1. Revelation 2:3 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Were these early Christians being persecuted?

Revelation 2:3 (ESV)

3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.

Jesus compliments them for “enduring patiently” (repeat of Revelation 2:2) and for bearing up for my name’s sake. The terms Jesus uses here need not make us think of persecution itself, but rather of the scorn and ridicule that follow from insisting that your eternal redemption rests on the suffering and death of a criminal once crucified in Judea. These Christians, however, endured the scorn patiently and did not grow weary in confessing Jesus’ name. While they could not “bear” the false apostles (Revelation 2:2), they certainly did “bear” up Jesus’ name.