Hello, before reading this article I encourage you to read Spiritual Punks so that you can see the context. God bless you!

The first step in becoming spiritual punks is ignoring the Holy Ghost and embracing what the world likes. This is a desire to please the world above a desire to please the Father. We embrace a false sense of love, mercy and grace and pursue a false fulfilment of peace. We suppose that Jesus came to bring peace to the earth (Matthew 10:34). Well, you may want to check your theology! We fear the expressions of the Holy Ghost because we don’t want to look weird or crazy; we rather look sophisticated or cool or whatever self-expression we invent in our heads concerning what church should be and, we leave the Holy Ghost out. We occasionally mentioned Him, but in reality, He is nowhere to be found; we leave no room for Him; we programmed everything according to our taste and culture. On this series we will see in detailed, as we continue to study the Seven Churches in Revelations 1, 2 and 3, how becoming spiritual punks actually looks like. 

1. The Message to the Church of Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7)

Jesus start by giving this church great compliments,  “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; ³ and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.” Revelation 2:2-3 (NASB) 

Part of the compliments here is that this church does not tolerate evil men and they actually test those who call themselves apostles. This is important because what I see is that we rather eliminate the apostles and false prophets rather than confronting those who are false. This church also hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which God hated to. The Nicolaitans comes from the Greek Word Nikolaı̈́tēs. 

The Nicolaitans were ancient sect whose deeds were expressly and strongly reprobate (Rev. 2:6, 5). Some have supposed that they were the followers of Nicolas (Acts 6:5), one of the first deacons of the church, whom they regard as having apostatized from the true faith. For this view, however, there is no authority. Others regard the term “Nicolaitans” as a symbolic expression. Since Nicolaos means victor of the people and Balaam means devourer of the people, the two in symbolic unity signify religious seducers of the people. It is more probable that the Nicolaitans were identical with those who held the doctrine of Balaam, mentioned in Rev. 2:14 (cf. 2 Pet. 2:15), so that likely the Nicolaitans practiced fornication and the eating of things sacrificed to idols while outwardly professing Christianity.^[1]

The Ephesus church was not an example of spiritual punks, but there is a powerful lesson to be learned here. They were so busy doing good deeds and fighting these bad doctrines that they forgot about their first love. Beloved, in the midst of all, we must continue to love God above all things, love people, be easy to forgive others, embrace those who have repented, have compassion and so on; that is the divine balance. 

2. The Message to the church of Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11)

This church should be an example for all of us. I know that there is nobody perfect, but Jesus has nothing negative to say about this church. They are humble, they are confrontational, and they are facing tribulation and death. Jesus encouraged them with the Crown of Life. Notice that Jesus do not offered them anything on this dimension of life. Wow! No prosperity Gospel here! 

‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰ Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days.Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. Revelation 2:9-10 (NASB)

Satan is a deceiver; he comes as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) and his prophets come like wolves in sheep clothing (Matthew 7:15). But we call everybody a brother in the Lord, even those who profess a different Gospel. But not Smyrna, they knew those who came as if they were Jews, but in reality, were of the synagogue of Satan. Well, so far, no spiritual punks here either. 

To be continued…

^[1] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).