SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/19/2015
9:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Commendation for the church at
Ephesus
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
2:2-3, 6
Message of the
verses: “2 ’I know your deeds and your toil and
perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test
those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be
false; 3 and you have perseverance and
have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. 6 ’Yet this you do have, that you hate the
deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”
The Greek word for “know” is “Oida” however there is another Greek word for know an that word is
ginosko. Oida means complete knowledge, and in this
case we can see that Christ has complete knowledge of all of the churches for
this word is found in 2:9; 13, 19; 3:1, 8, 15).
The other Greek word ginosko
means to accumulate knowledge or progressive knowledge. Jesus Christ is omniscience; He knows everything
including what is going on in His church. Christ knows both the good and the
bad as we will see as we progress through chapters two and three.
Christ is going to tell them the good things that they
are doing before he tells them the things that they are not doing right, and in
the case of the Ephesian church He does add one more good thing (v. 6) after He
tells them what they need to correct (vv. 4-5).
He uses the word “deeds” which is a general term for what He is about to
say. First we see the word “toil.” Toil “Kopos”
denotes labor to the point of sweat and exhaustion. They were working hard for the cause of
Christ as this describes an all out effort on the part of the church including
both physical exhaustion and also mental exhaustion. Next we see the word “perseverance” and this
is translated “hupomone, and this
speaks of having patience in trying situations and circumstances. MacArthur writes “In contrast, its synonym makrothumia, generally emphasizes
patience with people.” We see this word,
perseverance six times in chapters 2-3 and then once more in chapter
fourteen. Perseverance is seen 21 times
in the NASB translation in the entire NT.
MacArthur continues “This commendation indicates that despite their
difficult circumstances, the Ephesian believers remained faithful to their
Lord.”
Another commendation from Christ to them is that they
refused to tolerate evil men. These
believers knew the difference between men who wanted to follow the Lord and
those who did not as they had the spiritual understanding to spot those who
were evil. Remember that Satan can act
as an angel of light, but that still makes him who he is and that is evil and a
liar. Now on the thought that these men
were actually believers they would use the proper discipline that is spelled
out in Matthew 18:15 and following for these men.
We mentioned that they had a great deal of spiritual
discernment as we see further evidence of it when we see that they “put to the
test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and …found them to
be false.” Paul spoke of this to the
elders of that church when he was about to leave them as seen in Acts 20:28-31 “28 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all
the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the
church of God which He purchased with His own blood. 29 “I know that after my
departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and
from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw
away the disciples after them. 31 “Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day
for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.” It seems to me that they had followed this admonition
that Paul gave them. Now this letter to them by our Lord was sent some forty
years after Paul spoke to them in Acts 20 and so Christ is giving them a commendation
for following this teaching from Paul.
False teachers were a problem in the early church and
they are still problems in churches today and so we must be like the church in
Ephesus and be on guard for them, having great discernment and they to either
discipline them or just plain kick them out of the church.
Verse six speaks of what Christ called the Nicolaitans,
and this term is also used in His letter to the church at Pergamum where we can
get some more light on this subject.
There is no dogmatic answer to who these people are however there is
speculation that in Acts chapter six we find one of the first deacons was named
Nicholas and there is speculation from those in the early church that said he
or a follower of him is behind their deeds.
Now the word Nicolaitans comes from two Greek words and the first word
is Nike which is familiar in our sporting world today. The definition is as follows “Nicolaitans
= "destruction of people"”
and my Greek/English dictionary goes on to say the following “a sect
mentioned in #Re 2:6,15, who were charged with holding the error of Balaam,
casting a stumbling block before the church of God by upholding the liberty of
eating things sacrificed to idols as well as committing fornication.” Now the name Balaam has a similar meaning and
we read the following again from my Greek/English dictionary “A native of
Pethor a city in Mesopotamia, endued by Jehovah with prophetic power. He was
hired by Balak to curse the Israelites; and influenced by the love of reward,
he wished to gratify Balak; but he was compelled by Jehovah’s power to bless
them. Hence later the Jews saw him as a most abandoned deceiver.” Balaam could not curse Israel, but he did
cause them to commit sexual sins against the Lord, thus we believe that these
Nicolaitans were doing the same thing and the believers in Ephesus hated this.
1/19/2015 10:02 AM
1/19/2015 11:37 AM
MacArthur concludes this section with the following “Unlike
the church at Pergamum, the Ephesian church did not tolerate the Nicolaitans
but hated their heretical teachings. For
that they Lord Jesus Christ commended them.
Hatred was an appropriate attitude and exactly the opposite reaction to
the tolerance of the Pergamum church toward the Nicolaitans (1:14-15). The Bible reveals that God hates impurity
(Isa. 61:8; Jer. 44:4; Amos 5:21; Zech. 8:17).”
Now this may seem strange to some but look at the following verse in the
book of Romans “Ro 9:13 As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I
have hated.’” “1) to hate, pursue with
hatred, detest” and this is the meaning of the word hate from the Greek/English
Dictionary.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I suppose that
most people remember the fact that the Lord tells the Ephesians that they had
left their first love as seen in verse four, however this being true of course
there are still many things that the Lord commended them for that I can follow,
and then I also want to obey the Lord, which means that I love Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, mind,
and strength, and to act and continue to believe that He loves me.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Peter 1:5-9.
5 Now for the very reason
also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in
your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in
your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness 7 and in
your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For
if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither
useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he
who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his
purification from his former sins.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Lot’s” (Genesis 19:23-26).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which book records Moses’
final talk to the children of Israel?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/19/2015 11:59 AM
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