I Know the Work that You Have Been Doing

Revelations 2:2 ESV
“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.”

The first thing Jesus does is praise this church. What a concept, what if all of us started out our conversions with the positive, wouldn’t that get people’s attention?

The Ephesian church existed in the midst of a mixture of Greek and Oriental cultures. This included a variety of false religions. The worship of the fertility goddess Diana was rampant in Ephesus, and the temple in which her worshipers adored her was one of the seven wonders of the world.

Jesus said, “I know (I’ve been watching) remember He walks through the the seven golden lamp stands, (the seven churches). “I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance.” No list of their works is given, but presumably there were many ministries that they had performed with endurance.

Scholars point out that “toil” refers to difficult, sweat-producing labor. “Patience” here is the great New Testament word meaning: The courage which accepts suffering, hardship and loss and turns them into grace and glory.

Patient endurance is moving forward, pressing through no matter how tedious the tasks of ministry. Jesus finishes His commendation with, “you have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.”

Paul warns the church of Ephesus in Acts 20:28-30, “So guard yourselves and God’s people…  I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock.  Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth.”

Why is all of this important to us today? Because we should be laboring, toiling not for money or gain but to serve God. With patient endurance in troubled times we have to calculate how we are going to be faithful witnesses.

We have root out the bad that make themselves look good for face value but are actually wolves in sheep’s clothing. These are serious times, we must be diligent to keep up the work of the Lord in order when we stand before God that we hear “well done good and faithful servant” instead of “depart from me for I never knew you.”

Prayer:
Father, make me strong to work and toil for the kingdom. Never let me stray from the truth and help me to expose darkness even in our presence. Help me to diligent, unbending, and have a resolve to expand the kingdom for You even beyond the church walls, because that is the true mission field.