Tag Archives: seven churches

The letter to Ephesus: Compromise on the horizon

6 Replies

lettersThe first letter in Revelation chapter 2 is the letter to the church in Ephesus. Ephesus competed with Pergamum and Smyrna for the bragging rights as most important city in the province of Asia. It was also a center for emperor worship. In our book, I wrote:

The emperor cult was prominent in Ephesus during the first century. Archaeologists have unearthed an especially large temple to Domitian, the emperor who banished John to Patmos. The temple was designed to establish Ephesus as the world center of worship for Domitian, featuring a 27-foot-tall statue of the emperor which was visible by all who arrived by sea or by land. The head and forearm of the statue are on display today in the museum at Ephesus; the forearm alone is six feet long. In this city where the Roman ruler was worshiped as the god of gods, any who refused to say “Domitian is Lord” would run the risk of imprisonment and death. We read in the book of Acts that Paul almost lost his life in Ephesus at the hands of the supporters of the goddess Diana; now the Ephesian Christians were in danger from worshipers of another false god.

(Letters From The Lamb, pp.47-48)

It was this worship of the Roman Caesar that was going to lead Christ’s church to an inevitable collision with the Roman authorities. Some would have argued that Christians could pledge loyalty to the Roman empire and still remain true to Christ. But this attitude of compromise was deadly, at least in a spiritual sense. The Ephesian church would resist this false teaching, but at a high price. We’ll look at that in the next post.

The faithful witness

3 Replies

lettersI want to take some time to share some thoughts on the first few chapters of Revelation. With our book hot off the press (I’m hoping to see a copy in the next few days), I decided it was a good time to explore some of the topics we looked at there.

One key theme in Revelation is that of the faithful witness. In Revelation 1:5 we read: “from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.” (Revelation 1:5) In looking at this verse in our book, I wrote:

In verse 5, John speaks of “Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” These three elements are important as we come to understand the Jesus that we see here in Revelation chapter 1. He is the faithful witness. The Greek word for witness is martus, the word from which we get our word martyr. We see in the book of Revelation that witnesses are often martyred for their faith, so much so that dying for one’s faith is the sign of a “faithful witness.” The Lord who calls his followers to be willing to maintain their faith in the face of death has already done the same himself. He asks nothing of them that he was not willing to ask of himself.

(Letters From The Lamb, p. 30)

The word “testimony” (which comes from the same root) also occurs throughout Revelation. (Rev 1:2, 9; 6:9; 11:7; 12:11, 17; 15:5; 17:6; 19:10; 20:4; 22:16) A key passage is this one in chapter 12: “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” (Revelation 12:10-11)

The victory lies in being a faithful witness, in steadfastly holding on to the testimony of Jesus in the face of all opposition. The Christians will conquer Rome not through military might nor political power, but faithful testimony.