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Ephesus
THE LETTER TO THE CHURCH IN EPHESUS
(NIV)
To the Church in Ephesus
2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.
I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen!
Repent and do the things you did at first.
If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen!
Repent and do the things you did at first.
If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Ephesus is the leading city of Asia (2:1–7).
Paul first preached the gospel here, with daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus ().
Ephesus is the leading city of Asia (2:1–7).
Paul first preached the gospel here, with daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus ().
7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Ephesus is the leading city of Asia (2:1–7).
Paul first preached the gospel here, with daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus ().
The Christians at Ephesus are hard-working and right-thinking.
There is a letter from Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch, which praises their brave stand for truth.
In particular, they have hated the practices of the Nicolaitans.
Nicolaitans are the followers of Nicolas, who may be the deacon from Antioch—one of the seven deacons appointed to serve the church in Jerusalem in .
He may have been guilty of mixing paganism with Christianity.
Nicolaitans are mentioned again in the letter to the church at Pergamum, where they are linked with the false teaching of Balaam—the prophet who was tempted to compromise with Israel’s enemies ().
Alpha and Omega
‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God in the first chapter of Revelation (1:8).
The same description is used of Jesus in the last chapter (22:13).
Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.
The Father and the Son were there at the beginning of the universe—and they will be there at its end.
There is a constant battle to live as Christians in a pagan society.
Meat comes from sacrifices in pagan temples.
Sex is degraded by permissiveness and perversion.
It seems that the Nicolaitans are allowing pagan ways to infiltrate their Christian lives—and Christ hates this dangerous compromise.
But, in their desire to be strict Christians, the Ephesians have lost their first love.
Their delight in Christ and one another has faded to a grim but determined sense of duty.
Christ urges them to return to their first joy.
Instead of the meat of fear and superstition, he will give them the fruit of the tree of life.
Instead of seeking satisfaction in obsessive sex, he will give them the peace and plenty of paradise.
Knowles, A. (2001).
The Bible guide (1st Augsburg books ed., p. 697).
Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.
What promises are found in chapters 2 and 3? Seven promises to “him that overcometh” the temptations and trials of earth.
These promises are symbolical.
, , , ; , , .
Adams, A. D. (1996).
4000 questions & answers on the Bible (p.
134).
Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
The first message that John is commanded to write is addressed to the angel of the congregation in the great city of Ephesus.
Ephesus would have been the first of the seven congregations reached by a traveller arriving from Patmos by sea.
The church at Ephesus is the only church in the New Testament to which two apostles addressed letters.
When Paul wrote to Ephesus, it was at a time when the church stood at the pinnacle of spirituality.
Of all the truths revealed through Paul, none excel the truths revealed in the Epistle to the Ephesians.
But when John wrote to Ephesus, it was a time of crisis in the church.
The furnace was still there, but the fire had gone out.
There was still a measure of warmth, but the coals no longer had a bright, red luster; they had merely a dull and dying glow.
Paul wrote to the saints, John to the angel.
he first letter is addressed to the church in Ephesus—the crossroads of civilization—considered to be a city of great political importance.
Aquila, Priscilla, and Paul had planted the church in Ephesus (see ); Timothy had ministered there (); John the writer of this letter, was closely associated with the church.
A letter carrier would leave the island of Patmos (where John was exiled), arriving first at the port of Ephesus, where he would begin his journey by visiting the church there.
The seven churches were located on a major Roman road.
He would travel north to Smyrna and Pergamum, turn southeast to Thyatira, and continue on to Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea—in the exact order in which the letters were dictated.
His basic problem with the church in Ephesus is that even though church members had stood fast against evil and false teaching, they had left their “first love”—their basic love for Christ and for one another.
The period that is forecast prophetically in this letter runs from the Churches beginning at Pentecost to approximately A.D. 160.
Commentary
1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks [lampstands];
“Ephesus” was a center of land and sea trade, for three major land-trade routes converged in the city, and a large port sat on its coast on the Aegean Sea.
Along with Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria, Ephesus was one of the three most influential cities in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.
It had been accorded an advantage given too few cities in the Empire—it was a “free” city, meaning that it enjoyed a certain amount of self-rule.
The city boasted a huge stadium, marketplace, and theater.
The theater, built on the slope of a mountain that overlooked the harbor, seated twenty-five thousand people.
The temple to Artemis (the Roman name is Diana), one of the ancient wonders of the world, was located in Ephesus.
According to historians, the temple was 425 feet long, 220 feet wide, and 60 feet high.
I have read that there were 127 marble pillars, some of them overlaid with gold and jewels.
The temple employed thousands of priests and priestesses; many of the priestesses we’re temple prostitutes, for Artemis was the goddess of fertility.
A major industry was the manufacture of images of this goddess (see ).
This city was also proud of its temples to the emperors—a growing cult, called the “imperial cult,” viewed the ruling Caesar as a god, so the city had built temples to the succession of ruling Caesars.
In short, Ephesus was a city known for its idolatry.
Paul had ministered in Ephesus for three years and had warned the Ephesian believers that false teachers would come and try to draw people away from the faith (see [2]).
False teachers did indeed cause problems in the Ephesian church, but the church resisted them, as we can see from Paul’s letters to Timothy, who stayed in Ephesus when Paul left for Macedonia.
John spent much of his ministry in this city and knew that these believers had resisted false teaching (2:2).
Although John was writing, the words are clearly from Christ, the One “who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands” (see 1:13, 16[3]).
Christ controls the churches.
Christ is described differently in every letter, mainly because each description is tied to the problems of the specific church.
Ephesus, the mother church of all the other churches, was filled with pride.
That Christ held these churches in his hand shows that he was in control over the churches.
Ephesus had become a large, proud church, and Christ’s message would remind them that He alone is the head of the body of believers.
How easy it is for a church to become proud and forget that pastors and teachers are God’s gifts () who may be taken away at any time.
Some churches need to be cautioned to worship the Lord and not their pastor!
[I must admit that in the past I have been guilty of placing certain pastors on a pedestal, only to be disappointed every time I do it.]
John begins the letter to Emphasis with two descriptions of the Risen Christ:
He holds the seven stars in His right hand.
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