Be Faithful Unto Death: Revelation 2:8-11

By Thomas Schreiner

The murder of Christians for their faith is not limited to early church history. In many parts of the world it is still happening. I could relate many stories, but here are two recent incidents as reported by Voice of the Martyrs.

“On August 23, three Christians in Chiapas, Mexico, were brutally killed by their neighbor after he blamed them for his daughter’s stomach ailment. Antonio Gomez blamed his Christian neighbor, Pedro Gomez Diaz and his family, for his 11-year-old daughter’s stomach ailment and accused the Christian family of practicing witchcraft,” Compass Direct News reported.

“Gomez and seven of his friends entered the Christian family’s home and attacked them with machetes. Pedro, his wife, Marcela, and their oldest son, Rene, were hacked to death. Six of the other Diaz children were seriously wounded. At last report, the eight men involved in the attack were being held in a jail.”

And consider an account from another part of the world. “In August, a Muslim cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, killed his sister, 26-year-old Fatima Al-Mutairi, after she proclaimed her faith to her family, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.” The Voice of the Martyrs contacts report that Fatima’s fellowship with other believers was mainly limited to Internet forums and phone correspondence. “As part of her testimony to the family, she proclaimed that the way of Christ is the most pure and most holy way of all. After sharing with her family, she found her brother in her room with her laptop open before him,” Voice of the Martyrs contacts said. “Her laptop contained notes about her spiritual journey, which he was searching in order to find more evidence against her. Her brother locked her in the room for four hours, during which time she wrote a final letter on the Internet. Fatima was killed soon thereafter.”

So what we read in Revelation 2:8-11 does not only relate to a long time ago. Even if Christians are not being put to death in the U.S., it is happening quite often in other parts of the world. There are many other accounts I could relate, but let’s attend to the text before us here.

And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: “The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. 9 ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’” Revelation 2:8-11

This letter is remarkable, for Jesus has no rebuke for the church in Smyrna. In five of the seven letters the church is rebuked in some way, but the churches in Smyrna and Philadelphia are commended. However, even churches that are doing well need exhortations and encouragement. Even if you are doing well spiritually, you still need encouragement and admonitions in the things of God. None of us has arrived spiritually.

We also see in the letters to the seven churches that some element of the vision of Christ in chapter 1 is applied to the church. Here Jesus declares about himself, “The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.” Jesus picks up on what he said in Revelation 1:17-18 here. For Jesus to say that he is the “first and last” indicates that he is fully God. Three times in Isaiah (Isa 41:4; 44:6; 48:12) the Lord declares that he is the first and the last. So, in using these words Jesus is claiming divinity. Only God is the first and the last. Only God is eternal, and Jesus is claiming such of himself here. This is quite remarkable since Isaiah 40-48 emphasizes so powerfully that there is only one God. Clearly, Jesus is not a second God, and so we see here the roots of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

And why does Jesus emphasize that he is the first and the last to a church where believers are being put to death? He does so in order to communicate that he rules over all, and that nothing happens to them which is outside his control. We can trust him with our lives. As Jesus says in Luke 22, some of us will be put to death, but not a hair of our head will perish. Even as we die, even as we are put to death, the Lord is our shepherd and is taking care of us and watching over us. We are invited here to trust Jesus in the midst of our difficulties.

But we must also see that the relationship between divine sovereignty and creaturely freedom is complex, for the devil throws believers into prison. And the devil’s actions and motives are clearly evil. John probably sees the devil as operating through Jewish authorities in the synagogue, which is supported by the claim that the Jews are a synagogue of Satan (I will come back to that shocking designation shortly).

We need to remember that in the Roman world Judaism was a legal religion and Christianity was illegal. Jews could worship freely, but Christians didn’t have the same privilege. It is likely that John refers here to a situation where Jews informed on Christians, telling the Roman authorities that Christians refused to honor Caesar, and that Christians had no legal right to say that they were part of Judaism. The Roman rulers would respond to this information by imprisoning some Christians. Therefore, when John says that the devil will put some in prison, he likely means that the devil will do this through the leaders of the Jewish synagogue.

I want to say something about the issue of anti-Semitism in a minute. But what we should attend to here is the interface between Jesus being sovereign, the actions of the devil and the actions of the Jewish leaders. Clearly, John is teaching that what the devil and Jewish leaders are doing is evil. They are responsible for their evil and will be judged for their actions. At the same time, Jesus is the first and last, and is perfectly good. He reigns even over the evil actions of the devil and human beings. Nothing can touch us that does not first pass through the hands of our loving Savior. Therefore, we entrust our lives to him, knowing that he is good and works all things for our good. We don’t wring our hands saying that Satan and other human beings have ruined our lives. We don’t deny the evil they have done, but we recognize that at the end of the day the evil done by the devil and evil human beings is a tool in Jesus’ hands.

Let me apply this by relaying what happened to one of my friends. He uncovered corruption in the organization he worked for. But when he reported it, the leaders told him to keep it quiet. And when he said that was wrong, they basically told him, “This is the way things are going to be.” He ended up leaving his job, even though he had done the right thing. Many frustrating things like this that happen in the world. Probably all of us have experienced such frustration at some level or another. But we are reminded here that in the midst of our frustration that the Lord rules over all things. Even if you don’t understand it, he is in control. He will never leave you or forsake you.

Now what about anti-Semitism? First, as Christians we must acknowledge and express regret for what believers have said and done to Jewish people throughout history. If you doubt that true Christians were involved, you need to read what Martin Luther said about the Jews. He said some horrible things. Too often Christians have violated what Jesus has taught us in the Sermon on the Mount, about loving those who disagree with us. We are not surprised by these things. There are no excuses for our sins, but we know the New Testament teaches that we are still sinners. We all stumble in many ways as James said (Jas. 3:2). The vital question for us is this: We know Christians have sinned, but is John guilty of anti-Semitism and hate speech in saying that the Jews are a synagogue of Satan?

We should say no for the following reasons. First, we must recognize that John himself was Jewish. As a Jewish writer he was not saying here that all Jews were Satanic! He was speaking in this context of Jews who were responsible for the imprisonment and death of Christians.

Second, the Christians were a small movement with no legal rights. John never imagined his words would be used to mistreat the Jewish people. John’s words are not the words of an oppressive and powerful majority but a beleaguered and powerless minority. He encourages the church by reminding them that they are God’s true people.

Note that Jesus tells the church in Smyrna in v. 8 that he is the one who died and came to life. These words are addressed to believers facing death, and Jesus reminds them that he faced death as well. And death conquered Jesus. Yet death did not finally win. Jesus triumphed over death. And so he challenges the believers in v. 10, “Be faithful unto death.”

When we think about what others can do to us, I think of the words of John Piper. “All they can do is kill you.” All? They cannot ultimately take away your life. Where does courage come from? It comes from the assurance that we will never die. The worst thing people can do to us can’t finally and forever hurt us. Jesus has triumphed over death and so will we.

We see from v. 8 that the situation of the church in Smyrna was difficult. They were poor financially, and they were slandered by the Jewish synagogue leaders. And many of you reading this may be struggling financially. Many of you may be students, and it is tough to make ends meet. Or, for many who are on retirement, money is tight. Great stress can come into our lives when money is hard to come by. Many marriages go sour over the issue of money.

This verse also emphasizes that the Christians were slandered. We do not face virulent persecution in the U.S. Still, Christians are not represented in the elite sectors of our society. The media and the universities are overtly anti-Christian. The entertainment sector of our country looks down on believers. But John reminds us that money and status are not what life is all about. We are rich if we know God. Even if you don’t have money and fame, you have the greatest blessing of all if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You know what life is all about. You have the joy of knowing his love. It is like being in love when you are young and poor. If you are deeply in love, you don’t care if you don’t have much money or if other people look down on you. The depth of your love makes these other things seem like nothing. John is saying that this is what it is like to know Jesus Christ. If you know him and love him, you are rich, and all the sufferings we face are worth it if we know Christ.

If you are an unbeliever, I want you to know that love too. Here is what we Christians believe in a nutshell. God created us to honor him, and we have not honored him as we should. We have lived to do our own thing rather than his. For not honoring the most glorious being in the universe we will be condemned on the final day. And there are no exceptions here. All have failed to honor God. Hence, the only way to escape judgment is to put our trust in Jesus Christ, who because of his great love for us died and bore our sins, so that we might have life everlasting. If you put your faith in him, you can be rich forever. You too can know this life that never ends. You can face death with confidence.

Jesus warns the church in Smyrna that suffering is coming and calls upon them not to be afraid. I have found in my own life that I cannot conquer fear on my own. I call upon our Lord to help me conquer my fears, to give me strength for what I cannot do. Here in v. 10 John tells his readers that they will be thrown into prison for ten days. I think it is doubtful that the ten days should be taken literally. It probably refers to a limited period of time. We have already seen in Revelation that John uses numbers symbolically. Ten days indicates that the suffering will not last forever. I don’t think this means that Jesus promises that they will eventually get out of prison with their earthly lives intact, as some have said, for he says that they must be faithful unto death. I take it that this means that some of them will be put to death. And being faithful means that they must continue to confess that Jesus is Lord and Christ. The Roman authorities pressured them to acknowledge that Caesar was lord.

What this means today is that we must never deny the truth that Jesus is the exclusive way to salvation. Rome didn’t mind at all if Christians believed in Jesus and Caesar. Rome was very tolerant and pluralistic. What Rome hated about early Christians was their insistence that Jesus was the only way and that Caesar was a false deity. Things haven’t changed much in 2,000 years. What irritates so many people today is our claim to know the truth. People are quite content today if we believe in Jesus, and say that other ways to God are legitimate as well. What upsets them is when we are faithful to Jesus’ words (“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”), and we say that all other alleged ways to God lead to death. We are faithful to the scriptures in saying that there is only one God, and only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The claim that Jesus is the only way is what got Christians into trouble with Rome, and we must continue to be faithful to this message today. Jesus promises that those who are faithful will receive the crown of life.

The word “life” here further explains the word “crown.” In other words, the crown is eternal life itself. The crown is not some reward above and beyond eternal life. No, Jesus is saying that we will only receive eternal life if we remain faithful to him. But if we are faithful we will receive the life that never ends. Those who overcome and conquer will not be injured by the second death. The second death is clearly hell. We see this in Revelation 20:14 and 21:8.

Revelation 20:14 “This is the second death, the lake of fire.”

Revelation 21:8 “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

All of us are injured by the first death. All of us will die physically. But the death that really matters is the second death, the lake of fire. Some of us as believers may be put to death like Pedro and Fatima were. But if we put our trust in Jesus, and continue to trust him until the end, then the second death cannot touch us. Jesus has already borne the punishment of the second death for us if we belong to him. Therefore, we look forward to being in God’s presence forever, where there are pleasures evermore.

Thomas Schreiner joined the Southern Seminary faculty in 1997 after serving 11 years on the faculty at Bethel Theological Seminary. He also taught New Testament at Azusa Pacific University. Dr. Schreiner, a Pauline scholar, is the author or editor of several books including, Romans, in the Baker Exegetical Commentary Series on the New Testament; Interpreting the Pauline Epistles; The Law and Its Fulfillment: A Pauline Theology of Law; The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance; Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives of Election, Foreknowledge, and Grace, co-edited with Bruce A. Ware; Women in the Church: A Fresh Analysis of I Timothy 2:9-15; Paul, Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ: A Pauline Theology, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude, New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ, Magnifying God in Christ: A Summary of New Testament Theology, and Galatians.