0975. The Church at Smyrna
The Church at Smyrna
"I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of satan" (Rev_2:9)
While in the Church at Smyrna we have the second of the Churches of Asia, a literal church with its own peculiar history; yet in the Church of Smyrna the Holy Spirit is evidently giving us a vision of the times that followed the days of the first Apostles.
We mean there was not alone a geographical aggression as the Spirit brought out church after church stretching over Asia, but that there is also a most evident chronological aggression, scoping the whole time from the Apostles until the return of Christ, when He receives the Church unto Himself.
With this time element in mind there are several things in the Church at Smyrna for our consideration:
1. We have in Smyrna two results of the walk of life of the Church at Ephesus.
(1) There is the persecution that was the outgrowth of the faithful witness of the Church at Ephesus. Christ says to Smyrna: "I know thy tribulation and poverty." He even prophesies, "Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days."
Persecution is always a result of fidelity. "Yea, and all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution" (2Ti_3:12).
The persecution may not now be the same kind but persecution will be keen and strong wherever there is real separation and sanctification.
(2) There are the Judaistic teachers creeping in, as the result of the ephesian loss of the first love. "I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of satan."
We have before us the second step in the church's departure from the Living God. When we have left our first love, we are sure to begin to turn towards the commandments of men.
In the day of the Apostle Paul there were many who sought to place upon the church burdens heavy to be borne. It proved hard to get Christian Jews away from their Judaism. The wanted to continue the old Jewish ceremonies while they at the same time, received the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. The Epistle to the Galatians was particularly written to warn against this very thing.
2. We have in Smyrna and its false teachings a parallelism with the second parable of Matthew 13–the parable of the tares of the field.
"Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way" (Mat_13:24-25).
(1) The good seed was sown. The Church at Ephesus sowed this good seed, she was a faithful and true witness; she held the Word of God in its purity and she preached it, in its power.
(2) "While men slept." This passage may refer to the same condition expressed in the words, "Thou hast left thy first love." There was a lethargy in spirit, a weariness in fellowship; the eyes of the saints became drowsy toward Christ.
The whole picture is that of the weariness of saints. This is pictured in the garden, as Peter and James and John, through the weakness of their flesh, forgot to "watch and pray" with the Master, and fell asleep.
(3) An enemy sowed the tares. There are some who vainly imagine that the tares sowed in those early days (the Judaism that crept in unawares) was of short duration. Not so. The wheat and the tares were to grow together unto the end of the age. The tares are still here. On every hand there are those who are confounding the church with Judaism.
An example of this is seen in the effort of some to lead the church into bondage to the Jewish Sabbath. Another example is the sacerdotalism of the present day–an effort to lead the church under the authority of men who assume priestly powers.
The final result of Judaism's entrance is also seen today in the entrance of liberalism and modernism into the very heart of church life. Such are the dire results of the church which left its first love.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR