Continuing my reposting of my notes from studying Revelation, which I started doing a year and a half ago. I’ve just started reading a book on the Apocalyptic genre, which started by saying basically much the same as what I said in my previous post. More on this later…
Revelation 2:1-7 – Letter to the Church in Ephesus
So, the letters to the churches, or more specifically, to the angels of the churches. I don’t know whether this refers to there being angels with responsibility for each church, or just means “messanger” and is stressing that the church is God’s messanger to the world, or something else, or more than these, but knowing this isn’t terribly important, so I won’t get hung up on speculating about this.
What it does seem to show though is that God takes an interest in churches, and not just the individual Christians or the entire body of Christ. One of the things that has stood out to me lately is how that we are supposed to be distinctive as a community. It’s something I remember from beach mission, that “by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love one for another”, and it came up in the sermon this morning and again in my Bible study now. Perhaps I’m being dropped a hint here!
It’s probably also significant that there are 7 churches. Seven is, so I have been told and have read in various places, symbolic of perfection, completeness and holiness. I don’t personally know how this is known, but it’s similar to the way 13 is associated with unluckiness in our current culture, for example. So the seven churches suggests this is for the entire Church as a whole, not just those it was originally written for. Also, in v7 it says “he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”, so that’s pretty much everyone! (At least, I hope none of you are missing said body parts!)
Jesus says he holds the seven stars and walks among the seven lampstands – which we were told in 1:20 represent the church. So Jesus is taking care of the Church and is working in it. Also, the churches have their strengths and weaknesses, so it’s time for a bit of constructive criticism from on high…
So Jesus praises them for their hard work and endurance, as well as keeping to what is true and pure. All top-notch stuff in which to follow their example. It’s interesting that they are praised for that they “cannot tolerate wicked men” – this totally goes against the grain of modern politically-correct thinking! It’d probably be a good idea for me to refer back to Paul’s writing on the subject here, but I think this refers to within the church rather than persecuting those outside it (which is obviously wrong!). As the church, we are ambassadors for Jesus Christ, so when someone does wrong whilst claiming to be a follower of Christ, it is a terrible thing.
But despite all this good work, there is a criticism: the Church has lost its first love. It seems that the church is too busy doing things to actually be loving. A Christian friend recently commented how many Christians, if they saw while travelling to church someone broken down on the side of the road, would not stop and help them so as not to miss the church meeting. But it’s stupid to be going to church to hear the things you should be doing rather than actually doing those things! It’s a danger to become so involved that we don’t stop to relate to people and demonstrate God’s love in our lives. I know that I sometimes get so caught up in trying to put an “event” on in the CU
at college, I miss out on time to actually talk to and spend time with friends, when building those relationships would probably be far more profitable to the Gospel than trying to design snazzier posters, or whatever.
What does Jesus command? Remember and repent. I know that I, as a young Christian, did some things in my enthusiasm that although enthusiastic, weren’t really very good ways of proclaiming the gospel – singing “Yes, Jesus loves you” in the middle of a school playground isn’t a good way of making friends and influencing people, let alone winning them to Christ! But as we become (hopefully) wiser, it’s easy to lose that enthusiasm to tell people the great news of the Bible. So we need to remember this and return to that passion for Christ.
And it finishes with a promise – isn’t God wonderful? “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God”. Sounds good, doesn’t it? It’s probably a good idea to have a bash at this overcoming lark then, don’t you think?