(Rev. 2:8-118And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; 9I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. 10Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 11He 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. (Revelation 2:8‑11)) IF the address to Ephesus brings before us the condition of the Church in the last days of the apostolic era, the address to Smyrna vividly portrays the condition of the Church during the years of persecution that continued for two centuries after the Apostles had passed away.
In Ephesus we see an outwardly united Church in separation from the world, but, one that had declined from first love to Christ, and, therefore, in His sight a fallen Church. There was the call to repentance and the warning that, unless the Church returned to first love, it would lose its place of testimony before the world. Alas! there was no general return to first love, and hence, to the end of her sojourn on earth, the Church is viewed as a fallen Church. There may indeed be revivals, and individuals that overcome, but that which has the place of being the Church on earth is fallen, ceases to be a true witness for Christ. Ceasing to witness for Christ in the world, the Church increasingly adapts itself to the world, until, in its last stage, it is the world. Finally, when all that is of Christ in the midst of the profession, is taken away, the vast and empty profession, that is left, comes under the judgment of the world.
In the freshness of first love the Church was entirely separate from the world, and the world had no power over the Church. The allurements of this world have no attraction for a heart that is satisfied with the love of Christ. Leaving first love, whether in the case of an individual, or of the Church as a whole, opens the door for the world to enter and assert its power. The Church when it left first love took the first step that leads to the world where Satan dwells.
It is well then to remember that in the Smyrna period the Church is already a fallen Church. In tender love we see the Lord dealing with this fallen Church in a way that, for a time, arrests this downward path. The Lord passes the Church through the furnace of affliction. Ephesus was without reproach before the world but fallen before Christ; as the result of the Lord's dealing, Smyrna was persecuted by the world, but faithful before the Lord.
(Vs. 8). The Lord presents Himself to this Church in the glory of His Person, as the First and the Last; and in the glory of His work as the One who became dead and lived.
What could be more suited to sustain and encourage those who are called to meet the power of Satan, and faced with a martyr's death, than the knowledge that they are in the hands of a divine Person-the First and the Last-One who existed before every opposing power, and will remain when the last enemy has been put under His feet: One, therefore, who is above all. The Lord may indeed use the hostility of the enemy to pass His people through trial, but, if He is the First and the Last no power of the devil can finally prevail against those that are His. Moreover, if called to face a Martyr's death, Christ, Himself, has led the way in the path of martyrdom; for He has suffered death at the hands of men. He became dead and lived: seemingly defeated and slain, yet emerging in victory over the last and greatest of enemies. Death could not prevail against Him; therefore, death will not prevail against those that are His.
(Vs. 9). Having presented Himself in a way so blessedly suited to their condition and circumstances, the Lord lets these suffering saints know that all is under His eye. "I know," He says. He would have them to realize that the trials they are passing through, the circumstances they are in, the opposition of Satan they may have to meet, and the sufferings they may yet have to face, are all known to Him.
Nor is it otherwise today. Our trials, our circumstances, the opposition we may have to meet, whether within the Christian circle or without, are all known to One, who, being the First and the Last, can see the end from the beginning. If, however, He is the First and the Last, with all power in His hands, why are His people permitted to pass through trial? Is it not because He has, -not only all power in His hands, but, -all love in His heart? Divine love knows full well that trials are needed for our blessing; and, loving us, He sends the trials according to that Word which says, "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth" (Heb. 12:66For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Hebrews 12:6)). We may lose our first love to the Lord, but never will He leave His first love to us. "Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." If in His unchanging love He has to pass us through trial, it is for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Knowing all things, He knew from whence the Church had fallen, and He knew to what depths it would yet fall. The One who is the First and the Last deals with us according to His perfect knowledge, and His infinite love. In His dealings He not only corrects for past failure, but would also form us according to His own holiness in the present, and prepare us for what He sees we may yet have to meet in the future.
It may be pointed out that the word "works," of this verse, is not in the original. These saints were not characteristically distinguished by works, but by suffering. The saints of the Ephesian period were great workers; the saints of the Smyrna period were great sufferers. Let us remember there is the service of suffering as well as the service of doing.
The trials that were allowed to come upon the Church at this period were three-fold; suffering from the world, poverty of circumstances, and opposition from the devil.
A church that has left first love is in danger of drifting into the world; to arrest this tendency the Lord allows persecution from the world. Moreover, a fallen Church that is drifting towards the world will ever be in danger of adopting the world's methods, and of attempting to advance the Lord's interests by means of earthly riches, and the acquisition of worldly power and influence. How different the early Church, composed mainly of the poor, and without worldly power or influence. Then indeed they were enriched with "great power," and "great grace." This, however, was spiritual power and the grace from another world. Foreseeing the danger of the world, the Lord stripped the Church of Smyrna, in such fashion, that they were poor in those things that the world counts gain, such as wealth, power, and influence, in order to leave them rich in His sight. Thus the Lord can say of this Church, "I know thy tribulation, and thy poverty, but thou art rich." Better far to be poor in the eyes of the world, and rich in the sight of the Lord, than to be rich and increased with goods, like the Church in its last stage, and yet, "wretched and miserable and poor" in the eyes of the Lord.
Alas! in contrast with the Church at Smyrna we see the Christian profession fast falling, on every hand, into a Laodicean condition, in which the professed followers of the One who had not where to lay His head, are vying with one another to obtain power and influence in the world. In the day of Smyrna the Lord used the persecution of the world, with its consequent impoverishment of the saints, to stem the drift towards the world.
There was, however, another way in which the enemy sought to entangle the Church and draw it into the world. In the Smyrna period the Church had to meet the opposition of those who insisted on Jewish principles and thus sought to draw the Church into a worldly religion. Probably the word "Jews" is used in a figurative sense, signifying those who, like the Jews, boasted in a hereditary and sacramental system which associated religion with the world and sought to make it attractive to the flesh by the use of magnificent buildings, gorgeous vestments, and histrionic ceremonies. Thus the effort was made to turn Christianity into a system which, while highly pleasing to the flesh, keeps the soul at a distance from God. Moreover, such a system necessitates a human priesthood after the Jewish pattern, for, it has been truly said, whenever the world is connected with religion, priesthood must come in, because the world, as such, cannot stand and does not want to stand, before God.
We can well understand these Judaizing teachers coming to the front in times of persecution, for such would offer a specious way of escape from persecution. The Apostle Paul asks, "If I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased." The law recognizes, and appeals, to the flesh with its imposing temples, splendid ceremonies, and ornate ritual. If we consent to recognize the flesh and adopt methods that appeal to the flesh, the world would have no objection to being religious, and, instead of persecuting, would begin to patronize a Christianity corrupted according to its tastes.
The devil's attack on the Church in the Smyrna period of its history took a double form. First the devil sought to undermine the foundations of the Church by corrupting it with Judaism. This failing, the devil opposed the Church by persecution. It is ever thus that the devil works. The special malignity of the devil drawn forth by the birth of the Lord, first took the form of corruption, when Herod sought to find the young Child under the false pretension of desiring to pay Him homage. This failing the devil sought by violence to destroy the Child by slaying all the young children in Bethlehem. So too, when the gospel was first preached in Europe, we see another outburst of the devil's enmity, when he sought to stop the work by the devil-possessed woman, who corruptly appeared to be helping on the work. This wile being exposed, the devil resorted to violence, hounding on the people to beat the apostles and thrust them into prison. Here, in the early history of the Church, the apostles having passed from the scene, the devil again made a twofold attack upon the Church. He sought first to seduce the Church from her heavenly calling through the corrupting influences of those who, by their practices, proclaim themselves to be Jews but are not. Such would seek to form a Church after the pattern of the Jewish system, with the addition of Christian beliefs. This would not be a true Jewish synagogue nor a pure Christian Assembly, but a mixture of both and therefore a mere imitation-a synagogue of Satan. At this stage of the Church's history the effort apparently failed; for those whom the devil used are not spoken of as the Church. They might indeed be seeking to work in the Assembly, but the Lord says, "I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews." The Lord knew them and the Church resisted them.
(Vs. 10). The attack by corruption having failed, the devil was permitted to resort to violence, as the Lord says, "The devil shall cast some of you into prison." The violence of the devil may indeed be painful to God's people but it is safer for them than the, wiles of the devil. The Lord allows this attack, for, as Peter says in his Epistle, the saints may indeed be "in heaviness through manifold temptations," "if need be." If, however, the Lord sees a "need be" for the trial, He will also put a limit to the trial: so we read, "Ye shall have tribulation ten days." So, too, Peter says these manifold trials are but "for a season." The devil may be allowed to cast some into prison, but he cannot go a day beyond the Lord's ten days.
The Lord does not hide from these saints the path that lies before them. Suffering, imprisonment, and possible martyrdom, will be their portion. Nevertheless, He encourages them to "fear not," to be "faithful," and that even unto death, for beyond death there is the crown of life. The Lord sets before them the cross here, and the crown hereafter. Of old the Lord had said to His disciples, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do" (Luke 12:44And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. (Luke 12:4)). Beyond death neither men nor devils have any power. They cannot touch the tree of life in the paradise of God, nor the crown of life that awaits the faithful martyr.
If in this life the devil is permitted, at times, to raise persecution against the saints, it is not that they may be vanquished, but, as the Lord says to these suffering saints "that ye may be tried." This trial is not for the trial of the flesh, but for the trial of faith, therefore the Lord says, "Be ye faithful." The Lord could say to Peter, "Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not: and when thou art restored, strengthen thy brethren." Years afterward we are permitted to hear Peter strengthening his brethren. He reminds them that men try their gold with fire, but the believer's faith is much more precious than gold that perisheth. So they must not be surprised if God tries the faith of His saints by passing them through the fiery furnace of persecution. If He does thus try them it is in order that their faith may be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The martyr's death in the day of suffering, will lead to the crown of life in the day of glory.
(Vs. 11). The "ten days" of fiery persecution may be passed, but none the less we are to hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches. What was said to Smyrna in the days of fiery persecution has a voice for us in these days of easy profession. It tells us the true character of the world under the power of Satan. It reminds us of the two ways in which the world can divert the Church from its allegiance to Christ. On the one hand by corrupting the Church with a worldly religion that is a mixture of Judaism and Christianity; or, if the Church resists this, by open persecution. We find ourselves in the last days of Christendom when the wile of corruption has so thoroughly leavened the vast mass of the Christian profession, that it is hardly necessary for the devil to persecute. Nevertheless, neither the devil nor the world have altered in hostility to Christ.
In the day of persecution, how suited is the promise to the overcomer. He shall not be hurt of the second death. The body may be hurt by the torturer's rack or the flames of a martyr's death; but the soul of the believer cannot be hurt of the second death. The martyr's death may separate soul from body, but the second death will never separate the soul of the believer from God. The overcomer is to enjoy the comfort of this promise while passing through sufferings, that afterward may be consummated in martyrdom.