December 6, 2024 - Revelation 2:8-11

The church at Smyrna.  I think it is important to note that, with each of these letters, they are addressed not to individuals but to churches.  When the angel chastises and warns it is not to named individuals but to churches.  When the angel commends, the praise is not for individuals but for the churches.  Here, the church in Smyrna has faced tribulation, poverty, and slander.  The Lord acknowledges their suffering but promises, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (2:10).  Individually, we are accountable for our own lives.  In any particular population there are those who stand out as exceptionally good and those who are known as bad.  But a society sort of gets a reputation as a whole.  It’s the same with churches.  We are called to faithfulness as individuals.  Within the congregation there are those who are more faithful than others.  But churches have corporate reputations, don't they?  What’s the old proverb?  “One bad apple spoils the whole barrel.”  Conversely, one or several truly faithful people can raise the reputation of a larger group.  We don’t have any information on the individual members of the church in Smyrna but we do know that, as a congregation, they came in for much praise by the Lord.  That’s a good thing.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus,

the strife will not be long;

this day the noise of battle,

the next, the victor’s song.

To him that overcometh

a crown of life shall be;

he with the King of glory

shall reign eternally.    -- George Duffield (1858)