5 Remember therefore whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works: but if not, I am coming to thee, and I will remove thy lamp out of its place, except thou shalt repent.
I rebuke and discipline as many as I love; be zealous therefore and repent.
Repent therefore: but if not, I come to thee quickly, and I will make war with them with the sword of my mouth.
Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die, for I have not found thy works complete before my God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and keep [it] and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come [upon thee] as a thief, and thou shalt not know at what hour I shall come upon thee.
I know thy works, and love, and faith, and service, and thine endurance, and thy last works [to be] more than the first.
The mystery of the seven stars which thou hast seen on my right hand, and the seven golden lamps. -- The seven stars are angels of the seven assemblies; and the seven lamps are seven assemblies.
God therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, now enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent, because he has set a day in which he is going to judge the habitable earth in righteousness by [the] man whom he has appointed, giving the proof [of it] to all [in] having raised him from among [the] dead.
But if that evil bondman should say in his heart, My lord delays to come, and begin to beat his fellow-bondmen, and eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that bondman shall come in a day when he does not expect it, and in an hour he knows not of, and shall cut him in two and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holiness unto Jehovah, the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him are guilty; evil shall come upon them, saith Jehovah.
And the rest of men who were not killed with these plagues repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and the golden and silver and brazen and stone and wooden idols, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they repented not of their murders, nor of their witchcrafts, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
And I gave her time that she should repent, and she will not repent of her fornication. Behold, I cast her into a bed, and those that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,
He will come and destroy those husbandmen, and will give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it they said, May it never be!
But if that bondman should say in his heart, My lord delays to come, and begin to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and to drink and to be drunken, the lord of that bondman shall come in a day when he does not expect it, and in an hour he knows not of, and shall cut him in two and appoint his portion with the unbelievers.
They say to him, He will miserably destroy those evil [men], and let out the vineyard to other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus says to them, Have ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which they that builded rejected, this has become the corner-stone: this is of [the] Lord, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation producing the fruits of it.
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
O Israel, return unto Jehovah thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
And ye shall remember your evil ways, and your doings which were not good, and shall loathe yourselves for your iniquities and for your abominations.
And thou shalt remember thy ways, and be confounded, when thou shalt receive thy sisters who are older than thou, together with those who are younger than thou; for I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by virtue of thy covenant. And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I [am] Jehovah; that thou mayest remember, and be ashamed, and no more open thy mouth because of thy confusion, when I forgive thee all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah.
How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! Thou art cut down to the ground, that didst prostrate the nations!
And the men were burnt with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, who had authority over these plagues, and did not repent to give him glory.
But to him that is able to keep you without stumbling, and to set [you] with exultation blameless before his glory,
But call to mind the earlier days in which, having been enlightened, ye endured much conflict of sufferings;
Ye are deprived of all profit from the Christ as separated [from him], as many as are justified by law; ye have fallen from grace.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Revelation 2
Commentary on Revelation 2 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 2
The apostle John, having in the foregoing chapter written the things which he had seen, now proceeds to write the things that are, according to the command of God (ch. 1:19), that is, the present state of the seven churches of Asia, with which he had a particular acquaintance, and for which he had a tender concern. He was directed to write to every one of them according to their present state and circumstances, and to inscribe every letter to the angel of that church, to the minister or rather ministry of that church, called angels because they are the messengers of God to mankind. In this chapter we have,
Rev 2:1-7
We have here,
Rev 2:8-11
We now proceed to the second epistle sent to another of the Asian churches, where, as before, observe,
Rev 2:12-17
Here also we are to consider,
Rev 2:18-29
The form of each epistle is very much the same; and in this, as the rest, we have to consider the inscription, contents, and conclusion.