Revelation 2 Commentary
God has information for His servants. He gives it to His Son Jesus. Jesus gives it to His angel. Then the angel gives it to John. And now John delivers it to us – God’s servants in time and space, in a language and manner suitable to the tools available to John at the time. Chapter 1 verse 1.
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write,” verse 1, references the fact that this message is pasted from a direct conversation between Jesus and His angel. The complete thought would probably read as follows: “Jesus, to the angel of the church in Ephesus”.
In some other places, John would report the angel’s message like, “John, to the seven churches…” Chapter 1 verse 4.
The church is commended for her deeds, hard work, and perseverance under hardships. There is something called “hard work” in the Kingdom of God. And the LORD takes note! If the LORD commends you, what will it be for?
They have a healthy hatred for wickedness.
But they have forsaken the love they had at first. Jesus invites them to consider their precarious position and repent.
Verse 7 is interesting. It’s now the Spirit speaking! John has this knack for looking at divinity as distinctive personalities, while at the same time treating them as one! So we shouldn’t be surprised if the originator of the message, the Father, and the intermediary of the message, the Son, are the same. We could also guess that the angel may also double as the Son in some cases as we saw in chapter 1. We expected the angel to deliver the message but John saw someone like the son of man. He fits the description exclusively reserved for Jesus.
The Old Testament also carries the same feel. Often the angel of the LORD and the LORD Himself weren’t separate! Interestingly though, the real angel would show up! And when they do, they always refuse to be worshipped! We shall have the same experience in this Book.
The overcomer will have the right to eat from the Tree of Life. Another interesting item!
Adam’s rebellion barred him from reaching the Tree of Life in the Garden of Peace and Tranquility- Eden. Angels were put in place to guard the facility to ensure zero access.
Remember that we have two special trees in Eden: the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life – the forbidden trees. Adam wasn’t allowed to taste fruit from these two trees! He rebelliously tasted the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, the rest is history! Terrible history!
Now the Spirit promises access to the same Tree upon victory.
In John’s gospel, Jesus is the bread of life (6:35), the light of the world (8:12), the door (10:7), the good shepherd (10:11, 14), the resurrection and the life (11:25), the way the truth and the life (14:6) and the true vine (15:1).
Could Jesus be the Tree of Life?
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