John was instructed to send the Revelation Jesus showed him to “the seven churches” (Revelation 1:11), and that would include the paragraph presently under discussion. Those churches are made up of Christians, persons who claim to find their only comfort in life and death in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. They claim, then, that God is their God and they are his people. But if, when push comes to shove, they end up acting cowardly and faithlessly and detestably, if they betray fellow Christians to persecutors and align themselves with non-gods to escape suffering, etc., they show themselves to be liars, that is, persons who say they are Christians but are not.
8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”