“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.
2 “‘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. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 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. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 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.’
Repeated in each of the seven letters are the words 'I know thy works' (2). This is both encouraging and challenging to us - encouraging in that He sees the motive of earnestness and love that lies behind some faltering, feeble, ill-executed work we have sought to do in His Name, and judges accordingly. Others may criticize and be contemptuous of our stumbling, but He says 'I know thy works'. But we should not, in taking heart from this, miss the tremendous challenge His words bring to us. Christ sees what is to come upon His Church, and His all-seeing eye penetrates all the life of His people, searching out all that ought not to be, to rectify and cleanse, in order that they may stand in the evil day. It is as if He said, 'Send this message to My people: know what is coming upon the earth, and we must get down to fundamentals, for nothing but basic, fundamental integrity in Christian faith and conduct will stand the test in the evil day'. This is the explanation of much of the discipline that comes upon us from the Word of God. The purging us all in love and deep concern, because He wants us to stand and to endure. It is certainly not without significance that in all the letters except one (that to the Laodiceans) the idea of tribulation is prominent, and this we may interpret both as the outward pressures from the world around them and also the inward pressure of the (17) Word in their spirits, as it did its purifying and renewing work in them, to enable them to stand firm and unmovable in their testimony.