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The True Measure of Rich

Last week we began to take a look at the seven churches of Asia described in Rev 2-3. As I mentioned then, these very real first-century churches form a representative sampling of the kinds of struggles, failures, temptations, and successes that all churches face. They were experiencing what we experience, at least in kind if not degree. Therefore we can look to them to learn lessons relevant to our own time and culture. With that in mind, we began with a look at the church at Ephesus, which had lost its first love. Now we come to the church at Smyrna (Rev 2.8-11), which has the least said about it of any of the seven churches, and it is one of only two that has no condemnation spoken concerning them. On the other hand, neither is there much said of them in terms of commendation, except that they were rich. But that says a lot. They were poor, yet rich—poor materially, yet rich in faith, rich in spiritual blessings, rich in the grace of God. Maybe their deep poverty made it difficult for them to do much that was worthy of commendation, but then again, consider how the Macedonians mentioned in 2 Cor 8 gave out of their deep poverty. I don’t think that the lack of commendation has anything to do with Smyrna being poor, and yet perhaps there is a point along these lines that Jesus is trying to make. Often small, poor churches are looked on as being of little value because they are unable to carry out all the great programs that the larger, richer churches can do. The world measures success by material wealth, and Christians often similarly measure success by numbers. The number of members, the number of programs they sponsor, the bigger and fancier the building, the size of their contribution—these are often the standards by which people measure the “richness” of a church. But in the eyes of Jesus, such measurements are meaningless. Churches like Smyrna may be far richer.

If Smyrna could do little else, she could be faithful. And that counts for everything. Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea may have all been larger, more influential, and more well known churches. Outside of this single reference in Revelation, Smyrna isn’t even mentioned in the New Testament. But Smyrna was faithful. She had already endured poverty and tribulation, and was about to face direct persecution. Some of her members would be imprisoned, and she would be tested, perhaps severely. The “ten days” may represent completeness, or it could simply represent a short and limited time, but either way it would be severe. History records that the saints at Smyrna did indeed suffer terrible persecution. Her most famous martyr was Polycarp, who was burned at the stake. The city of Smyrna was noted for its fanatical loyalty to Rome. In 195 B.C. she built a temple dedicated to the worship of Rome, and in A.D. 26 another one was built to honor the Emperor Tiberius. Those who refused to worship Rome were looked on as antisocial, atheistic, and disloyal to the emperor. Eventually they were also criminals, as some emperors demanded worship. There was also a large segment of Jews there, and in this very letter to Smyrna we learn they were likewise a source of persecution. But this little church had remained faithful so far. So Jesus simply admonishes them to continue to remain faithful until death. That is all that really matters. That is the true measure of “rich.”