Wooooaaaa, part 2 (Revelations 2)

John is told by the angel to write specific things to several churches.  After each of these, the text says that "[h]e who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches".  This suggests that even though these letters may be directed to these specific churches, the entire church is supposed to learn from these instructions to these churches.

To Ephesus

Ephesus starts the list.  Ephesus is the only one of these seven cities in which we also have a specific epistle from an Apostle elsewhere in the Bible, Paul's letter to the Ephesians.  Further, we also know some details about the church of Ephesus from the Book of Acts.

Here, John praises the same church for its hard work, perseverance, intolerance of wicked men, and their rejection of the Nicolaitans.

I looked up the Nicolaitans and there is no clear cut consensus as to what they believed.

However, John chastises the Ephesians for forsaking their first love and that they should do what they did in the beginning.  He does not provide specific details about what this means, so anything more is speculation.  The interpretation that stands out to me is that the Ephesians have lost a love for Christ that they had in the beginning.  Perhaps this means that they have become legalistic and rigid in their beliefs, since John praises them for following rules, but chastises their lack of love.

To Smyrna

This is a word of encouragement to a church that is about to receive persecution.  Some will be jailed and some will be killed.  By Jesus tells them that they will have life in the second life.

To Pergamum

This city is praised for its faith during persecution.  However, they are chastised for allowing Nicolaitan believers (we still do not know who they are) and preachers similar to Balak.  The problems with Balak that are specified are eating food offered to idols and sexual immorality.

Eating food offered to idols was a no-no according to the Council of Jerusalem (which John signed off on).  However, Paul did not have a problem with it unless it caused people of faith to fall.  Here, we have Jesus in a back-handed way saying it is bad.  Which is it?  

One possible reconciliation is that it is causing internal friction among the church of Pergamum and the other churches as a whole.  This was something that Paul warned against.

We also know that Pergamum faced persecution and the overall church Pergamum is glorified for faith during persecution.  This is speculation, but perhaps people were eating food offered to idols as a way to hide their Christian identity because of persecution.  

To Thyatira

The church at Thyatira is overall praised for its perseverance and growth.  

However, they are chastised for allowing "that prophetess Jezebel" to lead them to eat food offered to idols and sexual immorality.  This sounds similar to the advice for Pergamum, except for this "Jezebel".  

Given the context, I interpret it literally and think there actually was a false prophet named Jezebel at the church.  However, it could refer to the infamous Jezebel who was the queen of the northern kingdom during the lifetime of Elijah.  We do not exactly know what John is talking about here.