To the One who conquers

By Matt Watson

We are continuing our series on the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation. This week we are looking at what Jesus had to say to the churches in the Greek cities Smyrna and Pergamum, specifically at a phrase Jesus uses in both of his letters: “To the one who conquers.” First, we will look at what Jesus says, and then discuss what it means to be conquerors in our, context.

To the Church in Smyrna

Smyrna was a port city off the Aegean coast in what is now İzmir, Turkey. It was partially founded by Alexander the Great and became a metropolis under Rome. Kenneth Barker in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary says, “The city was exceptionally beautiful and large and ranked with Ephesus and Pergamum as ‘First of Asia’” and was the birthplace of Homer.1 They were also a center of emperor worship, which would become compulsory under Domitian in A.D. 81.

It is within this context that Jesus said:

I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.
(Revelation 2:9-11 ESV)

The Christians in this city were going to experience intense persecution under Nero and the other emperors. For refusing to worship the emperor, or acknowledge any of the false gods in the Greco-Roman pantheon, Christians in Smyrna would be opposed, their businesses boycotted, slandered, imprisoned, and even executed. But Jesus tells them, “The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.” Yes, they may die, but they will enjoy a future resurrected life with Jesus, rather than eternal punishment (the second death).

To the Church in Pergamum

Pergamum was another important city on the Aegean coast, just north of Smyrna. It was one of the possible Roman capitals of Asia, and Barker says it had “temples to various gods, the three temples to the emperor cult, its great altar to Zeus, and its many palaces. The two main religions seem to have been the worship of Dionysus, the god of the royal kings (symbolized by the bull), and Asclepius, the savior god of healing (represented by the snake).”2

The churches in the Roman Empire faced several potential stumbling blocks. Apart from pinching incense to the emperor and saying he was God, they also had to withstand a society that worshiped false gods with cult prostitutes and burnt offerings. To the lost, these practices were normal and fine, even natural and good. But to those following the way of Jesus, it would be participation in things opposed to Christ.

To the church in Pergamum, Jesus said:

But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. ... Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.
(Revelation 2:14-17 ESV"

Churches that compromised the true faith by either passively tolerating or actively participating in worshiping the idols of culture are who Jesus was threatening with war. But “to the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna …”

“To the One Who Conquers”

Many today want to categorize society into two groups: oppressors and the oppressed, conquerors and the conquered, and those with power and those without. It’s an us versus them mentality that seeks to understand (or dismantle) societal structures.

And it is an interesting word choice made by Jesus. He is talking to Christians, some who came from Judaism, living under the rule of the Roman Empire. The Jews were a conquered people, with Israel and Judah being conquered by Babylon, then Persia, Greece, and at then at this time, Rome before more or less ceasing to exist when Jerusalem was sacked in A.D. 70 and the temple was destroyed. This was total subjugation and a catalyst for the dispersion of Jews and Jewish Christians throughout the empire as referenced in 1 Peter.

These people were conquered and living subjugated lives under a Roman emperor who cross-dressed, aborted his unborn baby by kicking his wife in the stomach, and then castrated a young man and made him his “empress.” It could not be more dark and hopeless than living under this. Yet Jesus says “To the one who conquers …”

How can the subjugated church be conquerors? By overcoming the world, its temptations, and its lies. The church in Smyrna would be conquerors by withstanding a wide range of persecution, even death, without compromising their faith in the true King of kings. The church in Pergamum would become conquerors by resisting and navigating around the stumbling blocks of the culture, especially sexual immorality. In both cases, Jesus makes it possible for them to be conquerors, because he himself is one (Rev 2:8, 12; Rom 8:37-39; Heb 10:13; Ps 110:1).

Conquer San Antonio

This leads me to two questions.

1. If Jesus were dictating a letter for the church in San Antonio, how might it be similar to these two?

2. How can the church militant be conquerors in San Antonio?

To the first question, although it can be nothing but speculation, I imagine our letter would look an awful like these two with encouragement to withstand various forms of opposition (especially slander and lies), while also warning us to withstand against the sexual immorality of the culture. And that’s not just Pride stuff either, but couples living together and playing house without being married, engaged couples fooling around, porn, prostitution, and the like. It’s all damned.

To the second question, if we resist the culture in these ways, we can conquer it. We can reform it through the faithful preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the repentance of sins. The term "church militant" describes the church as it is on earth, contending for the faith and charging the gates of hell. How? As heralds, we continue to announce the victory of our King at the cross and the empty tomb. We continue to speak truth without compromise of fear to our unbelieving friends and family even to the point where they no longer consider us friends and family. We continue to teach our children to be disciples of Jesus and to fear the Lord more than Caesar.

Here are several practical ways to love God and resist the culture:

• Be an active member of your church. Volunteer. Be committed. Don’t date the church and hop around. Commit to something and stick with it.

• Be in a community group and/or discipleship group. The church is made up of many members, not lone wolves. Be willing to be inconvenienced and challenged by going deep with other people.

• Stop thinking we lose on this side. Christ is on his throne. He already won. We are the church militant, not a church of hand-wringers and worriers.

• Refuse pinching incense to the emperor by supporting Pride of any sort. Leave faithless churches and go to ones that love the Lord more than their sin. Stop voting for fools who virtue signal with rainbow flags, and stop giving your money to media that hates you.

• Vote in local elections. Vote for the lesser magistrates who fear God, not for the clowns sending your tax dollars to build new basketball stadiums for teams that already have one (looking at you Spurs) or to fund out of state abortions.

• Take your kids out of state schools. Don’t listen to the lies that they will be weird. Kids thinking they are furries and using a litter box at school are weird. Good charter and private schools are an option for now when you can find them, or afford them. There are many at-home programs that teach classical Christian education.

• Be present with your kids. Get off your dang phone and quit giving them screens. Touch grass with them, build (and destroy) with magnatiles with them, and go camping, fishing, and hunting with them. The more you spend time winning their hearts, the less likely it is for the culture to win.

• Eat, drink, and be merry. Eat real food. Work out. Read books. Have parties with friends. Discuss, debate, and learn. We’ve already won the war, so celebrate.

The enemy hates our laughter. In The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis, the character King Lune chastises his son for mocking their humiliated enemy, saying, “Never taunt a man save when he is stronger than you: then, as you please.” Later, he gives his son a set of rules for kings and boys alike: “For this is what it means to be a king: to be the first in every desperate attack, and last in every desperate retreat, and when there is hunger in the land (as must be now and then in bad years) to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land.”

How to be conquerors? Be first in, last out, and laugh loudest.

1 Kenneth L. Barker, Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition: New Testament) (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 1142.

2 Ibid., 1144.

This article was originally published by Matthew Watson with Awake! Put on strength!, and is used under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.