Day 4 of Revelation Study: Ephesus

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: “The words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.”

Revelation 2:1

Jesus Knows & Keeps Us

With this being the first church in the list, Jesus is described as holding His people in His right hand and personally walking among them. There is a deep connection that Christ maintains with all of His people in that He both holds them [i.e. “…no one will snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:28)] and He is always with them [i.e. “…I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20)]. As is seen throughout each of the seven letters to the churches, Jesus knows them all — personally.

He does not just know about them, He knows them individually and intimately. He sees the good, the bad, and the ugly. To this church He says in verse two, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil…” Often times, because of our limited perspective, I think we tend to judge ourselves differently than the Lord does. I know, at least in my own life, that I tend to either think I am walking with the Lord or I am not — that my life is either all good or all bad.

However, this is not how Christ is seen here to be judging His churches. Are there some things that He rebukes? Absolutely, but He also commends His people on the good things they are doing. Jesus has a much higher and fuller perspective on our lives than we do, and we can trust His evaluation because He Himself is the clearest manifestation of both grace and truth in the lives of His people. He is neither biased nor blind; and nothing escapes His notice, whether good or bad.

The church that worked so hard…

The church in Ephesus is seen as working very hard and even patiently enduring this life which has its own trials and tribulations. Jesus praises them for testing those who claim to be apostles because false teaching was just as rampant in the Church then as it is today. In the same way that the Bereans tested Paul and Silas in Acts 17:11, these believers are comparing every word these men say with the Scriptures — they know their Bibles.

…that they lost their love.

That being said, there is a rebuke given. These believers had abandoned the love they had at first. As God looked back at Israel’s initial love and devotion to Him in Jeremiah 2:1-2, He does the same thing with this church. He remembers the former days when they were on fire for Him and everything they did was motivated from a spirit of love. Now God looks at them and sees them acting from a spirit of duty and maintaining more of a mechanical tradition.

·         The Church in Ephesus (2:1-7)

•   They were praised for their works, devotion to the Word and hatred of evil.
•   They were rebuked for abandoning their first love.
•   They were commanded to repent and to do the works they did before.
•   They were warned that if they did not exhibit true evidence of their repentance, then Jesus was going to remove the church there from its place (Sadly, none of these churches are still in existence).
•   They were exhorted to conquer — to persevere in acting upon God’s Truth until He comes (cf. 2:25-26).

What does it mean to conquer? In short, it means that you overcome the world (1 John 5:4-5). In Christ, we have been called conquerors (Rom. 8:37) and commissioned to conquer (Rev. 2:7). While this excerpt from Revelation was directed specifically to the church in Ephesus, we can certainly draw application and parallels to our own lives as believers. The church in Ephesus had lost sight of why they were working so hard for the Lord. Do you find yourself on the brink of burnout or discouragement because it has been too long since the last time you came to the Scriptures just get to know the Lord as He knows you? Let us not lose our love for the Lord in our pursuit of serving Him. As we continue walking through the remaining six churches in Revelation, let us not forget to pause and examine our own lives before God.

Continue on to read about the church in Smyrna.

*Click here to read the purpose of this blog series.