Letters to the Seven Churches In the letters to the seven churches of Asia (Rev 2–3), John uses a single literary pattern. Each letter begins with an address to the “angel of the church” in a particular city, followed by an aspect of Christ’s appearance taken from the vision of the Son of Man (1:12-18). Christ states that he knows each church and describes the state of the church in that city. He then gives advice or judgment for the church along with a promised reward for obedience. Each time, Christ emphasizes the need for full attention to the Spirit’s message to the churches. It is common for interpreters to separate the seven letters into seven distinct messages and to make them symbolic of seven types of people or seven distinct periods of time. However, the seven letters were first of all letters from Christ to specific local churches in Asia. Christ knows each local congregation, and he encourages each to follow him faithfully. These letters also form a single, unified message that can speak to the church in all times and places, taking into account all its spots and wrinkles. In other words, any single body of Christians might be similar to one of these churches, and...

Security and Obedience The thought of one’s name being erased from the Book of Life (Rev 3:5) may raise questions about the security of salvation: Doesn’t the New Testament assure believers that their salvation is secure? The New Testament is filled with words of assurance (e.g., John 10:27-30; 1 Cor 10:13; Heb 6:18-20), but it also contains stern warnings (e.g., John 15:6; 1 Cor 10:6-12; Heb 6:4-8; Rev 2:4-5; 3:11). We often dislike and avoid the warnings because they threaten our sense of security. Yet this concern for security is the precise reason that the New Testament writers issued their warnings. They stressed the importance of obedience, faithfulness, and endurance. This call to obedience was nothing new. God repeatedly called the people of Israel to be faithful (e.g., Gen 12:1-2; 15:1-18; 22:16-18; 28:13-14; 1 Sam 12:19-25; 15:10-11; 28:16-19; 2 Sam 7:11-16; 1 Kgs 9:4-9). All the promises and predictions of God are conditioned upon faithfulness and obedience (see especially Jer 18:7-10). Paul realized that the disobedience of Israel had led to some of them being “broken off” (Rom 11:17), and he clearly warned Gentile Christians not to become overconfident of thei...