Revelation 2

²⁰This is the mystery of the seven stars you saw in My right hand and of the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

¹⁶He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.

¹¹saying, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹²Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands,

⁷To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.

¹⁸To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a blazing fire and whose feet are like polished bronze.

¹“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of the One who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, yet you are dead.

¹Beloved, 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.

¹Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.

²Many will follow in their depravity, and because of them the way of truth will be defamed.

²¹but test all things. Hold fast to what is good.

¹³For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

¹⁴And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

⁸I know your deeds. Behold, I have placed before you an open door, which no one can shut. I know that you have only a little strength, yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name.

¹⁹Nevertheless, God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from iniquity.”

³⁶You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.

⁹Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

⁷Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the fall and spring rains.

⁸You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us.

³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

⁴Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

¹¹being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have full endurance and patience, and joyfully

¹²Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.

¹³But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.

²“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the Lord says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

³Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of His harvest. All who devoured her were found guilty; disaster came upon them,’” declares the Lord.

¹⁰For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown for His name as you have ministered to the saints and continue to do so.

¹¹We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure.

⁹And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,

³We are obligated to thank God for you all the time, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith is growing more and more, and your love for one another is increasing.

¹⁴To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God’s creation.

¹⁵I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other!

²Wake up and strengthen what remains, which is about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God.

³Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.

¹⁹Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.

¹⁶Therefore repent! Otherwise I will come to you shortly and wage war against them with the sword of My mouth.

¹Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.

³⁰Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.

³¹For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”

²¹Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling.

²²Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds.

⁵I hate the mob of evildoers, and refuse to sit with the wicked.

³I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.

⁹Anyone who runs ahead without remaining in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever remains in His teaching has both the Father and the Son.

¹⁰If anyone comes to you but does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home or even greet him.

¹⁴But I have a few things against you, because some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.

¹⁵In the same way, some of you also hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

²Jehu son of Hanani the seer went out to confront him and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, the wrath of the Lord is upon you.

²¹Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord, and detest those who rise against You?

²²I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them as my enemies.

¹¹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be harmed by the second death.

¹⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.

¹⁵He who has ears, let him hear.

⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

⁹He who has an ear, let him hear:

⁹He who has ears, let him hear.”

¹⁷When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. But He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last,

¹⁸the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.

⁸“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come—the Almighty.

¹¹saying, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.

⁹As for those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you.

⁵Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?

⁶But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?

⁹For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

⁶It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.

¹⁰sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

²⁸A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical.

²⁹No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God.

¹²Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.

²²You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.

¹⁰Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

¹¹I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death.

¹⁷And you will be hated by everyone because of My name.

¹³You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.

⁴And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

⁶Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

¹⁴Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire.

⁸But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.

¹⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.

⁹He who has an ear, let him hear:

¹⁶Therefore repent! Otherwise I will come to you shortly and wage war against them with the sword of My mouth.

¹⁶He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.

¹²For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

¹⁵And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

¹¹saying, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

⁴but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips.

⁹I know your affliction and your poverty—though you are rich! And I am aware of the slander of those who falsely claim to be Jews, but are in fact a synagogue of Satan.

¹⁰Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer tribulation for ten days. Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

⁸If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

⁸I know your deeds. Behold, I have placed before you an open door, which no one can shut. I know that you have only a little strength, yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name.

⁹As for those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you.

¹¹I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

²⁰And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’

¹²if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us;

¹⁶“Look, these women caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to turn unfaithfully against the Lord at Peor, so that the plague struck the congregation of the Lord.

¹⁵They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.

²⁰But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

¹While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,

²who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.

¹¹Woe to them! They have traveled the path of Cain; they have rushed for profit into the error of Balaam; they have perished in Korah’s rebellion.

²⁹You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

⁶But you have this to your credit: You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁸And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival.

¹⁶He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.

¹⁷And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

⁵Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

⁴but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips.

¹²To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of the One who holds the sharp, double-edged sword.

²Nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.

¹⁵You will leave behind your name as a curse for My chosen ones, and the Lord God will slay you; but to His servants He will give another name.

¹²He has eyes like blazing fire, and many royal crowns on His head. He has a name written on Him that only He Himself knows.

¹³He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is The Word of God.

¹²The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.

¹³He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.

¹¹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be harmed by the second death.

¹⁴The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire.

¹⁵His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters.

¹¹saying, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

³⁵The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands.

³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.”

⁷I will proclaim the decree spoken to Me by the Lord: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.

²⁵Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

¹⁴The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

⁵The goal of our instruction is the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.

⁷and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.

²He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.

³We are obligated to thank God for you all the time, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith is growing more and more, and your love for one another is increasing.

²I know your deeds, your labor, and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate those who are evil, and you have tested and exposed as liars those who falsely claim to be apostles.

³Without growing weary, you have persevered and endured many things for the sake of My name.

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal.

²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

¹⁴But I have a few things against you, because some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.

³¹And as if it were not enough for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he even married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and he then proceeded to serve and worship Baal.

¹⁸Consider the people of Israel: Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar?

¹⁹Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?

²⁹You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

⁷And you are to strike down the house of your master Ahab, so that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of the Lord shed by the hand of Jezebel.

²⁰Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.

⁹The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.

⁴Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

⁵But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

²⁰Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.

²¹Furthermore, they did not repent of their murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft.

¹¹and curse the God of heaven for their pains and sores. Yet they did not repent of their deeds.

⁹And the people were scorched by intense heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had authority over these plagues. Yet they did not repent and give Him glory.

²⁰who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water.

²The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.”

⁵No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

³⁷therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked.

³⁸And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy.

³Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the calamity I plan to bring upon them, each of them will turn from his wicked way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

³All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”

³⁰Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.

³¹Cast away from yourselves all the transgressions you have committed, and fashion for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel?

²⁷For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.

⁹Put an end to the evil of the wicked, but establish the righteous, O righteous God who searches hearts and minds.

²⁷And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

¹⁷Since you call on a Father who judges each one’s work impartially, conduct yourselves in reverent fear during your stay as foreigners.

²⁴And they prayed, “Lord, You know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two You have chosen

²⁰O Lord of Hosts, who judges righteously, who examines the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have committed my cause.

¹¹in order that Satan should not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

⁹And the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

³I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.

²⁸It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond these essential requirements:

¹³For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

¹⁴And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

¹¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes.

¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

³Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.

¹¹I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.

²³Let us hold resolutely to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.

²¹but test all things. Hold fast to what is good.

⁷“Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of prophecy in this book.”

⁹Love must be sincere. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good.

²¹To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.

²⁷Then the sovereignty, dominion, and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven will be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will serve and obey Him.’

⁸Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession.

⁴Then I saw the thrones, and those seated on them had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or hands. And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

⁵There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.

⁸Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession.

⁹You will break them with an iron scepter; You will shatter them like pottery.”

⁵And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

¹⁵And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

¹⁴It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth or to skim the water from a cistern.”

²⁷All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

¹¹and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the Lord of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.

¹⁶“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star.”

¹⁹We also have the word of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

⁷⁸because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the Dawn will visit us from on high,

⁷⁹to shine on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.