Smyrna was a prosperous port city of Asia Minor, north of Ephesus, on the coast of the Aegean Sea. It took pride in its beauty and its loyalty to Rome, and housed a temple dedicated to the worship of the emperor.
That loyalty carried a heavy price for Christians. Refusing to burn incense to the emperor was seen as treason, and the local Jewish community also showed hostility toward the small Christian church.
It is against this backdrop of material poverty and religious pressure that Christ writes to Smyrna the second of the seven letters of Revelation. He presents himself as the First and the Last, who died and came to life again, words of comfort for those facing the real possibility of death.
Unlike other churches in Revelation, Smyrna receives no rebuke from Christ. He acknowledges its tribulation and its poverty, and calls it rich before God.
The letter announces future persecution and promises the crown of life to whoever remains faithful unto death. A few decades later, the church of Smyrna would live out one of its greatest examples of faithfulness, in the martyrdom of its bishop Polycarp, around AD 155.
