Having examined Christ’s letters to the seven churches of Asia (Revelation 2-3) as to their overall purpose, we will begin considering them individually.
Today, we can find pieces of God’s church among hundreds of organizations, some boasting several thousand attendees while others have just a handful. With so many groups, aligning each with one of the seven churches in Revelation would be futile. Even attempting to identify the larger ones could create unwise comparisons among ourselves (II Corinthians 10:12). Certainly, identifying our church as “Philadelphian” rather than any of the other six could be self-deceptive and spiritually harmful.
If we have ears to hear, Christ Himself advises us to heed “what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). His repeated instruction emphasizes that the most beneficial approach to them is to assume that each letter contains personal instruction for us. Each church’s attitudes and positions could reflect our own under similar spiritual circumstances. We would be wise to pay special attention to Christ’s pointed correction of each church to ensure we are among those who overcome and reap the rewards promised to those in the first resurrection.
1. Can taking the analysis of each church personally have a positive, encouraging effect? Revelation 2:2-3; Jude 4; Psalm 119:126; Romans 3:31.
Comment: Any saint who has sorted right from wrong doctrine, discerned good from evil leadership, and patiently continued to labor in Christ’s name can identify with Ephesus. In recent decades, many in God’s church, seeing false teachers and doctrines multiplying among them, boldly rose to defend the truth—on the weighty subjects of law and grace, the nature of God, and the Sabbath, among others—facing the consequences with perseverance. If we have continued in patience and good works, Christ’s initial words to Ephesus can encourage us, applying to us in principle, if not directly.
2. Could the first negative comment to Ephesus apply to us? Revelation 2:4-5; Jude 3; I John 3:18, 22; 4:18-21; 5:1-3.
Comment: Do we recall our “first love” and “first works”? For many, those halcyon days are in the remote past. Do we still have a similar zeal, excitement, desire, spirit of service, and love for God and the brethren as we had in “the old days”? Or have we become jaded, cynical, critical, even bitter (Jude 8; Hebrews 12:14-16)? Have we turned selfish and accusing (Revelation 12:10)? Or have we maintained and increased our love and service to our heavenly Father, soon-coming Husband, and beloved brethren?
One way to evaluate if Christ’s corrective statement to the Ephesians applies to us is to determine the state of our relationships. Overall, have they become better or worse over the years? Does our zeal for the purity of God’s way push people away or draw them back to the truth? Have we become so judgmental that our circle of brethren has shrunk to a pitiful few because of offense? Are we constantly seeing “wrong” in others rather than forbearing with and serving them? If we find more fight than fellowship in our interactions with our brethren, we must heed Christ’s warning.
3. Do we hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans as God does? Who are the Nicolaitans? Revelation 2:6.
Comment: For Christ to include “the deeds of the Nicolaitans” in a few of these seven letters makes them essential to our understanding. The Nicolaitans confuse Bible commentators. Some think the name is a Greek term corresponding to Balaam, “destroyer of the people.” Others suggest they were a Gnostic sect under the umbrella of early Christianity. Still others submit that the deacon Nicolas (Acts 6:5) may have begun his own ascetic group.
A careful study of the book of Ephesians may shed light on that church’s problems, how these mysterious Nicolaitans may have affected them, and what we need to look out for in our day. In that epistle, Paul addresses the purpose of man and the plan of God, which they may have begun to abandon (1:1-23); lawlessness and a false grace exhibited in fleshly sins (2:1-10); inclusion of all peoples in salvation and basic governmental principles (2:11-3:21); church unity and the purpose of the ministry (4:1-16); putting aside sin and walking in holiness with love toward others (4:17-5:20); family and other relationships as symbols of Christ and the church (5:20-6:9); Satan as the enemy (6:10-13); and finally, holiness, zeal, energy, and faith through the whole armor of God—characteristics Christ rebukes them for losing in Revelation 2:4-5. A closer study of Ephesians reveals other specific sins and problems.
The original apostles fought apostasy almost from the beginning of the church. By the time the apostle John received what we know as the book of Revelation, that apostasy was nearly complete. In Revelation’s first letter, Christ commends the Ephesians for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. Thus, it seems they had successfully resisted the apostasy but needed to return to their first love and works—to restore their love and service to God and their brethren.
Based on Paul’s admonitions, the Nicolaitans, whoever they were, must have been turning the Ephesians from godly principles and the understanding of God’s purpose. They must have led them toward false grace, antinomianism, disunity, selfishness, and sensuality. Such things God hates, and He advises us to repent of them lest we fall under judgment.
4. What is the significance of Christ’s promise to allow overcomers to eat of the Tree of Life? Revelation 2:7; Genesis 2:8-9; 3:22-24.
Comment: At its most basic, the Tree of Life, like all the rewards in Revelation 2-3, refers to eternal life in His Kingdom. However, its mention parallels an earlier theme. Just as Christ admonishes the Ephesians to return to their first love and works, the reward He promises refers to another beginning: to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. It alludes to the pure relationship between God and Adam and Eve before human sin entered the picture. Evidently, over the years of battling apostasy and apostates, the Ephesians had become spiritually scarred and calloused, so God urges them to regain the more loving, harmonious, and beneficent attitudes they, in their zeal, had let slip. In the Kingdom, those who overcome will display such pure, loving character for all eternity.