Episode 888:Ephesus Jesus declares that persevering patience to opposition reveals your love for God

Hello everyone. In this morning's Bible study we continue discussing the letter the Lord Jesus wrote to the church at Ephesus.

The last time we looked at the history of the city during Paul's day and the geo-political activities that transpired in Ephesus during that same period. We also read about the religious sects that were in the city and how the merchants of that day made their living from those gods.

We discover that due to the presence of several goddess temples, Artemus, being the primary deity, that there were a substantial amount of immorality. There was also emperor worship there as well but on a much smaller scale than at other cities.

Today will we venture into the commendations that the Lord had for the members of the church at Ephesus. These commendations all reflect a strong scripture based doctrinal background which was to be expected since the apostle Paul was their teacher and pastor.

This solid background in biblical doctrine allowed the church to readily catch error and false apostles. They were also able to know that their salvation depended solely upon the One whom the Father had anointed and appointed as King of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet, with all this knowledge, with all this understanding, with the best of pastors and teachers, error and false converts were able to penetrate the assembly on a small scale.

How then should the believers response and how did they respond? That's what we will find out today as the Lord continue to inspect His church and give us the report card.

Today's study is 1 hour and 30 minutes in duration. I have broken it into eleven segments. This is segment 3 of 11 titled Ephesus Jesus identifies the sources opposed to our labor