On Brotherly Love, with Brother Ryan

In the opening chapters of the Revelation of Yahshua Christ there are messages to seven Christian assemblies. Most of the messages contain certain criticisms, and they all contain some encouragement. Yet there is an important message in the very names of those assemblies which most readers have not grasped. We will not go through all seven of these messages, but we will state that two of the assemblies were not criticized. These are the assemblies of Smyrna and Philadelphia.

The word Smyrna means anointing. While Yahshua Christ is the Anointed One, all Christian Israelites are indeed anointed in the sense that they are the chosen people of Yahweh. The apostle John references this anointing in his epistles. Of the assembly at Smyrna it was said “10 Do not fear the things which you are going to suffer. Behold, the False Accuser is going to cast some from among you into prison, that you may be tried, and you shall have tribulation for ten days. You must be faithful until death, and I shall give to you the prize of life.” So we see that Yahweh's people, as it often says in the Old Testament, were to undergo continual trials. But they would prevail on account of their faith.

The word Philadelphia means brotherly love. The message to that assembly says in part: “10 Because you have kept My Word with patience, I also shall keep you from the hour of trial about to come upon the whole inhabited earth to test those dwelling upon the earth. 11 I come quickly! Hold fast that which you have, that no one may take your reward.” Of course, all of the messages to the seven assemblies are to children of Israel who have turned to Christ. Comparing these seven messages, and seeing that the assemblies at Smyrna and Philadelphia were not criticized for anything bad, what I learn from this, is that if one is of the anointed children of Yahweh, he will be tried, but will survive his trials on account of the faith. However if one also loves his brethren, which is what Philadelphia means, then one will even be kept from those trials, and staying in that love he cannot lose his reward.

While these messages to the seven assemblies are indeed allegorical, they present us a model of what we must do to fulfill our lives as Christians.