Letter to the Seven Churches - To Ephesus

Revelations 2: 1-7  Write down My words, and send them to the messenger of the church in Ephesus. " These are the words of the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks and moves among the golden lamp-stands: "I know your deeds, your tireless labor, and your patient endurance. I know you do not tolerate those who do evil. Furthermore, you have diligently tested those who claim to be emissaries, and you have found that they are not true witnesses. You have correctly found them out to be false. I know you are patiently enduring and holding firm on behalf of My name. You have not become faint. However, I have this against you: you have abandoned your first love. Do you remember what it was like before you fell? It's time to rethink your ways; go back to how you first acted. However, if you do not return, I will come quickly and personally remove your lamp-stand from its place. But you do have this to your credit: you despise the deeds of the Nicolaitans and how they concede to evil. I also hate what they do. Let the person who can hear listen to and follow what the spirit proclaims to all the churches. I will allow the one who conquers through faithfulness even unto death to eat from the tree of life found in God's lush paradise."

While the  apostle John was imprisoned on Patamos he was given a vision from God. These series of letters to the seven churches are one part of these visions. It is interesting to note from church history that John was only imprisoned after Domitian first ordered his excursion by having him boiled alive. John survived this so Domitian did the next best thing he could think of which was to send him to the island of Patamos which was a prison colony at the time.

These letters are written both for the church and for individual believers

So what was the problem in Ephesus? After all Jesus said it was tireless in labor and he knew her works. They apparently knew the word great enough that when people came in his name they were able to test them out.

The problem with Ephesus is I believe they became much like the pharisees. They relied on knowing the law and good works in order to gain salvation. This is an easy trap for all of us to fall into. Salvation is not the results of being a good person but the result of putting our full trust in God.

 go back to how you first acted

When someone first becomes a Christian there is no good works to rely on. There is also no real knowledge of scriptures to rely on. The only thing one has to rely on is the promise and love of God. We come either as young souls or come latter as broken souls. In the beginning we tend to do our good works or study the word of God because we love God. But we easily fall in the trap over time that loving God is not good enough that we need to do something more. This is Satan talking to us. He whispers to our souls "Did God really say that?" "Are you sure that is all you need to do to be saved?".

There are two main ways to show that you love God. The first is by obeying God and the other is by loving others. But we need to remember these things do not bring salvation they only show our appreciation for what God has done for us.

In the final part of this letter we receive a promise from the lord. It is the promise of e mortality if we love God. This is the promise that Adam gave up when he disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden  This is one of the things that are our true inheritance. Satan and our sin took it away from us, but the blood of Jesus has given it back to the rightful heirs.

So one last thing you may be asking yourselves who were the Nicolaitans? It seems they were a Gnostic sect who apparently they believed in a few different things. First they believed that since Jesus died for your sins that you could now sin as much as you wanted and still be saved. While it is true that you can sin after you are saved and not lose your salvation. A person who is truly saved is not going to out and purposely sin as much as they want because they are saved. After we are saved we need to make every effort to obey God. That would mean to try our hardest to obey his laws. The second thing that they appeared to believe is polygamy and group sex. Both of these were probably adopted from pagan religions of the region.