Ephesus

One church – Two Dispensations

 

In the Book of Revelation Christ (through the Apostle John) has a message to seven different Churches.  Four of the Churches (Smyrna, Pergamos, Sardis, and Philadelphia) are mentioned nowhere else in the New Testament whereas two of the Churches (Thyatira and Laodicea) are mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament.  There is only one Church (Ephesus) mentioned to receive Johns message that also received a letter from the Apostle Paul.  These two messages to the Church at Ephesus are as different as night and day.

 

John’s Message

 

Rev.2

[1] Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
[2] I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
[3] And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
[4] Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
[5] Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
[6] But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
[7] He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

 

Paul’s Message (in part)

 

Eph 1: [3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

 

           [4] According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

          [6] To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved

             Eph2:[6] And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus

Eph3: [2] If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to youward:

          [9] And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God,

Eph 5:[30] For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

 

Miscellaneous Tidbits

John’s Message (Revelation) – Works, Repent, Overcome, The Bride, ‘from the foundation of the world’, the New Jerusalem, the Lamb’s Book of Life, “we shall reign on the earth”.

Paul’s Message – Grace, Accepted in the Beloved, without blame, not of works, lest any man should boast. a perfect man, Heavenly places, His body, ‘before the foundation of the world’, Creator, The Mystery hidden.

 

Analysis/Conclusions

 

In light of the very sharp difference in tone and attitude of the two letters to the Ephesian Church, a serious follower/believer in Christ must ask “what’s going on here”, “what is the meaning of this difference”, and “which of these two letters should I choose to guide my Christian walk” ?  I have pondered the differences in those two letters at length and I can only think of three possible explanations for said differences: (and NO –there weren’t two cities named Ephesus)

 

1.  You might conclude that Christ’s warning to this Church through either a letter from John or the Church having received a copy of John’s Revelation, that they did repent and ‘got right’ with God. This would mean that the Revelation of John was written almost 40 years earlier than is traditionally accepted (96 A.D.) as Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is believed to have dated around 62 A.D.  Even this would not explain the heavenly calling and the mystery hidden from other ages and generations (Ephesians 3:5,9).  

 

There is one of the seven Churches (Philadelphia – Rev.3:7-12) mentioned with which the Lord had no controversy.  Read it for yourself and see if comes anywhere near the Grace bidden to the Ephesians by Paul.  Even those in the Church at Philadelphia are admonished to be ‘overcomers’.

 

2.  You could conclude that the apostle Paul had gone ‘soft in the head’, or was suffering from dementia in his latter years because of the new doctrine and new promises made in his letter to the Ephesians.  I doubt that any serious Christian would accept this view.

 

3.  You could (and should) conclude that the decidedly different tones of the two letters to the Ephesian Church were the difference between:

      

      True Israel (The Bride-the Church in Jerusalem & outposts) vs the Body of Christ (the Groom).

      The Earthly calling of Israel vs the Heavenly calling of the ‘Mystery’.

      Things purposed ‘from’ the foundation of the world’ vs things purposed ‘before’ the foundation of the world’.

      The gospel of the circumcision vs the gospel of grace.

         Israel (the Nation) being God’s Chosen people (‘the Jew first’) vs Israel abandoned by God (70 AD).

 

        The vast majority of Christians (living & dead) have never realized that when Israel was declared Lo-Ammi (not my people-Hosea 1:9) by God in the 60s A.D., her people killed or exiled and Jerusalem and the Temple destroyed, a whole new dispensation (God’s way of dealing with mankind) was being revealed by Paul.  His letter to the Ephesians explains the ‘mystery’ – a calling and blessings never revealed before either by prophets, Apostles (including Paul), or Jesus. Paul’s message of total Grace and of a new dispensation started fading with his and his follower’s deaths in the late first century.  The teachers of the ‘gospel of the circumcision’ appeared to be many more than the teachers of ‘Paul’s gospel’, then you add in the ‘Judaizers’ that Paul warned about (satanic interference), and it is little wonder his message was lost.  Peter wrote of Paul “some things hard to be understood” (2Pet 3:16) and Polycarp (an early Church Bishop) in the 2^nd Century wrote “For neither I nor another like me is able to follow after the wisdom of the blessed and glorious Paul…."

Unfortunately, few pastors, preachers, evangelist, or lay people have seen this fabulous dispensation of Grace (explained by Paul in his last epistles) that we are now living in.  Most are still preaching the ‘gospel of the circumcision’, or a mixture of that with grace.  Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Tim 2:15) “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”).

 

If you are a Spirit filled believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, do you know whether you were called from/since or before the foundation of the world?  Do you realize that you can do no better service to the LORD than to be true to your calling?  You can only find your calling by prayer, Bible study, and by ‘rightly dividing the word of truth’, holding true to the latest revelations of Christ through Paul.  After all, it was Paul (not John) who completed the ‘Word Of God’ (Col. 1:25) “Whereof I am made a minister ... to fulfil the word of God” (fulfil - Greek=pleroo=finish, complete, perfect, fill up).