Revelation - letter to Ephesus church

Study of the letters to the seven churches.

The letter to the Ephesus Church.

( rev 2)2"'I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.'

In this study we are going to look at the first letter to the churches as recorded in the book of revelations. We will explore both what the letter meant then and what it means for us now. All scriptures unless otherwise stated are from the above quotation. All scripture is taken from the English standard version of the bible.

2"'I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

Jesus knows our works and efforts what does that mean for us (expand on)

Jesus speaks of knowing the works that the church has done. One thing worth noting is that Jesus does not praise these works but acknowelages them. What does that mean?. Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians that our relationship with God is not based on works or anything else but by grace through faith which is a gift from God. These works are prepared in advance for us to do and the glory therefore rests on Jesus not us. Jesus as discussed later on in this study is more concerned with our hearts than our deeds.

The church of Ephesus tested the apostles and discovered those who were false. What we will consider now is how the church managed to test these apostles. Unlike today the church of Ephesus did not have the complete bible we have but would likely have had a few letters. We know for certain that by the time of the revelation they would have had Paul’s letter to them which we know as the book of Ephesians which Paul wrote in around 65 A.D. and revelation was wrote at around 95 A.D. Paul in Acts (20:29-31) warns the church of forth coming false teachers who would go among them and that the church must remember his teachings and ministry. So how then did the church discover the these apostles as false? They remembered Paul’s teaching and ministry and the letter he had wrote to them. Some also believe that John (the Apostle) lived in Ephesus and taught there. While most don’t dispute he preached there and may even have began the church it is unknown if he lived there permanently. Paul and John were just a men and outside of what the Holy Spirit inspired them to write they were capable of mistakes and getting things wrong. Yet through Christians the Holy Spirit was able to keep a church from heretics. Just as God used them in the early days God uses us! He takes what we do and uses it in ways we could never foresee! Never underestimate what God may be doing with you right now.

What we must also take into account is that now we have the full revelation of God’s word and we to must test every teaching we hear, does it match the bible? If not forget it!. To do this we must like those members of Ephesus know the bible well remembering (as they did his ministry) the scriptures we know. Along with the guidance of the Holy Spirit knowing our bible will protect us from the lies satan will throw at us constantly throughout our Christian lifes.

3I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary.

The church of Ephesus was enduring persecution. They however had learned to patiently endure these persecutions and stand firm. Christians today find themselves in the same situation – the church is under increasing persecution in western (and historically Christian) nations. How are we responding to these persecutions? When we are insulted? Mocked? And worse?. Do we see the bigger picture and remember that those who are of Christ will be persecuted? That they will suffer with Christ?. We must like those in the Ephesus church learn to patiently endure persecution when it comes. We must like this church endure it and not grow weary, we must remember to overcome evil with love. This church still had passion, still held tight to doctrine testing everything and did not grow weary under persecution. We to must develop those traits, the persecution we go through at this time is far less than that of the Ephesus church but yet it seems to dishearten us greatly. This message is of great importance – we must learn to endure persecution, to remember the bigger picture because persecution worse than that just now is on its way. As this stuffy goes on to look at next – we must never forget our first love.

4But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

The first love – Matthew Henry states that this is a reference to the church’s zeal and love for God. This church had great works and diserment but was losing site of Christ….a common situation in todays church. So many of us know lots and are able to disern things well and do great works but don’t grow in our relationship with Christ. We must be zealous for Him! And we must be sure to spend time with Him. No matter lifes distractions and challenges neglect this and our relationship suffers then we are at risk of losing our first love. As we see from what Jesus states here great works do not hide the fact our hearts are distant from God nor do they impress Him. God is as we know far more interested in our hearts and with us having a active relationship with Him.

5Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Jesus tells the church to remember from where they had fallen from. To remember there first love. Do you remember your first love? The passion and love you had for Christ when you first became a Christian?. Growing as a Christian means loving Christ more but our hearts seem to grow cold to Him so quickly. We take our eyes off Him and we get distracted by other things. Satan is so good too at taking these truths from us he has been doing it now for 2000 years!. So again we must ask – Do we have our first love?. Hebrews 5:12 speaks of forgetting the basic truths of Christianity one of these is love, Gods love for us and our love for Him. If we forget that then Christianity very quickly becomes dry and just religion.

Jesus next word to the church is repent. Repent….this shows the mercy of Jesus. Jesus has gotten to the heart of the issue within this church and is now offering forgiveness. He wants the church to realize its error and return to Him. God doesn’t want our works, toil or anything like that He wants our hearts – our love!. That is still the same today God knows the heart of the issues He knows whether we have our first love and if we have lost it – Hes is standing offering forgiveness should we repent and turn back to Him. Its quite simple we cannot lose our first love unless we turn from Him.

Jesus also tells them the consequences of refusing to repent – He will remove the lampstand from them which is (as explained earlier in revelation) the church. Jesus will not physically remove the church He will withdraw from it until our hearts soften once again. We cannot be in a strong relationship with God if we are refusing to repent for our sins. If we turn and say to Jesus ‘your wrong I know better’ (which is what refusing to repent really means!) then naturally the relationship will suffer. The old saying ‘keep a short account with God’ is accurate, we must repent of our sins quickly because knowing you have sinned but ‘waiting awhile to repent’ is still refusing to repent! Perhaps not complete hard heartedness as is needed for continual refusal but still none the less a refusal to repent. We must be egar to go before God and say we have done wrong and rest in the truth that we are forgiven! That peace however only comes once we have dealt with the sin with God!. Jesus is Lord and obedience to Him in primary. Disobedience simply cuts us off from the presence of God and the joy of the Holy Spirit.

6Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Jesus next addresses the works of the Nicolaitians. Firstly its important to note that Jesus does not state He hates the Nicolaitians themselves He states He hates there works! There is a big difference between the two. The classic saying ‘hate the sin not the sinner’ is vitally important in the Christian walk. Not a great deal is known about this group of people. If is thought that this group was founded on the teachings of Nicolas the deacon mentioned in the book of Acts. This group believed that sin was ok because the there was distinct parts of our beings and that the spirit could not be tainted by the flesh and therefore indulged in every vile act. They took the meaning of grace and perverted it. This belief system was a manipulated spiritual truth (grace, and the distinct parts of our being) and took them out of context stretching them to meet there desires. This is being mentioned not to highlight that what they did was wrong (we already knew that) but to hightlight the dangers of taking scriptures out of context. So much divisions within the church are caused because people take one scripture and ignore the others that may challenge that view. What we must ask is what distorted teachings are there today? Who is taking scriptures out of context and encouraging unchristian ideals? The same dangers are always around! There was never a time when we are promised no false teachers!. We must read the word and hold to it testing every word that we are taught!. Once again it is worth reminding that those who are false teachers – don’t hate them! it’s the teachings we must teach against!.

7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.'

He who has a ear – Jesus is talking about those who can hear the Spirit, Christians!. He is telling us to listen to what is being said here. As has been said in this study the warnings in these scriptures still apply today. We must listen to what God is saying to us both in scriptures and in prayer its vital we do so.

To those who conquer, how do we conquer? By remaining close to Christ! By remembering our first love. Only by being close to Jesus and setting our minds on the things of the Spirit can we conquer!. Jesus speaks next of heaven – eating from the tree of life in paradise. Here we are reminded of where the Christian is going!. Jesus is reminding us of heaven to focus on the spiritual things not the worldly things.

To close here is a quote from Matthew Henry on this promise of eating from the tree of life and all that it means– ‘All who persevere, shall derive from Christ, as the Tree of life, perfection and confirmation in holiness and happiness, not in the earthly paradise, but in the heavenly. This is a figurative expression, taken from the account of the garden of Eden, denoting the pure, satisfactory, and eternal joys of heaven; and the looking forward to them in this world, by faith, communion with Christ, and the consolations of the Holy Spirit. Believers, take your wrestling life here, and expect and look for a quiet life hereafter; but not till then: the word of God never promises quietness and complete freedom from conflict here.’

It does reflect your heart (internet behaviour)

The internet, free speech, diverse and autonomous!. Well is it?. Im sure every Christian has experienced the joys of a Christian message board – arguments, rudeness, aggression the list goes on. Its only the internet so its ok….right? wrong!. Now we will take a little walk through some scriptures (I will make this short as I can).

Gal 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

Gal 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,

Gal 5:21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Gal 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

The verses above list many of the problems of Christians on the net – enmity, strife, fits of anger, rivalries, divisions….its all there, these things are works of the flesh, not the Spirit. These are the very things that are meant to be dying within us, behaviours that are unacceptable if we have the Spirit that is producing fruit within us!. We can see by the second part how we should be behaving.

Rom 8:3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

Rom 8:4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

We must not allow the flesh to establish itself in any way on our lives – we must walk by the Spirit. If we are arguing with people on the internet – its still a argument and does reflect what our heart is like and what our walk with God is like.


Tit 3:2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
Jam 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

These verses are simple, don’t argue! Be gentle and promote peace!. Our aim as brothers is to help each other grow not tear each other to pieces because we cannot see the others face!.

Rom 12:10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor

Again quite simple honour one another – respect one another!.

1Co 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

A definition on love, which is important for the scriptures below – above is how we should be acting to our brothers – patient, kind, polite, not irritable nor resentful. This is to be who we are!.

1Jo 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
1Jo 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1Jo 4:9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
1Jo 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1Jo 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1Jo 4:12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
1Jo 4:13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
1Jo 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
1Jo 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
1Jo 4:16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
1Jo 4:17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
1Jo 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
1Jo 4:19 We love because he first loved us.
1Jo 4:20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
1Jo 4:21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

These verses are the harshest of them all. Very plain if we are not treating others right then there is something badly wrong with our walk with God – we must repent immediately and turn from the works of the flesh. Love is a MUST in every situation.

So I ask you all now – think!. Is what im saying in love? Godly? Gentle? And will it build the other up!. This article doesn’t have to be long because we all know how we should behave.

1Th 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Building each other up isn’t conditional its mandatory in all situations. Its expected.

1Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We have all probably made the mistake of mistreating one another, but grace is present and God is willing to forgive us. Remember others may not know what we get up to on the net – but God does and if we don’t repent He will call us to account one way or another!.