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Dear _____,

It is with great sadness and heaviness of heart that we are writing to you today. As you know, your membership at XYZ Church calls for you to abide by certain moral standards. Certainly perfection is not required of any church member or leader at XYZ Church. But our church community expects each member to respond to sin—our own and others—from a position of brokenness and remorse. Pastor _____, Pastor _____, and certain elders have each met with you and offered consistent counsel that you passionately pursue your wife and refrain from pursuing an unbiblical divorce.

Because of your decision to pursue an unbiblical divorce against this consistent counsel of the church leadership and against the membership “Covenant on Conduct” recorded in the church by-laws (Article VII), we are forced to continue with a biblical process that publicly calls for your repentance and restoration to your family. On THIS DATE, a letter will be read before the rest of the Church membership inviting them to pray that you would stop pursuing this unbiblical divorce and would seek restoration with your family. Our hope is that this gesture will encourage you to reconsider your decision, ideally before the letter is even read.

If you continue in your present course after the letter is read, then the membership will be asked to make the difficult decision to remove you from membership at our next church business meeting scheduled for THIS DATE. This would also remove the privilege to participate in any church-wide functions and fellowships.

If, on the other hand, you want to reconsider your decision, please know that a wonderful celebration lies on the other side of repentance. Again, perfection is not required of any church member or leader at XYZ Church. What is expected is a humble acknowledgment of our faults and a willingness to strive to honor God by living biblically.

We have been praying for you and will continue to do so. We each remain available to meet with you at your convenience if you would like to discuss a biblical course of action.

The Elders of XYZ Church

INTRODUCTION

Martin Luther didn't think much of the Book of Revelation, just as he did not think much of the Book of James. You will recall that he referred to the Book of James as a right straw-y epistle.¹ In 1522 Luther was said to have made this statement about the Book of Revelation:

My spirit cannot adapt itself to the book and a sufficient reason why I do not esteem it highly is that Christ is neither taught nor recognized in it.²

It probably should be noted that he later qualified these words, but nevertheless we can see that his estimation of the Book of Revelation was not what it should have been. Luther's value judgment was based upon a faulty premise: that “Christ was neither taught nor recognized in it.”

I cringe when I read Luther’s appraisal of the Book of Revelation. Having said this, I fear that Luther’s words may reflect an attitude toward the Book of Revelation that is far more common than we would like to believe. How much of Christ do we seek to see in the Book of Revelation, and in the rest of biblical prophecy? When come to the Book of Revelation we may be so intent upon discovering the events of the future and the means by which they will be brought to pass that we fail to focus on the Person of our Lord, who is preeminent in prophecy, and who should be the focus of our attention.

One of the famous books on prophecy from a dispensational point of view is called Things to Come.³ It’s not a bad title, and it is certainly a worthwhile book on prophecy. But in the process of studying prophecy let us not lose sight of the fact that prophecy is about the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to planet earth. Prophecy is about Jesus Christ, who is coming soon to dwell in the midst of His people, and not merely about “things to come.”

12 (Look! I am coming soon, and my reward is with me to pay each one according to what he has done! 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end!) . . . 17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge (Revelation 22:12-13, 17).

Revelation chapter 1 serves as an introduction to the book and in so doing it sets the tone for the rest of the book. At the very outset of this prophecy the spotlight falls upon our Lord, calling the reader’s attention to the majesty and the glory of our Lord, for this book is a “Revelation of Jesus Christ” (verse 1). It is not merely a revelation of coming events (although it is that, see verse 1); it is a revelation of the Person who is coming again, our Lord Jesus Christ.

When we come to the Book of Revelation we come to a book that contains prophecy about things to come. That is clear from chapter 1. But far more than that we come to a book that is portraying the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ and it is talking about the Person who should always be preeminent in prophecy, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Preeminent theme of prophecy is the Person of Christ. When Luther comes to the Book of Revelation and he cannot see Him, that's a problem. When we come to the Book of Revelation and we do not see Him, focus on Him, and worship Him, that is a problem.

Our inability to see Christ in Revelation may be one of the reasons why we have so much difficulty with the Book of Revelation. The Christ we see in the Book of Revelation does not look like the One we are used to seeing in the Gospels.

I suspect it’s because the Lord whom we see there is not the Lord that we see in the Gospels, or so it would seem. It's sort of the same thing takes place when people say, I believe in the God of the New Testament, but the God of the Old Testament is somebody else. That's different. I can't go for that. The whole point of the Scriptures is that the God of the New Testament is the God of the Old Testament and we must put those two aspects of dimensions of our Lord together. Perhaps the reason why Luther did not see the Lord Jesus as much as he should have is because he was looking for a different Jesus, the Jesus of the Gospels, rather than the Jesus who is exalted, lifted up and coming in the clouds to judge sin and sinners.

Chapter 1, then, is written so that we will turn our eyes upon Jesus as we study things to come.

Let's turn our attention to Revelation 1. Specifically I want to focus on the Person of Jesus Christ but before we do that there are some necessary details to cover, for all of chapter 1 doesn't speak only of our Lord and so I'll go through some of the other matters, such as those through whom the Book of Revelation was written. I find that somewhat interesting because there is a fairly clear outline of the persons who are involved in the process of the revelation of this book. I don't suppose that most of you are used to the marketing system but it's amazing how many people are between the product and the manufacturer before it ever gets there. When I used to sell automobile parts, we used to buy them from a warehouse, which bought them from the distributor, who bought them from somewhere else. By the time you bought the part that the mechanic put on your car it had gone through five or six hands to get there. Obviously each one of those had made a small profit on the item. There is a little bit of an analogy to those, although there is no profit on the item, in that it has gone through a number of hands. Notice first of all that it is from God. It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him. So the Revelation begins with God. I might say that we'll supply an extra person here perhaps, as it says in verse 4,

John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from Him who is, and who was and who is to come, that is from the Father and from the seven Spirits that are before His throne.

You may see a note in the margin of your Bible that may suggest the possibility of the seven-fold Spirit. That is a unique expression, but when you look at verses 4 and 5, it seems rather clear contextually, that the book is being written from the perspective of coming from the Trinity. For it is from the One of who was and who is and who is to come, the Father, the Seven-fold Spirit and then Jesus Christ, the Faithful Witness. I would understand that while this is an unusual expression it is undoubtedly an expression of the Holy Spirit that is used.

Some have turned our attention to the Isaiah 11:2, where there is a seven-fold function of the Spirit of God. Perhaps that is the sense in which it is intended to be understood. The book comes from God, the Holy Spirit is involved, and it comes to our Lord Jesus. God gave that to Him to show His bondservants the things that must shortly take place, the things to come. He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bondservant John. There are a number of people involved in the revelation process, God the Father, the Holy Spirit is involved, God the Son receives the revelation and He gives it to the angel who communicates it to John. Very little has been said about the angel and rightly so. We do not know specifically who the angel is, nor the process that is involved. It would seem to me that this is probably a more tightly woven prophecy in the sense that I do not believe in a dictation theory where each prophet is saying to God, Now what was that again? Repeat that line, like a stenographer righting it down. But when we come to things like this that are beyond the grasp and comprehension of the writer, then it is no doubt true that there is a closer relationship between the one who is communicating the message and the one who is writing it, that is John the Apostle.

John speaks of himself in several of the verses in the first chapter. He calls himself a bondservant in verse 1. That is a very appropriate title in the light of the New Testament. It's also a very appropriate title in the light of the revelation of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is no problem to us to look in the Gospel of John and to see him referred to as the one whom Jesus loved or the one who reclined on Jesus' bosom. But it doesn't seem appropriate here because John is not reclining on our Lord's breast, he is rather dead before His feet. It is a different image, a different sense of the relationship of John to his Lord. While it is an intimate one, it is one of awe and wonder, as a result of what he has seen.

John then says that he is a fellow-sufferer and brother in verse 9.

I, John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos.

I should say that there are many theories as to who this John was. But I think it is most normal, natural and likely that he was John the Apostle, the one whom Jesus did love, the writer of the Gospel of John. There are a number of similarities of expression and theology between this Book of Revelation and the Gospel of John.

He said he was on the island of Patmos, a small island approximately 4 miles by 8 miles, and he is there apparently as a result of his faithfulness to the testimony of Jesus Christ. He may very well have been exiled there and he receives the Revelation and writes it apparently from that place.

These are the ones that are involved in the Revelation. I think it is safe and clear to say that as we are introduced to this message and this book, it is presented as that which is clearly the inspired Word of God. It is clearly an oracle of God; for example the word communicated or signify is used with reference to a divine oracle. The expression the word of God in verse 2 is a technical expression from the Old Testament that means a divinely inspired prophetic utterance. When we look at the instructions that God gives in terms of the writing of the book, right from the outset it was clear to John that this was a book that was inspired of God, it was a prophetic utterance and it ought to be read. We see that alluded to in verse 3:

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near.

Notice the change from the singular he who reads, to the plural those who hear and those who heed. The word that is used here when it speaks of the one reading suggests that it is oral reading. It is quite clear in the context that the allusion is to the fact that when this revelation is received in the churches there is but one letter, which is read to the entire church. It's not like tapes where we can make copies, or like letters that we can Xerox, so that there is a copy of the Book of Revelation for each person in the church. So one person in the church would be the natural normal one to take that letter and to read it publicly to the church. Whatever was read publicly, other than just normal communication between churches, the fact that a passage of scripture was to be read publicly in church was one of the touchstones for whether or not that passage or that book of scripture was regarded as part of the canon, the inspired Word of God. This is a tacit claim to the fact that it was an inspired revelation from God.

Blessed in the one who reads it. Blessed are those [the congregation] who hear it and [in particular] those who pay heed to its message.

That is the thrust of those through whom the revelation was given. Notice those to whom this revelation was given. We have already alluded to that in verse 3 in the fact that there is one who will read it publicly and the church congregation will hear it. In verse 4 that congregation, or those congregations, are detailed, for its says,

To the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace.

Then you'll notice as we go on down that those churches are listed. So it says in verse 11,

Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum . . .

This revelation is addressed specifically to these seven churches. If you would look at a map of Asia, you would discover that the order in which these churches were listed would take you in a circular fashion, going north and then turning back down south. That would be the route that one would have traveled to visit those various churches. It is apparent that the book was written specifically for those seven literal churches. Those churches undoubtedly have the characteristics of churches today and in that sense the revelation applies to all of us. I think that these churches are not fictitious in the mind of God or the mind of John. These are the recipients of the revelation. God says to them. In fact, when God is portrayed, He is portrayed as One who stands amongst those churches. I think that is a very significant revelation.

You'll notice that it is the seven churches that are addressed in this letter, in verse 11, and then they are referred to as the golden lampstands in verse 12 and also in verse 20. The revelation that God has given is the revelation to those seven churches first and foremost. As we understand that message to those seven churches then we understand the message to us to the extent to which we have the same problems as those seven churches. I think we can find a little, or maybe much, of all of them in us. That will be the point of relevance when we study chapters 2 and 3.

Fourthly, I want to deal with Him of whom this book is a revelation. It is true when you look at verse 1 that it is a revelation of things that will shortly take place. I wouldn't deny that. But prophecy is a prediction a foretelling of the events of the future. Not all the events, and not necessarily the events in such a way that we can lay them out in nice, neat order. Prophecy involves things to come, but things, events, sequences and times are not the thrust or the major emphasis. The emphasis is the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is called the Revelation of Jesus Christ. When it is said a revelation, to reveal means to uncover. It means to expose that which is unseen and not known. I know I shouldn't have to say this to you or to myself, but I do. The Book of Revelation is a revelation. When we come to it we come with our minds fixed upon all the imagery, the seals, the trumpets. We say to ourselves What in the world is this book talking about? We get our minds set on the fact that it is really a book that is a mystery, a book designed to conceal. There is an element of truth in that. But it is not ultimately to conceal. Here is an analogy. In the Gospels our Lord tells parables. When He tells them He says, Let him who has ears to hear, let him hear. If you go back into the Gospels, you will discover that when Jesus began to speak in parables the disciples said to Him, Why are You doing this? He goes back to Isaiah 6 and answers, so that they won't see, they won't understand, they won't turn and they won't repent. Parables were spoken to conceal the truth. This is true. They were also told in order to reveal the truth to those who loved our Lord. And so Jesus said,

To them who are outside, all things are spoken in parables, that seeing they may see and not see. But unto you is given the mystery of the kingdom ( ).

Parables were given with a two-fold purpose. One purpose was to conceal the truth, namely in Mark 3, to conceal the truth from the religious leadership of Israel that had rejected Jesus as Messiah and had already purposed to kill Him, and had said that His power was not that of the Holy Spirit but of Satan himself.

He does this by Beelzebub, the prince of demons ( ).

The parables were to conceal the truth from unbelieving eyes. But the parables were also given to stimulate the interest, to provoke the thought, the questions and the study of the disciples. As I understand the Book of Revelation it does precisely that. Incidentally, you remember that the expression is repeated through chapters 2 and 3 Let him who has ears to hear understand. If you were a Christian living in the days of intense persecution, if you were living in a day when the government that was over you viewed Christianity as a revolutionary religion, revolutionary in the sense of overturning government power, you'd have great suspicion. You'd undoubtedly be reading their manual, just as we read some of the materials that Marx has written to find out what his strategy and methodology is. I really doubt that it would be very wise and beneficial for an unbelieving king to read that governments are going to be overthrown in a most clear and literal sense. So part of the obscurity of Revelation is by design. Part of the lack of clarity is because it is a filter; it filters out those who shouldn't know and don't know from those who should know and investigate. The other is, as I suggested, that the obscurity of Revelation is part of the nature of prophecy. Prophecy is never understood fully until it is fulfilled. By nature and by design it is obscure. We are talking about the Revelation of Jesus Christ. It is not something that is intended to totally mystify and baffle us. It is something, in the light of verse 3, that we are to read, understand and apply. I think we have to have that mindset when we come to Revelation. God has a word for us from this book. He is not trying to confuse, but He is trying to enlighten us. As I have said repeatedly, He is not primarily trying to tell us about events as He is about the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ who is returning again.

This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. That expression of Jesus Christ has created much discussion. What does it mean? It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the sense that it belongs to Him. We know that because it says the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him. If you said that is the property of Joe Brown, it belongs to him. Of means that it belongs to him. Surely this revelation belongs to our Lord. God gave it to Him. He, as its owner, has the right not to communicate it to His servants, which it does. It is the revelation, though, more than that, of Him as about Him. It is a fuller disclosure of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is a critical point. It is intended to more fully disclose and reveal the Person of our Lord Jesus. It is intended to expose Him in a new light, in a way we have not seen Him before or fully come to grasp before. It is a revelation of our Lord Jesus.

He is called, as this passage unfolds in verses 5 and 6, by a three-fold expression. He is the Faithful Witness. He is the Firstborn from the dead. He is the Ruler of the kings of the earth. Somebody has said that this is probably accurately describing the sequential work of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, He is the Faithful Witness, the One who came as the Light, as the Word of God, to reveal God to men at His incarnation. He is the One who was hung upon the cross, who rose from the dead as the Firstborn from the dead. And He is also the One who is the Ruler of the kings of the earth. That is this future element of which Revelation is all about. He is going to come, set His feet upon the earth and rule with majesty, power and purity. So you see the three-fold dimension of our Lord Jesus, the One who came as a witness, the One who died and was raised from the dead and the One who is returning again to rule upon the earth and rule over men.

There is also a three-fold description of Him in regard to believers in particular. The last expression is a more general expression and summary of His work. Notice it says that He is One who loves us, who loosed us from our sin, and who makes us to be a kingdom of priests. That is the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the behalf of believers. We may look at Him as the One who first loved us, who has released us from our sins by His blood and who is making us into a kingdom of priests.

I want to say, as a footnote, in thinking about this that sometimes Christians have a fixation about their position, on their part in the kingdom. I know that the expression a kingdom of priests is a pregnant expression which contains much more than any of us realize and it is food for meditation. I could not help thinking of Deuteronomy 10:9 which talks about the Levites who entered into the land. You remember something distinctive about the Levites? What was their inheritance? None. They didn't have one. They had tithes and offerings as their means of sustenance but they didn't have a piece of the land. I suppose that today there would be some kind of Levites Union which would march by God's throne with signs saying unfair. In Deuteronomy 10 we see that their inheritance is God Himself. That's what they possessed.

As we think about all of the dimensions of the kingdom in which we'll be priests, I wonder if we don't approach it in a sense thinking which piece of property will be mine? One time one of my nieces was walking through my dad's property with him and she said Grandpa, when you die, who gets this property? He answered Your mother and father will get part of my other children will get the rest. They walked a little farther and she said, Grandpa, which part is ours? That's the mentality I think we have. As we come to the subject as we come to the subject of the kingdom of God again our focus is not one the King, not on the Person of Christ and the fact that we will have Him, but we're saying which part is mine? The disciples said will I sit on your right hand or your left hand? Where is my piece of the action? What is my inheritance? The kingdom of priests, if we are truly priests, have as their inheritance the Lord Himself, the Person of Jesus Christ. Heaven is where He is. We shall forever be with the Lord. But if we were in heaven some of us might be up there chunking off pieces of the streets of gold, filling our pockets. That is not the essence of the kingdom, nor the essence of our priesthood. It is to serve Him and to worship Him.

It says in verse 7 that not only is He the One who loved us, who released and has made us kingdom, but the awesome revelation of verse 7 is that He is coming again in the clouds and returning with power. You may notice the references in the margin of your Bible that this description given us to us is saturated with references and allusions to the Old Testament. That is perhaps for two reasons. One of them is to identify the Person of Jesus Christ with the God of the Old Testament in the sense that He is the fulfillment and the realization of that. It is the linking of Old Testament prophecy with New Testament prophecy and saying it is the same Person. Jesus Christ is God. He is coming again in the clouds. Those who have pierced Him will look upon Him. What an awesome thing. So you see two different responses to the King. One is the response of those who love Him, who have been ransomed by His blood and who have been made a kingdom of priests. The other is by those who have rejected Him and who will see Jesus Christ coming as well, but they will see Him coming as the Victor, as the One whom they had rejected.

Ed Martin told me one time about the time that he work as a IRS agent in Canada and had audited a doctor. He was in the hospital one time visiting someone and he saw this doctor whom he had audited and given a rough time. He was very grateful that he was not in that bed as a patient, for she may have made life as miserable for him as he had for that her. When those who have put Jesus Christ on that cross, those who have rejected Him, when they see Him, they see Him as the One whom they have pierced, whether they were literally the ones who performed the act or whether they are those who in later days would have done it. They will see Him coming as the reigning King. I read a quotation in Dr. Walvoord's commentary on Revelation in which he said:

The focal point of verses 1-8 is the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is His work. It is the fact that He has received the revelation and He has communicated it. It is the fact that He is the One who has come as the Witness, who is the Firstborn from the dead, who is going to be the Ruler of kings. He is the One who has loved and released us and made us a kingdom of priests. He is coming again with power and authority to subdue His enemies.

The preeminent Person of the first 8 verses is Jesus Christ. But I want you to notice that after verses 9-11, those verses are describing that it is God who has spoken and who has directed John to write this revelation. Notice that our attention turns once again to the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, only now He is described in figurative terms, and that is the vision of the Lord Jesus that he receives.

In verses 12 and 13 He is the One who is described as standing in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. That is very important, for Revelation 1 is not an introduction to the whole book, but Revelation 1-3 is an introduction to the whole book. Everything that is written in chapters 4 and following is written to the seven churches and in light of what those seven churches are. What this serves to do is to introduce chapters 2 and 3. What it is saying is that the message that is given is given by the exalted, resurrected, glorified Lord who is standing amidst the churches. It is God's view of what of what is taking place in the church and when you look at what is happening in chapters 2 and 3 it is not a pretty sight. But our Lord is standing exalted, looking over those churches. So you see a heavenly view, a divine perspective of the church of Jesus Christ described in chapters 2 and 3. He is standing amongst the seven golden lampstands. He is described as One like a Son of Man. Remember that this a prophetic expression from the Old Testament and our Lord Jesus uses it of Himself in the Gospels. He is identifying Himself of the Old Testament prophecies as the Son of Man. Here this vision is linked to the Old Testament prophecies and to the Person of our Lord Jesus in the New Testament who calls Himself the Son of Man, and He is clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded with a golden girdle. Some have said that that is a priestly robe. While that is a possibility it is more likely that the imagery of this long flowing robe is the imagery of One who has majesty, who has power. It is a symbol of authority just as Joseph's coat of many colors was a symbol of authority. It is the authority, power and dignity of our Lord Jesus that is described in His dress. Notice His head and His hair are white like wool. In the Old Testament, in the Book of Proverbs especially, white or gray hair is described as an evidence of dignity, of maturity. Obviously this is symbolic, but what is being said is that in our day which exalts youth, our imagery and thinking is that the ideal leader is youthful. But the Scriptures are describing our Lord Jesus in terms that will inspire thoughts of wisdom, of insight, of experience. The gray hair refers to that. While He may have dignity He does not lack desire and zeal. That is the thing we don't like about white hair is that it is the evidence that we lack the power to do the things that we used to do when our hair was another color. It says that His eyes were like a flame of fire. The fire hadn't gone out. The fire is there is the sense that here is One who not only has maturity and wisdom, but He has zeal. He comes with a purpose. You recognize as you see Him that here is One who is intent to go about the work that He is going to do. He has fire in His eyes. His feet were like burnished bronze. I do not know and have not seen any commentator who really knows what that means. An almost white-hot glowing metal is an awesome sight, whether it speaks of purity or strength, it is intended to add to the awesomeness of the image that is standing before the Apostle John. In His right hand He holds the seven stars and out of His mouth comes the sharp two-edge sword. Now we see Him again as our Lord who is standing as the Sovereign amongst the churches. He is not aloof, nor disinterested; He is there and He is reigning and controlling and all things which are coming to pass are doing so by His direct authority and oversight. He is holding the seven stars and He judges with the sharp two-edged sword. His face is shining like the sun. What He has done is take all of these images each of which has its own special point of reference and He has blended them together and said this is the Person of Jesus Christ who is coming again to judge.

It is no wonder then that in verse 17 when John saw Him He fell at His feet as a dead man. He laid His hand on him and said

Do not be afraid, I am the first and the last and the Living One, and I was dead and behold I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

The things, now He says, that you're seeing, the things which are, the things which shall take place after these things, write. Write it down. What we see then in chapters 2 and 3 is God in the Person of His Son speaking to His church of the things about which this book is intended to address. The Lord is standing amongst the church and all of those future things which are revealed are revealed to the churches in the midst of all of their problems and difficulties because that truth is essential truth to them where they are.

Revelation chapter 1 tells us Christ is preeminent in prophecy. He is the preeminent One. Things to come are incidental because all of those things which are to come are those things which occur at the power and the authority and the dispatch of Jesus Christ Himself.

I want to suggest that this was a necessary revelation. When Jesus Christ came He came to reveal the Father. But in Philippians 2, for example, the kenosis or the emptying of Christ is described. We need to understand that the God that we see in the Person of Jesus Christ is not a total picture in the Gospels. For example, we see in Philippians 2 that He has laid aside His glory and His splendor. Apart from divine insight and the message which God had given to the shepherds, nobody would have stood and worshipped a babe laying in a cattle trough. The point of the incarnation is the humility of our Lord, His humbling of Himself. When we look through the Gospels I understand that there are flashes of divine glory. They are only flashes, so that you see the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that He has taken upon Deity humanity. It was so well done that the Jewish leaders who were looking for Messiah couldn't see Him because Jesus came as One humbled and meek. While Peter could say at those flashes of insight You are the Son of God, and while he could say Depart from me O Lord, for I am an unclean man, Peter could also say Wait a minute, listen Lord, You've got to get your head on straight ... This business about death is all wrong. Even the disciples looked at each other and said Who is this man? The fact that He was God incarnate, in flesh, was there; He came to reveal that but He did it in flashes. We receive a partial picture of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels and we see flashes of the totality. If men saw Jesus Christ as He really will be then they would see Him as John did. John could lay on the bosom in the Gospel of John, but he falls dead before His feet in Revelation. What I am saying is that we have a totality of the Person of Christ. The disciples kept saying, in effect, give us a glimpse, give us a look, let us behold Your glory. But there was a sense, in His first coming on the earth, in which that glory was subdued. It was suppressed, veiled, for a purpose. But in Revelation the veil was removed and now we see Christ exalted, lifted up, all-powerful; all of that glory, that visible manifestation of His deity that had been veiled over Him at the first coming was removed. Now Jesus Christ is seen in His totality.

What I am to say at this? Everything we see of Jesus Christ in the Gospels is true but it is not everything there is to see. That's why when you see movies that try and represent Jesus they represent Him sometimes as puzzled, as curious. I saw, for example in the stage play Cottonpatch_Gospel a Jesus that turns the water into wine and after its done He says it worked, it worked. That's the sense in which one could leave the Gospels if one did not know better. You should know better from the Gospels but lest we don't the Book of Revelation removes all of that. Jesus wasn't puzzled by what happened about Him, He wasn't mystified and He wasn't amazed when the miracles worked, because He was the Son of God. He was the Person who is described in Revelation 1 and all of the Book of Revelation. You and I need to catch a glimpse of that.

I was reading in J.I. Packer's Knowing_God. We had a quote entitled The Majesty of God. Packer said that one of the problems with us today, which results in a lack of fear, lack of worship and lack of trust, is that we have lost sight of the majesty of God. That's part of what I'm trying to say. The majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ was not the primary focus of our Lord's coming and the incarnation in the Gospels. That's why Paul said He laid it aside. He didn't lay aside deity, omniscience, omnipotence or any of His attributes. He laid aside the visible splendor that was His. Men, if they have seen Him laying in the manger may have rejected Him. But if they had seen in standing in the midst of the candlestands as John saw Him in Revelation 1 they wouldn't have rejected Him or try to correct Him as Peter did.

There is broader, fuller vision of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to suggest that Packer's words may have a special application. The reason why we have lost the sense of the majesty of God is because we have focused on His personal relationship. Please do not misunderstand. The personal relationship is there and Packer is very clear about that; the fact that He is an intimate Friend as He said I call you no longer servants but friends. That element is there. But we have come, in our age, to so focus on the personal intimacy that we have, if you would 'laying on His bosom.' We have come to so dwell upon that aspect of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ that we have not dwelt upon the aspect of His majesty and His power. If we stop and think about it, it is no wonder that worship is so difficult for us, and trust. What is it that inspires awe in us anymore? The psalmist used to sit and look at the heavens and behold them and now we think we've been there! We're sending explorers out to the planets out there and we're seeing them on television. We'll be there soon! There is no majesty even in the universe to some. We look at atomic power and we are not awed by it anymore. A bumper sticker said More people were killed in Ted Kennedy's car than were ever killed in nuclear power plant. We're not afraid of that anymore. The things which seem majestic to men of days gone by don't impress us anymore. What does it take to make a headline in a newspaper? Then we come to church . . .

You remember in the Old Testament the Temple itself was awesome. I'm beginning to understand why those who saw the Second Temple cried. It wasn't as awesome. The point is that when our Lord God, when His Presence came to dwell in the Temple, the awesomeness was the Presence of God that was there, not just the building. Sometimes we, in our church setting, we come so-to-speak in our Bermuda shorts. We walk into church and everything is so casual. You have to ask the question, where is the sense of awe? Where is the sense of majesty, of reverence? We don't have it in political figures. Some nations have powerful figures and the very thought of the power of that person makes one tremble in his boots. Not us. Especially since Richard Nixon and Watergate. We found a way to find the cracks and chinks in the President's armor and now the President doesn't get much respect. Rodney Dangerfield isn't alone. Who does? Including our Lord. It seems to me that the purpose of the Book of Revelation is to supply for us that revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ which allows us to focus on His majesty. It allows us to look on Him as the object of our trust and the object of our worship. It is no wonder that John says to Him To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. It's no wonder that he says Blessed is the one who reads and blessed are those who hear and those who heed. One of the primary ways that you will heed the Book of Revelation is to fall before Him and worship like John did, and like the twenty-four elders will do. That is the preeminent theme of the Book of Revelation: Jesus Christ in His glory. Jesus Christ as we only saw glimpses of Him in the Gospel is the same Lord but now all of the veil has been removed and we see Him as He really is. For a small struggling church as those churches were in chapters 2 and 3, in the midst of a time of intense persecution, the Revelation of Jesus as the One who is coming in the clouds with majesty and glory and honor was something to hang on to. It gave them a vision of the majesty of God which inspired their trust, their obedience and their worship. I would suggest that if there ever was an age that needed that, it is our age. We have emphasized to a great extent the relationship aspect, the humility, the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. He did say to the woman caught in the act of adultery Go and sin no more. But, you see, the same Lord who came the first time and said I didn't come to judge, didn't them. But He is now. That the Lord whom we serve and the Lord for whom we wait. That the vision of whom ought to inspire all kinds of awe and wonder and worship from us.

Dr. Waltke, when I was a student in seminary, used to say that when he went to the Old Testament he asked God to let him see more of the Lord Jesus. That is very good. I'd like to suggest that as we come to the Book of Revelation we ask that same thing. That God would allow us to see more of the Lord Jesus as He fully is and as we shall see Him. We shall be like Him, John said, for we shall see Him as He is. Revelation describes that. John describes how He was and Jesus said to His disciples it was better that He go. I pray that as you and I come to the book we will come to see Jesus as He is. That we will come first and foremost to worship, not to think about things, our place in the kingdom as much as to acknowledge the majesty of God in the Person of His Son.

Introduction

The letter which is written to the church at Ephesus is but one of seven contained in chapters 2 & 3 of the Book of Revelation. If we are to correctly interpret and apply the message contained in this passage we must first pause to look at the first three chapters as a whole. In chapter 1 the entire Book of Revelation is introduced as the revelation of Jesus Christ (v. 1). We have taken this to mean not only that it is a revelation belonging to our Lord because it was given Him by the Father, but that it is also a revelation of (or about) Him. In verses 1-8 the Lord Jesus is described by the use of propositional statements about Him, while in verses 12-18 He is depicted by imagery which describe His character and His majesty. The entire revelation of this book is addressed to the seven churches that are in Asia (vss. 4, 11, 20; cf. 22:16).

In chapters 2 & 3 we find specific messages conveyed to each of the seven churches named in chapter 1. The seven letters contained in these two chapters follow the same format. First, the church which is addressed is named. This is followed by a description of some aspect of the character of the Lord Jesus which is directly tied to the vision of Christ in 1:12-18.1 In each instance the characteristic mentioned seems to have a particular relevance to the church addressed. All together, these brief characterizations of Christ add up to the vision of the exalted Christ as described in chapter 1. Next comes an evaluation of the church, usually beginning with a commendation for that which is praiseworthy and then moving to a rebuke for what is displeasing to the Lord. Corrective action is then outlined and the letter closes with the challenge to consider what has been said (He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches), as well as a closing promise for those who are victors.

It has been pointed out that more than seven churches existed in Asia at the time Revelation was written.2 The number of seven is hardly a coincidence, but rather a clue to the arrangement of the book. There are not only 7 churches, but seven seals (4:1-8:1), seven trumpets (8:2-11:19), seven personages (12:1-14:20), seven bowls (15:1-16:21), seven dooms (17:1-19:10), and finally seven new things (19:11-22:5).3

Each of the seven churches has its unique strengths and weaknesses so that there is a distinct message given to each. The problems addressed in chapters 2 & 3 are those which have characterized the church throughout its history.4 The church world-wide of today would provide ample illustration of this fact. Indeed, in any local church most, if not all, of the problems enumerated here could be found among those in the congregation. By divine design, then, the Holy Spirit has not only spoken to the ancient church, but also to us as well. This is why the reader is urged to take seriously the Lord's words to the churches (plural):

'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches'(2:7, etc.).

While everyone seems agree that the Book of Revelation has a message from God, there are a wide variety of opinions as to what that message is and for whom it was intended. There are four major approaches to the interpretation of the Book of Revelation. I will briefly summarize them, along with my estimation of their strengths and weaknesses. It is important that you have a basic grasp of these views so that you will be able to better judge my approach to this book as well of that of any commentary or exposition of the Book of Revelation.5

(1) The preterist view: The book was fulfilled in the early ages of the church. Preter is a prefix which means past. The preterist seeks to interpret the Book of Revelation from the point of view that the events described in it's chapters have already occurred, not long after their prediction. In other words, the prophecies of Revelation are already a part of history--they are fulfilled.6 The positive contribution of this approach is that the book is interpreted in relationship to the historical setting in which it was written. This should be true of all biblical interpretation. The negative contribution of this view is that it diminishes the value of the book because it interprets every event as history and not as prophecy.7

(2) The futurist view: The Book of Revelation deals only with the end times. While hardly typical of those who hold this position, Bullinger is very clear in stating his position as a futurist:

The difference between these Epistles [to the 7 churches] and all other Epistles in the New Testament is so great, that one wonders how it was possible for them ever to be supposed as being addressed to the Church of God, the members of the Body of Christ! If it were not that we have all been brought up from earliest infancy to believe it, we could never have taken them as having anything in common with those addressed in either the earlier or later Pauline Epistles.

Everything is different: Circumstances, standpoint, references to the Old Testament, terminology, phraseology, scope, style: everything points to a different order of things altogether; yea, to a different Dispensation8

Tenney has pointed out that most futurists hold that only chapters 4 and following of the Book of Revelation are prophecies of a future time.9 Bullinger goes too far, insisting that chapters 2 & 3 refer to a future dispensation and are thus unrelated to the church. To interpret the whole Book of Revelation futuristically is to do a great disservice to chapters 2 & 3. Most dispensationalists are more conservative, interpreting chapters 2 & 3 as a message to the seven churches addressed, and then applying the principles taught to the church of today. Only the following chapters of the book would be interpreted futuristically. Thus, while the preterist takes chapters 4-22 as history, the futurist interprets them as prophecy.

(3) The historist (or continuous historical) view: The Book of Revelation is a history of the world from the apostolic age to the end of time. This view understands the Book of Revelation to give an outline of history, from John's day to the end of the age.10 The difficulty is that very few can agree upon this outline, and thus this tends towards a subjective interpretation of Revelation. The historist is inclined to interpret Revelation too much in the light of current events.

The historist view is not synonymous with the approach of many dispensationalists to Revelation chapters 2 & 3. Scholars such as Dr. John F. Walvoord do take the position that chapters 2 & 3 in addition to describing conditions in the seven churches provide a description of the church through its 2,000 year history. In his commentary, Dr. Walvoord notes that the apparent progression of history in these chapters is too incredible to be an accident, but he does not make this approach the heart of his interpretation or application.11 He understands this to be a secondary interpretation which suppliments, but in no way supercedes, the interpretation of these chapters as messages to the churches of John's day. Personally, I feel that he has presented his position fairly, graciously, and cautiously.

(4) The idealist view: There is no historical fulfillment, past or future, but only the symbolic triumph of good over evil. The idealist views the Book of Revelation as timeless and symbolic. While the preterist understands Revelation as past history, the historist as on-going history, and the futurist as future history, the idealist looks for no history whatever. The Book of Revelation is to be spiritualized so that the images and events are merely symbols conveying spiritual truths. The strengh of this view is that it does emphasize timeless principles, which the prophets have always proclaimed, and which make the book relevant to the saints in any age. The deficiency of this approach is that it ignores the specific references of the book to events and times, which are a vital part of prophecy. It must view the letters to the seven churches, for example, to be mere literary devices, rather than a word from God, which the the book claims them to be.

I believe that Scroggie12 is right in reminding us that godly saints and good scholars have held opposing positions and that this should make us a bit less dogmatic and considerably more cautious. I think he is also correct in suggesting that each of these views has something to contribute to our understanding of the Book of Revelation, even though the view may have serious shortcomings.

My approach to chapters 2 & 3 will be to interpret them in much the same way as I would the other epistles of the New Testament. I will seek to understand the problems of these ancient churches from the light provided by the Scriptures and history. I will endeavor to show that these passages, like all the scriptures (cf. II Tim. 3:16; I Cor. 10:11), are written for our instruction. I will seek to interpret chapters 4 and following as unfulfilled prophecy which was given to instruct and motivate the seven churches of chapters 2 & 3 in the light of their condition.

The Church at Ephesus: Love Lost

Revelation 2:1-7

It is appropriate that the church at Ephesus is addressed first. Ephesus was the largest city of the Roman province of Asia. By the time the gospel was preached here it had a population of more than a quarter of a million people.13 Located at the mouth of the Cayster River on a gulf of the Aegean Sea, it was a flourishing commercial and export center for Asia.14 Ephesus was also the terminus for the great road from the Euphrates, as well as other roads from the Cayster and Meander valleys.15

It was truly a breath-taking city:

The traveler from Rome landing at Ephesus would proceed up a magnificent avenue thirty-five feet wide and lined with columns which led from the harbor to the center of the city. . . . It boasted a major stadium, marketplace, and theater. The latter was built on the west slope of Mt. Pion overlooking the harbor, and seated some 25,000 persons.16

Ephesus was also a prominent religious center:

The imperial cult was not neglected in Ephesus. Temples were built to Claudius, Hadrian, and Severus. The major religious attraction, however, was the Temple of Artemis (Diana in Latin), one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. About four times the size of the Parthenon, it was adornedby the work of many great artists. After a great fire in 356 BC destroyed the first temple, it was rebuilt, with Dinocrates (who later build Alexandria) as architect. Pliny the elder . . . gives the dimensions of the temple as 425 feet long, 220 feet wide, and sixty feet high. He also notes that the 127 pillars were of Parian marble, with thirty-six of them overlaid with gold and jewels.17

We know a good deal about the Ephesian church from the New Testament. Paul's first visit to Ephesus was very brief (Acts 18:19-21). Apollos, too, had been there (Acts 18:24-28) and had an effective ministry, especially as his understanding of the way of God was more accurately explained to him by Priscilla and Aquila (18:26). When Paul returned to Ephesus, he found a group of disciples who were familiar with John's baptism (probably the result of the teaching of Apollos), but had not yet received baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus (19:1-7). For three months, the apostle Paul taught in the synagogue at Ephesus, followed by two years of teaching in the school of Tyrannus. The result was that many were saved and the gospel was heard throughout Asia (19:8-12). When the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, attempted to cast out demons by using Paul's words and were overcome by them, the vast difference between magic and Christianity was demonstrated. Many of the new converts wished to make a complete break with the magic of their pagan past and burned their books publicly, books which were worth 50,000 pieces of silver. As a result, the gospel continued to flourish in Ephesus (19:13-20).

Because of the size and dedication of the Ephesian church it became a threat to the idol-making industry in Ephesus. Led by Demetrius, a silversmith, his trade guild violently opposed Paul and the Ephesian church. An angry mob formed and two of Paul's companions were seized. While some of the Ephesian political officials restrained Paul from going before the hostile mob, the town clerk persuaded the crowd to settle their dispute in the courts, not in the street. Shortly after Paul left for Macedonia (Acts 19:23-20:1).

Paul passed by Ephesus later because he was eager to reach Jerusalem in time for Pentecost and was determined not to be delayed by a stop in Asia. He did, however, call for the Ephesian elders to meet with him at Miletus (Acts 20:16ff.). It was there that Paul told them of the prophecies concerning the danger of his returning to Jerusalem. His final words concerned the kind of ministry he had demonstrated before them as an example for them to follow. Of particular importance are these words:

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified (Acts 20:28-32).

Paul was right. He later wrote to Timothy, whom he had instructed to remain on at Ephesus in order to deal with those who were teaching false doctrine (I Tim. 1:3-7). Of particular concern in the first epistle to Timothy was the matter of church leadership. Chapter 3 is devoted to the qualifications of elders and deacons. It would seem that some wished to be teachers who majored on the minors, speculating dogmatically about the law (1:6-7). The warning he gave the elders at Miletas had indeed come true.

Tradition would have it that John, too, had lived in Ephesus, during his old age. It was through him that the exalted Lord chose to address the church at Ephesus. John was instructed to write to the angel of the church in Ephesus (Rev. 2:1). A great deal has been written to explain the meaning of the word angel,18 and each explanation raises its own problems. Nevertheless the force of the message to each church is clear. Here in chapter 2 God is speaking to the saints in the church at Ephesus, regardless of who the angel might be. As Sweet reminds us, the you in these verses is singular.19

The Lord Jesus introduced himself as the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands (v. 1). Initially, I was inclined to think of our Lord as amilitary commander who walks among his men, inspecting them. While there is a hint of this, I see a greater warmth and intimacy here.20 The Lord sovereignly controls His church, but He walks among the churches in fellowship with them. The words spoken to the church may involve correction, but they are spoken by a loving Lord who is intimately involved in the life of His church, and who therefore compassionately encourages and admonishes it.

How many good things do you have to say about your church? How many critical comments could you think of? If you are like me you could probably come up with a good size list of both. Do you suppost that it was any different in the church of Ephesus, or any of the other churches addressed in these two chapters? Note it well that both the commendations and the criticisms of each church are few. Our Lord chose to focus on a few things, good and bad. This is good pedagogy. Have you ever tried to play golf while three people are all trying to help? Each has some problem for you to work on, and so you try to hit the ball while paying attention to your wrists, your arms, your hips, your knees, and so on. No, it simply doesn't work to concentrate on too many things at one time.

There is much more than pedagogy involved here. The reason why many faults and many strengths are not mentioned is that there are not really all that many things which are crucial in the life of the church. The important thing is for the church to concentrate on the few things which are really priorities and to quit agonizing about the others. The things which our Lord commends and those which He condemns are very important and instruct us as to what the priorities of the church should be.

Two things are commended in the Ephesian church, their persistence and their purity, their diligence and their doctrine. The three terms deeds, toil, and perseverance (v. 2) focus on the persistence of the saints in their personal commitment to obedience and ministry (deeds and toil), even in the face of difficulty and opposition (perseverance).

Doctrinal purity was diligently preserved by the Ephesian church testing those who would claim to be authoritative teachers and leaders (apostles, v. 2). Because Ephesus was located on commercial sea and land routes, many Christian travelers passed through, some of whom were teachers who were not only deceived, but were deceivers, actively promoting their false doctrines. The warning of the apostle Paul had been taken very seriously by the Ephesian church. They had not allowed false doctrine to corrupt their congregation, even though some false apostles had attempted to do so. For this the Ephesian saints can be sincerely praised.

But there was a very serious problem in the church, one related to their strength, I suspect:

'But I have this against you, that you have left your first love' (v. 4).

Just what is meant by the expression, your first love? The word first indicates that the love which has been left is a love which existed previously. First here means first in time or earliest. It is this same term which is used of our Lord at the One who is the first and the last (Rev. 1:17; 2:8; 22:13). The love which was left, then, is love which the saints first evidenced, but is it a love for God or a love for the brethren? It is possible that both aspects are involved, but I have come to the conclusion that our Lord's primary reference is to brotherly love and not a love for God. Let me suggest several reasons for this conclusion:

(1) The love which Paul commanded the Ephesian saints to put into practice was a love for one another. In the Book of Ephesians, Paul commanded them to love one another:

But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love (Eph. 4:15-16).

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma (Eph. 5:1-2).

In the context of these verses the emphasis is upon the conduct of Christians in relationship to each another. Paul commanded the Ephesian saints to love one another.

(2) The love for which Paul commended the Ephesians was a love for one another. When Paul praised the Ephesian church for its love it was a love for one another:

For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers (Eph. 1:15-16).

The love for which this church was praised was a love for one another.

(3) The love which the scriptures warn us about losing in the latter days is our love for one another. When the disciples asked our Lord about the signs of His coming, He replied:

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name. And at that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold (Matt. 24:9-12).

I understand that as persecution increases in the last days several things will take place. Some will be deceived by false teachers (the Ephesians had done well in preventing this, Rev. 2:2), while others will fall away. Still others will suffer from a love which grows cold because lawlessness is increased (Matt. 24:12). If I understand our Lord's words correctly there is a strong cause-effect relationship between lawlessness and a lack of love. I believe that the love which grows cold is, once again, a love for Christian brothers and sisters. The reason it grows cold is because associating with those who are persecuted will likely bring persecution upon the one who thus loves his brother (cf. Matt. 25:31-46; Heb. 10:34; 13:3). Persecution tends to put love for the brethren to the test, and the Ephesian church had known much of this, as Acts chapter 19 indicates.

(4) The loss of love for God is specifically addressed later. The problems which are addressed in the letters to the seven churches are the problems which plague the church today as well. The problems of each of the seven churches are unique and are not attributed to any of the other six churches, for this would be redundant. In the letter to the Laodicean church the problem of a love for God which has grown cold is directly dealt with. This would eliminate any need to address it elsewhere. It is unlikely, therefore, that our Lord is directly dealing with a lack of love for God in the church at Ephesus.

(5) The lack of love for one another best fits the context of Revelation 2:1-7. Several lines of evidence have already been presented to question the view which would hold that the first love which has been left by the Ephesian saints is a love toward God.21 In the final analysis, it is the context which must determine the meaning of love. Let us consider first the complaint which is registered, next the consequences, then the cause, and finally the cure.

The complaint is that the Ephesians have left their first love (v. 4). The word left which was chosen by the translators of the NASB is a rendering of the word aphekes. While it is sometimes used with the meaning to forgive, its primary meaning was to let go or to leave. In this context it should probably be rendered by the term abandon or neglect.22 The word is used in Revelation 2:20 with this same passive sense:

'But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.'

The original term translated tolerate is the same term which is rendered left in our passage. The Ephesian saints have agressively sought to maintain doctrinal purity, but they have passively neglected the practice of brotherly love. I personally think that the Ephesian Christians were caught completely off guard by this charge, for the simple reason that they had almost unconsciously forgotten the priority of love, thereby neglecting its practice.

The consequence for failing to correct their neglect of love would be to have the Lord remove their lampstand out of its place (v. 5). I understand the lampstand to symbolize the church's function as a testimony to the world. Just as saints are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14), so the church is a lampstand. To remove the lampstand, then, may signify that the church's witness is lost. Whether this involves the removal of the church altogether is debated. It is true that the church at Ephesus no longer exists. This warning does not in any way teach that one could lose his salvation. The issue here is the testimony of the church in the world.

The loss of its testimony is directly related to the loss of brotherly love. Love for one another was not only commanded by our Lord, it was to be an essential element of their witness to the lost:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35).

The love of the saints for one another is a powerful witness to the presence and power of Christ. When this is lacking our witness is hindered.

The cure for the malady of the Ephesian church is threefold: remembrance, repentance, and renewed response:

Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent (Rev. 2:5).

The first step to recovery was to remember from where they had fallen (v. 5). The charge against the church is that the had at one time practiced love in a commendable way, but that had, by neglect, greatly diminished. The first step to the cure is to continually recall (the imperative is in the present tense) those days when their love was vibrant and active. This would give the Ephesians a fresh grasp of the goal, as well as a vivid reminder of how it was achieved. The second step was to repent (this is an aorist tense, which seems to call for a decisive act). True repentance goes far beyond sorrow. It is a genuine change of heart and mind which results in a change in lifestyle and behavior. This leads to the third step, which is to begin, once again, to put love into practice (the verb here is aorist, stressing the need for a new beginning). In the words of our Lord, the Ephesian saints should do the deeds they did at first.

A final evidence in support of the meaning brotherly love is to be found in the most likely cause of the problem at Ephesus. I believe that the greatest strength of the church had become the cause of its greatest weakness. I would like to suggest that it was the Ephesians diligence in striving for doctrinal purity that took a heavy toll on their expression of love for their fellow-believers. My friend Ed Martin put it about as concisely as it can be said:

Its hard for a watchdog to smile.

Think about it for a moment. Paul had warned the Ephesian elders that after his departure men from among their very ranks would seek to lead others astray. We all know what church splits do to Christian love. I do not remember much of the McArthy hearings, but I do know that the spirit with which they were conducted was not one dominated by love.

I believe that many of the efforts to maintain doctinal purity have differed little in spirit and result from the McArthy hearings of days gone by. In the history of the church, doctrinal disputes have often been handled without love. I suggest that Ephesus was no exception. And then if false teaching from within the church were not bad enough, many must have come from without, seeking to propagate their own following, with, of course, a unique slant on biblical truth. You may begin to sense the tension that could have existed within the church. I wonder how you or I would have been greeted were we to have visited the Ephesian church on a Sunday. In the name of preserving doctrinal purity, brotherly love had been set aside.

The was another extreme which could be evidenced in other churches of New Testament times and that was the sacrifice of doctrinal truth in the name of love. Neither extreme is to be tolerated. Love should no more be sacrificed to truth than truth should be to love. That is why Paul urged the Ephesians to speak the truth in love (literally, truthing in love, Eph. 4:15). In his instructions to Timothy concerning handling those who taught strange doctrines Paul reminded Timothy of the goal of his teaching:

But the goal of our instruction is love. . . (I Tim. 1:5).

Paul had reminded the Ephesians that when admonished them he did so with tears (Acts 20:31). When he wrote his second letter to Timothy he again taught him that truth and love must not be separated:

Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus (II Tim. 1:13).

Thus, love was to be evident even when rebuking those whose teaching deviated from truth:

Now flee from youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. And the Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will (II Tim. 2:22-26).

Conclusion

The Ephesians demonstrate a failure which is typical of every church and of every saint: we often allow Satan to capitalize on our strengths in such a way as to make it our weakness. Every virtue does carry within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Who could say that doctrine is not important? But doctrine is not an end in itself. Doctrine is something like the manna of the Old Testament: If we don't use it quickly, it will become rotten. Truth and love must never be separated. Truth must be proclaimed in love (Eph. 4:15) and love must be practiced in accordance with truth (Phil. 1:9-10). Let us learn from the church at Ephesus that while doctrinal purity must always be preserved, it need not be done at the expense of love.

In my own life I find it much easier to feel guilt over my lack of love for my Lord than I do to grieve over my lack of love for my brothers and sisters in Christ. Maybe this should tell me something. Perhaps I, like the Ephesian Christians of old, have been blindsided to this very critical area of brotherly love. What we may feel most comfortable about may indeed be one of our greatest problems. Let us seriously consider the rebuke of our Lord to the Ephesians. As our text reminds us, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Ironically, those who talk the most about love (and, unfortunately, who attempt to do more in the area of love) are often those who have never come to experience the love of God in the person of Christ. Let me remind you that one cannot demonstrate the love of God toward mankind until you have first of all experienced the love of God toward you. The first and foremost commandment is not that we love our fellow man, but that we love God, with all our heart, soul, and mind (Matt. 22:37-38), and the second is that we love our neighbor as ourself (Matt. 22:39). Until you have come to experience the love of God in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot love others as God commands. Let us first experience God's love in Christ by personally accepting the His self-sacrifice on the cross of Calvary for our sins, and then let us love others.

The closing words of our Lord to the church at Ephesus were intended to motivate the Christians there to remember, repent, and return to their former acts of love:

To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God (Rev. 2:7b).

The allusion here is to the garden of Eden. Just as our Lord walked in the garden in intimate fellowship with Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:8), so He walks in the midst of the churches (Rev. 2:1). Satan robbed Adam of the joy of fellowship with God in the garden by turning his eyes away from the tree of life to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man had become preoccupied with knowledge and lost access to eternal life in Paradise. Was it possible that just as Satan had deceived Adam and Eve by focusing their attention on knowledge, so he had deceived the Ephesians by turning their attention from love to knowledge (doctrine)? If so, the promise to those who will repent and renew their love is that they will receive the eternal blessing of living in Paradise and eating of the tree of life.

FOOTNOTES

1The seven descriptions [of Christ] all differ from one another; and, taken together, they make up the complete account given in Rev. i. of the One like unto a son of man. The Divine Author presents Himself in a different aspect to each individual Church; and the seven aspects make up His complete personal description, as the different Churches make up the complete and Universal Church. W. M. Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven Churches, Minneapolis: The James Family Publishing Co. [reprint], 1978), p. 197.

2At the first glance one might gather that only those Seven Churches existed in the Province Asia, and that the Revelation had been composed at an early date when there were no more Churches than the Seven. But that is impossible. There never was a time when those Seven Churches existed, and no others. Their situation shows that they could not well be the first seven to be founded: several other unnamed churches certainly must have been formed before Thyatira and Philadelphia. Ramsay, pp. 171-172.

3Here I am following the arrangement suggested by W. Graham Scroggie, The Book of the Revelation (Edinburgh: The Book Stall, 1920), p. 159. I have found Scroggie's insights in this book to be balanced and helpful.

4This expresses in another way what we have tried to show in chapter xiv.: the Seven Churches make up the complete Church of the Province Asia, because each of them stands in place of a group of Churches, and the Church of the Province Asia in its turn stands in place of the Universal Church of Christ. Ramsay, p. 197.

5Essentially I am following Scroggie, here, which is found on pages 106-156. I feel that he has attempted to analyse each position fairly and accurately. He concludes that the best approach is that which employs a combination of the positive contribution of each view. A sample of Scroggie's breadth of vision can be seen in these words: In conclusion let it be said that we have been greatly impressed with the fact that men of equal scholarship and saintliness have held interpretations of this Book which have been and are regarded as contradictory and irreconcilable. This should have led both sides to speak with care of the view which they did not hold, and, also, it should have led to the question, 'Are these Historicist and Futurist Views wholly irreconcilable?'. . . The Historicists see the processes, and the Futurists see the issues, but the former are wrong when they deny the issues, and the latter are wrong when they deny the processes. . . . So we may say that in the Apocalypse we have prophetic ANTICIPATIONS and there we can be Historicist, but certainly we have here also, prophetic REVELATIONS and there we must be Futurists (p. 156).

More concise explanations of these four views are provided by Leon Morris, The Revelation of St. John (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., [Photolithographed], 1969), pp. 15-22, Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1977), pp. 41-45, or Merrill C. Tenney, Interpreting Revelation (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1957), pp. 135-146.

6Preterists hold that the major prophecies of the book were fulfilled either in the fall of Jerusalem (AD 70) or the fall of Rome (AD 476). Mounce, p. 41.

7This starts with the situation of the church in the first century and ends there. It sees the book as arising out of the situation of the first Christians, and that is the outstanding merity of the preterist position. The Roman Empire dominates the scene. The Seer was wholly preoccupied with the church of his day. He wrote out of its situation and indeed has nothing more in mind than its situation. In other words this view has the merit of making the book exceedingly meaningful for the people to whom it was written. And it has the demerit of making it meaningless . . . for all subsequent readers. It should perhaps be added that some variant of this view is adopted by most modern [liberal] scholars. Morris, pp. 16-17.

8 E. W. Bullinger, The Apocalypse or The Day of the Lord, (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons Ltd, 1972), pp. 162-163.

9Tenney, p. 141.

10By this interpretation the various series of the churches, the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls are made to represent particular events in the history of the world that are related to the history of the church. For example, Elliott, in his Horae Apocalypticae, holds that the trumpets (8:6-9:21) cover the period from A. D. 395 to A. D. 1453, beginning with the attacks on the Western Roman empire by the Goths and concluding with the fall of the Eastern empire to the Turks. The first trumpet was the invasion of the Goths under Alaric, who sacked Rome; the second was the invasion under Genseric, who conquered North Africa. . . Tenney, p. 138.

11John F. Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ (Chicago: Moody Press, 1966), pp. 51-53.

12Scroggie, p. 155.

13Mounce, p. 85.

14The present location of Ephesus would seem to contradict this statement, for one must stand on high ground even to see the Aegean Sea from Ephesus now. The reason is that the Cayster River carried silt down from the mountains which was gradually filling the harbor. Only constant dredging kept the port open, and some have suggested that by the time the Book of Revelation was written, the role of Ephesus as a prosperous seaport was already diminishing (cf. Tenney, p. 55).

15Morris, pp. 58-59.

16Mounce, pp. 85-86.

17Barclay, L7C, pp. 14-15, as quoted by Mounce, p. 86.

18The term angelos most often means angel, especially in the Book of Revelation. It can also mean messenger in certain contexts. While each church may well have a kind of guardian angel, it is difficult to explain why John would be commanded to write to the angel of the church. . . or is it? What is taking place in the church is for the benefit of teaching the angels (Eph. 3:10). That is why they look on with such interest as to what God is doing in His church (I Cor. 11:10; cf. I Pet. 1:12). The message to the church is one which the angels need to learn, too. If this is not acceptable, the term may simply mean messenger. Certainly someone needed to carry the letter to Ephesus, since there was no postal service. And someone in the church needed to receive it and read it to the church. While this can be easily understood, there is absolutely no basis for assuming this to be the pastor of the church at Ephesus. While Timothy has been frequently called the pastor of Ephesian church he is never called such in the New Testament. In fact no man is ever called the pastor of any New Testament church. The church had its pastors and pastor-teachers, but it also had those with the gift of helps, administration, giving and so on. Of the various explanations of the term angel the two given above are the most common. Let the reader consider the matter, remembering that the interpretation (so long as it is orthodox) has little bearing on the message.

19J. P. M. Sweet, Revelation (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1979), p. 80.

20As the various churches are weighed and discussed one can see the living Christ in action among His own people. He does not appear to them as the terrible sovereign on the throne nor as the conqueror riding to battle. He walks among them as a Lord who seeks to commend their virtues even more than to expose and punish their faults. Tenney, p. 55.

21It is not my intention to press the distinction between a love for God and a love for man too far. Obviously the two are closely related (cf. Matt. 22:35-40). Nevertheless it is necessary for us to attempt to identify the primary emphasis of the indictment in Revelation 2:4.

22I would tend to disagree with A. T. Robertson here, who calls this a sad departure (Word Pictures in the New Testament, Vol. vi, p. 299). It is not so much a deliberate departure as it is, in coloqial terms, letting love fall through the crack. I believe that the term aphekes does convey culpability, but not conscious, willful disobedience. It is thus more a sin of omission than of commission.

Tinjauan Garis Besar:

I. Doktrin : Pribadi dan Karya Kristus (1:1-23)

A. Pendahuluan(1:1-14)

1. Salam Paulus kepada Jemaat di Kolose (1:1-2)

2. Ucapan Syukur Paulus untuk Jemaat di Kolose (1:3-8)

3. Doa Paulus untuk Jemaat di Kolose (1:9-14)

(a) Alasan Doa Paulus (1:9a)

(a) Isi dari Doa Paulus (1:9b-14)

(1) Akar dan Batang – “mengetahui kehendak Tuhan dengan sempurna” (ay. 9b)

Kata-kata Pendahuluan

Rasul tersebut memberi salam kepada jemaat di Kolose (1:1-2), bersyukur kepada Allah untuk iman dan kasih mereka (1:3-8), dan kemudian diikuti dengan suatu doa khusus untuk pertumbuhan mereka dalam pengetahuan tentang kehendak Allah (1:9-14). Banyak orang akan puas dengan fakta bahwa jemaat di Kolose sedang menunjukkan iman dan kasih, namun Rasul Paulus berdoa untuk pertumbuhan rohani yang lebih baik lagi, karena tanpa hal tersebut orang-orang Kristen akan menjadi mandek dan tidak produktif ( bnd. 2 Ptr. 1:4-11). Penekanan yang sama dapat dilihat dalam doa-doa Paulus dalam kitab Efesus dan Filipi ( bnd. Ef. 1:15-23; 3:14-19; Flp. 1:9-11). Dorongan doa-doa mengenai pertumbuhan rohani dan pengertian seharusnya mengajarkan kita bahwa ketidakseimbangan dan konflik-konflik yang bodoh sering terjadi dalam lingkungan Kristen dalam hal pemahaman Alkitab lawan ungkapan kasih. Dalam beberapa gereja , penekanannya adalah mengenai menyatakan kasih dalam hubungan-hubungan yang berarti di dalam dan di luar tubuh Kristus. Lainnya, penekanan mungkin pada kehidupan bersama tubuh Kristus, atau mungkin mengenai penginjilan, pengajaran, atau teologi. Yang satu sering digunakan untuk melawan lainnya seolah-olah semua itu bertentangan satu sama lain.

Semua tanggung jawab untuk tubuh Kristus diperlukan, dan seharusnya tak pernah dipertentangkan satu sama lainnya. Mereka terikat dan menyatu seperti sebuah tangan dalam sarung tangan. Prinsip pentingnya adalah bahwa mereka tidak saling ekslusif. Sebaliknya, mereka terjalin dan terkait, seperti sebab dan akibat ketika dipahami sebagaimana mestinya dan secara alkitabiah. Ayat-ayat pertama dari Kolose menggambarkan ini dengan indah. Rasul Paulus merasa bisa memuji jemaat Kolose untuk iman, kasih dan pengharapan mereka (1:4-5), namun ini tidak cukup. Perjalanan seseorang bersama Kristus bukanlah suatu hubungan yang statis. Selaku orang-orang Kristen, kita tak pernah bisa duduk tenang atau berhenti pada rangkaian kemenangan kita. Orang-orang cenderung untuk hidup pada masa lampau mereka atau bahkan pengalaman-pengalaman mereka sekarang ini dan terpaku pada apa yang nyaman bagi mereka. Karena tak seorang pun pernah sampai pada puncak kedewasaan rohani dalam hidupnya, selalu ada ruang untuk pertumbuhan rohani.

Jika kita terus menyenangkan Tuhan, menghasilkan buah dalam setiap pekerjaan baik dan sungguh-sungguh bertumbuh dalam Kristus, adalah perlu bahwa kita “menerima segala hikmat dan pengertian yang benar, untuk mengetahui kehendak Tuhan dengan sempurna.” Mengapa ini benar? Pertama, karena kasih dan pelayanan tanpa wawasan alkitabiah dan pengetahuan akan kebenaran hanya akan menjadi peniruan yang tipis dan murah yang terutama dimotivasi oleh hal-hal yang mementingkan diri dan keinginan-keinginan. Karena kenyataan ini, Paulus memperingatkan untuk melawan kepura-puraan atau kasih yang pura-pura (Rm. 12:9). Dan kedua, karena tanpa wawasan alkitabiah dan motivasi, bahkan kasih Kristen yang tulus akan menjadi suram dan mati Tindakan-tindakan kasih Kristen dan pelayanan akan berubah menjadi membosankan dan pengunduran diri karena kapok, jika itu terjadi.

Tanpa kasih dan hubungan-hubungan yang erat dalam tubuh Kristus, pengetahuan yang kita peroleh melalui pemahaman Alkitab yang dalam akan selalu menjadi dingin, suka mengritik, membosankan, dan hanya intelektualisme saja. Pengetahuan tanpa penerapan tidak layak karena ini gagal menangkap arti dan tujuan mengenal Firman Allah. Pemahaman Alkitab tak pernah berakhir sampai di situ saja, namun ini adalah suatu elemen yang perlu dalam kehidupan orang percaya dan sesuatu yang terasa diabaikan dalam gereja sekarang ini. Seperti Rasul Paulus memperingatkan, pengetahuan tanpa pengertian dan kasih yang seperti Kristus menimbulkan kesombongan, kaku, kecongkakan, atau membesar-besarkan, dan gagal untuk memenuhi kehendak Allah (bnd. Kol. 2:18; 1 Kor. 8:1).^{1http://www.bible.org/node/1636} Jika pengetahuan kita tentang Juruselamat dan hidup kita di dalam-Nya tidak memimpin pada praktek kasih yang sejati, kita tidak ada apa-apanya (1 Kor. 13:2).

Karena itu, dalam ayat-ayat 9-14, rasul tersebut berpindah dari ucapan syukur kepada suatu permohonan yang sangat khusus yang menggambarkan tindakan praktis dari memiliki pengetahuan akan kehendak Allah dalam segala hikmat dan pengertian. Seperti yang ditekankan Johnson,

Orang-orang Kristen sering bertanya, “Bagaimana seharusnya saya berdoa, dan apa yang akan saya doakan?” Doa-doa Paulus merupakan pedoman-pedoman yang dapat dipercaya. Doa-doa tersebut singkat dan tegas, ditujukan pada keperluan-keperluan saat itu. Ia tidak “doa berkeliling dunia” sebelum mendoakan pokoknya. Ada suatu lelucon yang lucu tentang Billy Nicholson, penginjil Irlandia yang terkenal. Dalam suatu pertemuan akbar ia memanggil seorang saudara seiman yang dikenal karena suka menyebutkan semua misionaris yang dikenalnya dalam setiap doanya di muka umum. “Pak Anu,” kata Billy, “tolong pimpin kami dalam doa, tetapi sebatas wilayah Donegal saja ya!”²

Doa-doa Paulus sangat berisi pelajaran dan sering berfungsi sebagai suatu teguran mengenai cara berdoa banyak orang Kristen. Doa-doa ini tidak hanya singkat dan tegas, namun bersifat strategi secara rohani. Mereka berfokus pada masalah-masalah rohani yang penting dalam menghadapi orang-orang percaya secara pribadi dan tubuh Kristus secara keseluruhan. Kehidupan Kristen adalah suatu peperangan rohani (Ef. 6:10-18), dan kehidupan doa kita seharusnya menggambarkan ini melalui cara kita berdoa. Dalam perang atau pertempuran militer, tujuan-tujuan biasanya dibagi ke dalam tiga bidang: strategis ( tujuan-tujuan penting dan utama), taktis ( operasi-operasi yang singkat dan cepat), dan logistik (distribusi keperluan-keperluan, orang-orang, dan bahan-bahan, dsb.). Sekarang ini, kehidupan doa banyak orang Kristen terutama berpusat pada logistik, pada kesehatan dan urusan-urusan kekayaan. Sebaliknya, doa-doa Paulus kebanyakan berfokus pada hal-hal strategis dan taktis.

Akhirnya, seperti dunia lakukan sekarang ini, bidat-bidat di Kolose menawarkan gereja pengetahuan palsu dan solusi-solusi palsu terhadap kebutuhan-kebutuhan dan masalah-masalah orang-orang. Untuk menghadapi pengajaran palsu dari bidat-bidat Paulus berdoa untuk pengertian yang benar, untuk mengetahui kehendak Tuhan dengan sempurna. Dua istilah yang ia gunakan dalam bagian ini (ay. 9-14), “ memberi buah “ and “ bertumbuh ,” memberikan gambaran dari sebuah pohon untuk menguraikan keinginan Tuhan bagi mereka dan bagi kita sebagai sebuah gereja, tubuh Kristus. Ini disebut memperhatikan firman seperti dalam Yer. 17:8 dan Mazmur1:3 yang menggambarkan umat Allah sebagai umat Firman-Nya yang kudus: “Ia seperti pohon, yang ditanam di tepi aliran air, yang menghasilkan buahnya pada musimnya…” ( Mzm. 1:3). Ketika para pria dan wanita secara teratur mengisi hati mereka dengan aliran-aliran Firman Tuhan yang segar, mereka menjadi berbuah tanpa peduli situasi-situasi kehidupan ( bnd. Dan. 11:32).

Alasan untuk Berdoa (ay. 9a)

1:9a Sebab itu sejak waktu kami mendengarnya, kami tiada berhenti-henti berdoa untuk kamu. Kami meminta, supaya kamu menerima segala hikmat dan pengertian yang benar^{3http://www.bible.org/node/1636} untuk mengetahui kehendak Tuhan dengan sempurna.,

“Sebab itu” menghubungkan ayat-ayat 9-14 dengan bagian sebelumnya tentang ucapan syukur, khususnya (1) laporan tentang iman, kasih dan pengharapan mereka dan (2) suksesnya penginjilan di tengah-tengah mereka melalui pelayanan Epafras, rekan sekerjanya yang setia dan kawan pelayanan. Paulus bersyukur untuk apa yang Allah telah lakukan dalam hidup mereka, namun karena prinsip yang sudah didiskusikan mengenai pertumbuhan rohani, rasul tahu bahwa kasih mereka akan gagal dan mati tanpa terus bertumbuh dalam kebenaran Sang Juruselamat. Jadi, kita diperkenalkan dengan doa Paulus untuk lebih memperkaya mereka dan bertumbuh dalam pengetahuan akan kehendak Allah.

“Sejak waktu kami mendengarnya” menampilkan kepekaan dan kecepatan rasul untuk pergi ke takhta kasih karunia bagi tubuh Kristus. Ini menunjukkan pada kita bagaimana kehidupan Paulus asyik dengan memperhatikan orang-orang lain dan bagi kemuliaan Allah, dan bagaimana ia percaya dalam semua perkara Tuhan akan mencukupkan. Doa tak pernah jauh dari hatinya dan dari bibirnya karena Allah adalah keyakinannya dan orang-orang adalah kepeduliannya.

“Tiada berhenti-henti berdoa untuk kamu. Kami meminta” juga menarik perhatian kita, seperti dalam ayat 3, akan ketekunan kehidupan doa Paulus. Mengapa kita melihat begitu sedikit kelaparan akan Firman Tuhan dan begitu sedikit hasil-hasil dalam kehidupan orang-orang lain? Sudah pasti, satu alasan adalah karena kita gagal berdoa dan berdoa dan berdoa.

“Berdoa” bahasa Yunani-nya proseuchomai. Kata ini menunjuk pada hak istimewa untuk berdoa secara umum dan menekankan doa sebagai suatu tindakan ibadah dan pengabdian kepada Tuhan. Ini memandang doa sebagai sebuah pendekatan kepada Allah dari suatu pengenalan akan (1) kebutuhan seseorang dan ketidaklayakannya (2) akan kasih Allah dan semua karakter yang bijaksana dan kemahakuasaan atau persediaan total untuk memenuhi kebutuhan-kebutuhan tersebut. Kata “meminta” bahasa Yunaninya aiteo, yang berarti “meminta, menginginkan, atau memohon.” Ini adalah kata lain untuk berdoa, sebuah sinonim, namun membawa keluar konsep mengenai kebutuhan-kebutuhan khusus dan keinginan-keinginan yang kita bawa ke hadapan Allah melalui permohonan-permohonan khusus.

Namun suatu perbandingan dari Mazmur 37:4 dengan Yakobus 4:3 mengingatkan kita bahwa seandainya kehidupan doa kita alkitabiah dan efektif, kesukaan kita haruslah dalam Tuhan dan tujuan-tujuan-Nya. Kesukaan akan Tuhan adalah apa yang memimpin keinginan-keinginan dan permohonan-permohonan kita sehingga semuanya tetap dalam alasan-alasan yang saleh. Tuhan tak pernah bermaksud doa menjadi sebuah cek kosong untuk mementingkan diri sendiri. Kita harus belajar dan berusaha berdoa dalam kehendak Allah sesuai tujuan dan nilai-nilai-Nya. Sebuah Mazmur yang indah yang menggambarkan prinsip ini adalah Mazmur 40:17:

“Biarlah bergembira dan bersukacita karena Engkau semua orang yang mencari Engkau; biarlah mereka yang mencintai keselamatan dari pada-Mu tetap berkata: “Tuhan itu besar!” ( membesarkan, NASB, mengagungkan, NIV) (Mzm 40:17)

Isi Doa Paulus (ay. 9b-14)

Akar dan Batang, “mengetahui kehendak Tuhan dengan sempurna” (ay. 9b)

1:9b supaya kamu menerima segala hikmat dan pengertian yang benar, untuk mengetahui kehendak Tuhan dengan sempurna.

Gambaran pohon yang terlihat dalam istilah, “ memberi buah dan bertumbuh,” mengingatkan kita akan sebuah prinsip yang sangat penting dalam hidup, yaitu akar dan batang. Secara sederhana Anda tidak bisa berbuah tanpa akar menyediakan makanan yang diperlukan untuk menopang kehidupan dan sebuah batang yang kuat untuk memberikan kestabilan sehingga buah tidak jatuh ke tanah yang kotor atau batang tidak patah dan memotong suplai makanan ke buah. Bagaimanapun kita hidup di zaman sekarang, ketika orang-orang mau melewati sistem akar dan langsung ke buah. Sekarang ini, dalam banyak sekolah mereka yang berwenang sudah menghapuskan tinggal kelas dan lebih memperhatikan tentang memastikan anak-anak merasa nyaman dengan diri mereka sendiri, bahkan jika mereka tidak bisa mengeja, membaca atau, menjumlahkan dan mengurangi. Namun ABC yang sederhana ini membentuk akar dan batang. Dunia nyata di luar sana tidak peduli dengan citra diri seseorang. Agaknya, dunia bisnis mengharapkan karyawan-karyawannya bisa menjumlahkan, mengurangi, mengeja, membaca dan menulis sehingga karyawan-karyawan ini bisa melakukan pekerjaan yang menjadi tugas mereka. Demikian juga, mengembangkan suatu sistem akar rohani yang sehat dan sebuah batang yang kuat penting untuk kehidupan Kristen yang berbuah.^{4http://www.bible.org/node/1636}

Dengan kata-kata “supaya kamu menerima” dalam ayat 9, kita diperkenalkan pada isi dan tujuan doa Paulus. Secara harfiah, teks Yunaninya “ sehingga kamu boleh menerima.” Teks Yunani menggunakan suatu klausul hina dengan bentuk kasus pengandaian . Bentuk ini mungkin menyatakan isi (penggunaan kata benda hina) atau desain ( tujuan- hasil penggunaan hina) dari doa Paulus. Sementara bentuk ini mungkin paling dimengerti untuk menunjukkan isi (kata benda) dari doa mereka, sudah pasti Paulus dan rekan-rekannya memanjatkan doa ini, karena ini juga tujuan atau hasil yang mereka cari dari Tuhan dalam kehidupan jemaat Kolose. Intinya, Paulus berdoa untuk dua hal: (1) agar para pembacanya mengetahui kehendak Tuhan dengan sempurna (2) sehingga, sebagai hasilnya mereka boleh hidup dalam suatu cara yang menghargai Tuhan, menyenangkan Dia dalam setiap hal. Kedua permohonan, meskipun tersendiri, berhubungan erat dan terikat satu sama lain sebagai sebab dan akibat. Ayat 9 tanpa ayat 10 tidak lengkap dan jauh dari kehendak Allah, namun ayat 10 tanpa ayat 9 tidak mungkin.

Permohonan ini membentuk sasaran doa, namun intinya ini juga akar dan dasar bagi semua yang mengikuti. Permohonan ini menunjuk kita pada kebutuhan besar dalam setiap kehidupan orang percaya dan cara dengan mana kebutuhan ini dipenuhi. Penting bahwa para pembaca, dan dengan penerapan semua orang percaya untuk dipenuhi dengan pengetahuan akan kehendak Allah ( kebutuhan), namun tidak cara apa saja bisa memenuhi ini. Kita harus tak pernah mengisi kekosongan ini melalui hikmat kedagingan manusia atau imajinasi manusia (bnd. 2:2-3, 8, 18 dan Rm.1:18ff). Jadi, dengan kata-kata di dalam ( atau oleh) segala hikmat dan pengertian yang benar , rasul menunjuk pada semua cara yang penting.

Melalui surat ini, rasul menggunakan istilah-istilah alkitabiah seperti pengetahuan, menerima, rohani, pengertiandanhikmat. Istilah-istilah ini juga membentuk bagian dari kosa kata yang diambil oleh guru-guru palsu, namun apa yang mereka maksudkan dengan istilah-istilah ini adalah jauh berbeda dari doktrin yang kuat atau kebenaran alkitabiah. Seperti Wiersbe jelaskan, “Setan suka menipu! Ia suka meminjam kosa kata Kristen, namun ia tidak menggunakan kamus Kristen! Lama sebelum guru-guru palsu telah mengadopsi istilah-istilah ini, kata-kata itu sudah ada dalam kosa kata Kristen.”⁵ Dalam surat ini, rasul sering menggunakan tema “kepenuhan” atau “sempurna” untuk melawan klaim-klaim para guru palsu. Ini bisa dilihat dalam perbedaan, namun istilah-istilah yang sama yang digunakan dalam 1:9, 19, 24, 25; 2:2, 3, 9, 10; 4:12, 17. “Tampaknya bahwa guru-guru palsu menyombongkan bahwa mereka menawarkan kebenaran yang penuh dan kedewasaan rohani, sementara Epafras hanya menginstruksikan jemaat Kolose dalam langkah-langkah pertama (Beare, 156).”⁶

“…Supaya kamu menerima” juga bisa diterjemahkan, “… supaya kamu dipenuhi “ Seperti telah disebutkan sebelumnya, klausul ini melakukan lebih daripada acuan pada isi atau inti apa yang Paulus dan timnya doakan. Ini juga mengacu pada bentuk dan alasan untuk doa tersebut! Jemaat di Kolose sudah diberitahu bahwa mereka perlu lebih banyak pengetahuan dan hikmat yang lebih dalam melampaui apa yang mereka pelajari mengenai pribadi dan karya Kristus. Sekarang Paulus menunjukkan mereka sesungguhnya membutuhkan lebih banyak pengetahuan, namun pengetahuan yang benar akan kehendak Allah dengan memakai semua hikmat rohani dan pengertian.

Setan memiliki semua jenis tipu muslihat untuk mengganggu dan membuat orang berpaling dari Firman Tuhan. Terutama ia berusaha untuk menanamkan pengertian bahwa keselamatan saja dalam Kristus sudah cukup. “Supaya kamu dipenuhi “ melambangkan bentuk pengandaian dalam bahasa Yunani yang modusnya adalah kemampuan. Ini menunjuk pada apa yang Tuhan sudah rancang kemampuan untuk setiap orang percaya, misalnya dipenuhi dengan pengetahuan akan kehendak-Nya, tapi tidak perlu kenyataannya. Jadi, meskipun ada kemampuan dan rancangan Tuhan, ini mungkin tidak menjadi suatu kenyataan. Kenyataan ini dapat dirintangi oleh semua jenis gangguan, seperti kelalaian, kemalasan, kedagingan, materialisme, dan prioritas-prioritas yang salah. Atau, ini bisa dirintangi oleh ide-ide palsu yang berusaha menambahkan kepada atau mengurangi kepenuhan keselamatan sebagaimana dinyatakan dalam Kristus. Ini adalah apa yang jemaat di Kolose sedang hadapi dengan guru-guru palsu di Kolose. Tuhan menghendaki semua orang percaya dalam Kristus memiliki akar-akar mereka tertanam dalam-dalam dalam Firman-Nya seperti sebuah pohon yang ditanam di tepi air.

Saya dibesarkan di sebuah peternakan kecil di Texas timur. Di sekeliling rumah kami ada beberapa pohon oak yang tinggi yang merentangkan cabang-cabang mereka menyediakan naungan dan keindahan pada rumah kami. Tepat di belakang pohon-pohon oak ini ada kebun kami dimana ibu saya menanam sayur-sayuran seperti oyong dan ketimun. Nah, perlu bertahun-tahun untuk menghasilkan pohon-pohon oak yang sangat besar dan menyenangkan yang memberikan kami naungan dan keindahan tahun lepas tahun, namun hanya perlu beberapa minggu untuk menghasilkan sebuah oyong atau ketimun. Jadi , kita bisa bertanya, “Kita ingin menjadi orang Kristen macam apa? Apakah kita ingin seperti sebuah pohon oak atau sebuah oyong?” Pertumbuhan rohani yang mantap dan kuat membutuhkan waktu dan sebuah kehidupan yang segar yang dialiri oleh aliran Firman Tuhan, sumber pengetahuan akan kehendak-Nya.

“Dipenuhi” penuh-penuh dan berarti dan penting. Pertama, waktunya adalah aorist, yang melihat pada kulminasi efektif, hasil akhir dan rancangan untuk memperoleh pengetahuan akan kehendak Allah. Idenya adalah isi penuh dan sampai berlimpah. Tak seorang pun pernah mencapai sasaran ini, tetapi seharusnya ini tidak menjadi tujuan kita. Kedua, bidat-bidat secara teratur menggunakan kata kepenuhan. Ini adalah klaim mereka bahwa apa yang mereka sedang tawarkan sebagai suatu pengganti atau tambahan kepada Injil dan pada kehidupan orang percaya dalam Kristus akan membawa suatu tambahan kepenuhan hidup. Jangan percaya itu! Dunia dan setan selalu membuat klaim ini, namun ini adalah suatu dusta. Kepenuhan hidup hanya datang melalui suatu pengertian akan kepenuhan yang orang-orang Kristen secara otomatis miliki dalam Kristus sementara mereka terus bertumbuh dan menghubungkan hidup mereka kepada Dia melalui Firman (2:6-10). Ketiga, kata kerja tersebut dalam bahasaYunani pleroo, yang mungkin membawa tiga ide kunci, semua mungkin memiliki penerapan di sini meskipun arti pertama yang didaftarkan di bawah ini yang utama.

• “ Untuk mengisi kekurangan.” Setiap orang percaya memiliki kekurangan-kekurangan dalam pengetahuannya akan Firman Tuhan dan kekurangan-kekurangan ini perlu disingkirkan melalui suatu penanganan yang seksama dan tepat dari Firman Tuhan ( bnd. 2 Tim. 2:15).
• “ Untuk memiliki, mempengaruhi, mengendalikan, mengambil alih sepenuhnya.”Apa yang muncul pada pikiran Anda ketika Anda mendengar pernyataan, “ia dipenuhi dengan rasa takut?” Tidakkah Anda melihat seorang yang demikian dikendalikan dan dimotivasi oleh ketakutan sehingga gerakan dan tindakannya adalah hasil dari ketakutan tersebut? Demikian juga, pengetahuan akan kehendak Allah demikian meliputi keberadaan kita yang mengendalikan seluruh pikiran kita, pengaruh-pengaruh , tujuan-tujuan dan rencana-rencana kita. Semakin kita memiliki pikiran Kristus, semakin Allah melakukan pengendalian-Nya ke dalam hidup kita.
• “ Untuk mengisi dengan suatu kualitas karakter tertentu .” Ketika sebuah rumah dipenuhi dengan keharuman tertentu, rumah itu memiliki kualitas keharuman tersebut ( bnd. Yoh. 12:3). Semakin hidup kita dipenuhi dengan Firman Tuhan, pikiran Kristus, semakin hidup kita memiliki kualitas dan karakter dari kehidupan Kristus ( bnd. Eph. Ef. 3:16-19).

“Pengetahuan” dalam bahasa Yunani adalah epignosis , suatu bentuk gabungan dari gnosis, “pengetahuan.” Sebuah studi konkordansi dari kata ini dalam Perjanjian Baru menyatakan bahwa ini hanya digunakan pada pengetahuan moral dan rohani ( pengetahuan tentang Allah dan kebenaran-Nya ), namun ada perdebatan yang serius mengenai arti tepatnya. Vaughn memiliki suatu ringkasan yang bagus dari masalah-masalah perdebatan ini:

…Armitage Robinson, misalnya , menyimpulkan secara sederhana , bentuk tak digabung (gnosis) [ Ini adalah sebuah kutipan. Apa yang Anda lakukan tentang kekurangan omega?] adalah kata yang lebih luas dan menunjukkan pengetahuan dalam “ pengertian paling penuh.” Bentuk gabungan yang digunakan di sini ia ambil menjadi “ pengetahuan yang diarahkan pada suatu obyek tertentu” ( Surat kepada jemaat di Efesus, hlm. 254). Sarjana-sarjana sebelumnya, sebaliknya, cenderung untuk melihat epignosis sebagai kata yang lebih luas dan lebih kuat. Meyer, misalnya, menetapkan ini sebagai “pengetahuan yang menggenggam dan masuk ke dalam sasaran” (hlm. 215). Lightfoot menyatakan bahwa “ ini terutama digunakan mengenai pengetahuan tentang Allah dan Kristus yang menjadi pengetahuan yang sempurna” (hlm. 138). Penafsir yang lebih berpengalaman yang mengerti firman menunjukkan dengan teliti pengetahuan, yaitu, suatu pemahaman yang dalam dan tepat, mungkin benar. Pengetahuan semacam itu tentang kehendak Allah adalah dasar dari semua karakter Kristen dan perilaku.⁷

Apakah epignosis menunjuk kepada pengetahuan yang diarahkan kepada sebuah bidang pengetahuan tertentu seperti pengetahuan tentang Allah dan hal-hal rohani atau kepada suatu pengertian pengetahuan yang lebih dalam mengenai pengetahuan yang sedang dipikirkan, ini menunjuk kepada suatu pengetahuan yang mempengaruhi kehidupan untuk perubahan rohani yang positif dan berkat. Dalam doa Paulus, masalahnya bukan sekedar pengetahuan, namun pengetahuan akan kehendak Allah. “Akan kehendak-Nya” menunjukkan kita pada bidang pengetahuan yang tepat dibutuhkan, namun dalam konteksnya , apa tepatnya yang ada dalam pikiran rasul tersebut?

Secara umum, pengetahuan akan kehendak Allah akan memperhatikan seluruh nasihat kebenaran Firman Tuhan sebagaimana ditemukan dalam Alkitab (sumber) mengenai pribadi dan karya Kristus (pokok utama). Seperti Wahyu 19:10 menjelaskan , “Sembahlah Allah! Karena kesaksian Yesus adalah roh nubuat” Poinnya sederhana dan jelas. Tujuan nubuatan, semua nubuatan, intinya menyaksikan Yesus Kristus dan memuliakan Dia. Firman Tuhan yang dinubuatkan, maksudnya dalam rencana Allah, adalah mengungkapkan keindahan pribadi dan karya Yesus Kristus. Dalam penantian yang pertama dan kedua, Ia adalah solusi Tuhan yang sempurna terhadap kejahatan-kejahatan dari dunia yang jatuh ke dalam dosa. Jadi semua firman Tuhan mutlak menunjuk pada pribadi dan karya Kristus dalam kemuliaan sebelum Dia menjelma, ketika menjelma dan melayani di bumi, kematian-Nya, kebangkitan, kenaikan ke surga, pertemuan, dan kedatangan-Nya kembali tak lama lagi. Inilah tepatnya poin Tuhan terhadap dua murid di jalan di Emaus. Lukas 24.

24:25 Lalu ia berkata kepada mereka: “Hai kamu orang bodoh, betapa lambannya hatimu, sehingga kamu tidak percaya segala sesuatu, yang telah dikatakan para nabi! 24:26 Bukankah Mesias harus menderita semuanya itu untuk masuk ke dalam kemuliaan-Nya?” 24:27 Lalu Ia menjelaskan kepada mereka apa yang tertulis tentang Dia dalam seluruh Kitab Suci, mulai dari kitab-kitab Musa dan segala kitab nabi-nabi (Lukas 24:25-27). (NASB)

Dalam konteks ini (ay. 9-14), pengetahuan akan kehendak Allah dalam semua hikmat rohani dan pengertian memiliki fokus hasil dinamik bahwa suatu pengertian yang layak akan pribadi dan karya Kristus seharusnya dimiliki pada perjalanan rohani seseorang. Dalam kasus ini, kehendak Allah menunjuk pada peraturan iman yang lengkap dan prakteknya. Ini adalah suatu pengetahuan yang seharusnya memimpin kepada kehidupan seperti Kristus dalam banyak dan berbagai situasi kehidupan. Seperti ayat 10 akan tunjukkan, pengertian yang layak akan kehendak Allah seharusnya menghasilkan buah dalam suatu perjalanan yang berharga yang menyenangkan Allah dalam setiap hal. Bagian ini tidak terutama bicara tentang kesan samar-samar yang orang miliki tentang kehendak Tuhan mengenai pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang mempersoalkan dimana seseorang seharusnya tinggal atau mobil apa yang seseorang harus beli atau seharusnya menikah dengan orang seperti apa. Sebaliknya, ini terutama menunjuk kepada prinsip-prinsip dan janji-janji Firman Tuhan yang menunjuk orang-orang percaya kepada teologia dan moral kehendak Allah. Inilah yang membentuk dasar untuk membuat pilihan-pilihan alkitabiah yang bijaksana. Pengetahuan semacam itu memberikan ketajaman dan memampukan orang-orang percaya untuk membuat pilihan-pilihan yang akan memuliakan Allah dalam semua pertanyaan dan masalah-masalah kehidupan. Dalam doa ini, obyek terbesar adalah bertumbuh dalam pengetahuan akan kehendak Allah sehingga memimpin untuk menyenangkan Dia, bukan diri kita sendiri. Barclay benar ketika ia mengatakan,

… Kita berusaha untuk tidak begitu membuat Tuhan mendengarkan kita seperti kita menjadikan diri kita mendengarkan Dia; kita tidak berusaha membujuk Tuhan untuk melakukan apa yang kita kehendaki, namun mencaritahu apa yang Ia mau kita lakukan. Demikian sering terjadi bahwa dalam doa kita benar-benar berkata, “Buatlah perubahan Tuhan,” ketika kita seharusnya mengatakan, “Jadilah kehendak-Mu.” Tujuan doa yang pertama adalah tidak begitu banyak bicara kepada Tuhan seperti ketika mendengarkan Dia…⁸

Pertanyaan yang penting adalah bagaimana kita memperoleh pengetahuan semacam itu, dan bagaimana itu menyatakan dirinya sendiri? Bentuk-bentuknya seperti apa? Ini dijawab untuk kita dalam pernyataan berikut, “di dalam (atau ‘oleh’) semua hikmat rohani dan pengertian.” Beberapa hal perlu dipertimbangkan di sini.

Pertama, pengetahuan semacam itu bukanlah buah dari hikmat manusia atau dicari. Ini datang melalui penerangan Roh Kudus yang menanamkan “hikmat dan pengertian” dari Firman Tuhan, kehendak Allah yang dinyatakan kepada manusia. Paulus baru saja menyebutkan suatu “kasih dalam Roh” dan sekarang berbicara tentang hikmat rohani dan pengertian. “Rohani” adalah kata sifat, dalam bahasa Yunani pneumatikos , yang tegas dalam teks Yunani.⁹ Dalam Perjanjian Baru, kata sifat ini paling sering berarti “ digerakkan atau dikendalikan oleh Roh ilahi” atau “ menyinggung hal Roh ilahi (pneuma)” apakah benda-benda atau orang-orang. Di sini dalam ayat 1:9, ini berarti suatu hikmat dan pengertian yang diberikan oleh Roh Allah.¹⁰ Guru-guru palsu juga menyombongkan hikmat, namun ini hanya suatu pertunjukan hikmat manusia (2:23). Ini adalah suatu hikmat hampa yang termasuk dalam filsafat manusia dan bahkan produk dari khayalan roh-roh jahat (bnd. 2:8 dengan 1 Tim. 4:1). Sebaliknya, orang-orang percaya membutuhkan hikmat dan pengertian yang didapatkan dalam Firman Tuhan dan diajarkan oleh Roh Kudus, suatu tema penting dari Perjanjian Baru ( bnd. Yoh. 16:7-15; 1 Kor. 2:6-3:3; Ef. 1:17f; 3:16-19; 1 Yoh. 2:20, 27).

Kedua, apa artinya oleh “hikmat dan pengertian? “Hikmat” kata Yunaninya Sophia. Sophia menunjuk kepada dasar, ajaran-ajaran penting, fakta-fakta dan prinsip-prinsip pertama dari pokok apa pun. Dalam konteks ini, ini menunjuk kepada prinsip-prinsip dasar dan kebenaran-kebenaran Firman Tuhan yang setiap orang percaya seharusnya tahu dan hidup menurut itu. Bagaimanapun, ini bukan sekedar pengetahuan karena ini melihat pada suatu pengetahuan yang membuat seseorang bijaksana. Dan siapakah orang yang bijaksana? Ia adalah orang yang takut atau kagum akan Tuhan. Takut akan Tuhan merupakan awal dan inti hikmat ( Mzm. 111:10; Ams. 1:7; 4:7; 9:10). Namun takut semacam itu atau hikmat datang dari suatu pengertian akan keberadaan Tuhan – intisari ilahi-Nya atau karakter, terutama ketika Tuhan menyatakan diri-Nya dalam pribadi dan karya Kristus. “Tetapi oleh Dia kamu berada dalam Kristus Yesus, yang oleh Allah telah menjadi hikmat bagi kita. Ia membenarkan dan menguduskan dan menebus kita” (1 Kor. 1:30) (NASB)

Jadi, hikmat alkitabiah, adalah suatu pengetahuan yang menunjukkan seseorang bagaimana hidup sehingga hidup seseorang berarti dan baik, adil dan benar, efektif atau berbuah, bagaimanapun juga kehidupannya. Bagaimana, lalu, dapatkah kita mendefinisikan hikmat? Dua definisi bisa ditawarkan. Pertama, hikmat alkitabiah dicapai dengan memilih alat-alat terbaik menuju akhir terbaik. Efek dari hikmat adalah”…… untuk membuat kita lebih rendah hati, lebih bersukacita, lebih saleh, lebih cepat melihat kehendak-Nya, lebih pasti dalam melakukannya dan kurang masalah (bukan kurang peka, namun kurang membingungkan) daripada kita berada dalam perkara-perkara yang gelap dan menyakitkan dimana hidup kita dalam dunia yang sudah jatuh dalam dosa ini penuh…..”¹¹ Kedua, “Hikmat adalah kemampuan yang Tuhan berikan untuk melihat kehidupan dengan sasaran luar biasa dan menangani hidup dengan kestabilan yang luar biasa.¹² Namun, pengetahuan akan Tuhan sebagaimana Ia dinyatakan dalam Firman Tuhan selalu merupakan akar dari hikmat dan akibat-akibatnya. ( bnd. Mzm. 119:97ff).

Yang menarik, teks tersebut tidak mengatakan “semua hikmat dan semua pengertian” seolah-olah hal tersebut adalah dua perkara yang bebas dan tidak berhubungan , namun, semua hikmat dan pengertian karena mereka terikat erat bersama-sama. Ketika Anda memikirkan hikmat, kitab dalam Alkitab yang mungkin muncul di benak Anda adalah kitab Amsal. Sembilan pasal pertama kitab Amsal memberikan kita suatu rangkaian nasihat yang terus-menerus untuk mencari karunia Allah ini, namun seharusnya kita juga perhatikan bahwa Salomo menyebutkan dua hal ini bersama-sama hampir separuhnya. Dalam empat belas dari tiga puluh lima keterangan akan hikmat, ia memasukkan pengertian.

Kata “pengertian” dalam bahasa Yunani adalah sunesis, yang secara harfiah berarti “suatu ikatan, persatuan, sesuatu yang dibawa bersama-sama.” Ini memandang pada kemampuan memasukkan dua dan dua bersama-sama. Dalam sunesis Anda mengambil hikmat (kebenaran alkitabiah) dan menerapkannya pada detil-detil kehidupan Anda atau pada suatu masalah spesifik atau masalah untuk kritis secara tajam. Pengertian adalah apa yang mengizinkan seseorang untuk melihat dengan jelas untuk membedakan yang baik dari yang buruk dan yang terbaik di antara yang baik. Mengingat “hikmat” (sophia) melihat pada teori teologis, atau berbagai kebenaran Firman Tuhan, “pengertian” (sunesis) melihat pada hal yang praktis, penerapan hikmat.

Penerapan yang bijaksana dari kebenaran Tuhan adalah alasan untuk mempelajari dan hidup dalam Firman sehari-hari. Oh, kita mungkin menjadi terbeban dan lapar akan Firman Tuhan dan ini mungkin berakar di seluruh komunitas Kristen. Sebenarnya Tuhan berkata, “tinggallah dalam Firman-Ku dan Aku akan mengubah hidupmu.” Tuhan tidak menghargai kebodohan. Kebodohan bukan kebahagiaan. Tetap bodoh ketika Anda bisa mendapat pengetahuan dan belajar adalah bermain jadi orang gila ( bnd. Ams. 1:20-22 dengan 1:29f).

Ketiga, rasul berdoa agar mereka mungkin dipenuhi dengan “ segala hikmat…” Kata “segala” (pas) mungkin menunjuk pada setiap hal yang termasuk dalam jenis kata dimana ini digunakan misalnya, setiap jenis atau kategori atau bidang hikmat.¹³ Ada banyak bidang atau kategori hikmat Allah yang Allah ingin kita tahu dan miliki, dan ini tak diragukan terlibat di sini. Namun dalam konteks ini dengan istilah “dipenuhi” , mungkin ide utamanya adalah “tingkat tertinggi, maksimum.”¹⁴ Ini artinya pengetahuan akan kehendak Allah yang maksimum dalam semua kategori adalah sasaran pemohonan. Tuhan menghendaki kita memiliki suatu hikmat yang maksimum dan pengertian. Tuhan tidak ingin umat-Nya tetap menjadi bayi-bayi rohani atau remaja-remaja rohani. Susu bagus untuk bayi untuk sementara waktu, namun akhirnya, jika bayi itu bertumbuh dan menjadi kuat, ia membutuhkan suatu makanan keras yaitu daging dan kentang rohani( Ibr. 5:11-6:1). Tuhan ingin kita terus-menerus bertumbuh dalam pengetahuan dan penerapan akan kehendak-Nya dalam semua bidang kehidupan ( bnd. 1 Kor. 14:20; 1 Ptr. 2:2; 2 Ptr. 3:18). Seperti Wiersbe jelaskan dengan gaya humor:

Kecerdasan rohani adalah awal dari suatu kehidupan yang berhasil, yang berbuah. Tuhan tidak pernah memandang tinggi kebodohan. Saya pernah mendengar seorang pengkhotbah berkata, “Saya tidak pernah sekolah, Saya hanya seorang Kristen yang bodo, dan saya senang begitu! Seseorang tidak perlu ke seminari untuk memperoleh kecerdasan rohani, namun janganlah ia memperbesar “kebodoannya.”

Orang-orang besar Allah seperti Charles Spurgeon, G.Campbell Morgan dan H.A. Ironside tidak pernah mendapat hak istimewa masuk Seminari Theologia. Namun mereka adalah siswa-siswa Firman Tuhan yang setia, yang mempelajari kebenaran-kebenaran secara mendalam melalui studi berjam-jam, meditasi, dan berdoa. Langkah pertama menuju kepenuhan hidup adalah kecerdasan rohani – bertumbuh dalam kehendak Tuhan dengan mengenal Firman Tuhan.¹⁵

Kesimpulan

Seperti ayat berikut akan tekankan, pengetahuan akan Allah dalam semua hikmat rohani dan pengertian memampukan kita untuk berjalan dalam suatu cara yang layak sehingga kita bisa menyenangkan Tuhan dalam setiap situasi kehidupan dan menghasilkan buah bagi-Nya. Mungkin sebuah ilustrasi akan menolong. Kathie, isteri saya yang setia dan berharga dan rekan sekerja selama empat puluh satu tahun terakhir, di-diagnosa dengan pengerasan myeloma pada Juni 99, tepat tujuh belas bulan yang lalu. Penyakit myelomanya adalah jenis yang juga menyerang ginjal dan sekarang ia mengalami gagal ginjal. Kira-kira dua belas minggu yang lalu, dokter-dokter pikir ia hanya akan bertahan hidup empat sampai enam minggu, dan meskipun Tuhan terus memberikan ia hari lepas hari yang menyenangkan, kami tahu bahwa wakunya di bumi ini singkat, kecuali, tentu saja, ada sebuah mukjizat kesembuhan. Kami terpukul ketika ia didiagnosa dengan penyakit yang mengerikan ini dan dihadapkan dengan pilihan-pilihan mengenai bagaimana kami akan menanggapi Tuhan dan penyakit yang mengerikan ini. Akankah kami menjadi marah dengan Tuhan, mempertanyakan kasih dan hikmat-Nya? Bagaimanapun, bahkan ia belum enam puluh tahun dan anggota keluarga yang bersemangat dan sangat berguna bagi keluarga, gereja, teman-temannya dan staf BSF.

Sebagai orang-orang Kristen yang percaya Alkitab, kami sudah terus-menerus menyerahkan beban ini kepada Juruselamat dan berusaha mempercayai dan menghormati Dia sepanjang pencobaan berat ini. Karena prinsip-prinsip dan janji-janji Firman Tuhan dan apa yang Firman Tuhan ajarkan kepada kami tentang Allah dan kasih Juruselamat (hikmat Allah kepada kita), kami tahu bahwa Tuhan bisa menyembuhkan dia saat itu juga di mana saja dan masih bisa. Kami tahu bahwa bagi Tuhan tak ada yang mustahil ( Kej. 19:14; Mat. 19:26; Mrk. 14:36; Lukas 1:37), namun kami juga tahu dari firman Tuhan bahwa menyembuhkan dia mungkin bukan kehendak-Nya atau apa yang terbaik menurut hikmat-Nya yang tak terbatas dan rencana kekal-Nya. Tentu saja, hati saya hancur memikirkan kehilangan dia dan saya, beserta banyak orang-orang lain, berdoa setiap hari untuk kesembuhannya jika itu adalah kehendak-Nya dan akan paling memuliakan Dia. Sementara luka menjadi dalam dan air mata berderai, tangggung jawab alkitabiah kami ( pengetahuan akan kehendak Allah) adalah merendahkan diri kami di bawah tangan-Nya yang kuat, menginginkan kemuliaan dan hormat-Nya, dan beristirahat dalam pemeliharaan kasih-Nya dan hikmat yang sempurna(1 Ptr. 5:6-7) ( penerapan pengertian alkitabiah dan hikmat). Juga kebutuhan kami adalah untuk mengingat Mzm. 40:17:

Biarlah bergembira dan bersukacita karena Engkau semua orang yang mencari Engkau; biarlah mereka yang mencintai keselamatan daripadaMu tetap berkata: “Tuhan itu besar!” (membesarkan, NASB, mengagungkan, NIV).

Kami juga tahu ia, seperti semua orang percaya dalam Kristus, memiliki suatu rumah kekal dan suatu harapan yang diletakkan baginya dalam surga dengan Tuhan dimana ada sukacita yang tak terkatakan dan kemuliaan yang melampaui imajinasi kami. Dalam mengenal dan bersandar dalam ini dan kebenaran-kebenaran lain dari Alkitab, kami tahu bahwa ada hal-hal yang berlangsung di balik sejarah manusia yang melampaui pengertian kami . Ini adalah salah satu pelajaran-pelajaran terbesar dalam kitab Ayub karena merupakan bukti dalam Ayub 1-2. Dan adalah menarik dan penting, bahwa ketika Ayub menjadi sedikit menuntut Tuhan, Tuhan tak pernah memberitahu Ayub tentang konflik malaikat di balik apa yang terjadi . Ia hanya mengingatkan Ayub tentang Siapakah Dia sebagai pencipta alam semesta yang bijaksana, berdaulat dan tak terbatas. ( lihat Ayub 38-41).

Ayub belajar banyak dari perjumpaannya dengan Tuhan dan menanggapi:

42:1 Maka jawab Ayub kepada Tuhan:

42:2 Aku tahu, bahwa Engkau sanggup melakukan segala sesuatu;

dan tidak ada rencana-Mu yang gagal;

42:3 Firman-Mu,

‘Siapakah dia yang menyelubungi keputusan tanpa pengetahuan? ‘

Itulah sebabnya, tanpa pengertian aku telah bercerita

tentang hal-hal yang sangat ajaib bagiku dan yang tidak kuketahui.

42:4 Firman-Mu:

‘Dengarlah, maka Akulah yang akan berfirman;

Aku akan menanyai engkau, supaya engkau memberitahu Aku.’

42:5 Hanya dari kata orang saja aku mendengar tentang Engkau,

tetapi sekarang mataku sendiri memandang Engkau.

42:6 Oleh sebab itu aku mencabut perkataanku,

dan dengan menyesal aku duduk dalam debu dan abu!

Ketika Ayub mengatakan, “Tetapi sekarang mataku sendiri memandang Engkau” (ay. 5), ia tidak perlu mengatakan bahwa ia mendapatkan suatu penglihatan. Ia hanya mengatakan bahwa pengalaman dengan Allah ini nyata dan bersifat pribadi. Pada waktu lampau, pengetahuannya tentang Allah adalah apa yang ia sudah dengar. Jadi, melalui penderitaan yang ia sudah tanggung dan melalui perjumpaannya dengan Yang Mahakuasa, ia telah bertumbuh dalam pengetahuan dan pengertian tentang Allah.

Jadi, kemuliaan yang lebih besar dapat ditambahkan kepada Allah melalui penderitaan kita ketika orang-orang Kristen hanya bersandar kepada Allah dan hikmat-Nya yang tak terbatas dan kasih setia-Nya, meskipun mereka sendiri menderita atau kehilangan. Kathie telah membagikan pengalamannya dan kesaksian dalam berbagai pesan email kepada sejumlah orang di seluruh dunia. Ini telah menyentuh kehidupan orang-orang Kristen maupun non-Kristen. Kami mengenal dua orang di India, yang takut mati, ingin mengetahui lebih banyak ketika mereka mendengar damainya Kathie dalam menghadapi kematian. Kepada mereka yang tertarik, ia telah membagikan imannya dan pikiran-pikirannya dalam suatu dokumen di website kami yang berjudul, “Tenang di Tengah Badai.” Seluruh pengalaman ini sudah dipakai Tuhan dalam banyak kehidupan dengan cara-cara yang melampaui pengertian kita.

¹ Kata kerja yang digunakan dalam pasal-pasal ini adalah phusioo, “membengkak, membesarkan seperti sebuah gelembung.” Ini kebanyakan dijumpai dalam literatur Kristen (BAGD) dan digunakan secara metafora untuk ide menjadi sombong, congkak, bangga.

² S. Lewis Johnson, “ Studi mengenai Surat kepada Jemaat di Kolose, Bagian I,” Bibliotheca Sacra (Dallas Theological Seminary, vol. 118, #472, Oct. 61), 340.

³ Istilah “Allah” tidak tampak dalam teks Yunani, namun keterangan berikut mengenai “pengetahuan-Nya” menjadikan jelas bahwa “Allah” ada dalam pandangan sebagai obyek “berdoa dan meminta,” dan oleh karena itu seharusnya dimasukkan dalam terjemahan bahasa Inggris untuk kejelasan. (Catatan penerjemah dari NET Bible).

⁴ Untuk seri studi yang tekun mengenai ABC kehidupan Kristen, lihat studi penulis, The ABCs for Christian Growth, Laying the Foundation di website kami , www.bible.org.

⁵ Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Complete (Victor Books, Wheaton, Ill., 1986), Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Complete (Victor Books, Wheaton, Ill., 1986), 32-33.

⁶ Peter T. O’Brien, Word Biblical Commentary, Colossians, Philemon, gen. ed., Glenn W. Barker, NT., ed., Ralph P. Martin (Word Books, Publisher, Waco, TX, vol. 44), 20.

⁷ Curtis Vaughn, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, gen. ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1976-1992), media elektronik.

⁸ William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians (Revised Edition), ns (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000, c1975), media elektronik.

⁹ Pneumatikos mengubah “ hikmat dan pengertian.” Ini mengikuti kata benda kedua karena ini tegas, namun secara logis diterapkan pada keduanya.

¹⁰ Walter Bauer, Wilbur F. Gingrich, and Frederick W. Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1979), media elektronik. Selanjutnya keterangan-keterangan seperti BAGD.

¹¹ J. I. Packer, Knowing God (InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, 1973), 97.

¹² Charles R. Swindoll, Living on the Ragged Edge (Word Books, Waco, 1985), 208.

¹³ BAGD, media elektronik.

¹⁴ BAGD, media elektronik.

¹⁵ Wiersbe, 35.