(Rev. 2)
In coming to the Church of Ephesus, the Lord was coveting fruit from them. It was a thing He desired to find. To Smyrna He says, " I know thy works." And what follows? There was what God saw in them, and what Satan could 'see in them: " Tribulation, poverty (but thou art rich)." The saint is often the most spiritual when in the most humbling circumstances, and the reverse. When David was on the top of the tree, his will was breaking out. Never was he so near God as in his adversity. We ought to be able to pass through prosperity without loss, being instructed, as Paul, " to be full, and to be empty; to abound, and to suffer need." Paul goes right through to the end of his course, And the end was lost in brightness. We should look to be able also; but generally it is easier to go through the afflictions, tribulations, &c., with the soul right with God. " I know the blasphemy of them that say they are Jews, and are not." Here is the old tale again at Smyrna-profession without reality-saying they are Jews when they are not so; and the effect of their wishing to get a place brings in trial for Smyrna. If a person begins doing things for his own honor, professing it to be for God, it will be sure to end in casting off God altogether. If he begins with God he will end with God. We have need to be jealous over ourselves, whether what we hang outside be according to the true expression inside. The spiritual energy of Paul was such, that what came outside was what was within; and nothing more came out than was within.
Walking with God is the only safeguard of a saved sinner. I would rather come up the day after the company, if I could not go up that day. Perhaps it might be my own fault; but it is better than to go on with others, without God leading me. The great thing is to walk in the same spirit as Christ walked; as He said, " My meat is to do the will of him that sent me." Take God's will, and suffer in it; that is the happy thing. The most precious part of Paul's service was in suffering-not in doing. So also Christ's when He went to the cross.
Those who are seen by no one, but suffering God's will, may be doing much more than where there is much to attract with " see here, or see there."
The contrast in ver. 10 is between the ten days tribulation and " the crown of life." The second death has no power over the overcomer.