As the Lord characterized the spiritual condition of the early churches He was, at the same time, addressing the spiritual condition of the church eras that would come on the scene, serve Him for a while, rebel against Him, then go defunct and be replaced by another church (era).  Each future church era would replace the one before it, ending with the Laodicean era–today’s end-time church. Let us now see what He had to say to the third church and to the future church era that would exhibit the same character.

In Revelation 2:8-12 the Lord addresses the moral condition of the church in Smyrna. He compliments those in the church who had diligently worked for Him in spite of their being poor and severely persecuted.  They had actually witnessed the martyrdom of some of their members.  This had to have been a severe test of their faith in Him.  He tells the church that if they will remain true to their faith (to Him) in the face of such severe persecution He will give them a crown–eternal life. He noted that if they did so they would not be “… hurt by the second death.”

The “second death” to those who knew God’s Word during their earthly lives but refused to obey It.  Only those in God’s true church have heard His Truth.  Those in Satan’s church system have never heard God’s Truth, but have heard only Satan’s church doctrines preached by his false prophets.  Today they number in the billions world-wide and call themselves Catholics and Protestants.  See The Three Resurrections.

Note in verse 10 that it was not enough to know God’s Word, be a part of His church and be an heir of a crown–salvation. One had to be faithful (obey His Word) in order to remain an heir and, upon the return of Jesus Christ, to receive the crown that God had reserved for them.  He had earlier made it clear that only those who were severely persecuted for their holiness and maintained their holiness until the end of their lives would receive the crown of  salvation (Mat. 10:21,22). He had warned His followers to “… let no man take your crown” (Rev. 3:11).  The vast majority of those in both the early and the latter church eras did and are doing exactly that.

In spite of incredible persecution, some in the Smyrna Church would come to the end of their lives with their faith and righteousness intact. The vast majority, however, would lose their faith and return to the devil.  Such were fake Christians who called themselves Jews but were imposters. These claimed to be spiritual Israelites but were in fact spiritual Gentiles–sinners (Gal. 2:15).  In Revelation 2:9 the Lord tells us that fake Christians, though they are in the true church, are “… of the synagogue of Satan.” In 2 John 3:8 this same John wrote that those in the early church who continued to sin were “of the devil.” Even then there were “sinners saved by grace” in the church.  As were their ancient religious ancestors, todays SSBG are “of the devil” who follow the preaching of his ear-scratching false prophets.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Church of Corinth (1 Cor. 9:23-27) that he had to obey God in order to receive the crown that awaited him.  His “walk” was not an easy one.  He wrote that he had to strive (work, struggle) for mastery (control) over his heart (mind) and soul (body) so that he might attain what the Lord was holding for him–a crown of (eternal) life. In verse 26,27 he made it clear that being religious would not result in his receiving that crown, that only his strict obedience to God would result in his receiving that reward. He noted in verse 24 that each person who calls himself a Christian runs the race, but only the one who runs according to God’s rules wins the prize. He went on to say that if he (Paul) failed to run in strict obedience to God’s rules (Word/Law) he himself would be a castaway.

In 2 John 8,9 “the disciple whom Jesus loved” wrote that the saint must diligently obey the Lord in order to gain his promised reward. He wrote: “Whosoever sins and does not obey God does not have God, that whosoever obeys God has both the Father and the Son.” This being true, where do the billions of sinning church members stand? Answer: with Satan, as John tells us.

In His letters to the first two churches Jesus stated that only he who “OVERCOMES” (Satan’s temptations to sin) will receive salvation. Note that overcoming (Satan) must come before salvation is awarded. No overcoming=no salvation.  In His letter to the Smyrna Church the Lord issues the same cause and effect rule: walk in holiness=receive the crown of life. One will notice that the same rule applied to each of the future eras.

We must always keep the Lord’s cause and effect rule in mind when conducting our “walk” (life). We must, as John tells us in 1 John 2:6, “walk as He (Jesus) walked” if we are going to call ourselves by His name. Otherwise we are claiming to be Jews (spiritual Israelites) but are in fact “of the devil” and are “of the synagogue of Satan” and “have not God.” Billions of self-professed sinners saved by grace do not believe those Holy Spirit-inspired Words (2 Pet. 1:21).  To them Jesus will say on the Day of Judgment: “I never knew you, depart from Me ye workers of iniquity ….” (Mat. 7:23). L.J.