01.02. CHAPTER 2.

CHAPTER 2. THE MESSAGE TO THE CHURCH IN EPHESUS.

Revelation 2:1. “Unto the angel [or messenger] of the church of Ephesus write.” This message was first addressed to the then existing Church of God in Ephesus, directed to an individual there, who was thus put into the place of a messenger from Christ in the glory to that church. It was doubtless an exact and faithful presentation of the truth there and then to that particular church. There is also something deeper and more lasting, as intimated by the 20th verse of the preceding chapter— “the mystery of the seven churches.”

These seven churches in Asia were selected in infinite wisdom, arranged in a certain order, certain particulars noticed, and others omitted, so as to present a complete history of the Church of this dispensation from the apostle’s time to the return of the Lord Jesus, the heavenly Bridegroom, to receive the Church, His Bride, to Himself. The more these messages to the churches are compared with the recognised facts of ecclesiastical history, and with existing things, the more will the divine perfection of these addresses be apparent. The church in Ephesus is placed at the top of the list.

There are two epistles to the church in Ephesus—one from Paul, the prisoner in Rome; the other from John, the banished one in Patmos. When Paul wrote, the church in Ephesus was in its most “desirable” condition, though Paul foresaw its danger (Acts 20:29-30). When John wrote, it was fallen from its first estate and pre-eminence. Ephesus means “Desirable;” it may also mean a “Throwing or Casting Down.” It stands here as the representative of the Church at the time immediately succeeding its first planting.

“These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.” The Church as planted by the energy of the Spirit of God at first was in its true order. Ministry was upheld by the right hand of the Lord Jesus; He gave the evangelists, pastors, and teachers; and these gifts and their exercise were entirely under His control. Ministry had not then ceased to be that high and sacred thing which God intended it to be. These planets in this early night season, shining with unclouded splendour, received their light from the Sun of Righteousness, and reflected it clearly on the earth below. The lampstands were golden; each individual church was not distinguished by some denominational character; they were churches of God, owned of God, and witnesses for Him in the earth. The Church also as a whole was that which God designed it to be—gathered round the one exalted Lord: He was the true Church centre. The murmur which had begun to be heard, “I am of Paul,” &c., had not arisen; Jesus was the centre Sun of the whole system. In the first chapter He appears standing; here He is walking. He is as the high priest in the Temple, walking amidst the lampstands and trimming the lamps

Revelation 2:2-3. “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience [or patient endurance], and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience, and for My name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.”

There were works of faith, labours of love, and patience of hope. God’s sanctuary was kept pure from moral and doctrinal evil and false assumption; in outward order perfect.

Revelation 2:4. “Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” The angel or messenger is looked at throughout these epistles as the representative of the church to which he is the messenger, and the church is addressed through him.

Sad is it when an individual loses his first love—the pardoned and saved sinner’s ardent love to his Redeemer and Saviour; sadder still when a church loses its first love.

What was the first love of the church in Ephesus? We learn what it was from Paul’s epistle to that church. The love of her espousals; the love of the Bride to the heavenly Bridegroom, who loved her and gave Himself for her, raised her up together, and seated her in heavenly places in Himsplf, as members of His body, the purchase of His blood, and sealed by His Spirit—that great mystery, Christ and the Church. Has this first love of the Church ever been regained? Not only the church in Ephesus, but the Church in general, has left her first love.

Paul was jealous over the Church with a godly jealousy. He had espoused it to one Husband, that he might present it as a chaste virgin to Christ. But he had his fears that, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so the Church, the antitype, should be corrupted from her first simplicity—fears too truly verified. “While the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.” The Church has adopted as her “creed,” not “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh,” but “He is coming to judge.” True, within the last few years, the cry has again gone forth, and the slumbering virgins are being awakened to cry, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” The addresses to the seven churches in Asia correspond with the teaching of the seven parables in Matthew 13:1-58; only in the parables it is more of the kingdom character; in the Revelation, the Church. Ephesus corresponds with the parable of the sower and the seed—the first sowing, and the first planting. The course of the seven churches also corresponds with certain stages in the history of the kings of Judah and Israel. As Israel in the wilderness is typical of the wilderness condition of the people of God now, so Israel in the land is a type of the Church as associated with a risen Christ. Looked at in this light, the church of Ephesus, first planted and in its prime, will correspond with the kingdom of Solomon in its first fair glory. The charge “thou hast left thy first love” in the Greek is not in the perfect tense, but in the aorist, and may be rendered “thou didst leave.” It is not simply “because thou hast left,” but “because thou didst leave.” There was a period in the Church’s history when this declension commenced.

Revelation 2:5. “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.”

Remembrance, repentance, and doing the first works, when under the influence of the first love. This is the exhortation.

“Or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy lamp- stand out of his place, except thou repent.”

He does not say, “I will extinguish thy lamp,” but “remove thy lampstand out of his place”—its place of pre-eminence.

Revelation 2:6. “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which also hate.”

Nicolaitanes—i.e., victorious people. The Epistle of Jude may give us the character of these deeds of the victorious people; such as “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only sovereign Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4). To be faithful, we have not only to love what Christ loves, but to hate what He hates.

Revelation 2:7. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” The Spirit has a voice of instruction for the individual ear, and for all the churches, as well as for each particular church.

“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” The overcomer is he who, giving heed to the word of approval, continues in what is approved; and also, heeding the word of instruction, reproof, or exhortation, obtains the mastery over what is disapproved of. As the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so the Church has been corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Right to the tree of life was forfeited at first. The promise to the overcomer is true to faith in spirit now, but the full realisation will be in eternity. As through listening to the voice of the serpent at first, Paradise was lost, and the right to the tree of life was forfeited; so by attending to the voice of the Spirit of God, the foretaste of those eternal joys which are at God’s right hand for evermore are given by the Spirit, who is Himself the earnest of the inheritance which can never be forfeited or lost.

SMYRNA.

Revelation 2:8. “And unto the messenger of the church in Smyrna write.”

Smyrna signifies myrrh; myrrh, bitter but fragrant. A beautiful emblem of sanctified affliction. Bitter to those who suffer; but afterwards working those peaceable fruits of righteousness which are so fragrant and well-pleasing to God. In the church in Smyrna we have the symbolic history of the Church in the period immediately succeeding the days of the apostles. The historic type is the reign of Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:1-33). And what a contrast between the bright reign of Solomon, and the turbulent reign of his son! The second parable in Matthew 13:1-58 : also corresponds with this period: the time of mingling of the tares with the wheat—false professors uniting with the true, in the outward profession of Christianity.

“These things, saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive.”

There is beautiful harmony between the state of things in the several churches and the titles by which the Lord is distinguished in the addresses. When the Church was in its divinely appointed order, the title was: “He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.” But now that the Church is coming into the deep waters of trial and persecution, the suited title selected presents Him as the once suffering and dying, but now living One. Hebrews 12:2-3 will give us its interpretation and application: “Looking off unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.”

Revelation 2:9. “I know thy works, and tribulations, and poverty (but thou art rich).” So we read in Hebrews 10:34, they “took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance.” Poor indeed in this world, but rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom. Having nothing, and yet possessing all things. In striking contrast with the church in Laodicea (Revelation 3:17-18).

“And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (or the Adversary).

According to Romans 2:28-29, “He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly,” &c., “but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly,” &c. But here an outward profession is substituted for inward reality. The tares profess themselves to be wheat.

Originally, the Jews were God’s people outwardly, and circumcision admitted to the outward privileges of the nation. And as such they were types of the Church of God, inwardly and spiritually (1 Corinthians 10:1-11). Where God has His Church, Satan has his synagogue. And there are men of the stamp of Simon Magus, duly baptized indeed, but who have neither part nor lot in the matter, for their heart is not right in the sight of God. The Church of God, “ecclesia,” is a select assembly of called ones, chosen of God in eternity, redeemed by Christ in time, and quickened and indwelt by the Spirit of God. The synagogue of Satan, “sunagoge” like the “net” in Matthew 13:1-58, is a gathering together of every kind.

“Satan” signifies “the Adversary;” similar to “the enemy” in Matthew 13:39, who sows the tares among the wheat.

Revelation 2:10. “Fear none of those things which thou shalt [art about to suffer]: behold, the Devil [Diabolus] shall cast [is about to cast] some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days.” As the Adversary of God, Satan sets up his synagogue in opposition; as Diabolus, the false accuser, he stirs up persecution against the saints. This tribulation, probably though a fact in the experience of the church in Smyrna, foreshadowed the terrible persecution of the Roman Pagan emperors in the second stage of the Church’s history.

“Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown [the victor’s crown] of life.” The trial of faith, though it be tried with fire, will be found unto praise and honour and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The regal crown, the diadem, will be worn by every ransomed soul, for the blood of Christ has purchased it; but the victor’s crown, the stephanos, will be given to the overcomer.

Revelation 2:11. “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.”

These addresses were given by Christ in vision to John, but it is the Spirit which now speaks through them to the anointed and opened ear. A martyr’s death may be the portion of the faithful witness here, but on such the second death hath no power.

PERGAMOS.

Revelation 2:12. “And to the angel [messenger] of the church in Pergamos write.”

“Pergamos” may either signify “elevation,” “lifted up,” or “actual marriage.”

It marks the third stage of decline in the history of the Church. In Smyrna we see the world coming into the Church, and the enemy erecting his synagogue there. In Pergamos we have the Church going over to the world, and seeking a home there. The corresponding parable in Matthew 13:1-58, is that of “the grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.” The Christian Church was at the first lowly, like a “spreading vine of low stature;” but afterwards it became great with worldly greatness, and harboured all manner of abuses. In the history of the kingdom of Israel, the reign of Jeroboam answers to this—with his house of high places, and imitation ritual (1 Kings 12:26-33).

Pergamos marks the well-known era in history when the Church passed from under the fierce, but purifying, fires of Roman Pagan persecution, over to the enervating and corrupting patronage of Imperial Rome, at the time of Constantine the Great. Reminding us of Samson on the lap of Delilah.

Revelation 2:12. “These things saith He which hath the sharp sword with two edges.”

There is now the need of the sharp penetrating and searching power of the word, and the Lord uses it.

Revelation 2:13. “I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s [the Adversary’s] throne is” Not only “thy works,” but “thy dwelling-place.” The Church had changed her residence, and removed from the valley to the mountain.

Satan had set up his rival synagogue in the Church, but his throne is in the world. He is the god of this world, and the prince of the authority of the air. His patronage is more to be feared than his persecution. His smile is more withering than his frown.

“And thou holdest fast My name, and hast not denied My faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was My faithful martyr [or witness], who was slain among you, where Satan [or the Adversary] dwelleth.” The saints had been faithful under the fiercest persecution, but now there was a threefold form of danger to which they were exposed: Satan’s synagogue—the Adversary’s imitation of religion; Satan’s throne—the Adversary’s royal patronage; and Satan’s dwelling-place —the Adversary’s companionship or neighbourhood.

Revelation 2:14. “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.” There are three stages in the downward path to ruin, noticed in Jude 1:11; “the way of Cain”—will worship, an altar decked with Howers and laden with fruit, but without a sacrifice; “the error of Balaam”—the service of the hireling, for reward; and “the gainsaying of Korah”—democracy in the Church, the flesh asserting its rights, to the setting aside of the divinely given gifts of the Spirit for the edifying of the saints. And when the world pays the expenses of religion, what more natural than to claim the title to fellowship in the worship and the rule? And hence the danger of unhallowed communion with the world in what ought to be the spiritual worship of the Father, and loyal obedience to the Son, in the all-sufficient energy of the Spirit.

Revelation 2:15. “So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.”

It is the having in the midst those who hold false doctrine which is condemned. Here is a decline from the holy jealousy in discipline commended in the church in Ephesus (Revelation 2:2); a neglect to purge out the leaven of doctrines corrupting to the Church, and a toleration of those that held them. In connection with Ephesus, the deeds of the Nicolaitanes are mentioned as hated by the Lord; but here it is the doctrine, and the persons who hold it, and who tolerate it are condemned. For false doctrine is the root from which in due time, if allowed to remain, the evil fruits are sure to follow. Both the doctrine and the deeds are hateful in the eyes of the Lord; and those who tolerate the doctrine may be made answerable for the deeds.

Revelation 2:17. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna.” The Spirit who inspired these words alone can breathe spiritual life and power into them, and make them living words in the soul’s experience. The overcomer is he that escapes the influence of the world, disowns the doctrine of Balaam, refuses democracy in the Church, and Anti-nomianism, and brings every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. The hidden manna recalls to mind that ‘‘golden pot having the manna” laid up in the holiest of all—the beautiful type of a once humbled but now glorified Christ. It is one thing to feed on Him as the lowly One down here, and another thing to have the soul nourished and strengthened by believing views of Him in His heavenly blessedness and glory. The overcomer has the privilege and benefit of this.

“And will give him a white stone, and in [upon] the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” This is the voting stone of approval and choice—the Lord’s own secret heart’s estimate of His servant, made known to his secret consciousness for the encouragement of His servant’s heart.

THYATIRA.

Revelation 2:18. “And unto the angel [messenger] of the church in Thyatira write.” The fourth church in order; the centre church of the seven. As in the seven-branched lampstand of the Tabernacle, there are three branches on each side and one in the centre; so this church occupies the central period from Pentecost to the return of the Lord Jesus, during the middle or dark ages. In Ephesus we see the Church in apostolic order, that is, as first planted by the apostles, with Jesus in the midst, the centre of the Church of God, upholding and controlling ministry by His own power and authority. In Smyrna, the Church under the persecutions of Pagan Rome. In Pergamos, under the patronage of the state. In Thyatira, the power of the state used in persecuting.

“Thyatira” signifies either perfume bruised, or from thuo, to sacrifice, and teiro, to wear away—the perfume from persecution. This church corresponds with the fourth parable in Matthew 13:33— the parable of the leaven—and also with the reign of Ahab. The first three churches succeed one another; the four last divide and subdivide, and these run on to the end. In the first three churches the exhortation to hear precedes the promise to the overcomer; in the last four the promise comes first, thus making a distinction. The four last churches contain a promise or intimation of the Lord’s return; not so the first three. The last four remain in a divided form to the end; the first three succeed each other undivided.

We now come to the first great division of the Church, which hitherto in outward form was one—the time when the Western Church (the Roman) divided from the Eastern (the Greek Church). The church in Thyatira, in symbol, is the representative of the Western or Roman Church.

“These things, saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass.”

“The Son of God.” Not, as the Romish Church so persistently represents Him, merely Son of the Virgin, but the Eternal Son in the bosom of the Father; not merely the Infant Child in the arms of His Virgin Mother.

He is not one contented with a fair outward form, but His eyes penetrate and discover the secrets of the heart. And His ways are ways of purity and strength: strong as fine brass, and pure as brass refined in the furnace.

Revelation 2:19. “I know thy works, and charity [or love], and service [ministry], and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.” The Church of Rome is characterised by its elaborate system of work, work, work—and works as essential to salvation—so that the Reformation was called for to bring back the long-lost doctrine of justification by faith.

Yet the Lord does not overlook the works of faith, the labour of love, or the patience of hope, manifested by those who are His true disciples amidst the corruptions of the Romish Church.

Revelation 2:20. “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants [bond or bought-servants] to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.” The church in Thyatira is foreshadowed by the reign of Ahab, and the wife of Ahab, who stirred him up, was Jezebel In Revelation 2:14, it is the prophet Balaam who teaches these things; but here it is Jezebel, calling herself a prophetess, teaching the blood- bought servants of Christ, and seducing them to spiritual fornication and idolatry.

Corresponding with this is the fourth parable in Matthew 13:1-58 : “The kingdom of the heavens is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” The leaven of Eastern countries is sour dough—meal that has undergone the first process of fermentation, before it passes to corruption—and the leaven of unsound doctrine is corrupted truth; and what are the errors of the Church of Rome but truth perverted? That dogma of the Church of Rome, “Hear the Church,” which is a perversion of the words of the Lord Jesus from their original import. If the offending brother will not listen to private admonition, nor the admonition of two or three more; and “if he also neglect to hear the

Church,” he is to be regarded “as a heathen man and a publican” (Matthew 18:17). This dogma, “Hear the Church,” perverted to mean that the Church is the centre and source of authority of doctrine rather than the Lord Jesus, lies at the foundation of all Papal error, whereas the Church’s place is to learn, and to communicate the truth received (Ephesians 5:23-24; 1 Timothy 2:11-12). _ In the “Sacrifice of the Mass,” so-called, the servant of Christ— that is, the true believer—and the mere outward professor are associated together in the same act of united fellowship. And in the homage paid to the “Host,” they are united in the same act of idolatrous worship. This mingling together of the spiritual with the carnal is regarded in the New Testament as spiritual fornication.

Revelation 2:21-22. “And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death.”

Judicial blindness and hardness, and a giving over to the power of evil, is the judgment of unrepenting continuance in sin.

What tribulation has the Papal system brought on lands in which it is rooted! Look at Italy, Spain, Portugal, &c.

Spiritual and eternal death follows on the finally impenitent devotees of the system.

Revelation 2:23. “And all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts; and I will give unto everyone of you according to your works.” The lesson for all the churches is that the Lord looketh not on the outward appearance, but on the heart. And individual believers in the Romish Church will be dealt with in strict equity, each receiving according to his own works.

Revelation 2:24-25. “But unto you I say, [and] unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already, hold fast till I come.”

“Unto you.” These words are not addressed to the children of Jezebel, that is, the offspring of the Papacy, but to those sincere believers in the midst, who are happily ignorant of those depths of Satan which characterise the theology of the Papal system.

There are those in the midst of this Church who, through faith in Jesus, have some sense of sins forgiven—as the old monk, who said to Luther, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins”—and who, amidst all their errors and ignorance, have saving faith in Christ. He says to them, “Hold fast that which ye have till I come,” that which has been taught you by the Spirit of God. The simple truths of the Gospel— “Hold fast.”

Revelation 2:26-27. “And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power [authority] over the nations: and he shall rule [rule as a shepherd] them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received [have received] of My Father.” Those who simply hold fast vital truths and simple faith in the midst of the Church of Rome may be safe; but they are not overcomers, they are overcome. The overcomer rises superior to the whole system. Fenelon held fast; Luther was an overcomer.

There is a distinction between “thy works” (Revelation 2:19) and “My works” (Revelation 2:26). Works of human imposition characterise the Church of Rome. “Christ’s yoke is easy, and His burden is light.” “Ye are My disciples,” He says, “if ye do whatsoever I command you.”

“Authority over the nations” is the one great object of Romish ambition. Her great ones have “reigned as kings.”

Though those who spiritually overcome, may do so at the sacrifice and loss of earthly dignity and authority, yet when Christ comes, they will reign with Him. Those who obey Him now will share His authority then.

Revelation 2:28. “And I will give him the Morning Star.”

Christ will give him Himself. He is the Bright and Morning Star. Those who choose Him as their only Lord, and share His rejection and suffering here, will have Him as their portion when He comes as the Morning Star to receive His own, before He arises as Sun of righteousness on the world. And even now, through faith, the day may dawn, and the Day Star arise in their hearts. The Holy Ghost who is Himself the earnest, may so give them the foretaste of the coming joy, that they may experimentally realise the depth of meaning in those words of the apostle, “Christ in you the hope of glory.”

Revelation 2:29. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

If we look on Popery, or on the various imitations of it, we may be in danger of “admiration,” for there is much to fascinate (Revelation 17:6-7). Our safeguard is in hearing what the Spirit saith concerning it.