He Who has Ears, Let him Hear

The Apostle John is dictating letters to be delivered to four first century churches – Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira – which he intends to be to be read by them to their congregation. These churches were located in Asia Minor (present day Turkey). Despite their distance in time and geographic location from us today, their descriptions can be applied to us and our church. Let’s look at these letters and try to discover their insight.

The church of Ephesus, the main church of the region, and Jesus, the ultimate author of these letters, praises the church’s strength in their performance of good deeds and works, and their fight against false teachers and fake apostles (the Nicolaitan cult). But their weakness is exposed, as Jesus says to them “you have abandoned your first love.” They have lost their initial zest for harmony and love of each other and loving God over everything else.

In the church of Pergamum, we see Jesus praising their strength in witnessing. Despite the ever-present pressures of the Roman world to worship the emperor as a divinity, the Pergamum church stands firm in their faith of Jesus as their Lord. Their weakness lay in their tolerance for false teachers (the opposite of the Ephesians), and allowing them to flourish, threatening the existence of the true church. Heresy and false teaching in the name of Jesus will destroy any church by compromising against the truth to avoid persecutions and ostracism..

The church of Smyrna (the city still exists today under the name of Izmir, Turkey) is next to receive a letter. At the time of the letter, it was a Roman commercial port and heavily populated by Jewish anti- Christians. Jesus describes no weaknesses in this church, only its strengths, even though his praises may sound as punishments to our present day ears. Jesus calls this church successful because of its poverty and harsh and ever-present persecutions it has to endure. Such suffering for Christ and resiliency is a privilege, not a sorrow. Because the church followers in Smyrna were neglected and penalized by their neighbors because of their steadfast faith, they are assured of eventually receiving “the crown of life.”

The final church mentioned in this chapter is the church of Thyatira. The city of Thyatira was known for its craft trades and guilds, especially for its purple cloth. In this society of guilds, each guild had patrons and were sponsored by separate gods to guarantee prosperity. Jesus identifies the strength of this church in terms of a faithful love of God and a love for each other (the opposite of the Ephesian church). The church was characterized by active service and a thriving ministry. But despite these outward expressions of faith, this church had become lax in their theological vigilance, tolerating the cultural pressures to accept many worldly as worship practices. Jesus uses the Old Testament term “Jezebel” to refer these false influences.

In these letters to the four churches, each with various strengths and weaknesses, Jesus demands his communities (churches): to have a deep, abiding love in their relationships with each other, and to have deep commitment to God’s undying Word. Let us keep these two pillars in our hearts during our walk in the Hampton Roads Church

Amen