Day 23: When Christians are attacked - Revelation 2 vs 8-11
8 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Smyrna. This is the message from the one who is the First and the Last, who was dead but is now alive: 9 “I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich! I know the blasphemy of those opposing you. They say they are Jews, but they are not, because their synagogue belongs to Satan. 10 Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for ten days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life. 11 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death.” Revelation 2:8-11 New Living Translation.
The Christians living in Smyrna were facing a hard time. Being a Christian had probably cost many of them their jobs and they were struggling to make ends meet. People were also making false accusations against them, probably because they no longer worshipped idols and believed Jesus was the promised Messiah. Worse still, Satan had marked them for special attention and was going to cause some of them to be thrown into prison. Prisons in those days were not nice clean cells like in Western countries today!
There are times and places when Christians are cruelly attacked, and being a follower of Christ then can be very painful. But look at the verses again and see if you can list at least five things Jesus tells them to help them face their trials.
The five things I spotted were: (1) That He had also been through death (vs 8) but He had conquered it. (2) That, therefore, they can conquer death too as He will give them eternal life (vs 10). (3) That He was fully aware of the hard times they were going through (vs 9). (4) That they were in fact rich, not poor! (Anyone who’s sins are forgiven and has eternal life is the truly rich person.) And (5) That He had set a limit to how long Satan could afflict them for. (vs 10). The 10 days there are probably not literal but indicate a short period.
In other words, one of the things that will help us if ever we are attacked for our faith is to put things into perspective. In verse 11 Jesus says that our staying faithful through the relatively short period of persecution will be more than rewarded by the eternal life we will enter, and not ending up in ‘the second death’. In Revelation 21:8 we read: “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshippers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.” That fits in with what Jesus said in Matthew 10:28: “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Jesus warned from the start that following Him could cost us a lot in this world. But He urged us to look beyond this world and the grave to what eternity will be like either with God, or away from God. No wonder John said: “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches!”