The Letter to the Church in Ephesus (Part 1: Introduction and Commendation)

This is the first of a series of several posts considering the seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2-3.

The first letter of the seven is addressed to the church in Ephesus and is found Revelation 2:1-7. Ephesus was a major city in the Roman Empire and played a large role in the early church (see Acts 18:24-20:38 and Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians). My goal in this post is not to give background on the city of Ephesus, but to consider the actual content of the letter given to this church by Jesus.

Jesus introduces himself in verse 1 as “him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.” In each of the seven letters, Jesus’ identification of himself is a key concept. To the Ephesians, Jesus is revealed as the one holding seven stars while walking among seven lampstands. Jesus’ reference here is hearkening back to Revelation 1:12-20, wherein John beheld Jesus in the midst of seven lampstands. “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” Jesus, then, is appearing in the midst of the seven churches while sending out the seven angels to deliver the letters to those seven churches.

I hold that the seven churches that received the letters from Jesus were literal, historically extant churches with literal, historically extant people facing literal, historically extant problems. However, the number seven is important in Revelation (and all of Scripture) and represents the number of completeness. The seven real churches received seven real letters, but the complete church throughout time has also been given these letters. The seven letters are canonized in Scripture and preserved by the Holy Spirit for a reason: To communicate God’s truth to the church throughout time. The churches that originally received the letters desperately needed the words therein, but so do we, and so has the church throughout history.

Christ begins the body of the letter with two simple words: “I know...” Christ knows what is going on in the church at Ephesus because he is among the lampstands, which are the churches. Christ has real knowledge of the goings-on in these churches because Christ is present in the church. After his ascension, Christ sent his promised Holy Spirit to believers, so that everyone in Christ is indwelt, or baptized, by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Christ in his very Spirit, is present with the church. Christ’s presence through the Holy Spirit among believers is the grounds by which he can claim to know us in and out.

Christ knows the Ephesians’ “toil and patient endurance,” and that they “cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false” (v. 2). Christ is commending the Ephesians based upon their identification of evil, both in act and teaching. Apparently, their church had been targeted by some form of false teaching. The church, being of orthodox theology and discernment, “tested the spirits” (1 Jn 4:1). How then are the spirits tested and found to be false? 1 John 4 gives us more understanding: “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” True teaching identifies Jesus as the biblical, prophesied Messiah, while false teaching dangerously denies Jesus as Messiah. False teaching subtly pulls on threads that unravel the whole tapestry of Christian theology.

The false teaching in Ephesus was not only false, it was evil, and those who propagated the false teaching were evil for doing so. The false teachers were claiming some sort of apostolic authority but were false. False teaching is not harmless; it is a product of Satan and used to lead people away from the truth. False teaching needs to be called out for what it is: A charade of gross misuses of Scripture meant to lead people away from the truth revealed by God.

Jesus was not afraid to call false teaching evil in verse 2, and we should not either. We cannot afford to bear with those who are evil and leading people astray. We must call evil evil and stand up for truth. Today, false teaching rears its ugly head in many ways, and there is far too much at stake for the church to bear with it any longer. May we have the Spirit of Christ, who is truly among us, and test the spirits with Scripture and right doctrine.