The Church in Her Relation to Christ the First Address of the Seven (Rev. 2) Is to Ephesus. the Fitness of This Being First Is Manifest. This Assembly Had Been Fully Instructed by the Apostle Paul As to the Relationship of the Whole Church to Christ. It Is in That Epistle That We Learn That the Church on Earth Is "His Body." There We Learn Too That Each Christian Is a "Member of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones." We Learn Too That Christ "Loved the Church, and Gave Himself for It;" a Love so Great, That," for This Cause Shall a Man Leave His Father and Mother, and Shall Be Joined Unto His Wife, and They Two Shall Be One Flesh. This Is a Great Mystery: but I Speak Concerning Christ and the Church."
The Church is not considered in these addresses as the body of Christ, though that was the truth committed to Ephesus in Paul's epistle to that assembly, but as the responsible woman-responsible, as knowing this truth, to be true to the relationship existing between herself and the Lord. The relationship is not affected by failure to answer to its claims. Ephesus is addressed as in the relationship, and she, (representing the whole Church) is declared by Him who has loved her, and still loves her with a perfect love, to have been, and to be still, untrue to Christ. " Thou hast left thy first love." Her heart was not His, His alone. She had left Him, and another had her affections. It is the world, and He fully unfolds it in what follows. In the meantime each Christian is exhorted to hear what the Spirit says in this address, as to the Church's present condition, and to " overcome" in the midst of it, a responsibility resting upon every believer in Christ, wherever found; but observe, whatever the cost, it is one which, when responded to in the power of the Spirit, will lead into present food for the soul. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."
The Church in Her Relation to the World This Is Presented in Two Aspects in the Two Addresses Which Follow. in the First (That to Smyrna) the World Is Seen in Its Own True Character -That of a Persecutor. This Is in Harmony With the Lord's Own Words in John 15: 16. It Is the Only Proper Attitude Which the World Can Assume If the Church Is True to Christ. the Church Should Never Know the World, Save As a Persecuting World. "If Ye Were of the World, the World Would Love His Own: but Because Ye Are Not of the World, but I Have Chosen You Out of the. World, Therefore the World Hateth You." If the Church Has Ceased to Know the World Thus (As a Persecutor), Then God Has Given to Individuals to Prove It, When Through Grace There Has Been Given to Any a Recovery From the Worldliness Into Which the Whole Church Has Sunk. It Is a Great Favor, Given to Us Individually From God, to Know the True Character of the World, and to Be Called on to Prove It in Our Walk on Earth.
Hence there is no fault found with the assembly at Smyrna. He does not blame. She is the persecuted one, as He had been, and therefore in her proper position with respect to the world, and the Lord only comforts and encourages her. " I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich).... Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." The object of the enemy, who is the god of this world, is to turn aside the Church from being true to Christ. This he attempts by persecution, seeking to "wear out" the saints by it; and it may even go on to death, as it has often done in the times past (Acts 22:44And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. (Acts 22:4)), man's histories too agreeing with God's that this has been so. The object of the world, and of Satan, its prince, is to oblige saints by persecution to give up Christ. The tendency of the natural heart is to faint under opposition and continued pressure.
But the Lord cares for this persecuted condition of His Church, and is beyond it. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." The overcomer may have to go on to the death of the body; but if so, he shall "not be hurt of the second death." It is what is beyond and after death that is presented for our encouragement. "I will give thee a crown of life." When the world has done its worst, the Lord is found on the other side.
We have thus far seen what the Church on earth was to be in her relation to Christ. We have also seen what she was to be in her relation to the world. These are true for us to-day. The failure of the Church to maintain both, brings us to the condition of Pergamos, which is the next in order of the seven. May the Lord meanwhile arouse us all to increased devotedness to Himself.
H. C. A.