For hating their deeds, the church of Ephesus was commended, and also for not giving countenance to false teachers, who claimed to be apostles, and were proved to be liars. Thus are Christians to “believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world,” 1 John 4:1. “Such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ,” 2 Cor. 11:13. “There were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,” 2 Pet. 2:1. The promise to him that overcometh, that he shall “eat of the tree of life,” points to the resurrection and to the new creation. As in Eden was made to grow “the tree of life” (Gen. 2:9), so in Eden restored, “they that do his commandments ... may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city,” Rev. 22:2. Epistle to the Church in Smyrna. “And to the messenger of the congregation in Smyrna, write: These things saith the First and the Last, who became dead and is alive: I know thy works, and affliction, and poverty (but thou art rich); and I know the reviling of those, who say they are Jews, and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Fear none of the things, which thou wilt suffer. Behold, the devil will cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye will have affliction ten days. Be thou faithful to death, and I will give thee the crown of life. He, who hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Congregations: he who overcometh, will not be hurt by the second death.”—Rev. 2:8-11. The angel of the church in Smyrna is supposed to have been Polycarp, who, rather than to apostatize, was burnt alive in that city about A. D. 166. That church had passed through the trial of poverty, and was found “rich toward God,” Luke 12:21. It had suffered from the blasphemy of unbelieving Jews, who had a synagogue there and were particularly active at the martyrdom of Polycarp. But “He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God,” Rom. 2:28, 29. And the crucified and risen Saviour has said, that they are “of the synagogue of Satan which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie,” Rev. 3:9. Not a word of reproof is addressed to this faithful flock; but they were to be still further tried, and a terrible persecution was foretold, which should continue ten prophetic days. Ten years was the duration of the last and bloodiest persecution under Diocletian, from A. D. 302 to 312, during which all the Asiatic churches were grievously afflicted.