I know thy tribulation and thy poverty; but thou art rich; and the railing of those who say that they themselves are Jews, and are not, but a synagogue of Satan.
Smyrna was a church under pressure and with nothing, and the Lord's letter calls it rich. Two hard questions follow: how can a hunted, penniless church be rich, and who are these false Jews serving Satan?
"I know" — knowledge that comforts
The Lord's opening words are not a general statement about His omniscience. They speak to a specific pain. One writer links them to the way God spoke of Israel's suffering in Egypt.
Besides tribulation, they were in poverty, and He who knows all things knew it all. But that is not the form in which He gives His comfort. He shows them that He knows their sorrows in detail. It was not enough for their hearts, or His, to say that He knew them only as a group. As with Israel in bondage (Exodus 3:7), "I know their sufferings" — so here it is His heart speaking to their hearts.
What tribulation means
The word covers more than ordinary hardship. It names what happens when the world turns on believers.
Nothing escapes the notice of Him whose eyes are like a flame of fire... Tribulation means the trials that come with persecution. That is its usual sense in the New Testament. The strong wind of persecution had set in once more on God's poor flock. The god of this world stirred it up, out of his hatred of Christ. We who live in a day when confessing Christ costs nothing... cannot easily understand the dangers surrounding the saints in the early centuries. Their neighbours and the state often treated them as enemies. Foes surrounded them like a pack of hungry wolves, trying to wipe them off the face of the earth.
Poor here, rich in His eyes
The short phrase "but you are rich" stands against the last of the seven letters. There a church boasts of its own wealth.
He sees the tribulation they bore for His sake. He also sees their poverty in the world's eyes, which fitted so well with spiritual riches. The words here are commendation, not the kind we shall find addressed to Laodicea at the close. In Laodicea they too were rich — they had grown rich — but not with riches Christ could recognise. To Him, though they did not know it, they were the wretched and miserable, the poor and blind and naked. Here He sees the poverty they lived in at Smyrna. And He Himself reminds them how rich they still are.
Another writer sees an honour in their empty hands. It made them like their Lord on earth.
There was a special honour in being this close to Him, and this like Him, who had nowhere to lay His head. I have learnt this: Jesus is in a particular way the partner of His poor servants.
The synagogue of Satan
The blasphemy here targets the saints, not God. The claim to be "Jews" is a claim to a religious standing the Lord refuses to grant.
Some falsely called themselves Jews. That is, they claimed a religious standing before God on earth, as the people He recognised in the world. So they assumed that wealth and possessions were owed to them. And they rejected those in poverty and trouble. So they slandered and abused — for that seems to be the force of "blasphemy" here — those who were true saints of God... They were not Jews, but they were a synagogue, a word that means "a bringing together" — a synagogue of Satan.
Pressure often makes people bend. It did not here.
Their tribulation and poverty did not tempt them into tolerating evil. They rejected the false claim to the position of Jews, which is here called the synagogue of Satan. Judaism is a religion fitted for this world and for man in the flesh. So it put man under law, and had a worldly ritual and priesthood. This is exactly what Satan has brought into Christendom.
The crushed spice
The city's own name paints the same picture.
Smyrna means myrrh. It is often mentioned in Scripture in connection with embalming the dead. Myrrh had to be crushed before it gave out its fragrance. This pictures the time when pagan Rome crushed the church. Yet the church never gave God such sweet fragrance as in those two centuries of almost constant martyrdom.
Summary
- Known. He does not say He knows their sorrows in general; He names them one by one, as He named Israel's in Egypt.
- Crushed. Their tribulation is persecution. Myrrh gives its fragrance only under crushing.
- Poor. Stripped of what the world values, they stood where their Lord had stood, with nowhere to lay His head.
- Rich. Laodicea called herself rich and was naked. The only voice that counts calls Smyrna rich.
- Slandered. The abuse came from people claiming God's ancient standing. The Lord calls their gathering a synagogue of Satan.