Revelation 2:8,9 - To the angel of the church in Smyrna

2:8

The next letter is to Smyrna, and Smyrna is one of two churches that is not criticised. Smyrna was a major city, Izmir is the modern version. It vied with Ephesus and Pergamum to be the most important city in the region, but generally unsuccessfully. It was a major centre of emperor worship. It also had a significant Jewish population, and the church was subject to persecution from both these directions. Judaism was a recognised religion, Christianity was not. 

The Lord introduces Himself as “the First and the Last”, and the one who died and came to life again. The forces that opposed the church were as nothing compared to Christ. And Christ has conquered death, and we will be raised with Him. We need to have both these truths etched in our brains if we are to be able to stand up to times of tribulation.

2:9

“I know your afflictions and your poverty”. “Afflictions” is actually “tribulations”. The church was going through a very hard time. There would be direct persecution, and they would also be excluded from various commercial aspects of life, hence the poverty. “Yet you are rich!” Peter, James and Paul all urge us to rejoice in trials of various sorts. The Christians at Smyrna were rich for they were in Christ. And the afflictions were achieving an eternal glory. We are always on the winning side, and God works through all things for the good of those who love Him. A lot of the persecution came from the Jews. In the course of history there have been many times when “those who say they are Christians and are not” have exercised terrible persecution against the Jews. All ethnic groups, all races (though really there is only one race, the human race), are made up of sinners and are equally capable of sin. There are some proponents of Critical Race Theory (CRT) who seem to think that blacks cannot be racist. This is nonsense. We are all sinners, regardless of our skin colour. At any one time and place one group may be particularly guilty of sin, with the power structures being a contributory factor, enabling that persecution to take place. But at heart we are all the same, we all need Christ.