The book of Revelation opens with the letters from Jesus to 7 churches in Christendom. In these letters, He acknowledges what these churches are doing right, where they are going astray and He counsels them as to how to get back on track. Jesus additionally addresses the individual believers in each church, commending them for seeing through the fog of doctrinal teachings to the core message of the gospel, challenging them to withstand and overcome.
These 7 churches have historical roots as actual churches that existed in the Roman province of Asia. The churches are addressed by the city that they were located in.
There are 4 elements to each of the letters in scripture, and they are as follows:
· Praise - what the Lord is pleased with
· Condemnation - what the Lord is upset about
· Advice - to the leaders of the group as to how to get back on track
· Challenge - to the true believers within the group, to hold fast and overcome
· Praise - what the Lord is pleased with
· Condemnation - what the Lord is upset about
· Advice - to the leaders of the group as to how to get back on track
· Challenge - to the true believers within the group, to hold fast and overcome
The Lord tells us that he has sent us out as sheep amongst the wolves, that we are to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16). Additionally, he counsels that we will know false teachers by their fruits (Matthew 7:20), that we are to study the scriptures to show ourselves approved (2Timothy 2:15) and that we are to try every teaching to see if it is from God (1John 4:1).
1. Church of Ephesus -- Revelation 2:1-7
Praise: I know that you do good deeds, and work hard. You are patient and cannot stand evil. You condemn those who do wrong and hold false teachings to the fire. Condemnation: You have left your first love - the core of the gospel. Advice to leaders: Remember where it is that you have fallen from, repent and go back to the original teachings. Challenge to believers: To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Praise: I know that you do good deeds, and work hard. You are patient and cannot stand evil. You condemn those who do wrong and hold false teachings to the fire. Condemnation: You have left your first love - the core of the gospel. Advice to leaders: Remember where it is that you have fallen from, repent and go back to the original teachings. Challenge to believers: To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
2. Church of Smyrna -- Revelation 2:8-11
Praise: I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) Condemnation: Nothing !! Advice to leaders: Don't fear your suffering - satan will torment you and you will be tried. Be faithful unto death and you will have the crown of life.. Challenge to believers: He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death (and will have eternal life). Application: Throughout the world, Christians are being persecuted in places like China, Russia, the Philippines and the Islamic Nation States. Witnessing is illegal in many of these places and sadly, it is all too common to hear of Christians being jailed, tortured and even beheaded for the crime of attempting to spread the gospel and the testimony of Jesus.
3. Church of Pergamum -- Revelation 2:12-17
Praise: You live where satan lives, yet you never renounced me. Condemnation: But I have a few things against you, your teachings pollute your people both spiritually and socially with unacceptable pagan practices. Advice to leaders: Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth! Challenge to believers: To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth [it]. Application: Those teaching false doctrines, causing people to sin because they think it is 'ok', based on the interpretations of their leadership. What these leaders are doing is teaching that the Word of God is to be treated as a cafeteria plan where you can pick and choose what you want to believe and disregard that which you don't. Pergamum is not lukewarm to the gospel, they have just chosen to believe that certain things in it don't apply to them. The first group that comes to mind here is the MCC - The Metropolitan Community Church - gay Christians. This is a huge denomination that teaches that it is OK to be gay and Christian - maintaining that God created them gay (so it must be all right) rather than acknowledging that their homosexuality is merely a manifestation of the sin nature that we are all born with.
4. Church of Thyatira -- Revelation 2:18-29
Praise: I know your deeds, your love, your charity, faith and service. You are doing more of these things than you ever have! Condemnation: While on the outside, you appear as a model church, you are rife with corruption and corrupt teachings, from deep within. You have committed adultery against me with your idol worship.Advice to leaders: Repent now or I will spew you into the tribulation Challenge to believers: To those who are faithful within, rejecting the false doctrines, hold fast till I come. Application: The Lord references Jezebel in his condemnation to this church - referring to the woman who lured people away from Him with idolatry by focusing them on things other than Him.
Traits seen today include viewing Mary as the mediatrix between man and God, the veneration of statues and images, grace being administered through humanly prescribed sacraments, church tradition held as equivalent in authority to the Bible, and the doctrine of confessing to priests as a means of maintaining one's salvation.
5. Church of Sardis -- Revelation 3:1-6
Praise: I know your deeds - your name carries much recognition among men ... Condemnation: But now you are dead. Advice to leaders: Remember your beginnings, return to them and repent. You are not paying attention to my Word and you need to wake up! Challenge to believers: He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
6. Church of Philadelphia -- Revelation 3:7-13
Praise: You may not be the biggest group, but I know your works and your teachings. Even without strength or power, you have kept My Word and not compromised My name. Condemnation: Nothing !! Advice to leaders: I am coming quickly. Hold onto what you have. Challenge to believers: Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will write upon him] my new name.
7. Church of Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22)
Praise: Nothing !!Condemnation: You are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other but because you have no redeeming qualities whatsoever, I will spit you out of my mouth into the tribulation. You say that you are wealthy and in need of nothing, but what you don't realize is that you are truly wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Advice to leaders: You need to start concerning yourself with eternal riches and not earthly ones, humble yourself about your sins and open your eyes to My truth before its too late. Challenge to believers: To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne Application: Unlike the other churches that have let doctrinal interpretations cloud the message of salvation, this group is neither hot nor cold to it - they simply avoid it all together. They teach of wealth and healing but not of salvation and repentance. Rather than instruct people on how to humble themselves to the Lord's will, they teach that He is to conform to our will.
Praise: I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) Condemnation: Nothing !! Advice to leaders: Don't fear your suffering - satan will torment you and you will be tried. Be faithful unto death and you will have the crown of life.. Challenge to believers: He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death (and will have eternal life). Application: Throughout the world, Christians are being persecuted in places like China, Russia, the Philippines and the Islamic Nation States. Witnessing is illegal in many of these places and sadly, it is all too common to hear of Christians being jailed, tortured and even beheaded for the crime of attempting to spread the gospel and the testimony of Jesus.
3. Church of Pergamum -- Revelation 2:12-17
Praise: You live where satan lives, yet you never renounced me. Condemnation: But I have a few things against you, your teachings pollute your people both spiritually and socially with unacceptable pagan practices. Advice to leaders: Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth! Challenge to believers: To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth [it]. Application: Those teaching false doctrines, causing people to sin because they think it is 'ok', based on the interpretations of their leadership. What these leaders are doing is teaching that the Word of God is to be treated as a cafeteria plan where you can pick and choose what you want to believe and disregard that which you don't. Pergamum is not lukewarm to the gospel, they have just chosen to believe that certain things in it don't apply to them. The first group that comes to mind here is the MCC - The Metropolitan Community Church - gay Christians. This is a huge denomination that teaches that it is OK to be gay and Christian - maintaining that God created them gay (so it must be all right) rather than acknowledging that their homosexuality is merely a manifestation of the sin nature that we are all born with.
4. Church of Thyatira -- Revelation 2:18-29
Praise: I know your deeds, your love, your charity, faith and service. You are doing more of these things than you ever have! Condemnation: While on the outside, you appear as a model church, you are rife with corruption and corrupt teachings, from deep within. You have committed adultery against me with your idol worship.Advice to leaders: Repent now or I will spew you into the tribulation Challenge to believers: To those who are faithful within, rejecting the false doctrines, hold fast till I come. Application: The Lord references Jezebel in his condemnation to this church - referring to the woman who lured people away from Him with idolatry by focusing them on things other than Him.
Traits seen today include viewing Mary as the mediatrix between man and God, the veneration of statues and images, grace being administered through humanly prescribed sacraments, church tradition held as equivalent in authority to the Bible, and the doctrine of confessing to priests as a means of maintaining one's salvation.
5. Church of Sardis -- Revelation 3:1-6
Praise: I know your deeds - your name carries much recognition among men ... Condemnation: But now you are dead. Advice to leaders: Remember your beginnings, return to them and repent. You are not paying attention to my Word and you need to wake up! Challenge to believers: He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
6. Church of Philadelphia -- Revelation 3:7-13
Praise: You may not be the biggest group, but I know your works and your teachings. Even without strength or power, you have kept My Word and not compromised My name. Condemnation: Nothing !! Advice to leaders: I am coming quickly. Hold onto what you have. Challenge to believers: Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will write upon him] my new name.
7. Church of Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22)
Praise: Nothing !!Condemnation: You are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. I wish you were one or the other but because you have no redeeming qualities whatsoever, I will spit you out of my mouth into the tribulation. You say that you are wealthy and in need of nothing, but what you don't realize is that you are truly wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Advice to leaders: You need to start concerning yourself with eternal riches and not earthly ones, humble yourself about your sins and open your eyes to My truth before its too late. Challenge to believers: To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne Application: Unlike the other churches that have let doctrinal interpretations cloud the message of salvation, this group is neither hot nor cold to it - they simply avoid it all together. They teach of wealth and healing but not of salvation and repentance. Rather than instruct people on how to humble themselves to the Lord's will, they teach that He is to conform to our will.
Jesus said in John 18:36 that His kingdom is not of this world. In Matthew 6:19-20, He explains that we are to store up our riches in heaven and not on earth. All of this is seemingly lost on the church of Laodicea, whose complete focus is on the here and now. They flaunt their opulent lifestyles as proof of the Lord's earthly blessings. They teach that the first step to health and wealth is to give 'seed donations' to their ministries and then have the faith that the Lord will bless this gift and multiply it in return. This becomes a vicious cycle when those who are not healed or showered with wealth are told that it is because they lack the faith to give enough to these ministries, thus soliciting even more donations - all the while, using the Lord's name to increase their personal wealth.
by Christine Peters