The letter to the church in Smyrna
Smyrna is home to a blameless church, though that blamelessness may not look as inviting as you’d expect.
Smyrna is one of only two churches that receives no rebuke from Jesus. So what is their secret?
Historical background
Smyrna sat about 70 km north of Ephesus, on a bay with an excellent harbor — the source of this economically important city’s wealth.
In AD 26, eleven cities of Asia competed before the Roman Senate for the honor of building a temple to Emperor Tiberius. Smyrna won — citing centuries of loyalty to Rome, going back to a temple it had built for the goddess Roma early in the second century BC — becoming one of the leading centers of emperor worship in the province. Little is known about how the church itself began; it may have been founded by Paul around the time he established the church in Ephesus.
Jesus’ view
Jesus approaches this church as the risen one who has already conquered death — a vision they badly need, since they are under attack from every side:
- They are squeezed financially, probably because they refuse to join the trade guilds, which required participation in idol worship. Yet Jesus says of them: “I know your affliction and your poverty — yet you are rich!” — spiritual wealth hidden inside real material hardship.
- Some local Jews slander the church, and are likely also behind Christians being thrown in jail — hence “the devil will put some of you in jail,” and this group being called “a synagogue of Satan.”
The reference to ten days may echo the story of Daniel, who ate only vegetables for ten days rather than defile himself with unclean food from the king’s table — though “ten days” was also a common biblical idiom for a short, complete period of testing.
The perspective
Jesus promises that if they endure this suffering, they will not be harmed by the second death. He can offer them this because he has walked the same road before them, going through death into resurrection and appearing as one who was slain, so that believers could reign with him. That is a paradox worth sitting with: how does it actually work?
The pattern seems to be this — the more we are unable to do anything ourselves, the more room there is for Jesus to work. That said, there is a real danger of being so overwhelmed by despair that we give up. We are not asked to solve the bad situations we find ourselves in, only to endure them together with him.
A century later, this letter’s call to “be faithful, even to the point of death” (2:10) found its most famous fulfillment in Smyrna’s own bishop, Polycarp, reportedly a disciple of the apostle John. Burned at the stake around AD 155–157, he is remembered for answering his accusers: “Eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” The account of his martyrdom reports that some of the city’s Jews joined the crowd calling for his death (Martyrdom of Polycarp 12–13). That is a report about one city on one day, just as this letter’s hard words concern one local conflict. Neither is a verdict on the Jewish people.