When we think of the book of Revelation, the first things that come to mind are mysterious symbols and apocalyptic imagery.  But one of the book’s most significant characteristics may be one we tend to miss: a consistent message of hope to the persecuted church. 
 
Persecution is described in all parts of Revelation – from its opening chapters to the final attack on Jerusalem – and the historical context of Revelation provides a reason for this. John’s apocalyptic writing most likely dates to the AD 90’s, during the reign of the Emperor Domitian.  The persecution of Christians reached a climactic level at this time, many Christians were executed, and John himself was banished to the Island of Patmos.  
 
When we see this historical context clearly, we begin to grasp the importance of the message of hope-despite-persecution within Revelation.  We see it in John’s personal introductory words to his fellow believers: “I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ…” (Revelation 1:9) – words which set the tone for the whole book.  
 
We especially see this theme of endurance under persecution in the letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation’s second and third chapters. The letters are written in the form of imperial edicts, but John makes it clear that Jesus is the king of kings (and emperors) to whom we must listen.  Just as Imperial Roman edicts proclaimed, for example: “Hear what Domitian says …,” so the letters of Revelation all include “… hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7, etc.).   
 
Just as imperial edicts would often say “I know what you have done” to their recipients, so the seven letters repeatedly stress Christ’s words: “I know your works” (Revelation 2:2, etc.). The letter to Smyrna, for example, makes this theme clear: “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty … Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer….and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:9-10). 
 
We can learn much about persecution and hope from these seven letters. Consider two vital facts:
 
1) The letters to the seven churches –  except for Sardis and Laodicea –  all contain encouragement regarding perseverance in the face of persecution.  Sardis and Laodicea are the two churches where persecution is not mentioned and are also the two churches that are said to be either asleep or blind.
 
2) Conversely, each church is given some correction –  apart from Smyrna and Philadelphia, which we know historically were the two most persecuted churches.  Of the seven churches, the most fiercely persecuted congregations are the only ones praised without reproach.
 
These facts remind us that we must never presume persecution comes upon believers because they are not sincere or righteous enough.  If anything, Revelation indicates the opposite – that churches that do not experience persecution of any kind may not be spiritually active or alive.
 
This is not just a message regarding persecution in John’s time (Revelation 1:19). Today, Christianity is the most persecuted religious faith in the world. It has been calculated that more people died for their belief in Christ during the last century than in all nineteen previous centuries, and in the 21st century the number of Christians suffering persecution has increased even more.  But if there is a single, unifying message in Revelation’s letters to the churches, it is that God sees their trials and promises that whatever is taken from them by persecution will be returned in the Kingdom at an infinitely greater level – whether relationships, positions, possessions, or life itself.

“…To the one who is victorious, I will give … that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it” (Revelation 2:17).
 
Today, people change their names because they do not like the name they have or because they see some advantage to having a different name.  This is particularly common for actors and musicians, of course, who change their names or take “stage names” they feel might be easier for people to remember and better for their chosen careers.  Some past and present examples include John Wayne, who was born Marion Robert Morrison, Bob Dylan who was born Robert Allen Zimmerman, Kirk Douglas –  born Issur Danielovitch Demsky, Alan Alda – born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo, Martin Sheen –  born Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estevez, Elton John –  born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, and Natalie Wood – born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko.  
 
But name changing is not just a modern phenomenon. The birth name of the great theologian Martin Luther was actually Martin Luder. He later changed his name to “Luther” (based on the Greek “eleutherios” meaning “free”) as being more appropriate to his beliefs.

There are also many instances of name changes in the Bible, though the ones we find there almost all occurred because someone else changed an individual’s name rather than the person changing it themselves. An exception was Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth (Ruth 1:20), who changed her name to Mara, meaning “bitter,” after losing her husband and sons.

More commonly, the names of individuals were changed when they entered the service of the king of a foreign culture, just as Joseph was renamed Zaphenath-Paneah –  the meaning of which is unknown –  by the Egyptian pharaoh (Genesis 41:45), Daniel was renamed Belteshazzar – a form of  “Bel protects the king” – by the king of Babylon (Daniel 1:7), and the Jewish girl Hadassah was given a new name, Esther (meaning  “star,” Esther 2:7)  when she was taken into the court of the Persian king.

In the New Testament we see exactly the same process in action when Jesus renamed his disciple Simon as Peter –  meaning “stone” (John 1:42).  Peter had certainly not earned this new name to that point, but with the coming of the Holy Spirit he was transformed into a stable pillar of the New Testament Church (Galatians 2:9).

Many think that the apostle Paul’s name was changed by God from “Saul,” though the New Testament shows that the name Paul –  the Greek form of Saul –  simply began to be used of him when he started to work in Greek-speaking areas (Acts 13:9).  Yet it is also possible that there was some significance in the changed name. In Greek, paulos means small, and it was perhaps a mark of humility to willingly exchange the name of the Hebrew king Saul for the humble Gentile name Paul, just as the apostle became a humble servant to the Gentiles (Ephesians 3:8).

More important, biblically, are the clear examples where God himself changed the names of people. God renamed the patriarch Abram as Abraham (“father of nations,” Genesis 17:5), for example, and his wife Sarai as Sarah (probably meaning “princess,” Genesis 17:15). He also renamed their grandson Jacob as Israel (meaning either “prince of God” or “he who overcomes with God,” Genesis 32:28).  There was deliberately expressed symbolism in these new names given by God, of course, each new name expressing a new identity based on what the individual had accomplished or the person’s potential in the plan of God.

Interestingly, however, there are relatively few such changes recorded in the Scriptures where God gave his servants new names.  The phenomenon was uncommon and always full of great meaning when it did occur.  Yet despite the relative infrequency of God’s acts of re-naming, the Bible does make it clear that every faithful believer will be given a new name in eternity as we see in the Book of Revelation: “To the one who is victorious, I will give … that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it” (Revelation 2:17). The new names of believers will apparently be as meaningful and relevant to our potential roles in eternity as the names changed by God in the past.  At that time, even God will take a new name (Revelation 3:12) – signifying that he will, indeed, "make all things new" (Revelation 21:5).

The answer to Shakespeare’s question in “Romeo and Juliet” “What’s in a name?” may be “very little” –  unless it is a name changed by God.   

The first epistle of John displays a unique writing style. One of the most characteristic aspects of this apostle’s letters is the way in which he frequently compares or contrasts spiritual situations.

​In 1 John 1:9-10, for example, he contrasts “If we confess our sins” with “If we claim we have not sinned.”  As we continue through his letter we find that he compares “Whoever loves his brother” with “whoever hates his brother” (1 John 2:10-11); “The one who does what is right” with “The one who does what is sinful” (1 John 3:7-8); “Every spirit that acknowledges … Jesus …” with “every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus” (1 John 4:2-3), and so on.

This frequent use of comparison or contrast lends a dynamic force to what John writes –  it is straightforward, to the point, and unequivocal.  But sometimes the lesson behind the comparison is not quite as easy to see, and we may miss it if we do not keep an eye open for occurrences of the pattern. A good example of this is found in the third chapter of John’s letter:

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God … (1 John 3:19-21).

The immediate contrast between “If our hearts condemn us” and “if our hearts do not condemn us” is clear enough, but the lesson John points to here is perhaps not as obvious.  At face value it might seem that John is simply saying if our hearts or “consciences” condemn us, God is greater than our hearts (vs. 20); but what does that mean?
 
To understand the contrast John is making, we must widen our view to look at the context in which these verses appear.  Beginning in verse 10 of chapter 3, all the way up to verse 19 where John begins to talk about our consciences condemning or not condemning us, John speaks continually about whether we love one another or not: “This is how we know who the children of God are … Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another….  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other… Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:10-18).

John then states that “This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: if our hearts condemn us …” (vs. 19-20).  Knowing that “we belong to the truth,” as John puts it, is not a result of what he says next –  our hearts condemning or not condemning us – because we cannot always trust our own conscience to be a judge of our behavior (Jeremiah 17:9). Rather, John refers to what he has just said:  that we love others in our behavior and in truth (vs. 18); and to what he says after this verse, that we have confidence before God because we keep his commands “… to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us” (vs. 23).  

The theme of love is really the main point of the third chapter and of John’s entire letter, and this immediate context allows us to paraphrase the point of 1 John 3:19-20 something like this:

“… because we demonstrate our love for one another in actions and in truth, we know that we are the children of God and this sets our conscience at rest… Even if our conscience sometimes causes us to doubt our standing before God, we know our conscience is not the final judge and that God, who sees the love he has placed within us, accepts us and hears us – for ongoing love of others in our lives is the proof that God does not reject or condemn us, and that he hears us.”
​
We all occasionally groan under the weight of conscience and in our most discouraged moments we may wonder if we are really a child of God, or if God hears us.  But John’s message shows us that the outgoing and ongoing love God places in us through his Spirit is the proof that we are indeed his children.  It's a tremendously encouraging lesson, but –  like many of John’s lessons –  it is one we can only see properly when we consider what he wrote in its full context. 

When we think of faith, hope, and love, we think, of course, of the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:13: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love …” 

It’s a scripture every Christian knows and one of the first ones we may memorize. But many do not realize how important these three qualities are in the writings of Paul. He is the only New Testament writer who groups faith, hope, and love together in quite this way, though the Book of Hebrews – which was clearly heavily influenced by Paul, even if he was not its author –  is the only other New Testament book that does group the three qualities directly (Hebrews 10:22-24).

For Paul, faith, hope, and love were more than just the topics of an important section of his letter to the Corinthian church.  The three qualities appear grouped together in almost every one of the apostle’s letters, though we may not always see it.   Paul sometimes mentions only one or two of the three concepts in a given verse, so it may not be obvious that they are all present in the same chapter or letter,  but the three qualities permeate almost everything Paul wrote and  are frequently found bound together in the same way we find them grouped in 1 Corinthians 13:13. Consider these three verses:

“… the faith and love that spring from the hope …”  (Colossians 1:5).
“… your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope” (1 Thessalonians 1:3).
“putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet” (1 Thessalonians 5:8).

Sometimes Paul includes faith, hope, and love in longer lists of spiritual qualities, and we may not connect them as we read the list, but the main reason we may not see how frequently Paul uses this great triad in his writing is that he often varies the expression faith, hope, and love by replacing one of the qualities with a related one which suggests the same thing from a specific angle.  In these cases we can learn much regarding how Paul thought about faith, hope, and love by seeing what words he uses to substitute for these qualities.

​Take, for example, the way Paul often substitutes “endurance” for hope (just as we saw them connected in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, above): “pursue … faith, love, endurance …” (1 Timothy 6:11); “… your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing… we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring” (2 Thessalonians 1:3-4); “Teach the older men to be … sound in faith, in love and in endurance” (Titus 2:2).

The concepts of hope and endurance are clearly related, and by writing endurance instead of hope, Paul stresses that particular aspect of hope in what he is saying. Sometimes, just as he uses “endurance,” the apostle uses “patience” as another synonym for hope (2 Timothy 3:10, etc.).

If we look at another example: “… faith, love and holiness …” (1 Timothy 2: 15), we find holiness taking the place of hope, and these two qualities are also connected, as Paul shows in speaking of the hope we have in the promises of God: “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves… perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (2 Corinthians 7:1).

So too, when Paul writes of “… sound teaching, with faith and love” (2 Timothy 1:13), he uses sound teaching in place of hope – which might seem strange, but right teaching gives us hope, and if we look carefully at the context in which Paul writes this to Timothy, it  is, in fact, one of hope (vs. 12). 

As a final example, notice the way Paul uses “good conscience” as the basis for  hope in his letter to Timothy: “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5).  Paul’s point is clear in making this substitution – it is only when our consciences do not condemn us that we have true hope.
 
We have only considered variants of “hope” in these examples, but if you look for them you will find that Paul frequently varies the words he uses for each of the three great qualities.  We can learn a great deal by being aware of this fact and letting it teach us.  So next time you see faith, hope, and love – or something similar – in the writings of Paul, think about it. Ask yourself what you can learn about these vital qualities of Christian living through Paul’s choice of words and how they may illuminate the context of what is being said. 

Often this small technique can open up unexpected insights into some key areas of Paul’s teaching.  It’s a way we can come to better understand the three things that Paul tells us – repeatedly – matter the most.
 
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​“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love…” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Probably every Christian knows the apostle Paul’s summary of the greatest Christian virtues found in 1 Corinthians 13:13.  As new believers, it is one of the first verses we learn and one we always remember.
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The meaning of Paul’s statement is simple enough.  Like towering mountain peaks that still stand after the surrounding landscape has been eroded down or like three “rock hard” pebbles that remain when a stream has washed away the softer sand and soil, these three qualities “remain.” 

But our new e-book, These Three Remain, helps you see scriptures speaking of these qualities when you might otherwise read right over them. It looks closely at each of the three key Christian attributes and examines how they interact with each other in your life.  In fact, as you read this book, you may find that faith, hope and love are even more important than you ever realized.  You can download this new free e-book here.

The Bible makes it clear that the calling of Christians is to eventually become “kings and priests” in the Kingdom of God (Revelation 1:6 KJV, alternately in some other translations: “a kingdom and priests”).  In ancient Israel both kings and priests (Exodus 28: 36) wore crowns, and the New Testament discusses the crowns it says will be given to believers in more specific terms than we might often realize.  

The Christian scriptures use two different terms for the word “crown” – stephanos  which refers to a crown of leaves or flowers and which was given for great accomplishments such as athletic and military victories, and  diadema which was primarily used of the crown of royalty.  When speaking of the crowns to be given to believers, the New Testament scriptures always speak of the first kind – the stephanos – which was given as a reward for accomplishments rather than the royal crown handed down merely by descent. They also speak of different types of the stephanos crown of accomplishment in discussing the reward of the faithful. 

Some of the references to crowns simply speak of conditions pertaining to them. For example, Paul tells us that the crown of leaves sought by athletic exertion: “…will not last, but we … get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25). This does not seem to be listing an “imperishable” type crown, it is just a statement that our crown is imperishable. There are, however, three different types of crown mentioned in the New Testament which seem to be linked to different rewards. In all three cases, each type of crown is said to be a reward for a particular accomplishment and a related spiritual trait:

1. The Crown of Righteousness (associated with obedient faith): 2 Timothy 4:8-9 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me ...” Here Paul associates this crown with faithful accomplishment. 

2. The Crown of Life (associated with persistent hope): James 1:12 “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” Revelation 2:10 “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer…. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.”

3. The Crown of Glory (associated with serving love): 1 Peter 5:1-4  “…Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them –not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve … And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.”  

Whether these crowns are meant to be understood literally or metaphorically (see, for example, 1 Thessalonians 2:19) is beside the point. What is important and of great encouragement to every Christian is to see that the very things the believer must struggle to master in this life – obedient faith, persistent hope, serving love – are the very rewards that we are promised. It is as if the crowns are the perfect future manifestation of the things for which we now strive. But we need not be concerned as to what the exact reality of the promised crowns of scripture may be.  The lesson of the verses that speak of the three crowns  clearly relates to their value and how we need to continue to the point they are given to us. It is a message clearly summarized by the apostle John: “… Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown” (Revelation 3:11B).

Hope is neither faith’s distant cousin nor love’s poor relation.  Here’s what hope is and why you need it…


The words of the apostle Paul in the thirteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians are familiar to all of us:   “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love …”                   (1 Corinthians 13:13). Paul goes on, of course, to stress that love is the greatest of this triad of spiritual qualities.  Faith, too, is praised in the scriptures as of tremendous spiritual importance:  “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).  So where does this leave hope, the third member of Paul’s trio of most important qualities?  In the minds of most of us, hope comes in as a kind of distant third place winner.  It is like a spiritual bronze medalist that does well, but is always eclipsed by the silver and gold placement of faith and love. But if we look closely, the Bible shows hope is much more than we often think.

This week's article "Why You Need Hope – More than You Realize" challenges you to see why you need hope more than you think – lots of it ... 

We don't plan to usually duplicate material on our two websites, but today we make an exception. The article we have just posted on this site is one which has been among the most popular on TacticalChristianity.org
and we think it belongs here, too.

“Facing the Future without Fear” by Sherri Langton, associate editor of the Bible Advocate magazine, is directly faith-related and provides needed counsel for those looking at troubled times. I often think the old saying that “death and taxes” are the only certainties in life really deserves a third element:  uncertainty;  but “Facing the Future without Fear” puts that third inevitable in perspective.