Revelation 2:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Revelation 2:10

Comments

‘Fear none of those things.’ How do you obey this command? You say to yourself, ‘Nothing can finally harm us. Nothing can injure us spiritually and eternally. The greatest things, our spiritual and eternal welfare, are safe.’ In fact, we are somewhat enhanced by troubles because we come more to the Lord as we ought to do. It will be the devil who is behind the persecution that causes them to take hold of the leaders of the church perhaps, and cast them into prison. ‘That ye may be tried.’ That does not refer to a trial according to human justice; they never had a trial. It means to be tried in the sense of being tested and proved in your faith. ‘And ye shall have tribulation ten days.’ That is obviously a symbolic time. It is not long. If it had only been ten days they would not have minded. The number ten is often used in this wonderful Book of Revelation to indicate a period known to God. In the same way we can say that anything we may be called to suffer here is a ‘light affliction, which is but for a moment’, and ‘is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory’ (2 Corinthians 4:17). We see Christ’s love in the limit of our suffering.If you have tribulation ten days, ‘be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.’ Be faithful, ‘even if it costs you your life’ is the meaning. We tend to read it as – be faithful life-long. That is not strictly the meaning, although it is perfectly true. Be faithful it says, even if it costs you your life. Have faith in Christ and in his word. ‘And I will give thee a crown of life.’ That is not the royal crown, that is the victor’s wreath, the athlete’s crown. ‘Be thou faithful unto death’ is the exhortation. Faithful in prayer, faithful in reading the Scriptures, faithful in obeying God, faithful in testing everything that you see by the word of God, faithful in witness, faithful in standing clear of the world, faithful in putting Christ first as our foremost love.

Application

There is a very solemn tendency today for Bible-believing churches to no longer trust the power of the gospel explained and preached, and made effective by the power of the Holy Spirit. Instead they want to add all kinds of gimmicks, entertainments, and performances. Be faithful means have faith in Christ. Do it the way he said. Do not add to it. Do not change it. As soon as I bring in a band or drums or anything like that, I am no longer being faithful, because I am not having faith in doing things the way he told me to do them and sticking to that. So ‘be faithful’ has that somewhat fuller meaning: have faith in Christ and his word, and stand for him, and witness for him. It also means be faithful in this sense of staying clear of the world. There are the two kingdoms, the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of this world. You cannot be faithful to Christ and be drawn into this world.

There are times when the believer and the local church see persecution coming. They see the path of obedience and they calculate that if they follow it, it will certainly stir up the hatred and opposition of men. The believer must be willing to follow this path if it lies along the way of obedience, for this is a clear indication that it is the Lord’s will that he should experience tribulation. So we are warned that ‘we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God’ (Acts 14:22). It comes in various forms. It may be hatred and evil speaking against us. It may be loss of opportunity in career or education, or it may take a more extreme form as in Smyrna, loss of liberty or even loss of life.

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Revelation 2:10 Commentary and Bible Study