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Jesus’ Message to the Church in Ephesus

Introduction

Can you imagine taking a test on your spouse one day? You answer every question right. If I took a test on my wife Lora, I would answer: Color of eyes: light brown; Color of hair: light brown; Height: 5 feet and 7 inches; Weight: next question; Personality: pleasant, serious and faithful; Hobbies: gardening, reading Victorian novels; Favorite food: Indonesian gado-gado; Favorite color: yellow. If I answered all these questions correctly, would it be true that I know everything there is to know about my wife? Even if I did, what if I knew all that and still didn’t love her? What if I didn’t treat her right, and ignored her needs? Would people notice more my knowledge of my wife, or my lack of love for her?

Love legitimizes knowledge. Our love for our spouses makes what we know about them meaningful. If we do not show love, then our understanding of them does not matter. The same is true for the follower of Jesus in reference to our relationship with God. Love legitimizes doctrine. I just referenced Luke 4, and how the demons recognized Jesus. They knew exactly who he was, but they did not love him. Our love for God and for the people of the church and for the people of the world proves that we know God. This is the message of Revelation 2:1–7, the message to the church in Ephesus.

Exposition

With chapter two, we see a shift in the nature of Revelation. John is delivering to the seven churches in Asia Minor a message from Jesus himself. Aune writes that the form of the letters can be seen as a mixed genre created by John. The primary literary genre is that of a royal or imperial edict. The secondary genre or mode is that of prophetic speech, or “parenetic salvation-judgment oracle.”78 In other words, John is creating a new kind of epistle here, with the nature of an edict from a king combined with a prophetic word of either encouragement or rebuke.

The model of Jesus’ letter to the churches follows this pattern: There is the addressee, “to the angel of the church in . . .” (2:1); followed by a description of the speaker, “The words of him . . .” (2:1). The description of the speaker reveals a close relationship between the seven messages of chapters 2 and 3 and the vision of Jesus in chapter 1. Following this, we see the knowledge of the Speaker, “I know . . .” (2:2). (Sometimes this is positive and sometimes this is negative). This is followed by the verdict: “[. . .] you have abandoned the love you had at first” (2:4); in this case, the command or the exhortation, “He who has an ear, let him hear” (2:7), followed by a promise of “the tree of life” (2:7) to those who are faithful.

What is the nature of these seven letters? All the letters deal with the issue of witnessing for Christ in the midst of a pagan culture. The churches with problems must repent. The churches with no problems must persevere in their faithful witness.79 Mounce wants to see these letters as “a vital part of the Apocalypse as a whole and are intended for the exhortation and edification of the church universal.” This is not a survey of the church throughout history (as in the Dispensational view), but the sequential pattern was used by John “to impress upon the church universal the necessity of patient endurance in the period of impending persecution.”80 Why these seven churches? All seven were within one hundred miles of Ephesus in the Roman proconsular province of Asia and might have formed an established circular rout that functioned as a postal route. Johns seems to have been familiar with each church’s situation.81

The church in Ephesus was planted by the Apostle Paul. We can read that story in Acts 19. Ephesus was the first church in the order of delivery of the vision of John. As a city of trade, Ephesus was the commercial center of Asia Minor. There was an important port (except for large ships), and it became a connecting city between Syria and Egypt in the East and Italy in the West. Ephesus was considered “the first and greatest metropolis of Asia.” The population was between about 200,000 and 250,000 people. Only Rome and Alexandria were bigger at the time.82 The city of Ephesus was believed to have been protected by Artemis. For the faithful, Artemis was supposed to help and bless. She was the child of Leto and Zeus, the goddess of pregnancy and considered very powerful, the “Queen of heaven,” “Lord”, and “Savior.” But Artemis was not the only god/goddess worshipped in Ephesus. There were about fifty others, including Aphrodite, Sybil, Demeter, Isis (Egypt), and Zeus, Apollo, and others.83

Jesus is described with images from the vision of John in Revelation 1, the one “who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands” (2:1). The stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven golden lampstands are the seven churches (see 1:20). Jesus is present in the church through the sevenfold Spirit, the Holy Spirit. The stars in his right hand communicate sovereignty, control, and protection. Beale interestingly notes that a formula introducing the word from the Lord is used here, similar to that used of God (twenty-one times in the Minor Prophets), and “Thus says the Lord” (about sixty-five times in Ezekiel, thirty times in Jeremiah, and eight times in Amos). Essentially, Jesus is here assuming the role of Yahweh.84 As the speaking Lord, and as One who is “walking” among the golden lampstands rather than simply standing, the text implies that he is one who knows the churches and is active among them.85 Regardless of how beautiful the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, Jesus is the One who is present with his church. He is not a cold stone, gold, and jeweled building. He is the Living One who is present in our midst and is aware of our activities.

Because Jesus is the One with eyes of flames of fire, he knows the deeds of the churches, and he justly brings judgment or praise to them, depending upon their works. The congregation in Ephesus was a congregation that worked hard and persevered like John in 1:9. The same word is used for “faithful endurance.” This was a congregation that did not tolerate wickedness or false teaching, that is, false prophets. They upheld the truth. Apparently, there were in the church at the time, people who would rise up and declare themselves on par with the apostles, with apostolic authority, the same as what Paul encountered in Corinth (2 Corinthians 11:13–15). Maybe their fancy words and careful rhetoric won over audiences, but the Ephesian church tested them and found them not to be genuine. They were false teachers.86

Doctrinal truth is still important today, especially in light of the fact that so many churches and denominations are giving up on important matters of the faith, like the exclusive claims of Christ, the Trinity, the atonement, the role of the Holy Spirit, and the nature of judgment at the end of time. When doctrine is compromised, a door is opened to any teaching and behavior in the church. Teaching fuels behavior. We can claim that we can live holy lives, but if we do not have a correct understanding of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, and the role of the Holy Spirit, our lives will be powerless.

The Ephesian church endured faithfully in what they had. The truth? The Faith? Proper teaching? The gospel? Whichever it was, and it was probably a combination of these, they had endured for the sake of the name of Jesus. They did not grow weary. This was not a casual rejection of false teaching but a persistent vigilance.

The church in Ephesus has remained faithful to sound doctrine. Their problem was that they had forsaken the heart part of their relationship. Jesus had commended them for their endurance to the truth and their stance against false teaching and false prophesy, but his complaint against them was that they had forsaken their first love. What was their first love? Jesus spoke of two commandments: vertical love for God and horizontal love for one another. Had they grown cold in their commitment to loving God and loving one another in their stressing of the truth? ἀφῆκες (aphekes) has the idea of forsaking, not just forgetting. They had forsaken their mission and the highest command of Jesus.

There are quite a few perspectives of what this first love actually was. Beale believes that “lost their first love” means that they had forsaken their witness to the world.87 Thomas thinks that first love is primarily referencing Jesus. Love has an important place in Johannine literature (see John 13:34–35). The first work is love for one another, and this is reflective of our love for Jesus.88 Mounce believes that the losing of their first love refers mainly to their love for one another.89 Thomas is on the right track. Loss of love was caused by their struggle with false teachers and their hatred of heretical teachings, which led to harsh attitudes toward one another. This led to a lessoning of love among the brothers. We cannot separate a love for Jesus and a love for the brothers. This is clear from 1 John. If we say we love Jesus and do not love our brothers, we are lying. So, a loss of first love would include both a loss of love for the brothers as well as a loss of love for Christ. They go together. They had become like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son, doing the right things out of duty, but not from a motivation of love.

Christianity is not just a matter of the mind, it is a matter of the heart, of the affections. The Ephesian church was great about their commitment to doctrinal truth, but they were lacking in their commitment to genuine love. The command from Jesus is to “remember.” Remember what? Remember the place from where they had fallen. They were also to repent from this forsaking of their first love and do the works they did at first. They must continue to persevere in the truth, but without forsaking the love of Christ. “Remember” is in the present imperative, which stands in contrast with “repent” in the aorist imperative. They must keep calling to mind the love from which they had fallen, and then make a clean break from that attitude.90

Jesus’ threat is serious. He threatened that if they did not repent, he would come and remove the lampstand from its place, that is, the light and presence of the Holy Spirit would be taken away. The glory would be removed just as the glory of God left the temple in the days of Ezekiel. Aune reiterates, this is “nothing less than a threat to obliterate the Ephesian congregation as an empirical Christian community.”91 Is this an imminent threat or an eschatological threat? I believe it should be both/and, but it was more of an imminent threat given the presence of Jesus among the churches, walking among the lampstands.

How is our commitment to genuine love both in the church and out of it? Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in right doctrine and protecting our interests as a church body, that we forget that not only are we supposed to be ministering and loving one another, but also those outside the church. This begins with a genuine love for Jesus, not only a doctrinal love, but a love that impacts our actions, a love that is real and relational. Christianity is not just a set of dos and don’ts or a series of rituals and creeds. Christianity, as the name suggests, is at the core about a relationship with Christ.

There are too many people who can quote Bible verses and give out statements of faith, but who have no love or compassion in their lives. One theologian has said (I don’t remember who), “The glum, sour faces of many Christians . . . They give the impression that, instead of coming from the Father’s joyful banquet, they have just come from the Sheriff who has auctioned off their sins and now are sorry they can’t get them back again.” In Philemon, Paul reminds us that our good doctrine of Jesus can actually be encouraged by our right love for others. He says to Philemon, “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ” (Philemon 4–6). The love we have for one another and for the world will instruct our understanding of Jesus.

Without love, a congregation ceases to be the church, and so Jesus warned against the removal of the lampstand. I’m going to close you down if you don’t start loving me and loving one another, he’s saying. In Hot Springs, Arkansas, there’s a place called Morris Antique Mall. Nothing on the inside distinguishes this antique store from dozens like it in Hot Springs. There is a musty smell and dusty relics of years gone by. But if you look closely at the outside of the Morris Antique Mall, you’ll see something that makes it distinct: before it was an antique store, it was a church building. Like the church that became the Morris Antique Mall is no longer there, neither is the congregation in Ephesus.

Jesus shifted the rebuke back to a closing word of encouragement for this congregation. The opening phrase of verse 6, ἀλλὰ τοῦτο ἔχεις (alla touto ekseis), is a way of saying, “But this you have that you are doing well.” The Ephesian church could not tolerate the works of the Nicolaitans. They hated their works, just as Jesus did. The Nicolaitans allowed for compromise and went beyond what was allowed in the apostolic letter to the Gentile churches from Acts 15:29. They taught that some degree of pagan temple participation was acceptable, even compromising with the prohibition of burning incense to the image of the emperor.92

What would Jesus say of the modern church concerning moral purity? Are we not taking part in the practices of groups similar to the Nicolaitans? We would be quick to say that we have nothing to do with those kinds of groups. But what of the world have we allowed to creep into our homes and into our churches? If there is, at times, no statistical difference between the people outside of the church and the people inside of the church in regards to ethical standards and moral purity, that speaks a lot to our moral condition and how much we have allowed ourselves to offer sacrifices at our modern-day altars of the emperor, the materialism and self-absorption and obsession with achievement.

Our problem in evangelical churches is not so much that we don’t teach the right things (though this is becoming an increasingly disturbing issue), but that we don’t live out that which we teach. Parents must be willing to take strong stands on these issues. And their children must be willing to accept them. We must remember that Jesus is the one who walks among us. He holds his churches in his right hand. He knows our deeds. We must, therefore, put off the practices of the Nicolaitans of our generation and refuse to be influenced by them. Jesus hates their deeds. We must also hate their deeds.

In our churches today, there must be a combination of doctrine, love, and purity. Only these three combined will make an impact in our world. People will not be able to call into question our message, because the purity of our lives will prove our message is true. But our message needs to be acted out in love. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another.” 2 Corinthians 5:14 says, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died.” If there is no doctrine but love and purity, you come across as a liberal philanthropist who believes that many roads lead to God and thus denies the glory that is only due Jesus (see 1:9–20).

If there is no love, but doctrine and purity, like in the Ephesian church, you come across as cold and uncompassionate with no heart relationship with God. There are many religious people in the world (like ascetics) who may be teaching the right things but have no relationship with Jesus.

If there is no purity, but love and doctrine, then your life denies the words that come from your mouth (see 1 Timothy 4:12–16). The Apostle Paul said to Timothy that these kinds of people have a “form of godliness but deny its power.” We can talk about the power of Jesus all we want, but if it is not displayed in changing our lives, then our message is like smoke. It burns for a while, but then fades away.

Conclusion

Jesus closes this admonition to the church in Ephesus with a promise to those who overcome or obey the words of Jesus, as he does in each case of each letter to the churches. To the church in Ephesus, he promises that they would be given the opportunity to eat from the tree of life in God’s paradise. The word for “paradise” in Greek is transliterated as “paradise” in English. This was originally a Persian word, describing an enclosed garden or park that took on religious connotations. It is God’s paradise here, pointing to the new heavens and the new earth of 21:1–22:5 and establishing a contrast with the temple of Artemis that promised an earthly paradise, but didn’t last.93 A paradise prepared by God, owned by God (possessive genitive), and a paradise where God dwells.

In this paradise is the tree of life. The tree of life recalls the tree in the Garden of Eden, which was placed in the middle. Adam and Eve were barred from the tree because of their sin. The faithful who overcome (in their perseverance against false prophets and in their remembrance of love) will be given the privilege to eat from this tree. Ladd aptly writes, “Love and loyalty to Christ will conquer fear of suffering and death.”94 No longer distant from the tree of life, the faithful will have continued access to it.

And for those who have the ears to hear, they will hear the admonitions of Jesus. This phrase was used by Jesus in the synoptic gospels (see Matthew 13:9–17, 43; see also Ezekiel 3:27; 12:2). It is Jesus who speaks, and it is the Spirit who speaks. There is no contradiction here. The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ who interprets the voice of Christ. Throughout Revelation, there is an intimate association between the Spirit of Christ and Christ, as in the rest of the New Testament.95

78. Aune, Revelation 1–5, 110. Beale calls the letters “prophetic messages” rather than epistles—Beale, The Book of Revelation, 225.

79. Beale, The Book of Revelation, 227.

80. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, 84.

81. Aune, Revelation 1–5, 131.

82. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary, 2002–2223.

83. See Arnold, Ephesians (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament Series, 483–493.

84. Beale, The Book of Revelation, 229.

85. Thomas and Macchia, Revelation, 87.

86. For examining false teachers,, see 1 Thessalonians 5:19–21 and 1 John 4:1–3. Paul warned the Ephesian church of wolves that would rise among them (Acts 20:29; cf. Matthew 7:15).

87. Beale, The Book of Revelation, 230. See a parallel in Matthew 24:12–14.

88. Thomas and Macchia, Revelation, 90.

89. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, 88. See also Jeremiah 2:2.

90. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, 88.

91. Aune, Revelation 1–5, 147.

92. Beale, The Book of Revelation, 233.

93. Osborne, Revelation, 124.

94. Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John, 41.

95. Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John, 40. Consider Isaiah 6:9–11, where those who have ears did not hear and as a result were rejected as part of God’s people.