The letter to the church in Ephesus (2:1)
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Ephesus
2:1 "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favour: You hate the practices 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 give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
- Commentary on individual churches can be found here:Introduction, Ephesus, Smyrna , Pergamum, Thyatira , Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea
Key phrase: You have forsaken your first love
There is much information in the bible about the church at Ephesus. The church at Ephesus was founded by Paul where he reasoned with the Jews, he left Priscilla and Aquila there (Acts 18:19). Paul came back to Ephesus and found some disciples who had not received the Holy Spirit, they had only been baptised into John's baptism, when they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus the Holy Spirit came upon them (Acts 19:1-7). Paul spoke in the synagogue for three months (Acts 19:8) and then in the lecture hall of Tyrannus for 2 years (Acts 19:9-10). Then there was a disturbance because of the fertility goddess Artemis who brought the Ephesians wealth through making silver images of her (Acts 19:23), they were afraid that through Paul's preaching about Christ they would lose business. Paul left Timothy at Ephesus (1 Tim 1:3). He said good-bye to the elders of Ephesus at Miletus before going to Jerusalem (Acts 20:17-38) where he warned them that savage wolves will come in among them (Acts 20:29).
He also wrote to the Ephesians a long letter from which it is clear that they were a mature church. It is also thought that the apostle John and Mary, Jesus mother, settled at Ephesus. Some two-and-a-half centuries after Paul preached in Ephesus, the city hall was converted into a church and later used by the Council of Ephesus, which in 431 AD formally accepted the teaching that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine (Hill).
Ephesus was the most important city of proconsular Asia. Situated at the mouth of the Cayster River on a gulf of the Aegean Sea, it flourished as an important commercial and export centre for Asia. By NT times it had grown to at least 250,000 people (Mounce). From the island of Patmos Ephesus would be the first church you would come to. The nearest seaport to Patmos is Miletus (Acts 20:15) and then you would follow the coast road to Ephesus, but Ephesus also had its own more important port so you could go direct by ship from Patmos to Ephesus.
Ramsay has this to say about Ephesus. In the Roman province of Asia, Pergamum, the old capital of the kings, continued to be the titular capital, but Ephesus, as the chief harbour of Asia looking towards the west, was far more important than an ordinary city of the province. It was the gate of the province, both on the seaway to Rome, and also on the great central highway leading from Syria by Corinth and Brundisium to Rome. The Roman governors naturally fell into the habit of entering the province by way of Ephesus, for there was, one might almost say, no other way at first, and this custom soon became a binding rule, with uninterrupted precedents to guarantee it. After the harbour of Ephesus had grown more difficult of access in the second century, and other harbours (probably Smyrna in particular) began to contest its right to be the official port of entrance, Emperor Caracalla confirmed the custom of "First Landing" at Ephesus by the imperial rescript.
v1 - "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: - Possibly the angel of the church means to the spirit of the church, that is, symbolising the churches. It could also mean guardian angel or elder. We should note here that it is Jesus himself dictating the letters to the seven churches, John is the amanuensis. As with Revelation itself (see 1:1) the letters claim direct divine authorship rather than divine inspiration of a human writer. It is appropriate that the last letter to the church which would sustain the church through trials and tribulation over the coming centuries should come with the highest authority. It is Christ's own evaluation and description of the condition of the churches together with His remedy for any defects.
v1 - These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: - This is a repetition of his self designation from 1:13 and 1:16. A reference to his self designation is repeated for each of the seven churches. He holds the seven stars in his right hand, the seven stars are the seven angels of the church, this probably means that he determines the destiny of the churches. He walks among the seven churches and therefore he knows them intimately.
v2 - I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. - I know your deeds, a commendation, common to all the churches except Smyrna (I know your affliction and your poverty) and Pergamum (I know where you live - where Satan has his throne). Jesus is one who knows our condition because he walks among the seven lampstands. They had hard work (kopos) and perseverance; Paul commended the Thessalonians because of their work produced by faith, their labour (kopos) prompted by love (agapao) and their endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess 1:3). The church in Thyatira is commended for their love and faith, service and perseverance (2:19). They had taken heed of Paul's warning to them when he left the elders that false prophets would arise out of their midst, Acts 20:28, 2 Cor 11:12. These men would be like savage wolves among a flock of sheep, they will distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them, Paul warned them to be on their guard against such false prophets. The Ephesians had tested the doctrine of these men and their lives and found them to be false. Jesus tells us that we will recognise false prophets by their fruit, that is their lives and the results of their doctrine. In 1 Thess 5:21 we are to test everything and hold on to the good, in 1 Cor 14:29 when two or three prophets speak the others should carefully weigh what is said. 1 John 4:1 warns us to test the spirits to see whether they are from God. 2 Peter 2 and Jude give descriptions of these people: they introduce destructive heresies, they exploit the people with stories they have made up, they will have shameful ways, they follow their own sinful ways and despise authority, they are bold and arrogant. They change the grace of our God into a license for immorality, these men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. In particular they are greedy for money.
v3 - You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. - A commendation, again it repeats the previous verse, they have endured for his name though not through love but through duty. Compare 'endured hardships' (kopiao) with 'hard work' (kopos) in verse 2, in Greek kopiao is a derivative of kopos.
v4 - Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. - Rebuke: they had deeds but not their love for each other and Jesus as at first. The word used for love is agape a stronger form of love rather than phileo which is brotherly love. Agape most characterises the love that Christ has for us which is a deeply committed love and which depends more on the nature of the giver than the attractiveness of the one loved (cf. eros the love between lovers). We are to love one another as Christ has loved us (John 13:34), agape love and not just brotherly love. It is likely that they had lost their initial love for Christ which resulted in a lack of love for each other. This is the great test for the saints, do they love one another (1 Cor 13:3, John 13:35). Their testing of everyone to see whether they are false apostles or false brethren had created an atmosphere of mutual distrust in which love could not grow (Mounce).
v5 - Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. -
Jesus now gives three steps to recovery:
i. Remember your former condition (stop and recall your love in the past, realise your current position and compare to how you used to be).
ii. Repent (change your direction, stop doing the negative)
iii. Do the things you did at first (do the positive, repentance is not just turning from wrong but also doing what is right).
Repentance does not merely involve us in stopping doing bad things but learning to do good things (Isa 1:16-17). We are to produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Mat 3:8). 'Do the things you did at first' their love was to be practical (1 John 3:16-18, James 2:14-17. The positive thing is to love one another as Christ loved us (John 13:34-35, Rom 13:8, 1 Pet 1:22, 1 John 3:11 ff.). A survey of the term 'one another' in the NT indicates that in practise this means: agreeing with one another, forgiving one another as God forgave us, being patient with one another, encouraging one another, spurring one another on toward love and good deeds, not judging or slandering one another, offering hospitality to one another.
v5 - If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place - Warning that the church will die if they do not repent. There is no church at Ephesus today. The KJV has 'come unto thee quickly' which emphasises the suddenness of his judgement and that therefore they should repent quickly (cf 2 Pet 3:9).
v6 - But you have this in your favour: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. - A commendation, Nicolations: followers of Nicolas of Antioch, not much is known other than in the book itself, see also Rev 2:15, the Nicolations and 'those who hold the teaching of Balaam' (2:14) and the followers of the woman Jezebel (2:20) represent the same group of heretics. There is a play on words here because the name Nicolaus can be derived from the two Greek words, nikan, to conquer, and laos, the people. Balaam can be derived from the two Hebrew words, bela, to conquer, and ha'am, the people. The two names, then are the same and both can describe an evil teacher, who has won victory over the people and subjugated them to poisonous heresy (Barclay). Just as Satan uses the beast to conquer (nikao) the saints from without (11:7, 13:7) so he uses false prophets to conquer the church from within, see also the reference to the Nicolaitans in the letter to Pergamum (2:15). It is likely that they took a laxer view of pagan society than did Jesus Christ, by allowing food offered to idols to be eaten and sexual immorality (2:14 and 2:20) they compromised with the world.
v7 - 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, - A personal challenge to the members of the churches and a general invitation to the individuals who hear the words of this book, to take its message to heart (Rev 1:3, Mat 13:15-16). A similar phrase is used in the gospels by Jesus (Mat 11:15, Mark 4:9, Luke 8:8). The phrase 'He who has an ear' is repeated in Rev 13:9. Note, it is what the Spirit says to the churches, this message is for us today. This book has a number of authors, God, Jesus Christ, John, and here the Spirit (see 1:1-2, 11). The book must be spiritually interpreted, we need to discern what the Spirit is say to the churches. For the Spirits involvement in this book see also 1:4, 3:1, 4:2, 4:5, 5:6, 14:13, 17:3, 21:10, 22:17.
v7 - To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. - Once again this is a personal rather than a corporate challenge. In the letter to each church there is a promise to the one who overcomes, meaning he who conquers, Rom 8:37. From the contents of the letter, the person who overcomes is the one who repents of his lack of love and finds his first love again. The letters to the seven churches are very much in harmony with the rest of the book, the promises to those who overcome always refer in all seven letters to something mentioned later in the book, for example, the tree of life in Rev 22:2. In 22:14 those who wash their robes have the right to the tree of life and enter into the city. And in 22:19 if anyone takes words away from Revelation God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city. The paradise of God is also mentioned in Luke 23:43, 2 Cor 12:2. In 22:2 the tree of life is on each side of the river of life which flowed from the throne of God and the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city which is the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is therefore the paradise of God. The tree of life takes its water from the river of life whose source is Christ. The fruit of the tree of life confers eternal life on those who eat it (Gen 3:22).
Rewards are part of God's purposes in motivating his people and in Revelation we see the rewards of the overcomers and the rewards of the cowardly, one leads to eternal life the other leads to the second death. Lang remarks that Ephesus had toiled and endured, and as to the body of their labours, the external efforts, they had not grown weary. But the inner life had felt the strain; in heart affection to Christ they had lapsed and fallen. The inner man needed renewing. He who repented, and found again this inward invigoration of love to Christ, and so overcame personally the general defeat, should be blessed correspondingly in the day of reward -- he should find permanent strength and satisfaction in the fruit of the tree of life (Lang).