It is astonishing to find such wide ranging and divergent features exhibited in the seven churches of Asia so soon after the wise master builder had laid the foundation (1 Cor. 3:10). The Lord addressed His word to seven assemblies then actually existing. But in the order in which they are given from Ephesus to Laodicea, they also afford a picture of the history of the church from apostolic times until its final phase when it is disowned as a faithless witness for Christ. It has to be borne in mind that we are given in the historical forecast, the various phases of the development of the church as a body of Christian profession in the earth, regardless of whether that profession be true or feigned. Within this framework is to be seen the real church, the body of Christ, for the most part in greater or lesser degree, the suffering church of the suffering Lamb.
Three phases of church history have passed away—namely Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamos. The remaining four—Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea—are still in existence, running alongside each other from their commencement. This will be clearly seen from the remarks which follow on each separate church. In the meantime, the Scripture itself clearly makes the distinction in that in the addresses to the first three churches we have first the call—“he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,” followed by the reward to the overcomer. This is reversed in the addresses to the last four churches, the reward to the overcomer being placed before the call to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Ephesus
This church was the crown of the Apostle Paul’s labors. Of the Corinthian assembly Paul said “I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it” (1 Cor. 3:2). But the church at Ephesus had been fed with meat as witness the epistle to the Ephesians. Taking final leave of the elders, as related in Acts 20:17-38, Paul declared that he had not shunned to declare unto them all the counsel of God. However, like Moses, he had a premonition of a falling away after his departure—cause for his warning them night and day with tears. Ephesus, then, shows us the state of the church immediately after the apostles had left the scene. It presents a picture of dead orthodoxy—outward correctness. While there was something which the Lord could commend, the vitalizing link was gone! They had left their first love! Nothing could compensate for this loss. It was a fall. Unless they heeded the Lord’s call to repent and do the first works, their candlestick would be removed, which in fact it was. There were some at Ephesus who claimed to be successors to the apostles, like those who have for centuries sat in “the Chair of Peter,” but there was still power enough to refute their claim.
There were also evidently those whose evil conduct the saints could not bear. I link this with “the deeds” of the Nicolaitans, hateful to the Lord and His saints. In Pergamos there was a “doctrine” of the Nicolaitans—hated by the Lord (Rev. 2:15). While aware of other opinions, I can only state my own. To me, the Nicolaitans are the class already in evidence in the apostles’ days, who continued on in the early days of the church. Jude mentions them—“certain men crept in unawares ... turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness” (Jude 4). The more sin—the more grace! Could anything be more hateful to the Lord? Paul warns us—“Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom. 6:1-2). It is worthy of note that John, the aged and last remaining of the twelve apostles, was also much occupied in warning against the allowance of sin by the children of God. In his first epistle the saints are invited to share in the apostle’s fellowship, which was “with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). At the same time he points out that “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth” (1 John 1:6). His godly admonitions had in view that the Christian sin not (1 John 2:1). Further he adds “whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him” and states “he that committeth sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:6-8). Mark well! These words are addressed to those to whom it was also written “this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life” (1 John 2:25). As the Nicolaitan deeds and doctrine had made their appearance before the Apostle John left the scene, we can well understand the purport of his warnings, embodied in the Holy Scriptures. Saints and sin cannot go on together—“let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:19).
The closing word to Ephesus (v. 7) is worthy of note. They were to heed what the Spirit said unto the churches. The saints “are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). Paul wrote to Timothy—“that good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us” (2 Tim. 1:14). Finally (v. 7) the tree of life—barred to man in Eden—now appears in the Paradise of God! The overcomer will eat of it there.
Smyrna
Smyrna means myrrh, frequently identified in Scripture with suffering. At this late date, so near the coming of the Lord, one feels almost unequal to write of suffering, considering the Lord’s mercy to His people in these last closing days of the church’s history on earth. But in times past our spirits have been moved, and again as we write, when we read in the Scriptures of the sufferings of our precious Savior, and also of His holy apostles, and the myriads of suffering saints who have followed them, who “loved not their lives unto the death” (Rev. 12:11).
Jesus has rightly been referred to as “the crowned King of all patient sufferers.” Those words in Luke 22:15 are enough to stir our hearts to their very depths—“with desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer.” And with what joy we have oftentimes read the triumphant word of a risen Savior to the two on the way to Emmaus—“Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:26). God, “in bringing many sons to glory has made the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb. 2:10). “The disciple is not above his Master” (Matt. 10:24) and from the Scriptures we learn with certainty that Paul, Peter, James the brother of John, and Stephen, were deprived of life in this world as a consequence of their faithful witness to the truth.
Before the advent of the gospel, pagans and Jews lived in harmony together in Smyrna. The strong man armed kept his goods in peace, but now the church of God was there too—the well known division of men thus constituted—the Jew, the Gentile, and the church of God (1 Cor. 10:32). Satan, power of darkness, raised up persecution against the church. Believers were cast into prison, they were tried, and endured a tribulation which, however, the Lord limited. There were found of them faithful unto death—as witness the martyrdom of the aged Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. It is clear from verse 9 that the Jews joined the pagans, in the persecution of the church. The Lord, who Himself had gone through death and was alive, encouraged His persecuted ones to be faithful unto death, and He would give them a crown of life. The Lord had no word of censure or rebuke for Smyrna. He knew their works, and tribulation and poverty in this world, but they were rich toward God. A day is coming when God will “wipe away all tears” and when “there shall be no more death” (Rev. 21:4).
Historically, Smyrna represents that period in the church’s history when Satan unleashed appalling persecutions under ten Roman Emperors in the years given below:
Nero 64 A. D.
Domitian 81
Trajan 98
Marcus Aurelius 161
Septimus Severus 193
Maximin 235
Decius 249
Valerian 254
Aurelian 270
Diocletian 284
It has been truly said “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew” (Ex. 1:12). One thanks God for the grace given to the Lord’s noble witnesses of that time, men, women, and children, old and young, enabling them to endure the fiery trial.
Why did the Lord allow it? The martyred saints were His very own members. The reason is a serious one indeed. God’s purpose in the call of Abraham was to adopt a nation Israel, which would retain the knowledge of the one true God in a world steeped in idolatry. Israel completely failed to do so. Would the church prove a more faithful witness, a brighter light in a darkened world? In Scripture the church is called “the church of the living God” (1 Tim. 3:15)—to be on earth “the pillar and ground of the truth.” Christ had said twice over “they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14,16). But the church now, beginning with the declension in Ephesus, was departing from her calling, and her Head. Paul saw it coming before he went to be with Christ, and had to say “all they which are in Asia are turned away from me” (2 Tim. 1:15) and “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:10). Alas the church was pandering to the world. The distinctive truth of the church as belonging to Christ alone was being lost. The light of the gospel dimmed! The sorrowful persecutions were allowed so that the saints might know the true character of the world in contrast to Christ and Christianity. It might have the effect of arresting the decline. But no! The succeeding phase of the church reveals a still worse state of things.
Pergamos
First we do well to consider the bearing of the address to the actual church in Pergamos before we look at the period it represents in the onward history of Christianity. The saints were living in a city notorious for idolatry—in fact, Satan’s seat was there. Despite the darkness, the church held fast to the Lord’s Name, which was duly appreciated by Himself who could say to them “I know thy works.” The Scripture says “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12) and that the Lord’s people here did not escape is evidenced by the fate of the faithful Antipas (whose name means ‘against all’) who suffered martyrdom. There were amongst them, however, those who held the doctrine of Balaam, which had the effect of joining the Lord’s people to the world and its religion. “They ate the sacrifices of the dead” (Psa. 106:28). They also, like their brethren in neighboring Ephesus, were allowing in their midst the Nicolaitans, mentioned in the comments on Ephesus. Truly “evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Cor. 15:33). The Scripture says “let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:19). In the light of the Lord’s word “repent” to the church at Pergamos, this is readily understood. If they did not repent, He would fight against them with the sharp two-edged sword of His mouth. “The face of the Lord is against them that do evil” (1 Peter 3:12). The reward offered here to those who would be true to the profession of Christ’s holy Name is very encouraging—to eat of hidden manna—support by feeding on Christ in secret communion as between the soul and Himself. The “white stone”—symbol of acquittal when judged for one’s conduct—would be given the tried ones; not the white stone alone, but in it “a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it”—a secret between the giver and the recipient. Oh for a “white stone” and a “new name written” in it, from the Lord’s own blessed hand!
Pergamos gives us a picture of that phase of the church which emerged after the Roman persecutions had ceased. Satan had not succeeded in obliterating God’s testimony from the earth therefore he changed his tactics! “We are not ignorant of his devices” says Paul (2 Cor. 2:11). He arranged a marriage. Pergamos means “married.” He succeeded in joining the church and the world together in an unholy alliance. The church now had a head on earth in the person of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who presided at the Christian Council of Bishops, and turned pagan temples and their treasures into so called Christian churches. The cross was displayed everywhere as the symbol of the new polity. Long imprisoned in dungeons, Christians now emerged, living skeletons, indelibly marked by suffering, and were set up as Bishops in the new order of things. Alas by this means the true place and testimony of the church, as a witness for God in the world, was lost but for Antipas and his suffering brethren of that time, many of whom paid with their lives for their protest and separation from what they knew was of Satan and not of Christ. The ‘hidden manna’ sustained them. The ‘white stone,’ and ‘the new name written’ will be their eternal recompense! The features characterizing the actual church at Pergamos, on which we have already written, were fully developed and in full bloom in the days of Constantine and his Empress. In the administration of the state, the affairs of ‘the church’ held a prominent place.
The reference to Satan—“that old serpent, who is the Devil, and Satan” (Rev. 20:2) in the addresses to Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, and Philadelphia, lead me into a digression. He has been the antagonist of God, His Christ, and the saints, and has opposed every work of God, from the beginning. Only a few notices of his baneful works can be given here. He is the arch-deceiver of the human race. Significantly, the serpent has been, and still is, an object of worship all over the world. In Eden, “the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Tim. 2:14). This was his first act. His last act is the deception of the nations of the earth, gathering them against “the beloved city.” Fire from heaven devours his dupes, and he is summarily cast into the lake of fire to be tormented day and night forever and ever. It would lead us too far to refer to the record of his activities in the Old Testament, but we must refer to his temptation of our precious Savior in the wilderness. Awful thought—he offered the Lord all the kingdoms of the world if the Lord would fall down and worship him. The Lord having overcome Satan, he departed from Him for a season. Soon he returned, entering into Judas to betray his Master. The Lord was aware of his approach for He said “the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me” (John 14:30). Anticipating what He would accomplish on the cross, Jesus said “now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). Goliath was slain with his own sword, so we read that “through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil” (Heb. 2:14). The seed of the woman bruised the serpent’s head (see Gen. 3:15). But Satan still remained to oppose the work of the Lord as we see in Matthew 13:24-50. Risen from the dead, Christ had sowed good seed in His field, but while men slept—that is, left their first love—an enemy sowed tares. Verse 39 is specific—“the enemy that sowed them is the devil.” Tares and wheat (good seed) grow together “until the harvest.” This parable sheds much light on the addresses to the seven churches. In the profession of Christianity there are tares as well as wheat growing together until the harvest time. “The children of God,” and “the children of the devil” are contrasted for us in 1 John 3:10.
Man today largely counts the Devil a myth. Lest the Christian be off guard we quote 1 Peter 5:8-9—“be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith.” Paul also admonishes the saints at Ephesus to “put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph. 6:11). And for our encouragement—“the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Rom. 16:20).
Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamos, as phases of the history of the professing church, have passed away. The remaining four churches go on to the end. Thyatira, the first of these four churches, is found in Revelation 2:18-29, but is commented on in Chapter 3 of these notes so the last four churches may be considered as a group.