15.1.4.1. Ephesus
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| Attribute | Description |
| Meaning | desirable, darling, beloved, relaxation1 |
| Titles2 | To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:’ (Rev. Rev. 2:1+) |
| Commendation | I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. (Rev. Rev. 2:2-3+) But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. (Rev. Rev. 2:6+) |
| Criticism | Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. (Rev. Rev. 2:4+) |
| Exhortation | Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. (Rev. Rev. 2:5+)3 |
| Promises | To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. (Rev. Rev. 2:7+) |
| Commentary | Revelation 2:1 |
Notes
1 J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), 151.
2 Taken primarily from Rev. Rev. 1:12-18+.
3 “Gibbon (Decline and Fall, c. lxiv.), . . . writes like one who almost believed that the threatenings and promises of God did fulfill themselves in history: ‘In the loss of Ephesus the Christians deplored the fall of the first Angel, the extinction of the first candlestick, of the Revelations; the desolation is complete; and the temple of Diana or the church of Mary will equally elude the search of the curious traveller. The circus and three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sardis is reduced to a miserable village; the God of Mahomet, without a rival or a son, is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira and Pergamus, and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy, or courage. . . . Among the Greek colonies and Churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect—a column in a scene of ruins,—a pleasing example that the paths of honour and safety may sometimes be the same.’ ”—Richard Chenevix Trench, Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1861), 187-188.