Revelation 2:8-11 And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things said the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;… I. THE COMMAND. 1. Christian faithfulness relates to the testimony God has given in His Word. Other knowledge may be useful, but this is the direct communication from God, acquainting us with His rich compassion towards us in not sparing His own Son. This system of revealed truth we are to make the subject of habitual study and the source of our chief consolation — it is to be the director of our conduct. Fidelity to the truth of God requires that we make an open, though an humble, confession of it. To this, its intrinsic excellence, its vital importance, its adaptation to all the wants and miseries of men, entitle it. 2. Christian fidelity relates to the claims of the Saviour to our obedience. His benignity and excellence render Him worthy of the love and homage of all created beings; but He has won to Himself a title to the gratitude and obedience of mankind, by assuming the character of Redeemer, by suffering as their Surety. When the enemy would persuade us to turn away from Him, when temptation would lure us away from the Captain of our salvation; when the indolence and remissness to spiritual exercises, natural to man, would often be a hindrance to our fidelity, let us hear His animating voice, saying, "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life." 3. We are to be faithful in the exercise and in the improvement of the talents entrusted to our charge. 4. We are to be faithful in exercising the courage which the Christian warfare requires. The allusion in the text is to military life, and to the obedience due from a soldier to his general, leader, and commander. He must never, through treachery or cowardice, desert the banner he has sworn to defend, nor refuse to follow the order of his general. 5. Christian fidelity is to be continued unto death. II. THE PROMISE OF GRACIOUS REWARD EXPRESSED IN THE TEXT — "I will give thee a crown of life." (D. Dewar, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; |
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