Revelation 2:2

DailyBibleStudy.Org

2 I know [eido] thy [sou] works, [ergon] and [kai] thy [sou] labour, [kopos] and [kai] thy [sou] patience, [hupomone] and [kai] how [hoti] thou canst [dunamai] not [ou] bear [bastazo] them which are evil: [kakos] and [kai] thou hast tried [peirazo] them which say [phasko] they are [einai] apostles, [apostolos] and [kai] are [eisi] not, [ou] and [kai] hast found [heurisko] them [autos] liars: [pseudes]    KJV-Interlinear

2 'I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;    NASB

Christ begins with a commendation to the Ephesians for their spiritual efforts.And although these statements are general in nature and apply to the Church on the whole, keep in mind that there are always exceptions, and furthermore, once we have completed the letters to all seven churches, we will see that on the whole, the Church has failed in its obedience to Christ.  Those who do succeed will be few in number.

This study of the seven churches is detailed and boring, as certainly some will seem to think.  Too many want to jump right in to the Armageddon campaign, or the 144,000, or the Ezekiel war as they call it, or some other aspect that is more action packed and interesting.

But remember one thing, there is only one reason why all of these future events are going to occur, and that is because people are not interested in what the Bible teaches, but only in what they want to read.They are selective in their topics of discussion and therefore are un-teachable.  And that leads to a form of apostasy, refusal to learn, which no believer wants to think that he is a part of, but in fact is.

The Bible is not a cafeteria from which you can create your own truth, but is a detailed study of life as well as history, from which you are required to learn.Many start out right, but somewhere along the way, they get derailed and head down the path of self appointed expert, and that is where they fall flat on their spiritual face.

This is going to be painted for you by the study of the seven churches, and it applies not only to the people who lived nearly 2000 years ago, but it applies to you now, and especially it will apply to the last generation of believers in our dispensation, because it will be they who fail the most.

Christ says, ‘I know,’ ‘eido.’  This is a word for full knowledge.  ‘Ginoeskoe’ is another word for knowing, but it refers to the progression of learning from one day to the next, from one experience to the next, from one study to the next.  But here, Christ possesses complete knowledge simultaneously.

Christ knows and has always known, and has chronological knowledge as life and history unfolds, and they are all exactly the same.Christ has known since eternity past, and He has seen these Ephesians and all believers, fulfill on their own, that which He already knew.  There is nothing that He does not know. There is nothing that can take Christ by surprised.

Likewise, the Bible was given so that you could ‘know.’  However that requires an open mind and a teachable attitude.And that is described in the words – works, labor, and patience.

Works, ‘ergon,’ labor, ‘kopos,’ and patience, ‘hupomone.’  All of these words refer to the inherent attitude which the Ephesians had possessed at one time.

Works refers to their effort.  Labor refers to their continued toil to the point of exhaustion.Patience refers to perseverance.And though these all generally have connotations of physical effort, here, they refer to the spiritual effort of the Ephesians.

They lived in a difficult time.  Rome was anti-christian, John was in prison, all of the apostles had died, and Christianity was viewed as an illegal religion.And yet they continued to evangelize and teach Christ and doctrine, despite all of the hardships and risks that threatened them every day.  Their labor was exhausting because they were under constant threat of arrest.The anxiety and fear that they lived under is described here as horrendous.

But they kept on in their faith.  They maintained their discernment by examining that which was taught, in order to decipher truth from lies.  That is what ‘put to the test,’ ‘peirazo,’ means.

They kept their wits and did not fall for the false doctrines that were being promoted.  False doctrines such as, Christ does not exist, Christ will not return, Christ is a prophet and a man only, Christ has returned, Christ will return on such and such a date, we are in the Tribulation already, the destruction of Jerusalem is the prophecy fulfilled, this event or that event is proof of our prophecy, and so on and so forth.

They did not fall for all of the misread and misleading and misapplied teachings that were all around them.

They stuck to their studies.  They stuck to common sense.  They stuck to rational reason.  They stuck with legitimately taught doctrine.  And they did it with patience, not rushing to join the popular fad belief because it was interesting or exciting or convenient.

Far too many people want to force history to be what they want it to be, and they do it at the expense of their own objective study. When you stop listening and learning, then you begin to fail.  If you are not prepared in knowledge, then you are not the instructor.You are the student.And the student has but one job only – to listen and learn, and as a result, to grow.

Two subscription options to receive these daily studies everyday via e-mail, are available here.

Previous Page

Table of Contents

Donation

Next Page

Now is the time to post a prayer.