Most of the books of the Bible you can read and literally accept as written without any hidden meaning. That’s not the case with the book of Revelation written by the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos around 95 AD. Jesus appeared in His glory to John and instructed him to write to the seven churches in Asia and record the visions he received about the end times. This Revelation of Jesus Christ contains metaphors, symbolism and allegories that obscure and hide the meaning from the casual observer yet reveals the truth of God’s Word to the believer when the time is ripe for that revelation to be revealed. For 2,000 years people have argued what the book of Revelation actually means and everybody has their opinion. I have my own thoughts on Revelation too.
80% of my blogs are a repeat of things Christian scholars have written about that I also believe and report as my own with my personal commentary making up the other 20%. What I’m going to say now is all mine. Revelation was written while the center of Christianity was in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) and the most prominent churches were in the seven cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Laodicea and Philadelphia. It makes sense any letters from God to Christians would be addressed to those centers of Christianity. However, God knew those cities would eventually disappear from the faith so the intended audience for those letters was the Christian faithful worldwide in the end times which is right now. The revealed meaning of Revelation was meant for our time for those who seek the truth.
Think of the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation as God’s seven commandments to Christians living in our day. Nothing in Scripture is ever out of date so if there were letters to the seven churches and those churches no longer exist then God’s message has to be intended for all Christians wherever they are. And since the letters are in the book about the end times we know they also apply to us Christians here at the end of time. I will briefly list what I think God is commanding us to do in each of the seven letters, in no particular order:
1. Live a pure life and do God’s work until Jesus comes again.
2. Watch for the second coming of Jesus.
3. Be passionate about Jesus until the second coming.
4. Persevere in your faith until Jesus comes again.
5. If you worship false gods, repent, and worship the true God while there is still time.
6. If your fellowship with God is broken, renew it through repentance and return to the Lord your God.
7. Be faithful to God until the end and though you lose your life a crown of life awaits you in heaven.