Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor's crown.
Revelation 2:10 (NIV)I know your afflictions and your poverty, yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.
Revelation 2:9-10 (NIV)He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
Revelation 2:11 (NIV)He Has Nothing Against Them
Go back and read the letter to Ephesus. There was a yet I hold this against you. Scan through the other letters this week and you will find the same structure: commendation, then the thing Jesus holds against them. Every letter except two. Smyrna has no yet. Philadelphia has no yet. These are the churches under the most direct external pressure, and they are the ones Jesus addresses with pure encouragement and warning rather than correction.
That is worth sitting with. The churches most faithfully enduring suffering are not the ones with the most worked-out theology or the most impressive track record. They are simply the ones who have not compromised and have not given up. Jesus has nothing against them. There is no correction to make. They are doing the one thing that can be done: holding on.
Poor but Rich
Smyrna was a wealthy city. But the church in Smyrna was economically poor, probably because belonging to a trade guild required participating in guild feasts that involved food sacrificed to idols. Many Christians refused, which meant loss of their livelihood. Poverty was often the direct economic consequence of faithfulness.
Jesus sees this. I know your afflictions and your poverty. He knows the specific shape of what it has cost them to follow Him. And then He says: yet you are rich. Not: you will be rich eventually. You are rich. Present tense. Whatever Rome sees and whatever their bank accounts say, they are rich in the currency of the kingdom that does not collapse.
The Slander of Those Who Say They Are Jews and Are Not
This is the part of the letter that requires historical context. The Jewish community in Smyrna, like Jewish communities in other Roman cities, had negotiated a legal exemption from emperor worship, because worshipping other gods was understood to be incompatible with their monotheism and Rome had decided it was more trouble than it was worth to force the issue. Christians did not have that exemption.
The slander Jesus refers to was likely the Jewish community in Smyrna reporting Christians to Roman authorities as a way of distinguishing themselves from a group that Rome increasingly saw as troublemakers. This was not universal across the Jewish world, but in Smyrna, the community of the synagogue was actively working against the church. Jesus calls this a synagogue of Satan, not as a blanket condemnation of Jewish people, but as a specific naming of the spiritual source of behaviour that was causing the death of His followers.
Do Not Be Afraid of What You Are About to Suffer
Then comes the moment. Jesus tells them what is coming before it arrives. This is not casual. He is telling them: I know what is ahead. I am not surprised by it. I am not going to stop it. And I am telling you so that when it arrives, you will know I already saw it and you are not alone in it.
The ten days of persecution is almost certainly a specific, limited period rather than a timeline with prophetic significance. The number ten was used in the ancient world to denote a defined, bounded time. Daniel was tested for ten days. What Jesus is saying is: this will be hard and it will be real, but it will be bounded. It has an end. He can see the end from where He is standing, even though they cannot.
And the call is not to win. Not to overthrow. Not to escape. Be faithful. Even to the point of death. Faithfulness, not success, is the measure He is using.
Life as Your Victor's Crown
The victor's crown in Greek is the stephanos, the laurel wreath given to athletic victors in the ancient games. Smyrna was famous for its games. The people receiving this letter would have known exactly what that image meant. You train. You compete. You endure. And the crown goes to the one who finishes.
But the crown Jesus offers is not a laurel that withers. It is life itself. The second death, which is spiritual and final, has no power over the one who dies faithful to Jesus. Physical death is not the worst thing that can happen to a follower of Christ. It is the door to the crown. The one who is afraid of the wrong death has already lost the contest before it ends.
This letter was written to a church being persecuted. It is also written to anyone right now who is afraid of the cost of faithfulness. The Jesus who walks among the lampstands sees the specific shape of what following Him is costing you. He is not asking you to win. He is asking you to hold on.
Let the Letter Land
Read Revelation 2:8-11 aloud, slowly, as if it were addressed to you personally. Because it is.
Then write one sentence honestly answering this question: what am I currently afraid of that this letter speaks to? Not a general answer. The specific fear that is alive in you right now about the world, about what faithfulness might cost you, about what is coming. Bring it into the open. Then read verse 10 again over it: do not be afraid. I will give you life as your victor's crown.
- Jesus has nothing against Smyrna. No correction. Only acknowledgment and encouragement. What does it mean that the persecuted church, not the comfortable one, receives this kind of letter?
- You are poor, yet rich. Where in your life are you poor by the world's measure but rich by the kingdom's? And where might the reverse be true?
- Jesus told Smyrna what was coming so they would not be blindsided by it. When has God prepared you for something hard before it arrived? How did that preparation change how you experienced it?
- Be faithful, even to the point of death. What is the cost of faithfulness in your specific context right now? What are you being asked to hold on to?
- The second death has no power over the overcomer. How does the certainty of resurrection change how you relate to your current fears?
- The churches with no correction from Jesus are the ones under the most external pressure. What does that suggest about the relationship between suffering and faithfulness?
- The ten days of persecution is bounded and specific. Jesus can see its end even though Smyrna cannot. What does it mean to trust the sovereignty of a God who can see the end of your hard season from where He stands?
- The crown offered is the stephanos, the victor's laurel. But Jesus says it is life, not a symbol. What does it mean that endurance, not achievement, is what qualifies a person to receive it?
- This letter was written in a context of genuine physical persecution. How do you read it honestly in your own context without either dismissing it or overstating it?
The letter to Smyrna is the shortest of the seven. There is nothing wrong with the church except what is being done to it from the outside. Some seasons in the Christian life are like that. You are doing everything right. The problem is not with you. It is with what is happening around you. And Jesus sees it. And Jesus names it. And Jesus says: hang on, I have already won.
Father, I name the fears I am carrying right now about what is happening in the world. About what faithfulness might cost. About whether the things I am holding on to will be worth holding on to. I bring them out of the general anxiety where they have been living and put them in front of You specifically, because You asked Smyrna to be specific and You see what I am facing in the same way You saw what they were facing.
Jesus, You told them what was coming and then You told them not to be afraid. I do not know what is coming. But I know what You have said about it: that You hold the keys, that the second death has no power over the one who is faithful to You, that the crown is life. Let that be the thing I am anchored to today, not the fear of losing what I am afraid of losing but the certainty of receiving what You have promised.
I want to be faithful. Even to that point. Even past the place where it is comfortable. Give me what I need to hold on. Not courage in general. Courage today. In the specific thing. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Jesus told Smyrna what was coming before it arrived, so that when it arrived they would know He had already seen it. Whatever is coming toward you that you are afraid of, He has already seen it. He is not surprised. And He is already in it with you.
With love, Claire