Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #4 in Revelation 2, and we will read Revelation 2:3:

And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

Again, the Lord is addressing the angel of the church at Ephesus, or the messenger (the elect) of the church, but what He is saying has application to that church and to all churches. 

So far, God is commending them.  There have been several good things He has found as He looks at them and seen their works.  Keep in mind that the church as a corporate body does stand in a “works relationship” with God.  They are not in the same relationship as a saved individual because that individual is saved by grace, but the corporate church must maintain good works.  And this church at Ephesus had some good works.  As we move on to verse 3, let me read, again, verse 2 because verse 3 is really a carryover from the previous verse.  It says in Revelation 2:2-3:

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

Where it says, “And hast borne,” this is the same word used in verse 2: “and how thou canst not bear them which are evil.”  We immediately wonder, “What have they borne?”  God does not say what it is, but He only says they have “borne” something.  What is it?  This is when we need to compare Scripture with Scripture, and follow this word as it is used in other places in the Bible.  Once we do that, we will find our answer. 

It says in Acts 9:15-16:

But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.

This is referring to Saul of Tarsus who had that encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was blinded.  And now the Lord was going to use Saul, and He will give him the name of Paul, and he will carry the Gospel message that he had despised to the Gentiles.  Saul must “bear” Christ’s name, and that is not an easy thing to bear; it can be very difficult in this world.  And that is what Saul had to bear, and that is what all the true believers must bear.

And that is what those in the church of Ephesus had to bear – they had to bear the name of Christ as “Christians.”  They had to bear this name to the nations of the world, the Gentiles, and they had to profess Christ’s name and live according to that name.  And that is where this word also takes us in Luke 14:27:

And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

And that is what had to be “borne,” the name of Christ, and the life of living as a Christian, taking up our cross daily.  This is what they had “borne.”  It goes on to say in Revelation 2:3:

… and hast patience…

Patience is always something that is a part of a child of God’s life.  Let us look at Romans 5:3-5:

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed…

This is letting us know that certain things work together as God works out these spiritual attributes, and it will result in certain things.  He says that “tribulation worketh patience.”  Christ said of the child of God, “In the world, ye shall have tribulation,” and that is the normative situation for each Christian throughout the church age, and in all times.  We can expect tribulation. 

Now God also speaks of “great tribulation,” but that was reserved for a certain season at the time of the end of the world, and we are familiar with that because we have gone through the Great Tribulation.

But “tribulation” is also the lot of the Christian.  It is what every child of God can expect, and since it is our lot in life and what is normal for life in this world, so too will come “patience,” because “tribulation worketh patience.”  God’s people have had to exercise patience all through history, even in the days before Christ came when the people of God had to patiently wait for the coming Messiah.  The New Testament believers had to wait for God to bring about the end of the world and the return of Christ, and we are still waiting for Christ to finalize and complete His judgment process, and for the Lord Jesus to return in the sense of taking His people out of this world. 

So patience plays a key role in the Christian’s life, and the Lord is here commending the church of Ephesus, and this also applies to those that would demonstrate these traits in the churches throughout the church age.  Again, it says, “…And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured…”   We saw earlier in Acts 9 that God said of Saul that he must “bear my name before the Gentiles,” and here the name of Christ comes up again: “and for my name's sake hast laboured.”  For the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Gospel went forth.  Work in the Gospel was done as the people of God laboured to share the Word of God to others in the world. 

Remember how God likens “labour” to the building of the kingdom of God in 1Corinthians 3:9-13:

For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it…

This is  describing the work of the Gospel, the work of sharing the truth of the Bible, and God would use that labour of His people to bless the elect who would hear the Word, and to add them upon the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This labour has continued for century, after century, as the people of God preached and shared the Gospel with the inhabitants of the world, even though there would be much opposition to the sending out of the Gospel by the enemy of God’s kingdom.  The kingdom of darkness headed up by Satan and his emissaries came constantly against the true Gospel as it went forth, and there developed much affliction, and that is why God goes on to say, in Revelation 2:3:

…and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

They did not let the forces of evil that came against the Word of God overcome them, and they did not allow those forces to stop their work of sending the Gospel out into the world.

The word “fainted” is only found three times.  We will go to only one other place where it is found in Hebrews 12:1-3:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Here, God is telling us to look to Christ and His supreme example of giving up His life out of the great love He showed in going to the cross as He demonstrated what had He had done in taking the sins of His people upon Himself before the foundation of the world, dying for the sins of His people.  Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Do not look to the world.  Do not look to man, but look to Christ.  But if you do not look to Him and if you do not consider what Christ has done, it is very possible that you would become weary and faint in your mind.

But in Revelation 2, it says, “…and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.”  This would mean that the church at Ephesus and the believers within it were looking to Christ and His example, and through the power of God this enabled them to continue on, and not to faint and grow weary.  Again, the Lord is commending them.  It was a positive thing they had done.

Let us move on to the next verse in Revelation 2:4:

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Now, for the first time, the Lord is turning His attention to something negative, a failing and a sin of the church of Ephesus.  Again, I keep repeating this, so we do not forget it, but He is referring to the church as a whole because Ephesus is a representative of the churches throughout the church age. 

Here, God is referring to this church’s earlier obedience: “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”  We need to keep in mind that Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”  “Love” and “obedience” are closely related.  We cannot separate them, according to the Bible.  And Ephesus had left their first love, and this means that at some earlier point they had loved the Lord Jesus Christ.  When was this?  This would have been early in the beginning of the church age.  That was the time when the idea of salvation was a great motivating force, prompting them in the churches and congregations to do works of faithful obedience to the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ, the commandments of God.  The Lord moved the Apostle John to write these words before the first century was completed, but it was earlier in the century in 33 A. D. on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out, and that officially began the church age.  And now it is just a few decades later when the Bible was about to be completed, and the Lord is saying that they have left their first love, and He has this against them.  This was something that was wrong.  It was sinful on the part of the churches and congregations.  No – it had not been long at all, and the church soon forgot the first love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us go to a place in the Bible that you may not have thought of as speaking of the New Testament churches and congregations, but they are actually in view in the book of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is speaking of Judah, but the Lord is using Judah as a type and figure of the New Testament churches, and we read in Jeremiah 2:1-4:

Moreover the word of JEHOVAH came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith JEHOVAH; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto JEHOVAH, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith JEHOVAH. Hear ye the word of JEHOVAH, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:

Here, God is saying, “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness…”  That is when Israel came out of Egypt as the Lord brought about that tremendous deliverance from the Egyptians and from bondage, it was like the “first love” of their youth, and the love of their espousals for a very short period of time was burning hot toward God.  There was great love and great feelings toward Him.  Certainly the recently freed Jews were thinking, “Whatever God wants us to do , we will do.”  But it did not last long at all until the burning sun, the lack of water and the lack of food tested them, and it brought them quickly to murmuring against God.  They had left their “first love” in the blink of an eye.  And Israel’s historical situation in the wilderness is a picture of the New Testament churches and congregations.  Israel of old was an institution, or a corporate body, and God required faithful obedience.  Likewise, the New Testament church institution, the corporate body, was required to obey the commandments of God.

Notice that it goes on to say in Jeremiah 2:5-8:

Thus saith JEHOVAH, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? Neither said they, Where is JEHOVAH that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination. The priests said not, Where is JEHOVAH? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

It is a very old story of the corporate body, the outward representatives of God’s kingdom to the world (Israel of old and the New Testament churches) having fallen from their “first love.”  They sinned against God.  They have not maintained faithful obedience to the commandments God had given them.  The Lord continues to point out the failings of the New Testament churches in Revelation 2:5:

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Again, the Lord is referring back to their earlier obedience: “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen.”  They had to have a position to fall from, and then it says, “and repent.”  That is, return back to that position of faithfulness, “and do the first works.”  This would mean the church was obeying God earlier, and they were maintaining that good work.  And a “good work” is obedience to whatever God commands.

For instance, what did the New Testament churches need to return to in order to be obedient?  They would have kept a proper understanding of the grace of God, maintaining that salvation is of the Lord, and He is the one who can save sinners, and man can do nothing.  But the churches have fallen from that position, and they have mixed in man’s works with the pure grace of God.  Of course we see this everywhere today.  The idea of works has been immersed in the mindset of the congregations in our modern churches.  But that error has long been there, and the churches were encouraging their members to do certain things.  Again, that is fine for the corporate body as a whole.  The church institution had to maintain good works to keep a right standing with God, but that is never true for individuals.  The churches were required to teach that the hearers of the Gospel could not do any work to get themselves saved – it was all by the grace of God.

It is rather ironic and interesting that God required the good works of the church to maintain “grace.”  That is, the churches were commanded by God to teach the true and faithful Gospel of the Bible, which is that people cannot do anything to obtain salvation.  All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and any attempt of our own to get right with God would just bring us under the Law of God, and bring His curse upon us.  So the churches were required to teach “grace.”  That was their work.  That is the ironic thing.  They were obligated and responsible to God to teach “grace.”  When the churches would fail and allow works to enter into their Gospel presentation to the congregations, then they were fallen from grace.  They fell from the duty they were bound to do in teaching the truth of the Bible, the Word of God, faithfully.  So they failed in that work they were responsible to teach in order to maintain a pure Gospel of grace.

That was one of the major sins of the New Testament churches and congregations, and these things have been happening for centuries.  They have allowed the idea of “free will” to enter into the equation of how an individual becomes saved.  They have allowed water baptism to have a part in the matter of salvation, or partaking of the Lord’s Table, and so forth.  They have polluted the Gospel of grace, and they have given their hearers of the Gospel the wrong idea which allows them to think, “If I accept Christ; or if I am baptized in water; or if I regularly partake of the Lord’s Table, I can get right with God, and He will be pleased with me, and I will enter into the kingdom of heaven.” 

That was wrong on the church’s part, and God had long commanded that the churches and congregations repent of this, as well as all the other wrong doctrines, but especially that they would repent of this doctrine.  God gave space for them to repent, as we will learn as we continue on in our Bible study, and that “space” lasted almost two thousand years, but they did not repent.  They did not return to the “first works” of love and obedience to the true Gospel of God.  So what the Lord says next would come to pass, but we will have to take a look at that when we get together in our next Bible study.