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Revelation 3:7-13
To the Church in Philadelphia
7“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 8I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. 10Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
11I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. 13Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches
This passage comes from the third chapter of the Revelation of John – one of the opening chapters of a book that’s known primarily for the longer part that describes an apocalyptic struggle between the forces of God and the forces of Satan. As you might remember, our Reflections recently looked at a few readings from those later chapters. We talked about the fact that most scholars in our part of the church believe that the main body of the Revelation is intended to communicate the idea that God will be victorious over all the forces of evil and death, that his Kingdom will be established on earth as it is in heaven.
For some reason, the lectionary is now listing readings from the early chapters of the Revelation. I have no idea why the organizers of the lectionary have chosen to list the later chapters before the earlier ones. I actually consulted with a well-known New Testament expert about it, but he said he doesn’t know, either. I guess it’s just a mystery of the faith.
In any case, it seems worth devoting a Reflection or two to these early chapters, because we probably need to know what’s in them to properly understand the parts about the beast and the dragon and the seals and the four horsemen of the apocalypse and all those parts that people find so fascinating.
These early chapters are a series of letters to seven of the early churches that the apostle John was familiar with. These churches we’re located in the eastern Mediterranean, in cities that are part of present-day Turkey. The letters deal with the particular situations in each of these churches, and generally address three main problems.
The first problem was the persecution faced by the followers of Jesus. We tend to think of persecution in terms of large groups of Christians being fed to lions in the arenas of the Roman Empire. And the church historians say that did occur in some times and places, particularly after the great fire of Rome, which the Emperor Nero blamed on Christians. (He did that for political reasons, by the way — to deflect accusations that he had been “fiddling while Rome burned.” The historians say that Nero himself probably didn’t believe the Christians were responsible for the fire.)
But most followers of Jesus who experienced persecution experienced it on a much more local basis. Lots of Christians who had been raised as Jews continued to take part in Jewish worship, and they found themselves being thrown out of synagogues and shunned as heretics. Many lost employment and businesses as results of this shunning. Some were even imprisoned or stoned to death.
Others who had been raised as pagans – worshiping the Gods of the Greco-Roman world – also found themselves being shunned by their gentile acquaintances. And since worship of the emperor was considered to be the duty of everyone living in the Empire, those who refused to do it were regarded as unpatriotic – something like Americans who refuse to recite the Pledge of Allegiance for religious reasons.
So followers of Jesus often experienced persecution in their own communities, whether they were Jews or former pagans. And the letters in the Revelation to the seven churches offer encouragement to those Christians in their time of persecution.
A related problem in those churches was that people were drifting away from the faith. That was sometimes due to persecution, but other times it was because people just got distracted by other interests or had never been that committed in the first place. So to churches where this was a major problem, the author of the Revelation exhorted people to remain faithful and committed in following Jesus.
A third problem the churches faced was people teaching false doctrines. In the early days of the church, there was a wide variety of belief about who Jesus was and how he fit into the established Hebrew religious tradition. Some teachers in the early churches taught people that Jesus had been a god in his own right or just a human being and not divine at all. Others said that they had secret knowledge that Jesus had never got around to teaching his disciples, or that he had told only to a handful of people. Still others taught that there were two gods – an angry and vengeful god of the Old Testament, and then a patient and loving God who came along later.
So the letters in the Revelation warned the churches not to listen to these teachers of strange and heretical doctrines.
When you keep the seven letters in mind in reading the rest of the Revelation, it helps to keep perspective on the fantastic and metaphorical content of the rest of the book. The apostle John was encouraging the people in these churches to see themselves as caught in a cosmic struggle between good and evil, and to trust that the God they knew and served in Jesus would ultimately be victorious in that struggle. Seen from that perspective, this book probably provided a great sense of comfort and encouragement as Christians faced persecution and trouble in the early years of the new faith movement.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for speaking through your servant John into the lives of the early followers of Jesus, to offer comfort and encouragement in the struggles they faced. Help us to remember that you have always been with your people, and that you have promised that we will share in your triumph over the forces of evil when you bring your kingdom to fulfillment. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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