The Church At Ephesus

(Revelation 2:1-7)

"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

The One who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."

The congregation in Ephesus was established by the apostle Paul on his 2nd missionary journey, and a description of the church can be found in Acts 18-20. This church was deeply spiritual and pure when it started out. It had great zeal and love for God. They worked hard and they tried everything to see if it was true and good, as can be seen from the fact they tried those people who said they were apostles, but under scrutiny, they were found to be liars.

Ephesus was very known throughout the world of that time for worship of Diana or Artemis, who was considered to be the mother goddess of the earth. The myth that prevailed in that day was that the image of Diana had fallen from the sky (Note Acts 19:35) and as such much of the Ephesian economy centered around this, ie. the selling of silver shines of Artemis (Note Acts 19:24).

In this letter God commends the Ephesian church for their hard work and perseverance, and that they "tested those who claim to be apostles but are not" and "found them false". In the Book of Acts ,Paul told them that false prophets would arise in their church and try to distort the true Gospel (Note Acts 20:29).

Note that God also commends the Ephesian church for hating the "deeds of the Nicolaitans" which God also hates. So... who are the Nicolaitans?

The term Nicolaitans comes from two Greek words:: 1.) Niko = to conquer or overthrow
2.) Laso = the people or the laity
When put together means "Victory over the people (laity) or to Conquer the Laity."

Nicolaitism sought to establish an ecclesiastical order that would rule the people, to have a ruling class in the Church that dominated the people or "the laity"

This is what the Holy Spirit had in mind when He told the church elders through Peter to be examples to the flock of God, and not lording it over them (See 1Peter 5:3).

God's only condemnation to this church was that they "lost their first love", meaning, even though they were doing many of the right things, their true love for the LORD was beginning to grow cold. Remember when Jesus was asked "what is the greatest commandment?", He replied "To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength"(See Mark 12:30). Even though doing much of the right things, it appears this church still lost it's true love for the Lord.

The Dispensational View of

the Letter to Ephesus

(33 A.D. to 100 A.D.)

When we study the growth of the Church from the very beginning to it's present time, we note that what God wrote to the Ephesians, fits very closely to what happened in the Church during the time period of 33 A.D. to 100 A.D.

After Jesus left His disciples, they began to carry out His commission (go into all the world and preach the Gospel), establishing churches all over the Roman Empire. By 100 A.D., all the original apostles had died and gone on to be with the Lord. But the churches they established and the leaders they built up continued the work of the Lord. Early church manuscripts document that even from it's inception, the Church struggled with false teachers and false docrtrines trying to infiltrate, but that the Church held true and continued to grow in spite of the confusion and persecution. Manuscripts even identify that as churches grew, some in leadership attempted to gain more authority and control (much like the Nicolaitans in Ephesus).

Personal Application

God does indeed expect us to demonstrate our faith through works and to judge between correct and false doctrines. However, all the works and "correct" doctrine in the world is not as important to God as "loving the Lord with ALL our hearts....". God calls us to work for Him like Martha (See Luke 11:38-42), but the first and most important thing for us is to be like Mary (Also in Luke 11:38-42). Another Important lesson from this letter is that God wants and expects us to develop a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with Him, not come to Him only through our church leaders.