Revalation 2:10 (commentary)

“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.”

The second and third chapters of the book of Revelation are letters to the Seven churches of Asia. These letters were pinned by the apostle John, but Jesus is the one speaking to them (Revelation 1:11). The letter of our text was written to the church of Smyrna. 

The book of Revelation was God’s final inspired book of His word. It has one theme that rings out through the whole book, victory. Christ’s intent in the letters to the churches was to encourage the congregations on what they were doing and to rebuke them on the things that they were not doing. He also used these letters to warn congregations about what they were going to be going through, which is what another main point of Revelation is. It was written around AD 96 on the island of Patmos. Many will say that this book is hard to understand, but if you go into it logically and study honestly and diligently, it can be easily understood.

“Fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer”. This is Christ’s warning to this flock in Smyrna that they will be suffering soon. With this warning, He gives encouragement when He tells them not to fear. Fear is often a reaction people go to when they start going through difficult times, but we know that God has not given us a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7). Jesus also makes a similar statement in Matthew 10:28 when He said, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell”. Suffering is something that we go through while we are on this earth. Paul even says that we groan while we are in this tabernacle or fleshly body, because we are burdened (2 Corinthians 5:4). We need to have the same attitude as Christ when we suffer in this body as He had when He was suffering (1 Peter 4:1)

“Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall receive tribulation ten days”. Here, Jesus tells them what type of suffering they will be going through. While we see from the Bible that the church was going through persecution soon after it was established, we see from secular history that it was going to get much worse. Rome was going to persecute the early Christians more than they have ever been persecuted. Jesus wanted to make sure they knew that they knew what was going to happen. Christians were never promised an easy life on this earth. He said in John 15:18, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you”. The apostle Paul, who once persecuted the church, said that we will receive persecution when we are living godly (2 Timothy 3:12). Peter also talks about being tried and tested. He says that it makes our faith more precious after it has been tried by fire (1 Peter 1:7). It is difficult going through sufferings, especially when it is heavy persecution, but Jesus gives us hope and a promise.

“Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life”. This is a promise from Jesus Christ. He often gives hope to those going through persecution that they should be happy and they will gain Heaven through the persecution, if they are being persecuted for righteousness sake (Matthew 5:10-11). Jesus also tells His disciples how to handle persecution when it arises (Luke 6:22; Matthew 5:44). The word ‘unto’ here is ‘achri’ in the Greek and is defined in the Strong’s dictionary as, “up to, even unto, as far as”. This shows that when Christ told them to be faithful unto death, He meant be faithful until you die, but also be faithful even if it means your death. The persecution they were going to be facing was going to be some that would cost them their lives, so this is a lesson they needed to hear and learn.

While this letter was not written to us and we don’t face the persecution today like they did, there are still things we can take from it and apply to our lives. The hope that Jesus gives to the Christians at Smyrna is the same hope that we have today. No matter what we go through in this life, we will receive a crown of life if we are faithful to God unto death. If we are faithful and do everything that God wants us to, we can know we have eternal life with Him and that we will receive our own crown. (1 John 5:13) We can have the same confidence Paul had at the end of his life in his last letter to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:6-8). Be ready for it and endure.