Revelation 2:1-7--To the Church in Ephesus

Revelation 2:1-7
English Standard Version

To the Church in Ephesus
2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

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. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember 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. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He 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.’

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This begins the letters from Christ to the Seven Churches.  You will notice that each is addressed "to the angel of the church in...."  This has been the source of much discussion in the past, but there is a simple answer as to who the "angel" is for each church.  The word "angel" literally means "messenger."  While we see angels do other things in Bible, their primary function is to declare God's message to His people, and that is the job of the person that we would call the Senior Pastor of the church--the same people that were as a group referred to as the seven stars that Jesus held in His right hand are now individually addressed and told to convey this message to the congregation they lead (each of which is one of the lamps in the Golden Lampstand that Jesus, our Great High Priest tends to).

Writings of Early Church fathers like Irineus, Eusebius, and Jerome all say that John lived in Ephesus and ministered to these seven churches that these letters were written to, however we do not have any texts from inside the Bible that declare this.  While this is an interesting tidbit, Jesus , not John, is the one who chose these Seven Churches and it is His message that is being conveyed here.

The first of the Seven Churches to be addressed is the Church at Ephesus.  To the pastor of this church and to the congregation of this church, Jesus reveals Himself as the One who holds the seven stars (the seven senior pastors of these seven churches which represents all the pastors of all the churches) in His right hand--that's a special place of care and protection, and He is also the One that walks among (ministers among) the Golden Lampstand--reminding them that He is their Great High Priest who watches over and cares for these Seven Churches and the Church universal.

​His message for them is that He knows their works, their toil and their patient endurance.  He sees how they cannot bear with those who are evil and how they have been careful to test all those who called themselves apostles and found many to be false.  He knows that they are enduring patiently (enduring much persecution) for the sake of His Name, yet they do not grow weary (they have not lost their courage).  This is "good news" and the encouragement that Jesus delivers to them first.

Next comes that call for correction.  Jesus says that even in all these good things that He has seen and taken note of, their relationship with Him has grown cold.  It is largely performative and out of duty, but not from a place of the zeal and love that they once had for Him.  He calls them to remember who they once were--how far they were fallen before Jesus saved them and that they could do absolutely nothing to save themselves.  As they remember this and remind each other of this, it will add fuel to the fire in their hearts so as to serve Him with the passion they once served Him with and doing all the things that they once did out of love but now they are just doing out of obligation or to go through the motions.

If they do not repent (change course and return to the right path they were once on), Jesus says that He can and will remove their lamp from its place in the Golden Lampstand (He allows local churches to be born, He tends to them to keep them alive, but He can allow them to die out too).

Jesus then return to praise for the Church in Ephesus.  He says that they hate the Nicolaitans (most plainly read as the followers of Nicolas.  The only Nicolas in the Bible that this might be referring to is the Deacon in Acts 6:5, though there is no solid evidence that this passage is referring to him or his followers.  This is one of the problems with reading someone else's mail--they understood exactly what Jesus was talking about here, even if we do not.  Jesus says he also hates them, which must mean that they were wicked people and were likely trying to encourage others to be wicked, discourage people from believing the true gospel and maybe even trying to get people to deny their faith.  (Nicolas will be compared in verse 15 to Balaam and Balak who got Israel mixed up in sexual immorality so that they would be judged, so there is probably some connection here of teaching people to give into their lusts and passions, which was a common view of the Greek and Roman philosophers).

Then, Jesus delivers a message to all the churches everywhere at all times.  He says that it is the one who conquers and overcomes that He will grant to eat of the Tree of Life (remember that I told you that the Tree of Life is going to have a prominent place in the Book of Revelation--this is just one of several reference to come).  The Tree of Life is no longer in the Garden of Eden somewhere on Earth, but is in Paradise with God Himself, so this is a promise that those who persevere (which we will see later has nothing to do with our own strength, but the faithfulness of Christ), will dwell with God once again as we did in the Garden of Eden, only there will be no more Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil--only the Tree of Life.