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Jesus Christ, John 18:36
...and He IS coming.
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Revelation is the expounder and capstone of the prophetic writings. But more than this, as our Lord Jesus Christ is the only and final judge of men, His Revelation tells us what He expects of us and which fate accompanies which certain church behaviors. Our Lord Jesus alone judges the fate of each person's eternal soul. His words, both in the Gospels and in Revelation carry special weight in this respect, as He tells us how we can expect Him to judge us based on our obedience and faith. As regarding final judgement, the seven churches are ambiguous, as time of judgement has not yet come and is to be revealed only at its proper time. The Apostle Paul wrote of this proper time:

"Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgement: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet I am not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God." (I Cor. 4)

First, each person in the church is considered a steward. The requirement for a steward is that he is found faithful. Second, man's judgement is infinitely inferior to that of our Lord Jesus, to the extent that we do not judge ourselves. Jesus Christ judges us. Last, this judgement does not happen "before the time." During this time, only Jesus Christ will judge works of wickedness and praise those whom He finds worthy.

It is in understanding these things that we see yet another aspect of the Revelation of Jesus Christ: that in the seven churches, we are told which specific church behavior merits which specific judgement or outcome. It is also a place where our Lord Jesus, with great authority, points out exactly what we may be doing that offends Him and exactly what He is going to do about it. When THE MAN speaks in such a way, we had better pay attention. We should strive to obey the commands in the seven churches and heed the warnings therin. In successfully doing so, we should be counted worthy by the only Judge.

The sad fact is that there are many Christians who try to figure out the least they can do and still be a Christian. This is where so many Christians get into a lot of trouble; and although we are to not judge others, there is another type of judgement which we are supposed to engage in:

"If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement." (John 7)

It is often said that we are not supposed to judge. This is is deceitful, and many people use it to deflect criticism of misdeeds they wish to justify, either for themselves or others. As discussed previously, we are not to judge with condemnation or final authority, but we are supposed to judge whether or not judgement is righteous. Simply put, it is out of our place to judge with condemnation, but on the other hand it is our responsibility to judge as with discernment between righteousness and evil. Judging righteous judgement, discernment, is fundamental to living as a successful steward of our Lord Jesus. It is a failure or unwillingness to judge righteous judgement which lands certain of the seven churches into trouble, some worse than others. When Christians fail to judge whether judgement is righteous, they accept people and things into their lives which are harmful to them spiritually.

Each of the seven churches of Revelation actually existed in the ancient world, and understanding the individual situations of each church city gives us insight into their respective messages. While we may take space to discuss these ancient situations, our discussion of each church will center around the spiritual application to Christians during the end-time.

It should also be noted somewhere that there is a teaching that these churches represent consecutive ages. This progression of church ages is simply not in the seven churches of Revelation. The teaching is error.

Like teachings of our Lord Jesus in the Gospels, the seven churches afford us an opportunity to judge our own judgement and warn us of the consequences of spritual compromise with this world. In other cases, the seven churches encourage and confirm the Christian in his good stewardship.