“He who has an ear, let him hear"

Revelation 2:1-17 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Message to Ephesus

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:  The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:

² ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; ³ and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. ⁴ But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ⁵ Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. ⁶ Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. ⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’

Message to Smyrna

⁸ “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:  The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this:

⁹ ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰ Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. ¹¹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’

Message to Pergamum

¹² “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write:  The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this:

¹³ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. ¹⁴ But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. ¹⁵ So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. ¹⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’

In today’s text we see the first three of seven messages directed to the churches. Since we as the church and as believers are not part of these specific churches, should we ignore the exhortations, or should we instead examine ourselves to see if any of the “things” which the Lord has against these churches exist in us? The Lord says: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

In His first exhortation the Lord says:   “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first…”       They left their first love. Jesus says:  “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)    It is a good thing to work (toil) for the Lord. It is good if we persevere and if we do not tolerate evil. It is good to test those who call themselves apostles and teachers to determine whether they are true or false. In Matthew 7:15-20 Jesus says:  “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”    We should test them by whether they are bearing fruit in and for the kingdom of God or the world. Yet Jesus says that doing all these good things is not enough if we have left our first love. He says that first and foremost everything else depends on loving God with all our heart, soul and mind. All that we do, we should do out of our love for God. If we truly love Him, we will delight in Him. We will first and foremost desire fellowship with Him. We will live to worship and serve Him. A church which does great humanitarian deeds but neglects to first and foremost worship God may be a good or great organization, but the Lord says they are fallen and should repent.

The second exhortation is:   “I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.”     There are probably few if any churches in western society who would currently receive this commendation from the Lord. Perhaps it would currently apply to some or many in third world regions or in places where Christians are persecuted, arrested and even killed for their faith. While we may not know that level of persecution or suffering for our faith now, we can see within our culture and society the blasphemy of those who are not of God. If or when that level of persecution comes to our society, we should remember the Lord’s exhortation:  “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.”    We won’t overcome the world on battlefields, in courtrooms or in political arenas, not that we should not stand for righteousness there, but we overcome the world through Christ. He came to give us abundant and eternal life.  

The third exhortation is:  “I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.”    James 4:4 says:  You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.   1 John 2:15 says:  Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.   Jesus Himself says:  “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)   It is one thing, a good thing when various traditions and cultures are assimilated into the church, but we should not tolerate the assimilation of the sins of a culture in the church. The Lord says:  “Repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”   Revelation 12:11 says:  "And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony…”  The sword of the Lords mouth is the testimony of His word and the victory of the cross and the resurrection. He has overcome. The victory in the war He wages is already complete.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You for Your word which is truth. Thank You for the exhortation to the churches to persevere and overcome. First and foremost I do love You with all my heart, soul and mind. Come what may, I will worship and praise You knowing that with You I will and I have overcome.   Amen.