Revelation 2:2 - Exposition

Owing to the inaccurate use of a corrupt text, the Authorized Version is hero very faulty. The Revised Version is to be preferred throughout. I know thy works . This introductory "I know" appears in all seven letters. He whose eyes are "as a flame of fire" ( Revelation 1:14 ) has perfect knowledge of his servants, and this knowledge is the basis of the praise and blame. "Works," a favourite word with St. John, and very frequent in both Gospel and Apocalypse, is used in a wide sense, including the whole of conduct (comp. John 3:19 , John 3:20 ; John 5:36 ; John 7:3 , John 7:7 ; John 8:39 , John 8:41 , etc.; 1 John 3:8 , 1 John 3:12 ; 2 John 1:11 ; 3 John 1:10 ). Thy toil and patience . Explanatory of "thy works;" the Ephesians know how to toil and how to suffer patiently. They have "learned to labour and to wait." St. Ignatius says that he must be trained "in patience and long suffering" by the Ephesians ('Ephes.,' 3.). And that thou canst not bear evil men . Again St. Ignatius supplies a commentary: "Now, Onesimus of his own accord highly praiseth your orderly conduct in God, for that ye all live according to truth, and that no heresy hath a home among you; nay, ye do not so much as listen to any one, if he speak of aught else save concerning Jesus Christ in truth" ('Ephes.,' 6.). The word for "evil" ( κακός ), though one of the commonest in the Greek language, is rare in St. John; it occurs only here and in Revelation 16:2 (see note); John 18:23 ; 3 John 1:11 . Didst try them which call themselves apostles, and they are not . It is incredible that this can mean St. Paul. Even allowing the prodigious assumption that the "Jewish Christianity" of St. John was opposed to the "Gentile Christianity" of St. Paul, what chance would an opponent of St. Paul have had in a Church which St. Paul founded and fostered? And had such opposition existed, could St. Polycarp, St. John's own disciple, have spoken of "the wisdom of the blessed and glorious Paul" ('Philippians,' 3.)? This mention of false apostles is doubly interesting: