Revelation’s Commentary – The Seven churches – Part I

Verses 1:20 through 2:24

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Our carnal nature screams out:

 

Me First,

Me Best,

Me Now,

Me wants gratification right now!

 

The message sent to Ephesus is a timeless and universal message from Jesus to every Christian: If we lose our first love, we lose Jesus. Jesus said to the Ephesians, “But you have this in your favor: You hate the practice of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

 

Nicolas, of Alexandria, Egypt, was a very bright philosopher of that time and he skillfully merged some of Jesus’ teachings into the popular philosophies of Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a philosophy that displaces the wisdom of God with mysticism. Gnosticism defines right and wrong, good and evil through “higher human knowledge.”

 

First century A.D. Gnostics robbed the Word of God of its clarity and simplicity by treating the Scriptures as though they were an allegory – having shades of meaning. Because Lucifer is a million times more intelligent than a human being, they were able to twist the teachings of Jesus to that His harsh rebukes and condemning truths about sin and sinful behavior were softened and disguised. Even though various schools of thought existed within Gnosticism, Gnostic philosophy is nothing more than a series of clever justifications for godless living and sinful behavior.

 

Today, Gnosticism is called “moral relevancy.” Moral relevancy is a type of reasoning that is man bases. It rejects the higher authority of God and even worse; it diffuses man’s accountability to God and His law. Many so-called Christians are Gnostics and this is proven by their reasoning and behavior.

 

Many Christians reject the idea that sexual immorality is an abomination to God. They think God is love, and as such, He accepts everyone as they are – even if we choose to live in sin. How did this point of view develop?  

Simple:

 

The devil has diminished the simplicity of God’s Word. We have come to the place where a plain “thus saith the Lord” is meaningless. A confused group of some 250 Christian denominations have shown the world that the Bible “is a matter of interpretation.” Therefore, sexual immorality is a matter of interpretation.

 

This matter of thinking is called moral relativism – that is, man “interprets” what is moral – what is good and evil. We do not know specifically which philosophies of Nicolas the church at Ephesus rejected. However, Jesus commended the church for preventing their subtle invasion.

Jesus closed His remarks to the church at Ephesus saying, “He who has an ear,let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the rightto eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

 

The phrase “He who has an ear….”means there is a message hidden in His words that most people will notunderstand. The hidden message for those who overcome the loss of their first loveis this: Jesus will enormously reward everyone who overcomes the temptations and cravings of the carnal nature.

 

Over comers will be given the right to eat from the tree of life. God did not permit Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Life after they sinned because the fruit of this tree perpetually sustains life. (Genesis 3:23,24)

 

 All who have the right to eat from this tree will be sustained forever. Even more, the promise indicates that overcoming the loss of first love is possible. Through the renewing and indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, we can limit the clamor of the carnal nature and keep it submissive to the spiritual nature that calls for constant communion with God!

 

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