, that they have the testimony of God's word much more fully than those who had sunk into the mere ecclesiastical formalism of the middle ages. No doubt, morally speaking, He must needs execute judgment; but John could not lose sight of His divine glory, even where the subject is judgment, and the kingdom everywhere prominent. Balaam, then, in Hebrew history stood for an evil man who seduced the people into sin. For every position we are set in, no matter where it is or what, there is always the gracious power of God as our resource; but it is to sustain the person walking in consonance with the relationship in which God has been pleased to put him. This has been always the case. ", In the next place comes Philadelphia. The Turks now call it Izmir. The hardest thing about repentance is the acceptance of personal responsibility for our failure, for once the responsibility is accepted the godly sorrow will surely follow. So they exist concurrently and they were addressed to the seven churches that existed, than dealing with situations that did exist within the churches, but they also have a historic application, which we will also see.Now to the church of Ephesus. Thank God we have Romaine to purge the poison from the body. And as this is the heart's outpouring of its own delight in Jesus, so the next verse gives a warning testimony suitable to the book, lest there should be any weakening of what Jesus will be to those who stand in no such nearness to Him. The history of the church is shameful. And because of our patient waiting for the kingdom, scoffers have come and said, "Ah, where is the promise of His coming? It is the threat of the Risen Christ that he will make war against them with the sword of his mouth. But there was a special part in which the patriarchs and the prophets lived, and that was paradise. But there is a point in the Greek impossible to reproduce in English which is intensely suggestive. We must be clear what this difference means, for there is a paradox in it. It is in the mercy of God that the teaching of Jezebel and her like did not become the view of the Church. It was built on a tall conical hill, which dominated the valley of the River Caicus, from the top of which the Mediterranean could be seen, fifteen miles away. The Temple is hagios ( G39) because it is different from other buildings; the Sabbath day is hagios ( G40) because it is different from other days; God is supremely hagios ( G40) because he is totally different from men; and the Christian is hagios ( G40) because he is different from other men. 1. When a person was very ill and in danger of death, he was often given the name of someone who had lived a long and saintly life, as if this turned him into a new person over whom the illness might lose its power. When men put up barriers between Church and Church, they do what Christ never does. This can hardly be denied to Jezebel at least; whilst "the remnant" represents those who, without being Protestants, form a witnessing company apart from popery, yet before the rise of Protestantism. Paul speaks of the crown of righteousness ( 2 Timothy 4:8), and of the crown of boasting ( 1 Thessalonians 2:19). tree of life -- Paradise of God . (2) Thyatira, The Teaching Of Jezebel ( Revelation 2:18-29 Continued). I am far from saying this because I do not feel for them much. For every one that is in the first resurrection is destined to reign with Christ, as even will the Jewish sufferers, earlier or later, under the antichrist. What does "the tree of life" mean? - Revelation 2:7 commentary The Temple area possessed the right of asylum; any criminal was safe if he could reach it. "If you don't repent, I am going to take and remove the church from the place of My presence. He that is seen as Son of man is really described with those marks which belong distinctively to the "Ancient of days." 'But he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as a vessel of the potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father." Revelation - Matthew Henry's Commentary - Bible Gateway He that hath an ear. Some of them were fed to the lions, stretched on the racks, crucified by the hundreds, as the Roman emperors at various periods sought to stamp out Christianity. It's been happening all the way along. Thyatira lies in the long valley connecting the valleys of the Hermus and the Caicus rivers through which the railway runs today; and it was its geographical position which gave it its importance. These were Gentiles who were not prepared to go the whole way and to become proselytes but they were attracted by the preaching of one God instead of many gods, and were attracted specially by the purity of the Jewish ethic as compared with the heathen life. The phrase is a translation of Jeremiah 11:20. It was due to the fact that most of them belonged to the lower classes of society. What does Revelation 2:7 mean? | BibleRef.com In vain does Satan seek to cast down those who resting on Christ's love have Him as the loved object of their life and soul. John calls the Jews the synagogue of Satan. "The time is at hand." It is not that the time is actually come so that we must go through all or any part; but the time is at hand. (2) The source of the trouble in Thyatira centred round a woman whom the letter calls Jezebel. All the roads of the Cayster Valley--the Cayster was the river on which it stood--converged upon it. But the point of interest here is, that succession and ordinances became defined as a system about this very time. And they were trusting in the outward observance of the Law, where in reality what really mattered was in the person's heart.Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount brought out this truth in chapter five. This custom of giving a new name to mark a new status was known in the heathen world as well. EPHESUS--The church which had lost its first love. Here, we think, was the problem of the Church in Thyatira. Here, kratein ( G2902) takes the accusative and that means that Christ clasps the whole of the seven stars in his hand. Two things are to be noted. (c) The heathen world was in the habit of wearing crowns, chaplets of flowers, at banquets. These were associations for mutual profit and pleasure of people employed in certain trades. (i) The letter opens with a description of the Risen Christ which has a threat in it. The point here is that the Risen Christ can see beyond the outward disguise; he will know whether or not her repentance is real. A promise of great mercy to those who overcome. When Adam was driven from the Garden of Eden, God placed a cherubim at the gate of the garden to guard it, least man should return and eat of the tree of life and live forever in a sinful state. At length the executioner stabbed him to death to achieve what the flames could not do. Thus whether it be the depraving of souls or the forming sects after an earthly mould among those who were heavenly according to Paul, or whether it be the taking them away from the life of Christ, and from walking as He walked and simply putting them under Jewish ordinances, the Fathers, I fear, as a class, fully earned the awful distinction here assigned by the Lord. It should be noted that each of these churches comprise a period of church history. Notice no call to repentance. 90, 106, 256; Joseph C. Dillow, The Reign of the Servant Kings, pp. This would mean that the Christian is counted among the number of the faithful. I do not mean conflicts about the church, but about his soul, It is needless here to cite passages from his extant writings, which prove how sorely he was tried by inward conflicts of unbelief, which amply prove how far he was from the calm enjoyment of the peace of the gospel; but it is an error to impute them in themselves to any other cause than a lack of clear knowledge of grace. Christ is no longer the loved and only object of the heart; nor is there the sense of the blessedness of His coming, which leads into waiting for Him; still less is there a glorying in weakness that the power of Christ may rest on them. Then John describes himself in a manner adapted to the testimony he is called to render. Revelation 2:11,17,29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death Revelation 3:6,13,22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches Revelation 13:9 If any man have an ear, let him hear. In comparison with his glory all earthly distinctions are worthless. Let him hear what the Spirit saith . What He is is the main point. This seems taken up here, and applied in a far larger way for purposes suitable to the Apocalyptic prophecy. "But to you I say, the rest (or remnant) in Thyatira." The apostles were disappearing, and perhaps had all disappeared save John. There the promise is: "and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars for ever and ever." They must as it were begin again, go back step by step, till they come to the place where they took the first false step; they must endeavour to revive and recover their first zeal, tenderness, and seriousness, and must pray as earnestly, and watch as diligently, as they did when they first set out in the ways of God. Pergamum, The Seat Of Satan ( Revelation 2:12-17 Continued). A common form of invitation to a festal meal ran: "I invite you to dine with me at the table of our Lord Serapis." Revelation 2:12-17. "Him who overcomes" probably refers to all Christians (cf. So the crowds came flocking with faggots from the workshops and from the baths, and the Jews, even although they were breaking the Sabbath law by carrying such burdens, were foremost in bringing wood for the fire. Someone said, "Hey, I go to the beach and I worship God at the beach." So Abram becomes Abraham when the great promise is made that he will be the father of many nations and when he, as it were, acquires a new status in the plan of God for men ( Genesis 17:5). I know thy works, and I know where you dwell, even where Satan's throne is ( Revelation 2:13 ): Where is Satan's throne? Witness meant so often martyrdom. It began at the harbour; it traversed the narrow foothills; and then behind the city there rose the Pagos, a hill covered with temples and noble buildings which were spoken of as "The Crown of Smyrna." It might well be that Jew or Christian might regard a religion which took the serpent as its emblem as a Satanic cult. Has it no price in His eyes? "Thou hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name." If the hidden manna and the bread of life are the same, the hidden manna is not only the bread of the sacrament but stands for nothing less than Christ, the bread of life; and this is a promise that to him who is faithful he will give himself. Here the manna may mean heavenly food. Was there anything in that worship to move the Christians to call the Temple of Asclepios Satan's seat? If it was inevitable that Ephesus should come first in the list of the seven Churches, it was but natural that Smyrna its great rival should come second. Revelation 2 - Clarke's Commentary - StudyLight.org Revelation 2 Bible Commentary - Matthew Henry (complete) They were almost certainly people who argued on these lines. We must leave out the word "Amen" it is spurious, and only mars the sense. Pliny in one of his letters tells a friend that that day he had had the joy of hearing in the law courts two magnificent young pleaders in whose hands the future of Roman oratory was safe; and, he says, that experience made that day one marked candidissimo calculo, with the whitest of stones (Pliny: Letters 6: 11). If it was bright, the assembly would be elevated morally thereby. A message which begins like that will certainly be no soothing tranquillizer. For Abraham rejoiced to see My day and He saw it." ( Luke 15:18). The Risen Christ is called he who has the sharp two-edged sword. There are three things that the letter says about this trial. For the Sadducees and the Epicureans death was extinction. There had been a honeymoon period, but the first flush of enthusiasm is past. They set up to be more righteous and holy than the rest, whom they denounced as Antinomian because they stood in the true grace of God. Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, if I don't have love it is meaningless. He may speak but seldom of himself, and this he does so effectually that there are not wanting those who have questioned whether after all he were "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Even in the gospel, which is so fragrant with His divine love, we have the frequent not to say constant admonition of this remarkable position which Christ takes. I hate these things. Sometimes they suffered from the spoiling of their goods ( Hebrews 10:4). If that light was ineffectual, if there was evil mixed with it, the state of the assembly would partake of it. In later days John was the leading figure of Ephesus. There is something very lovely here. In 1 John 5:4-5 he wrote that only believers in Christ can overcome the world, not that every believer in Christ does overcome the world. It may be that this oracle was a Jewess, for the Jews in the ancient world went in largely for this business of fortune telling. The necessary conclusion seems to be this. A Sermon Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, October 24th, 1886, by C. H. SPURGEON, At the Newington. "I go to the mountains and I worship God in the mountains." '. So the Risen Christ says to the Christians of Pergamum: "I know where you stay." Not the rituals that you may observe outwardly, but what is going on in your heart. The reason is manifest, because the way in which we are called to walk is always according to the place and relations in which we stand. It was built with great, straight, broad streets. Enduring Word Bible Commentary Revelation Chapter 7 The proconsul gave him the choice of cursing the name of Christ and making sacrifice to Caesar or death. Some had risen up in this church that pretended to be not ordinary ministers, but apostles; and their pretensions had been examined but found to be vain and false. Poor in material things, but rich in spiritual things. He will be as much marked by power in the day of glory, as by contented weakness in the present scene of grace. They were themselves corrupters and destroyers of true Christianity without knowing it. I. "Thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith." It was not yet a question of coming out from the public body. Not only is the same principle general or constant, but it is remarkably characteristic of John's own writings. The engraving in this vol. and thy labour, and thy patience ( Revelation 2:2 ). The Christian is to be a toiler for Christ, and, even if physical toil is impossible, he can still toil in prayer. You need nothing like that; you are safe in life and in death because you know the name of the only true God. "Even so, Amen.". The world had got in, as it still remains, and alas! They shall have that perfection of holiness, and that confirmation therein, which Adam would have had if he had gone well through the course of his trial: he would then have eaten of the tree of life which was in the midst of paradise, and this would have been the sacrament of confirmation to him in his holy and happy state; so all who persevere in their Christian trial and warfare shall derive from Christ, as the tree of life, perfection and confirmation in holiness and happiness in the paradise of God; not in the earthly paradise, but the heavenly, Revelation 22:1; Revelation 22:2.