Listen To What The Spirit Says…

Commentary

These seven letters were from Jesus to seven literal churches of the time, but also hold extremely valuable insight for all followers of Christ since. It can be said that these letters express the condition of the heart of Christians or various churches at different times in our lives.

This first letter was to the church in Ephesus, a great city of religion, culture, and economic success in the Roman Empire. Ephesus had a temple to the pagan goddess Diana, who was their fertility goddess, worshipped through immoral sexual ritual. What a place ripe with distraction and stumbling for the follower of Christ. This is the exact complaint that Jesus had against them. Something in their lives had taken their hearts from being fully devoted to Jesus as they once were. He was no longer their first love.

The culture today is not any better; sex is everywhere. How easily this culture can take our focus off of the Lord. If you’re not careful, by spending too much time with worldly people and overindulging in worldly things, your heart might just drift from Jesus. Oh, what a miserable place to be. If you remain in that place of impurity and sin, then you’ll likely find yourself being disciplined by God. As tempting as the lusting is, the drunkenness is, and all of the sensuality, none of it is worth losing your way, especially when Jesus promises eternal life in Paradise to those who stay in Him.

Commentary

Like Ephesus, Smyrna was a city of great prosperity, culture, and religion. Roman emperor worship was big in Smyrna. The church of the time would’ve faced great pressures to denounce Jesus and to worship Caesar. Among the vast wealth of the city, this group of believers was physically poor due to the persecution that they faced at the hands of unbelievers. People robbed them, fired them from their jobs, took everything from them because they loved Jesus. In fact, this church loved Jesus so much that He had nothing negative to say about their walk with Him. He only warned them to hold on while more testing comes.

Destroying the livelihood and lives of Christians is the most common method used to persecute. In the West today, many believers don’t suffer from such persecution. However, this method has certainly popped up here, through internet censorship that diminishes the outreach of ministries, through the firing of Christians from their jobs for refusing to take a shot, and through other methods of cultural censorship and civil litigation. Though the church in Smyrna was poor, spiritually they were rich — and so are we. If you are being tested for your faith, remain strong in the Lord and hang on, victory is coming soon! My brother or sister, you will rest in eternity, with no worry about the second death, that is the Lake of Fire.

Commentary

Pergamum was the political capital of the Roman Empire in the Asian province. Not only that, but it was a city full of pagan Roman idol worship. Notably, the major deity worshipped there was a god called Asclepius, who was worshipped as the god of medicine. I find it interesting that it was depicted with a serpent on the staff; it reminds me of Satan. It’s no surprise either, as Jesus is our ultimate healer, and Satan loves to be a copycat.

Jesus’ criticism of this church was their tolerance for this idol worship. Being surrounded by it, they didn’t speak against it but instead probably grew apathetic toward it before just accepting it. Like then, our world today is full of idol worship. Worship of self, nature, money, power, and sex. Even modern science and medicine have become idols for people. These are all dull replacements for the only God who matters. No one can escape death without Jesus, and no one can worship Jesus while looking to idols. Rather than grow to accept the idolatry of this world, we push back at the culture with Jesus, at all costs. By doing so, your Heavenly rewards will be great!

Commentary

Thyatira was not an overly exalted city like the others, but the church there was not any less important to Christ. Jesus had some compliments for this body of believers; they were in ways a model church. However, there was a figure inside this church who was bringing in false doctrine and sin, causing some to fall.

This leavening of the church is something that Jesus not only foretold, but has been an issue since the first century AD. As the church grows bigger and bigger, with more and more influence, then the more evil that is going to infiltrate and influence, leading many astray. You might even feel like a remnant believer among the apostate today, and you would not be wrong. Churches in the West are overflowing with tolerance for false doctrine and sin. As Jesus said to the remnant of Thyatira, hold on to the faith you have, for there is no additional burden placed upon those believers who are being obedient to the Lord.

Commentary

Sardis was a city in decline at the time of Jesus’ letter. A place of softness, luxury, and immortality. The way of life was undisciplined and loose. Culture had gotten into this church, rather than the church getting into the culture. Outwardly, many of these looked alive in Christ, probably doing and saying very “Christian-like” things, but inward their hearts were not in it. There was no boldness for Jesus, no desire to fight for righteousness or to endure the cost of being a disciple. Just a group of so-called Christians who viewed themselves as godly and upright, but instead were spiritually dead.

One doesn’t need to dig deep into the Western church today to find this same spiritual condition. In the great generations-spanning blessings of God over the free nations of the world, many have taken for granted His blessings and become unfocused, lazy, and soft. Culture has impacted the church far more than the church has impacted the culture in the last several decades. Though revivals of sorts have happened in the past and may happen again, Jesus will allow this apostasy to continue on until the day that He separates the wheat (believers) from the chaff (false believers) — as He comes back to establish His Kingdom upon this earth.

Follower of Christ, keep being bold for the Lord and armor up to withstand the rot of this present-day culture that is surrounding you.

Commentary

Philadelphia was a city built as a missionary city for Hellenism, to spread the Greek culture into Asia. The church there at that time remained radically faithful to Jesus and lived in His strength instead of their own. I’m sure they faced great pressure to conform to the Greek culture that surrounded them, that was being pushed even more in a city like Philadelphia. This church was the second of only two (Smyrna the first) who remained steadfast and obedient to the Lord. As a result, Jesus had only compliments for them and promises of what is to come.

This is how we are to be, as the culture bears down on us, we are to push back in the strength of Jesus. The Gospel should be our first priority and we ought to be watching and listening for the opportunities that God gives us to evangelize. As with this church, our faith will usher us into the protection of God, when that day of wrath comes upon the entire Earth.

Commentary

Laodicea was a city of wealth, a large Jewish population, and was famous for its medical school that was connected to a template of worship to the god Asclepius. It also had a bad water system, which not only opened them up for attack but brought in water from hot springs, which would be lukewarm upon arriving at the city. The church there was not a highly regarded church by Paul and nor was it by Jesus. They seemed to live a life of compromise, which led them to neither be refreshing like cold water nor soothing like hot water. Instead, they were lukewarm, like the physical water that was in the city. This church appears to be one that was apostate, no longer a church for Jesus but some other entity of its own. We can gather that from the fact that Jesus states that He is on the outside knocking to get in.

There are many a “Christian” who unfortunately are living a false faith. It can be said that many of the Western churches today are in a state like the Laodicean church was. The lesson is that even in that condition, Jesus is still knocking on the door, and if a false believer would only answer that door, then Jesus will come into them, and they will have true eternal life.