(REVELATION 2 and 3)
IN considering these chapters, so solemn, yet so full of instruction for our souls, it is important that we should clearly understand the way in which the Lord Jesus is presented to us in the Book of Revelation, as well as the point of view from which the Church or Assembly is looked at there.
In other portions of Scripture, the Epistle to the Colossians, for example, it is the object of the Holy Spirit to fix the attention of the saints on Christ as the Head of the body, ministering all that is needed for the growth and supply of every part — the One in whom all the fullness was pleased to dwell. This is not at all the aspect in which He is seen in the Revelation. On the contrary, chapter 1 brings Christ before us as the Judge, invested with all the attributes proper to such a position. He is there to try and test everything — to see what use has been made of the light and truth given, and the privileges bestowed. He walks amidst the candlesticks or churches — He is there to take cognizance of all that passes, He is indifferent to nothing. This is a very solemn consideration — would it not make us much more careful in our actings in all that concerns the Church of God if we constantly remembered it?
Again, we may view the Church in the place of privilege and blessing as the body of Christ, united to the Head in heaven, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. The Epistle to the Ephesians gives us a rich unfolding of the ineffable grace which has reached down to the state of death in which all, whether Jew or Gentile, lay, on the one hand, and which, out of that condition, quickens us together with Christ, raises us up together, and makes us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. All this is connected with the place of privilege in which we are according to grace.
Revelation 2 and 3, on the contrary, view the Church in the place of responsibility on the earth. The Church was set here as a witness for Christ, a responsible light-bearer in the world.
So, the apostle could write to the Church of God at Corinth and say, “Ye are our epistle... ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ.” He does not say they ought to be so; but, in virtue of their place and calling as the Church, they were the epistle of Christ at Corinth.
Now, when we come to consider the seven churches, we cannot fail to notice at once that the number seven is significant: indicating, as is well known, perfection or completeness whether in good or evil. Taking the seven, we have, therefore, a complete survey or outline of the history of the Church, viewed as a responsible witness for God on earth; and that given by One who sees and knows all, who weighs everything in an even balance, who can form a true estimate of the good as well as the evil, and who searches and tries down even to those hidden springs and motives which underlie the outward condition of the Church. There was, doubtless, a special design in selecting these particular seven churches, and making no mention of others in the same district. Colosse, for example, was quite near Laodicea, yet no reference is made to the former here. It is clear that these seven were selected because their state furnished those elements and principles which were developed more fully later on, and which, therefore, were suitable to delineate the whole history of the professing Church from the beginning to the end.