SMYRNA: THE PROMISED REWARD

Revelation 2:8—11 (contd)

JESUS CHRIST will be in no one’s debt, and loyalty to him brings its own reward. In this passage, two rewards are mentioned.
(1) There is the crown of life. Again and again, the crown of the Christian is mentioned in the New Testament. Here and in James 1:12, it is the crown of life. Paul speaks of the crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8) and of the crown of boasting (1 Thessalonians 2:19). Paul contrasts the immortal crown of the Christian with the fading crown of laurel which was the prize of the victor in the games (1 Corinthians 9:25), and Peter speaks of the unfading crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4).
Of in each of these phrases means which consists of. To win the crown of righteousness or glory or life is to be crowned with righteousness or glory or with life. But we must understand the idea behind this word crown (stephanos). In Greek, there are two words for crown–diadÄ“ma, which means the royal crown, and stephanos, which usually has something to do with joy and victory. It is not the royal crown which is being offered to Christians; it is the crown of joy and victory. Stephanos has many associations, and all of them contribute something to the riches of thought behind it.
(a) The first connection is with the victor’s crown in the games. Smyrna had games which were famous all over Asia. As in the Olympic Games, the reward of the victorious athlete was the laurel crown. Christians can win the crown of victory in the contest of life.
(b) When someone had faithfully performed the work of a magistrate, at the end of the term of office that person was granted a crown. Those who throughout life faithfully serve Christ and their neighbours will receive their crown.
(c) The Roman world was in the habit of wearing crowns, or garlands of flowers, at banquets. In the end, if Christians are loyal, they will have the joy of sitting as guests at the banquet of God.
(d) The worshippers of the Greek and Roman gods were in the habit of wearing crowns when they approached the temples of their gods. In the end, if they have been faithful, Christians will have the joy of entering into the nearer presence of God.
(e) Some scholars have seen in this crown a reference to the halo or the nimbus which is round the head of divine beings in pictures. If that is so, it means that, if they are faithful, Christians will be crowned with the life which belongs to God himself. As John said: ‘We will be like him, for we will see him as he is’ (1 John 3:2).
In this life, it may be that their loyalty will bring Christians a crown of thorns; but in the life to come it will surely bring them the crown of glory.
(2) Cyprian, the third-century Bishop of Carthage, uses two great phrases to describe those who are faithful even to death. He describes them as ‘illustrious with the heraldry of a good name’, and he calls them ‘the white-robed cohort of the soldiers of Christ’. To the faithful, another promise is made: they will not be hurt by the second death. The second death is a mysterious phrase which occurs nowhere in the New Testament outside Revelation (20:6, 20:14, 21:8). The Rabbis talked of ‘the second death whereof the wicked die in the next world’. The phrase may have two origins.
(a) The Sadducees believed that after death there was absolutely nothing; the Epicureans, whose beliefs were based on the importance of pleasure, held the same doctrine. This belief finds its place even in the Old Testament–for that pessimistic book Ecclesiastes is the work of a Sadducee. ‘A living dog is better than a dead lion. The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing’ (Ecclesiastes 9:4—5). For the Sadducees and the Epicureans, death was extinction. To orthodox Jews, this was too easy, for it meant that for the wise and for fools the end was the same (Ecclesiastes 2:15—16, 9:2). They, therefore, came to believe that there were, so to speak, two deaths–physical death, which everyone must undergo, and after that a death which was the judgment of God.
(b) This is very closely connected with the ideas which we touched on when studying the word paradise (2:7). We saw that many of the Jews and the early Christian thinkers believed that there was an intermediate state into which everyone passed until the time of judgment. If that were so, then indeed there would be two deaths–the physical death which no one can escape, and the spiritual death into which the wicked would enter after the final judgment.
Of such things it is not given to anyone to speak with confidence; but, when John spoke of the faithful being unharmed by the second death, he meant precisely the same as Paul when he said that nothing in life or in death, in the present time or in eternity, can separate those who love him from Jesus Christ. They are safe from all that life or death can do to them (Romans 8:38—9).

Barclay, W. (2004). The Revelation of John, Volume 1 (3rd ed. fully rev. and updated). The New Daily Study Bible (92—95). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.

On this day...

• Genesis 49:24 - 2009
• Proverb 17:27 - 2007
• Acts 8:37 - 2007
• Isaiah 41:10 - 2007
• The identifying of the anti-christ - 2007
• Mark of the beast - 2007
• Graves of Craving - 2007
• Conviction Of The Word Of God - 2007
• Back on course by a clear sign - 2007
• Proverb 15:18 - 2007