[Chapter 2-1] Letter to The Church of Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7)
(Revelation 2:1-7)
“To
the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who
holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the
seven golden lampstands: ‘I know your works, your labor, your patience,
and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those
who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and
you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s
sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you,
that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you
have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you
quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. But
this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also
hate.’ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life,
which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.’”
Exegesis
Verse 1: “To
the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who
holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the
seven golden lampstands:’”
The
Church of Ephesus was a church of God planted by faith in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit that Paul had preached. The “seven golden
lampstands” in this passage refer to the churches of God, the gatherings
of those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and the
“seven stars” refer to God’s servants there. The phrase “He who holds
the seven stars in His right hand,” on the other hand, means that God
Himself holds and makes use of His servants.
We
must realize that what God spoke to the seven churches in Asia through
His servant John is also addressed to all His churches of the present
time, which are now facing the nearing end times. Through His churches
and His servants, God speaks to us and tells us how to overcome the
trials and tribulations that await us. We must overcome Satan by hearing
and believing in the Word of Revelation. God speaks to every one of His
churches.
Verse 2:
“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear
those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles
and are not, and have found them liars;”
The
Lord commended the Church of Ephesus for its works, labor, patience,
for its intolerance of evil, and for its testing and unveiling of false
apostles. We can find out from this passage just how great the faith and
dedication of the Church of Ephesus had been. But we must realize that
regardless of how good the beginning of faith might have been, if that
faith goes astray later, then it becomes useless. Our faith must be the
true faith whose beginning and end steadfastly remain the same.
But
the faith of the servant of the Church of Ephesus was not so, and for
this he was harshly rebuked and warned by God that He would remove His
lampstand from its place. As the church history reveals, the seven
churches in Asia Minor were indeed accursed to have their lampstands
removed. We must learn from the lessons of the Ephesian Church and
remember that our churches must be approved by God as His own by
grounding them in the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
and that we must become the servants of God who keep our churches by
this faith.
Verse 3: “and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.”
Our
Lord watches over all His churches and knows well how His saints labor
for His name’s sake. But the saints of the Ephesian Church were leaving
their first faith and beginning to fall into an erroneous path by
diluting the pure gospel of the water and the Spirit with other beliefs.
Verse 4: “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”
The
works of the faith of the servant and saints of the Ephesian church
were so great that the Lord Himself commended them for their deeds,
labor, and patience. They had tested and unveiled false apostles, they
had persevered and labored for the sake of the name of the Lord, and
they had not become weary. But in the midst of these highly commendable
works, they lost what was arguably more important than any of these:
they left their first love given by Jesus Christ.
What
does this mean? It means that they had failed to keep the gospel of the
water and the Spirit that had allowed them to be delivered at once from
all their sins by their acceptance of and faith in the Lord. Their
abandonment of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, on the other
hand, means that they had allowed false teachings and other gospels to
creep into their church.
What,
then, were these other gospels and teachings? They were the worldly
philosophies and humanist ideologies. These things still stand against
the truth of salvation that God has given to mankind. They may be
beneficial to the flesh of man, or perhaps even conducive to bringing
unity and peace among the people, but they cannot make the people’s
hearts to unite with that of God. This is how the servant and saints of
the Church of Ephesus ended up turning their faith into that of
apostates, accursed before God. And this is why they were rebuked by the
Lord.
When
looking at church history, we can see that the gospel of the water and
the Spirit began to degenerate from as early as the Early Church period.
Learning from this lesson, we must hold steadfastly onto the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, please the Lord with our unwavering faith, and
overcome Satan and the world in our struggle against them.
What
was, then, the “first love” for the servant and saints of the Church of
Ephesus? Their first love was none other than the gospel of the water
and the Spirit that God had given them. The gospel of the water and the
Spirit is the Word of salvation that has the power to deliver everyone
from all the sins of the world.
God
revealed to Paul, John, and the servants of the seven churches in Asia
what the gospel of the water and the Spirit was and allowed them to
understand it. This is how they could believe in this gospel, and how
those who heard and believed in the gospel preached by them could be
saved from all the sins of the world.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit given by our Lord is found in the
Word of the baptism of Christ and His blood on the Cross. Yet the
servant of the Church of Ephesus, although he had met the Lord through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit and preached it in thankfulness
at the beginning, abandoned this gospel later on. Thus, the Lord rebuked
him for his fallacy in this passage.
Verse 5:
“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first
works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand
from its place—unless you repent.”
That
the servant of the Church of Ephesus had fallen from the love of God
meant that the congregation had abandoned the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. This is why the Lord told them to reflect upon where they
might have lost their faith, repent, and do the first work.
What,
then, might have caused the Church of Ephesus to lose the gospel of the
water and the Spirit? The weakness of the faith of the Ephesian Church,
traced to the carnal thoughts of its servant, is what led the church
astray. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is from God, the absolute
truth that has revealed all the lies of the false doctrines and
teachings of all the religions of this world. This means that when the
Church of Ephesus preached and spread the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, conflict with the worldly people was inevitable.
This
conflict, in turn, made it more difficult for the believers of the
Ephesian church to deal with the worldly people, even leading them to be
persecuted for their faith. To avoid this, and to make it easier for
the people to enter the church of God, the servant of the Ephesian
Church departed from the gospel of the water and the Spirit and allowed a
more philosophical gospel to be taught.
The
“philosophical gospel” here is a false gospel derived from humanistic
thoughts that seek to not only restore the relationship between God and
man but also to bring peace in the relationship among men. This kind of
vertical and horizontal faith is not the kind of faith that God wants
from us. The faith that God wants us to have is a faith that, through
our obedient relationship with God, restores our peace with Him.
The
reason why the servant of the Church of Ephesus lost the gospel of the
water and the Spirit is because he tried to accept what could not be
accepted into the church of God—that is, the worldly people who do not
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit—and fit his teachings
to their whims. The church of God can be planted only on the foundation
of the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Yet
there are many people, in today’s time as in the Early Church period,
who think that it is enough to believe in Jesus somehow to be saved, and
who do not see why they should believe in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. But believing in Jesus while ignoring the gospel of the
water and the Spirit given by God is a greatly mistaken faith. Those who
believe in the Lord only as a mere religious practice, half-heartedly
going through motion, will become the enemy of God. This is why the Lord
rebuked and admonished the servant of the Ephesian Church to repent of
his wrong faith and return to his earlier, true and earnest faith, the
first faith that he had had when he heard the gospel of the water and
the Spirit for the first time.
There
is an important lesson for us here: if a church of God falls away from
its faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God will no longer
call it His church. This is why the Lord said that He would remove the
lampstand from its place and give it to the believers in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit.
A
church that has abandoned and no longer preaches the gospel of the
water and the Spirit is not a church of God. It is absolutely critical
for us to realize that believing, defending, and preaching the gospel of
the water and the Spirit are much more important than any other deeds.
The
Asia Minor where the seven churches in the above passage were located
is now a Muslim region. The Lord has thus removed the lampstand, the
church of God, to here, and made us preach the gospel of the water and
the Spirit all over the world. But in the true church of God is the
truth of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God’s church cannot
exist without it. The twelve disciples of Jesus had consistent faith in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit during the apostolic age (1 Peter
3:21, Romans chap. 6, 1 John chap. 5).
What
is too unfortunate, nevertheless, is that God’s churches in Asia Minor
had lost the true gospel of the water and the Spirit since the Early
Church era, and that this region became Muslim as a result. Moreover,
even the Church of Rome was struck by the tragedy of losing the gospel
of the water and the Spirit with the Edict of Milan issued by the Roman
Emperor Constantine.
Verse 6: “But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”
The
Nicolaitans were those who used the name of Jesus to pursue their
worldly and material gains. But the Church of Ephesus hated the
Nicolaitans’ doctrines and deeds. For the Church of Ephesus, this was
one thing that was worthy of being greatly commended by God.
Verse 7:
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is
in the midst of the Paradise of God.”
The
servants and saints of God must hear what the Holy Spirit says to them.
What the Holy Spirit tells them is to defend their faith in and spread
the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the end. To do so, they must
fight against and overcome those who spread untruth. Losing the fight
against the untruth means destruction. The believers and the servants of
God must conquer and overcome their foes with their arms—that is, with
the Word of God and the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
God
said, “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life,
which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” God will give the fruits
of the tree of life only to “him who overcomes.” But overcome what or
whom? We have to overcome with our faith those who do not believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. The believers must engage in
constant spiritual battles with those who belong to the untruth, and
they must emerge as victors in these battles by their faith. They must
also give all glory to God and live a life of victory with their faith
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only those who, with their
faith in the truth, overcome their foes in their struggle will be able
to live in the New Heaven and Earth given by God.
In
the Early Church period, those who sought to believe in and defend the
gospel of the water and the Spirit had to face martyrdom. Likewise, when
the time comes for the Antichrist to emerge, there will be many more
martyrs to come.
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