Repentance
Loveless (Revelation 2:1-7)
Taking the lampstands first (‘lampstands’ is a better translation than ‘candlesticks’), they represent the seven churches. It is an appropriate symbol, for the church, being the corporate fellowship of the people of God, is to be the light of the world, shining and witnessing for Christ who is Himself the light of the world. If the church is not doing this it is not being the church.
It is not the church’s business to make truth, alter truth or improve truth, but rather to receive it, stand firm upon it, contend earnestly for it, preach it, adorn it with holy living, and—if necessary—die for it.
And the stars? They are ‘the angels of the seven churches’, which only leads to the further question, what or who are the angels? They are not on this occasion to be taken as heavenly beings but as the ministers (pastors, elders, overseers) of the different local churches.
It is far clearer to take them as addressed to those whose responsibility before God and men was to give themselves to preaching, teaching, pastoring and ruling in the local churches, and this would have made the best sense for the original Christians who were in those churches.
The implication is that this one thing had escaped the pastor’s notice and had escaped the church members’ notice, but it did not escape Christ’s notice, for nothing ever does. And what was the trouble? Loss of first love to Christ. Loss of love towards the brethren is also included in Christ’s censure.
It is so easy in the Christ-believer relationship, as in the human marriage relationship, for love to ‘settle in’, to be taken for granted, or even to be replaced by bald duty. It was no longer first love to Christ which drove the Christians at Ephesus.
It is so easy in the Christ-believer relationship, as in the human marriage relationship, for love to ‘settle in’, to be taken for granted, or even to be replaced by bald duty. It was no longer first love to Christ which drove the Christians at Ephesus.
Persecuted (Revelation 2:8-11)
The church receives no word of complaint from its Head here—not that they were perfect or that there was no room for improvement, for there always is! Christ’s concern is to give them a challenge and an encouragement that it is possible as an individual Christian and as a church to live to please Christ, to receive His ‘well done’ and not to have to be upbraided constantly by Him.
We are to be faithful in guarding and proclaiming the truth of the gospel entrusted to us by God, faithful in manifesting the spirit of Christ (not least to our enemies) and faithful in pressing on in the work that He has set our hands and hearts to, so that we may reap and not faint.
The word for ‘afflictions’ means being opposed, hard pressed and in narrow straits. There were those among their opponents who were doing their best to squeeze them out of existence in the city.
They were probably quite poor people even to begin with, but matters were made worse because Christians at this time were often thrown out of their employment and cut off like lepers from social activities, and so could be in real difficulty when it came to providing for their families and supporting their pastor. And look where the slander came from—those who prided themselves on their religiousness, but whom the Lord Jesus Christ designates ‘a synagogue of Satan’!