Letter to the Church at Ephesus
Ephesus
The capital of Asia, which was the western part of Asia Minor.
In the time of the Romans it bore the title of “the first and greatest
metropolis of Asia.” It was distinguished for the Temple of Diana who there
had her chief shrine. It had the largest theatre in the world, capable of
containing 50,000 spectators. It was, like all ancient theatres, open to the
sky. Here were exhibited the fights of wild beasts and of men with beasts. It
is located in modern day Turkey. The population is estimated at 3 million. It
was a terminal for caravan routes from Europe and the Orient.
The history of Ephesus dates back
to 1044 BC. Under the Grecian Empire. It became part of the Roman Empire at
133 BC. It was popular for Athletic events.
Paul was supposed to have started
the church there but some say that the apostle Paul visited Ephesus for the
purpose of exhortation and making sure they had good leadership but he was not
the one that founded the church there. It was founded 40 years before John
wrote this Revelation letter to that church. The church had its work cut out
in Ephesus because of idolatry concerning Diana the goddess that was
worshipped there. The book of Ephesians was a letter to the churches written
by Paul.
Sexual immorality was a trade
mark at Ephesus. That was a legitimate part of Eastern religion. All
idolatrous religions get into sexual immorality as does many false religions
although some outwardly make a show of purity in this. All cults and apostate
churches get into this as well. Some make it part of their worship.
We know for sure Paul was a great
influence and leader of this church whether or not he founded it.
The whole place is now utterly
desolate, with the exception of the small Turkish village at Ayasaluk. The
ruins are of vast extent.
The Greek name for Ephesus is
desirable. This church shares the meaning of its name with that of a Greek
man’s hoped for bride. The church’s time period began at AD 30 and ended AD
100. This time frame is also known as the Apostolic Church Age. To those who
hold the church age theory, this age ended with the death of the apostle John.
This is the era comprising the writing of the entire New Testament and the
first evangelical movement.
Revelation 2:1-7
Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he
that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the
seven golden candlesticks;
I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear
them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and
are not, and hast found them liars:
And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and
hast not fainted.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first
love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first
works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick
out of his place, except thou repent.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I
also hate.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To
him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the
midst of the paradise of God.
Jesus Christ himself addresses
the church at Ephesus as He that holds the seven stars in His right hand and
who walks in the middle of the 7 golden candlesticks. The pastor of this
church was one of the stars held in the hand of Jesus Christ. To hold means
to hold by authority or in His hand of control. Pastors are in the hand
of God.
1 Peter 5: 1-4 The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder,
and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed:
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by
constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.
And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory
that fadeth not away.
Jesus walks among the churches as
we see Him described here as walking among the 7 golden candlesticks. He sees
our shortcomings as well as our virtues. A believer who has a desire to
please the Lord need never fear His presence but we should desire His
presence.
Christ knew everything that was
going on in this church, both good and bad. Consider this, if we could
actually see Christ walking among us, how different would our churches be? He
does walk among us whether we notice or not.
The angel of the church mentioned
here is the pastor of the church of the one who is responsible for the
spiritual condition of that particular church.
I believe this to be an actual
church that existed in John's day. It may be that each church represents a
type of church existing in John's day and also in this present age. I
personally see these different types of churches existing during all the
periods throughout church history. We see now some churches dead and some
churches on fire for God. We see some doctrinally pure and some very lax. We
see some show love and some are not concerned about the salvation of the lost.
Some do not preach against sin and some preach fervently against sin.
The golden candlesticks are
representative of the seven churches with whom Christ walks into the midst.
Some believe the Ephesians church
represents the church age during the time of the apostles or the apostolic
age. The reasoning is that they would have been doctrinally pure at that point
and easy to point out false prophets. They would have known the false from the
real. This church didn't last very long. A few short years later after the
time of severe persecution the doctrinally pure church age ended after
Constantine liberated the church.
One of the good things about this
church was that they hated sin and could not bear to see evil prevail among
them. They didn't tolerate apostles who preached one thing and lived another.
They didn't allow liars and pretenders to preach false doctrine and error
among the congregation. They were quick to correct false doctrine or false
teaching. They stood against things that were contrary to the faith once
delivered to the saints. This is a good trait of any church.
They labored heavily for the
Lord. They had patience and were not anxious or without faith. They desired to
walk in truth.
I know this is a dirty word in
today's world but this sounds like a fundamental church. Fundamental meaning a
church who believed in every word that precedes from the mouth of God. They
didn't fall for false or new doctrines contrary to the word that was first
preached to them.
There are churches like this in
existence today but they are getting fewer and far between.
He knows our works: Some believe
the works should be social work such as feeding the poor. While these things
should come naturally when we serve the Lord, this is not the work that Jesus
is talking about. He is referring to Mark 16:15 where He said “Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” This is the great
commission. We must make disciples of mankind by teaching people God’s word.
“I know thy labor” speaks of the
early evangelical effort to spread the gospel to the world. The Lord was aware
of the hardships they suffered for preaching the gospel. He knew their
patience in that they were willing to be faithful unto death. They labored by
being watchful of the spiritual welfare of the saints and the community. The
pastor and the church shared these burdens. We see though that it is possible
to labor long and hard in good things but lack love. They must labor with
pure, true motives. If we learn to labor in love, we will not get burnt out
as quick as if we are laboring for other reasons such as doing it just out of
duty, out of the desire to secure the good opinion of others or for money.
They had patience. Patience is
needed to put up with hardships, put up with people who try to hinder the
gospel. Remember they had to put up with people who were used to worshipping
Diana instead of the real living God. They had to put up with false apostles
who tried to corrupt the true gospel with a false one or substitute.
If the devil can’t get us to go
back into the world and return to our old sins, he will try to sneak in false
teachers to change the real gospel into a counterfeit. The church at Ephesus
tested the messengers and made sure they spoke the truth. They had to discern
and determine spirituality and correctness of doctrine. We must not ever fall
prey to the modern teaching that causes us to abandon sound doctrine in order
to have unity. True unity of the spirit will not be a unity based on lies and
half truths. This church was quick to recognize false apostles and teachers.
Quote from the Know your bible
series, “ We see all around us among professing Christians a weak-kneed
tolerance for “giving in “ to wickedness; a cowardliness in the face of
Satan’s defiant brazenness. We see also a boasted
“broad-mindedness-camouflages as love, or patience, or wisdom, or
understanding, or empathy. All attributes that are good when used
legitimately, not pretentiously. The real problem is
1.
A lack of holy boldness for God and His righteousness
2.
A dimming vision of the Christ of Calvary – His pierced side and His
nail-scarred hands and feet – FOR US!
This leads to compromise and
deception.
Our goal should be
·
The glory of God
·
The purity of the
church
·
The spiritual good of
the members
They had a class of false
teachers called Judaizers who taught that the law had to be kept in order to
be saved including the law of circumcision, not eating certain meats along
with faith in Christ.
We know however, that when Jesus
died he became the final sacrifice for sin. When the Gentiles were saved they
were exempted from certain aspects of the law but they were still bound to the
moral parts of the law such as “do not eat the food sacrificed to idols, do
not be involved with idolatry or fornication. A believer was to be morally
and spiritually clean. Jewish rituals and feasts were fulfilled in the life
and death of Jesus. There are some that want us to be under the law today. I ran into one group who claimed that we must keep
the feasts of the Jews also to be saved. It is okay to keep those feasts or
worship on a Saturday but to make them requirements for salvation is adding to
the gospel.
They did not faint or give up
when things became rough. They had patience and stood the test of trials and
temptations. They were solid and did not bend to the will of the worldly crowd
to be accepted.
More and more they sound like a
strong bible believing fundamental church. They most probably didn't have the
written New Testament yet but they had the word originally preached by the
apostle Paul and perhaps others during this period.
A good verse to remember is not
to be moved away from the foundation
Eph 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
The enemy of our souls desires to
get us off the foundation of Jesus and on to other things that substitute our
time and desires. In this way, people will not hear the gospel that saves the
soul.
Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy
first love.
The word somewhat is in italics
in the KJV so it means that the translators inserted it. Without that word,
it reads Nevertheless I have against thee, because thou hast left thy first
love. It makes it more serious in the mind of the Lord. He didn’t have
somewhat against them but had a strong serious complaint against them. They
left the first love.
This is the key verse and one
that is very important. The key is to correct this problem without losing the
sound doctrine. Many try to walk in love but they think to do that they have
to forsake sound doctrine. How can we say we love Christ and ignore all His
words?
These were second generation
Christians and had lost their first love. This first love is of course their
personal love for Jesus. I’ve always believed that we can’t really love our
neighbor as ourselves without having the love for God first and foremost. If
we do not love God first and above all, any love for others would be
idolatrous because they would be loved above God so we must love God first and
then and only then can we love others but we must love others also.
They had lost their first love. I
sometimes struggle with what this first love is. I think it covers many
things.
This church had no problem loving
the word of God and hating evil. The love they lacked must have been their
love for Christ which would cause them to love one another. I will add also a
love for the lost.
If we truly love Christ, we will
worship Him in spirit and in truth. Perhaps they had sound doctrine but were
getting away from genuine heart felt worship to God. We have a hint to what
Jesus is referring to in the very first words Jesus spoke to them.
"These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who
walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Look at those
words. He was Jesus who walks in their midst. They were busy
talking about Jesus, teaching sound doctrine and doing all that Jesus wanted
them to do and with fire but they seemed to have forgotten that He was right
there walking in their midst. Perhaps they forgot to be aware of His
presence. Some times I worry that we emphasis praise and worship so much
that we get away from sound doctrine and leave the flock of God open to
deception. This church was not guilty of that. It seems that they
taught the right things but got away from acknowledging Him in their midst by
the fervent praise and worship. We must not over correct error though by
neglecting the teaching and have just praise and worship.
Perhaps also they began to be
intolerant toward each other's weaknesses and didn't show compassion when a
brother or sister failed. Perhaps they had no tolerance for sin which is good
but didn't show the spirit of meekness when they tried to correct this sin in
others. When someone is in their first love for the Lord, He is all they talk
about and talk to. They also possess a love for others and love to
fellowship with those of like faith. When we get away from this, we may
be losing that first love.
Galatians 6:1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are
spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted.
Here is what I believe leaving
the first love may concern also:
A loss of compassion for the
lost. To really love Christ is to love the message of the gospel which is to
seek and save that which is lost. That is why Jesus came and why He died on
the cross. He had such love for the lost that he suffered and died for us
while we were still sinners. Should not we mimic the love Christ had by
possessing that love ourselves? These people at Ephesus were saved from sin
but others needed this salvation. We should love the lost enough to give them
the gospel. This does not mean that we forsake sound doctrine in order to
attract the crowds. If we do that, we begin to resemble some of the other
churches described in the next few verses of Revelation but we must retain a
fervent love for those living around us that have not yet heard or believed
the gospel. This may be the first love that this church lost. This is part of
loving Christ. We can't love Christ and not love to see souls saved from sin
and granted eternal life.
We must strive to keep sound
doctrine while maintaining the joy of our salvation and compassion for the
lost. This can only be done with constant walking in the spirit.
A church should be reaching out
to the lost without losing the fundamental sound teaching of the scriptures. A
church should keep the teaching of the scriptures without losing their
compassion for the weak Christians or the lost. Strive for balance and the
type of faith which works by love. Nothing else will work and stand the test
of the trials that come against the church.
Here are some possible causes for
losing one's first love. I found these in an old Church of God of Prophecy
"Know Your Bible Series" course.
The boredom of routine.
They went on to say that churches in every age should guard against this. I
might add here that some people like tradition and doing things exactly the
same but most people get very bored with it. We should never get away from
trusting the Holy Spirit to lead our services. After all, if He doesn't do
that, we are wasting our time. No life will be changed, no soul will be saved
and the work of God is hindered without the presence of the Holy Spirit. The
book stated that we should guard against warmed-over sermons which have no
relevance to the current need. This is so true. I remember David Wilkerson
once saying that he never preaches unless he first spends days preparing
himself in prayer.
The "curse" of prosperity.
They quoted the scripture about the love of money being the root of all evil.
We learn to love things more than the one who gave us our "things". Also
quoted was the verse, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and
all these things shall be added unto you. Today we have to put up with so
much prosperity teaching that it has ruined the church and we have people
giving for the wrong reasons and even becoming a Christian for the wrong
reasons. The gospel has gotten lost among all that nonsense.
An education obsession.
While they were careful not to downplay a good basic education they emphasized
the dependency upon the Holy Spirit. One might notice that most of my bible
studies are not done with big educated words and technical details. There are
much better and more educated bible teachers all across the Internet and I for
one love to listen to them or read what they have to say but I try to keep
mine simple for everyday people who might sit down at my kitchen table, have a
cup of coffee and just chat about the bible. Its more of a discussion rather
than deep bible theology. I'm not putting that type of study down, however
because I love them, it is just not my way at least for now. I might add too
that if people think they have to have a degree in theology to witness to
their neighbors or friends it might keep them from sharing what they do know.
Always depend upon the Holy Spirit even after taking courses and earning
degrees.
Love Turned inward - They
mentioned honoring God with lips when the heart if far from Him. We can
praise and worship but not be worshipping from the heart. This love turned
inward is caused by people concentrating their prayers and concerns on
themselves and their little group instead of reaching out to the community
with the gospel. The book also asks the question, "Does the Church love the
Bridegroom more than herself?"
Doctrinal dogmatism at the
expense of joyful obedience. Their words: The motivation of legalism rather
than of love. A harsh spirit of "law" can smother out the blessed free spirit
of grace. My words: This is so true. Unfortunately some churches over
correct this by throwing out any sound doctrine. If they do that though they
will resemble the other churches mentioned in Revelation chapter 2 and 3.
This church needed to repent and restore themselves to their first love but
keep their sound doctrine. Remember Jesus Christ commended them for their
labor, works and not putting up with false teachers.
Too little communion with the
Lord. Be jealous over this and not allow anything to rob us of our private
time with the Lord. We don't have to be rude and cut people off though for
that would be religion not walking in the spirit. I called someone at the
wrong time once and was accused of being "of the devil" because I interrupted
someone's private time with the Lord. How was I to know? Yet as much as
possible we must take time to just talk to God alone without any family,
friends or even church friends with us. Prayer with others is also needed but
we still need time alone with God. We can get so busy even doing work for the
Lord that we fail in this one thing.
Quote, “Fellowship with the
saints is scriptural, but communion with God is absolutely necessary for the
maintenance of spiritual life and growth.”
I love good sound bible teaching
more than any other part of going to church but we must never neglect the
public worship where we all sing together, pray together and worship the
Lord. Some special singing is good but we must be careful not to let someone
else do our worshipping for us. We must pray, we must sing and we must
praise, not just hear someone else pray, someone else sing and someone else
worshipping and praising God. There is no reason to neglect bible study or
worship. We should have both but in public and in our private life not
letting ourselves be robbed of our time with the Lord alone.
Rev 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the
first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy
candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
This is a warning from our Lord.
The thing Jesus found that they lacked was not to be taken lightly. It was
serious enough to cause their candlestick to be removed from its place. The
only solution was repentance.
Repentance means to be sorry for
sin to the point of being willing to change and turn form that sin. If we are
sorry but make no effort to change, it is not genuine repentance.
Repentance is still necessary
every time we fail as an individual or as a congregation. True repentance
would bring about the change Christ asked of them. For we can't change without
Christ and the strength of the Holy Spirit. We need the word and the Spirit
confirming the word.
To get back to the right
relationship with the Lord is so easy that we sometimes miss it. We don’t
have to go out and do a bunch of good deeds like some of the angel programs
would have us believe. All the Lord asks us to do to bring ourselves back
into His fellowship is to REPENT. Turn around and come Back to Me (Jesus).
Stop going your way and come back my way.
If we find ourselves heading down
the road toward our destination but discover that we are on a road that leads
away from that destination, we immediately find an exit and turn around and
find the correct way. That is an example of repentance. We stop going the
wrong way and turn around and go the right way. Its that simple. If we tried
to keep going hoping to find a road that will lead back the right way, we
might go on for miles in the wrong direction wasting gas and time but if we
immediately stop and turn around, we fair much better going back to the place
where we made the wrong turn and then make the right one. Repentance is only
a word unless there is a change in behavior.
Rev 2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes,
which I also hate.
I found two meanings of the
Nicolaitanes.
First was followers of Nicolaus
who allowed fornication or community of wives, eating things sacrificed to
idols and other immoral practices. Sexual impurity, lust and other things
forbidden by scripture were considered not sinful thy this group of Gnostics.
The book I referred to earlier,
"Know your bible series" stated based on Schaff's History of the church, that
the Nicolaitanes were of the school of thought of the antinomianism believers
which is the believe God and do as you please crowd. We sure have those
today. Some are among the eternal security believers, lift up your hand,
repeat a prayer and other easy accept Jesus into your heart teachings. I'm
not saying people can't genuinely do those things and be saved. I'm sure the
Holy Spirit is present to save people in any case but some go away thinking
they are saved and they are not. There is no repentance, no change of life and
no fruit. It is similar to receiving the word by the wayside and forgetting
what was heard. True conversion will bring about a change eventually. Some
right away and others take a little longer but it will bring forth fruit in
their lives.
Some scholars are now saying that
there is little proof that a man named Nicolaus really existed and caused the
said problems. Instead more modern researchers have just simply broken apart
the word Nicolaitanes and found the meaning of the word from the Greek.
Nicolaitanes means "victory over
people" or to conquer the "laity."
In other words by implying laws
and doctrines of men, the clergy rules the laity. People become dependent upon
the clergy for their salvation instead of Christ. It places a mediator between
God and man other than Jesus. The clergy does the praying, the rituals, the
ordinances, the words that supposedly are to bring salvation to the laity. It
is wrong because it places a man or woman between us and God instead of
allowing us to seek God ourselves.
We should strive to bring people
to Christ and then step back and teach them to seek Christ themselves so that
if they happen to live in a desert place where there is no church they can
still have a close relationship with God.
There is only one mediator
between God and man and that is Jesus. If we allow any person to block that
vision of Christ we have by faith, we are looking to that person instead of
Christ. We open ourselves up to deception if we allow anyone to stand in the
gap between us and Christ.
Whether that person is Joseph
Smith, Nicolaus, the pope, Mary, a dead saint, Billy Graham, William Branham,
Kenneth Copeland, our pastor, Benny Hinn or any other. A true pastor of the
Lord will not accept our worship. A true pastor will encourage each one of us
to depend on Christ alone for our salvation and not man, a ministry or
anything other than Christ.
Nikos means to conquer, laos is
the word laity comes from.
Every church needs a pastor to
lead under the guidance of the Holy Spirit but he is to serve as a servant,
not as a Lord. There should be no high exalted position of a clergy as opposed
to a low position of the laity. Jesus taught against that.
Matthew 20:25 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the
princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great
exercise authority upon them.
Mat 20:26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among
you, let him be your minister;
Mat 20:27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
The Ephesians church was
commended for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitanes. Whether it is the first
meaning of fornication and idolatry or the second meaning of clergy ruling
over laity, both are wrong practices according to new testament scriptures. No
man is to have absolute rule in the church to today like Moses in the Old
Testament. Jesus took that place and is the only mediator between God and man.
Any person who uses their
leadership to manipulate others into certain behavior instead of trusting in
the Holy Spirit to save and change the behavior of the convert, is putting
himself in the place of Christ.
Here is Raymond Shockley’s description of
the Nicolaitanes.
It is said a man named Nicolas
founded the Nicolaitans. He was a proselyte. This means that he was not
Jewish by race but went through the process of becoming a Jew. Nicolas decided
that he also wanted to be a Christian. He worked so diligently in the
Christian church he became a deacon of the church body. He decided that he
liked being a deacon but he thought that he should be completely in charge of
things. He formed the Nicolaitans Their name was quite appropriate. Its
meaning is to overthrow the laity or take over the church. He developed a
religious party where the preachers dressed differently than the members. He
began including Babylonian teachings in the doctrine of his church. These
included idol worship, sexual rituals, and many others. He added a few
opinions of his own as well. They taught separation of spirit and body. This
meant the spirit and body are apart from each other. The spirit is pure, but
the flesh is evil. What the body does has no effect on the spirit and vice
versa.
This doctrine was much more
popular than a bible believing church that taught, “Wherefore come out from
among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing; and I will receive you.”
According to Shockley, Every
doctrine that says it is of God must align with the word of God. Heresy has no
place in the Christian life, soul or church. Christians of today are now
facing a strong Charismatic movement. These churches use sensual music,
compromised doctrine, affirming lifestyles, prosperity, and appeals to all
fleshly aspects to win the world for Christ.)
The words of men should always be
compared with the word of God.
Even Satan used the word to tempt
Jesus. We need to study the word for the correct understanding. Some false
ministries will silence their opposition by calling people judgmental or too
critical. There has been some that have been quoted as saying, “If anyone
speaks a word against this ministry, God will kill them instantly.” They use
the words, “Touch not my anointed” to scare us into accepting all they say as
the truth. What does the bible tell us though.
Act 17:10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto
Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Act 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they
received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures
daily, whether those things were so.
It is okay to ask questions and
check out the truth by comparing it to the scriptures. We are not “touching
God’s anointed” by trying to discern whether or not they are preaching the
truth. We wouldn’t buy an expensive automobile without making sure it would be
able to run. Would we take the word of the car salesman and buy it without
trying it out first? “We might hurt his feelings if we ask to drive the car
first?” No, we would try the car out first and take our time before buying
the car.
If I hear someone trying to get
me to give to a ministry and put a time limit on it, say, “Call within the
next 10 minutes if you desire to receive a blessing from God. If we do not
have time to check out any ministry, pray about it and make sure that we are
giving in the will of God, then it’s a good sign that it is not what we need
to give to.
I believe both meanings of that
word Nicolaitans can be true. Any cult or religion that uses fear and
intimidation to control the flock usually has sexual immorality following
close behind it.
Some of the popes in the past had
prostitutes who were threatened with hell if they didn’t go along with the
desires of the bishops and popes. Many cults even today use forced marriage
and intimidation against women and men. The FDLS is one of them. We’ve heard
many cases of child molestation among the clergy. Nicolaitism would
ultimately lead to this because they would not get away with it if they didn’t
have complete control over the laity.
We are to be examples of love and
keeping of the scriptures. We can't manipulate and control someone to Christ.
Jesus is a gentle example who taught in love. We are not to Lord over and
manipulate the congregation. Mind control out, trust is the Holy Spirit in.
Jesus hates this doctrine. Why
would He? Why would Jesus hate for anyone to control the congregation for the
purpose of getting the congregation to live holy lives? Because, I believe
Jesus wants us to live holy lives because we love Him, not because we are
threatened excommunication for not living holy.
A pastor is to gently lead by
example and purity, teaching the truth of God's word by the power of the Holy
Spirit. He is not to Lord over the flock and exalt himself or herself is a
position higher than his congregation. We are not to be followers of men but
of Jesus Christ.
Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which
is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Whoever is granted to eat of this
tree will live forever. It is granted to those that overcome the temptation to
follow another way other than Christ. The promise of overcoming is the promise
of eternal life. We must believe and continue in what we believe. The word is
written so that we can walk in it and not be deceived. He saves each
individual, one by one so that we can now pray to God without the aid of a
priest, prophet or mediator other than Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus came.
He came that we can be saved and get to know Him personally no matter where we
are. You can pray, you can talk to God. You don't need me, you don't need
anyone to be the mediator. Jesus is the way the truth and the life, no man can
come to the Father except through Jesus Christ.
Don't let anyone stand in that
gap and block your vision of Jesus Christ.
Even if we live in an area where
all professing Christians are apostate and not living the truth, we as
individuals do not have to follow their ways. Jesus promises overcomers to be
able to eat of the tree of life. This promise is not given to just anyone who
claims to name the name of Christ but is given to all who overcome, stay the
course and keep the word. Let us be determined to be among the overcomers and
stand before Christ hearing His words, “Well done thy good and faithful
servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.”
Letter to the Church at Smyrna
Ephesians