Study
3 From the Book of Revelation is: Revelation 2:1-7
The
seven letters of chapters 2 and 3 are all similar in structure, beginning with
titles descriptive of Christ, which have already occurred in the vision in
1:9-20; then giving Christ’s message to the church, and closing with a summons
to hear and a promise to ‘him who conquers’. In the last four letters the
promise precedes the summons.
1-
State in your own words what Christ found to commend in the Church
at Ephesus (Verses 2, 3, 6).
2-
What was the poof that their love had declined? How could this condition
be remedied? What further danger otherwise beset them? How should we take such
a warning to heart?
3-
Verse 7a. Note the present tense ‘says’, and the combination of individual appeal and
universal application. How does Christ still speak through these scriptures,
and to whom? Cf. Mk. 4:9, 23; 8:18. How may the hearing ear be obtained?
Notes
1-
Verse 6. Nicholaitans’. See also verses 14, 15. Nicholaos’ may
be meant as a Greek equivalent of ‘Balaam’, intended to describe a person who
lays waste the people of God, as Balaam did through the introduction of idolatrous
and immoral practices. Cf. 2 Pet. 2:15, 16.
2-
Verse 7. ‘The tree of life’:
in contrast to the corrupt fruit of idolatrous and sensual self-indulgence.
Cf. 22:2.
