Reflections on a Pauline Pilgrimage to Turkey [6]
“Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” [Revelation 2:4, KJ]
[1] Library of Celsus, Ephesus. [2] Temple of Hadrian in Ephesus, © Dick Osseman.
Ancient Ephesus [near the modern town of Izmir] must be magnificent.
Miles of streets were paved with marble. Specialty shopping lined the high street. The synagogue boasted both the substantial size and the economic strength of the Jewish community. A giant theatre that seated some twenty to thirty thousand pointed to the size of the affluent segment of the society. The famous Library of Celsus, built in AD 117 by an heir of Tiberius Julius Celsus, held at least 12,000 papyrus scrolls. The size and architectural complexity of the Temple of Artemis made it one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Terms like “the supreme metropolis of Asia” are used by historians to describe Ephesus, alluding to a highly developed city. In a word, Ephesus was rich.
No wonder Ephesus was the first of the seven churches to be addressed by Christ.
In chapters 2 and 3 of the Book of Revelation, Jesus Christ dictates seven letters to the Apostle John, addressed to each of the seven churches of Asia Minor at the time.
The ruins of the Seven Churches of Revelation stirred up quite a great deal of feelings and emotions which would take some time to process. In regard to each of the seven churches, we were mighty impressed by the work of the early missionaries. This feeling of admiration, generating praises in our hearts, quickly gave way to sadness as we saw laying before us nothing but pathetic ruins. To be sure, a great deal of the physical ruins and abandonment that we saw so much of across Turkey were caused by earthquakes. Coupled with earthquake devastations, there was the gradual silting up of rivers, causing the decline of trade and commerce in otherwise booming townships. Finally, migration of people out of those dying port towns spelt their eventual demise. But pilgrims’ sadness went paralysingly deeper, as they saw in some cases the total disappearance of the Christian presence. We looked in helpless wonderment: How could the work of the early missionaries be erased so completely? What would it take for modern day St Pauls and St Barnabases to rise from the ashes?
And as we read the Scriptures at every ancient church-site, we could not but feel challenged and unsettled by the Word. Somehow, Scripture sounded different when we read them standing in the ruins of the seven churches. A sense of urgency happened inside of us when we read the messages. On a pilgrimage, it is so important to not only read each of the messages at the relevant sites, but to give time to pause and reflect. Perhaps hearing them as a conversation with the Lord was what helped us open our hearts in spiritual dialogue. And perhaps in spiritual dialogues, the partners are changed in no matter how big or small a way so that, even though they might not realize it at the time, one is never exactly the same person after a pilgrimage.
7 churches and 7 messages
Modern Turkey is home to all seven churches mentioned in the opening chapters of the Book of Revelation. At the time it was written, around 100 AD, the churches were located in a region of the Roman empire known as Asia Minor. The messages were church-specific – seven churches, seven messages.
Differing in length according to the needs of each community, these messages follow a common pattern: the Lord of hosts first addresses each church and identifies himself, then defines the character of each church based on details specific to each, followed by a challenge or reproach and a promise that everyone who conquers will be rewarded by Christ. A feature common to all seven is the inclusion of this admonition: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”.
The Message to the church in Ephesus
The message to Ephesus is contained in Revelation 2:1-7, which opens to a 3-point reflection.
[1] The Lord acknowledged and praised what was good and commendable
The Lord judged and praised the Ephesians for four counts of right attitudes and behaviours in their previous life of faith:
- The Risen Christ praised them for their hard work in the Lord. Christian work is not for the faint-hearted, the lazy or the non-committed. St Paul the Apostle is the clearest reminder to all on this point. By the grace of God, Paul could claim that he worked harder in ministry than all [1 Corinthians 15:10]. He had feared that those he evangelized in Galatia would slip back, thus causing his labour to be wasted [Galatians 4:11]. Even while he was under house-arrest in Rome, he wrote to the Philippians thanking God for those who diligently labored for the Gospel.
- The Risen Christ praised them for enduring hardship patiently. The Lord well knew that in the face of trials and difficulties, apathy could easily set in, so he commended them for not growing weary. What the Lord judged commendable was not grim resignation. Rather, what was commended was a Christian courage which, in the face of suffering and hardship, would steadfastly live a noble and beautiful life after the manner of the Suffering Lord.
- The Risen Christ praised them for hating the works of the Nicolaitans, just like the Lord did. The Nicolaitans were heretics who compromised God’s instructions on morality and idolatry and, if allowed to continue, would ruin the Christian difference in a pagan society.
- The Risen Christ praised them for detesting evil men who called themselves apostles, proving them liars, and rejecting them as false teachers. They have taken to heart the warning of the Lord: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” [Matthew 7:15]. Clearly, they had also heeded Paul’s advice to beware of such teachers. In 1 Timothy, Paul instructed Timothy to stay in Ephesus and contain the false teachers who were insiders. In his farewell speech at Miletus given to the elders of Ephesus, Paul exhorted them to “keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock” and warned them to watch out for “savage wolves” [the common local metaphor lukoi bareis], some of whom would come from their own group [Acts 20:28-31].
[2] The Lord admonished them for the loss of their first love
Although the Ephesians labored diligently in the Lord, did not tolerate wickedness, were solidly against evil, and hated idolatry and immorality, something had now gone seriously wrong. There was by now a major problem that needed to be corrected: they had lost their first love.
- They had lost that initial simple and trusting relationship with God, abandoned a close communion with God in regular prayers, and no longer demonstrated a humble and teachable spirit.
- They had lost that initial excitement and enthusiasm for God’s truth and his law of love and became rigid and self-righteous, imposing their own standards over God’s.
- Having done well and become successful in life, they had lost that initial characteristic of enthusiasm to be in communal fellowship and the accompanying willingness to serve others.
[3] The Lord pronounced a cure
The cure pronounced by the Lord in verse 5 is rather straightforward. It maps out a three-step return journey.
- First, the Ephesians ought to remember from what they had fallen. The Lord himself has suggested in the Parable of the Prodigal Son that the first step to a prodigal’s home-coming is often the remembering of the home.
- Second. the Ephesians must repent of their mistakes. God’s help is essential, grace is always on offer. Just as Paul has noted, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” [Romans 5:20]. However, it is a serious mistake to leave it all to God. Unless the human sinner seriously cooperates with grace, nothing happens. So the Ephesians were required by the Lord to face their errors squarely, admit those were their faults and no one else’s, and to feel sorry for them.
- Third, the Ephesians should do what they used to at first. There is no true repentance where a sinner continues in the same old ways. A repentant Christian walks in grace, and always has good fruits to show for his turnaround.
Then, the Risen Christ makes the same call that he will make to each of the seven churches to “have ear” and “listen to what the Spirit is saying”. But he does something else here, in his promise to those who prove victorious, he makes a promise to grant them the privilege of eating of “the tree of life which is in the paradise of God”. This is a reference to the Garden of Eden in Genesis [2:9], the fruit of which Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat. What Adam and Eve had lost, the Messiah had restored.
How is this message relevant to us today?
The three terms “works, toil and patient endurance” remind us of the persistence and the perseverance of the saints. They help us focus on obedience to the Spirit and personal commitment to ministry [works and toil], even in the face of difficulty and opposition [perseverance]. For in this pilgrimage, it is easy for us to link up with the Pauline spirit of “finishing the race”, persevering in the face of hardship and refusing to quit.
And yet, what we have here is definitely more than mere pedagogy. The Risen Christ does not care to produce a long list of faults. The practical sense that we get in reading this Scripture is that what is crucial in the life of the church is honest, genuine, authentic living and working in the love of Christ for we can love because God first loved us [1 John 4:19]. The absence of a spirit of gratitude is a sign of one’s forgetfulness of our calling to love.
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, September, 2011.
You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to us at jeffangiegoh@gmail.com. You can also be dialogue partners in this Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry by sending us questions for discussion.