Repentance And The Material Principle

Modern day Turkey occupies most of what was once the Roman province of Asia. It is also known as Anatolia.This is the area between the Mediterranean and the Black seas. It was the meeting point between the continents of Asia and Europe and the crossroads for migrating people and armies. The western part of Asia Minor holds the site of the seven churches to which John addresses seven letters. By the end of the first century there were more than seven churches in that area. From Paul's letters we know of other cities in that area hosting congregations of Christians. John's seven include Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Beside these Paul writes to Colossae and Hieropolis. Within these cities there would be many smaller congregations of believers.

John starts with the church in Ephesus:

'The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. "'I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.' - Rev 2:1-7 ESV

The Lord Jesus commends the christians in Ephesus. They did good. They refused to bear with those who are evil. They tested the false apostles. It took a lot of work and an equal amount of perseverance to sort out the truth from the lies. This is the kind of work that still must go on today as we are bombarded from all directions by the media, TV, books, Tweets, letters and so forth. John gives some guidelines on how to do just this. In his epistle he writes,

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. - 1Jo 4:1-3 ESV

This is often called the material principle or the central teaching of the Christian faith.  It points to the faith that says that Jesus is both God and man, the promised Messiah, the Christ. He came among mankind to offer His holy life as the sacrificial payment for the sins of all men. And we are now justified in God's eyes through faith in Christ alone.

The Ephesian christians did the work of sorting through the teachings of false apostles. But they had abandoned the love they once had. Apparently they went beyond this first work and began to be suspicious of one another, dividing into camps. Paul writes about such an approach in Corinth:

For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? - 1Co 1:11-13 ESV

 And later, he writes,

. . . for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. - 1Co 3:3-9 ESV 

Divisions and quarrels like this still go on among us Christians. We continually need the Lord's admonition to repent, to rethink and to change the direction in which our lives are moving. This work of repentance is difficult. It requires humility. In John's words again,

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. - 1Jo 1:5-10 ESV

The first of Luther's famous 95 theses posted on the door of the Wittenberg church reads,

When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said "repent," he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance. 

The Ephesian christians, like all of us, needed to learn this basic truth. But there was one thing for which the Lord did commend them: they hated the works of the Nicolaitans. Who were they? We do not know for certain. It may refer to a certain sect that followed the teachings of Nicolaus ("he who conquers people"). Was Nicolaus one of the seven chosen to care for the widows in Jerusalem (Acts 6:5)? We do not know. What we do know is that this sect taught contrary to the inspired teachings of the Apostles. What we also know is that each congregation must be constantly repenting, rethinking and re-evaluating her teachings and the teachings of those leading them—yet humbly and with patient endurance. Luke joins John as he writes about the Berean believers:

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. - Acts 17:11 ESV

We all do well to heed these words, as John says in concluding his short letter to Ephesus:

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.' - Rev 2:7 ESV (see also Gen. 2:9; 3:22-24; Rev. 22:14,19)