Revelation 2:9

“I know your affliction and poverty yet you are rich.”

The city of Smyrna rivaled Ephesus as a great Roman trading city on the western coast of Turkey. We have no detail of the church there, but the believers seemed to be facing two forces that caused them distress and suffering, and hope, of course. On the one hand they were pressed to acknowledge the deity of the Roman Emperor which they could not possibly do because Jesus is the Ruler, and on the other hand they were bedeviled by some sort of Jewish claims that they are the real Jews, not polluted by half-Jews, converted Gentiles, who were incorporated into the Christian fellowships as fellow believers.  These “Jewish” group claimed that they were authentic Jews.

There were probably several synagogues in Smyrna.  This one that caused problems Jesus called, “a synagogue of Satan,” a rather harsh but accurate term.

I find this interesting because the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem lay in ruins since AD 70’s. It was destroyed 20 or more years before by the Romans.

Some believers in Smyrna may have got caught up in this pro-Jewish movement. It had a certain appeal for it bound the Old Testament and New Testament together in a certain weird but somewhat attractive way. And it was decidedly Jewish.

Jesus warns them that Satan is active in that movement and through them he will persecute the true believers who hold to the Gospel of God’s grace for all peoples.

Jesus assured them, however, that their suffering will be but for “ten days.”  In other words the One who is the First and the Last can and will stop their suffering and in the end will give them “the crown of life.”

Our world of today is a modern “Smyrna” with similar battles raging.  Heresies that dilute the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, continue.  They are everywhere, it seems.  Each is an attempt to redefine “Jesus Christ.” Satan wants to woo his people away from Jesus so uses deception of all kinds.

Jesus has a word for us, “Be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  v 10