Summary of the Seven Churches.
The messages to the seven churches have a common structure, similar in form to ancient letters. (1) Jesus addresses each church by name. (2) He then introduces Himself to each church, using characteristics drawn from Revelation 1. (3) He offers an analysis of the strengths and/or weaknesses of each church. (4) Jesus provides counsel suitable to His analysis of each church. (5) An appeal is made to the church to listen to the Spirit. (6) Each message concludes with a promise or promises to those in each church who overcome. In messages four through seven (beginning with Thyatira), the fifth and sixth components are in reverse order.
The Seven Churches are arranged in a Chiasm which is a literary form that is grounded in Hebrew logic. In Western thinking, A + B = C. But in Hebrew logic, A + B = A enhanced. This literary form is called chiasm. Writers produce chiasms when they reason full circle, coming back to the beginning point of an argument. The first point parallels the last point. The second point parallels the next-to-last point, and so on, with the climax at the center rather than the end. It is, perhaps, not coincidental that the form of the seven-branched lampstand in the tabernacle is analogous to a literary chiasm. The letter to Smyrna (second letter) shares many similarities with the letter to the Philadelphians (sixth letter): both are largely positive messages. The letters to Pergamum (third letter) and Sardis (fifth letter) are to churches in steep decline. The message to Thyatira (the fourth and middle church) is twice as long as the others and is different from all the others. This arrangement means that the first and last letters (to Ephesus and Laodicea) also are parallel. This structure suggests that Laodicea, like Ephesus, suffers from a deficiency of love.
When we look at the seven churches as a whole, they seem to be in a state of decline, and the rebukes from Jesus become more and more serious.
The churches at Ephesus and Smyrna are faithful churches, with the only flaw of Ephesus being a deficiency of love. But as we go through the messages to the churches, things seem to decline from Pergamum through Sardis until we get to Laodicea, where Jesus cannot think of anything good to say about the church. While the message to Philadelphia is positive, the church is much weaker than Smyrna. In the message to Ephesus, Jesus longs for their repentance. Laodicea makes Jesus feel like vomiting. This graphic description is a severe word picture. But this word picture leads into the most encouraging part of the messages to the seven churches.
The first church gets one promise: the tree of life. The second church gets two: the crown of life and deliverance from the second death. The third church gets three: hidden manna, a white stone, and a new name. The fourth church gets four promises; the fifth church gets five; the sixth church gets six. Each church gets more promises than the church before, and the seventh church, Laodicea, gets the loftiest promise of all: to sit with Jesus on His throne.
As the condition of the churches declines, as the rebukes of Jesus become more severe, the promises of Jesus abound more and more. The worse things get, the greater the grace and power that God exerts. The deeper the problems you may have in life, the more powerful is the grace of Jesus Christ. This message speaks as powerfully for us today as it did in ancient times.
The message to Philadelphia applies to the great revival of Protestantism during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This revival motivated the church to carry the gospel to the whole world. It resulted in the greatest expansion of Christianity since the time of Pentecost. But there was a dark side to this expansion. Missionary endeavours too often rode on the back of Western civilization’s colonial expansion in the economic and political realms. As a result, many non-Christian peoples today see Christianity as a self-serving tool of Western imperialism rather than a humble, self-effacing movement that seeks to improve the lives of others. This attitude is increasingly found even in the more “Christian” parts of the world. Christianity, as a whole, is on the defensive today. In this context, manipulation or political involvement of any kind on the part of the church plays into the negative stereotypes that have arisen. The gospel message must not rely on political and economic support for its success. It has been thrown back to Jesus’ original plan of “power . . . made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). TBC