Be Faithful Unto Death

I have been meditating on Revelation 2:10, "Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life."  Below I have listed eighteen hope-filled observations and applications.

• 1. Jesus commands us to "stop fearing" future hardship and suffering
• 2. Faith in the Lord's providential care enables us to anticipate suffering with hope
• 3. Our apprehensions about future suffering are relieved by the proofs of sovereign providence
• 4. Sovereign providence is proven by divine omniscience
• 5. The Lord's detailed knowledge (omniscience) of our circumstances infers His sovereign control, "you will have tribulation ten days"
• 6. The Lord's knowledge of our circumstances also demonstrates that He providentially plans the specific nature of our sufferings, i.e. "prison"
• 7. Such providential planning indicates His loving purpose
• 8. Though the Lord providentially allows Satan to persecute His church yet He measures and limits our sufferings according to His will.
• 9. The devil can do nothing except what our God permits
• 10. The devil's purpose is to overthrow our perseverance by enticing us to fall away through intense affliction
• 11. But the devil's purposes in continuing to afflict the Lord's servants ("keep casting one after another into prison"- a durative idea) are superseded by the Lord's sovereign purpose.
• 12. Facing the "testing" prepares us to more fully enjoy the kingdom he has prepared, i.e. "the crown of life"
• 13. Our Lord sets the limits of our suffering according to His wisdom, "for ten days," "some of you,"
• 14. The Lord commands us to persevere faithfully (keep on proving yourself faithful)
• 15. The sovereign Lord's command signals His sustaining support in our obedience for His command is also His gracious enabling
• 16. The prepositional phrase "until death," indicates that faithfulness to the gospel may lead us "even to the point of death" (NET Bible)
• 17. Though we should not seek martyrdom, we should not shrink from it by compromising our testimony
• 18. The Lord rewards those who risk everything to faithfully testify to the gospel

I am sure there is much more we could glean from this text but how grateful I am to have such faith recorded in the testimony of the Smyrna church. If it is God will, He may preserve us from such tribulations as happened in Smyrna; I cannot say what His wisdom has planned but our hearts must rejoice in the sustaining power of our Lord's sovereign providence.