Stars and Lampstands

The seven stars in Jesus’ hand are the angels of the churches, the seven lampstands are the churches (Revelation 1:20).

In the temple imagery that John is drawing on, the lamps on the lampstand are the lamps themselves, the lights that make the lampstand luminous. The lampstand of the temple is set in the firmament of the holy place, seven lamps representing the seven known planets.

For Jesus, lampstand and star are dependent on one another. The star, as a lamp on the lampstand, can only shine if the lampstand holds it up; the lampstand only fulfills its role if the stars shine. A fallen lamp renders the lampstand useless, and Jesus will remove lamps that go dark (2:5).

In Ephesus, the lampstand’s usefulness depends on the repentance of the star, the lamp/star’s return to his former place. The future of the Ephesian church depends on the repentance of a single star.

I believe the star/angel is the pastoral overseer of the church in a city, the “metropolitan.” If so, then Jesus is warning the church at Ephesus that the whole church will collapse if the pastor persists in his sin, if he doesn’t return to his first love and first deeds.

No doubt, the angel’s departure from his first love has had its effect in the church. If the star’s light dims, so will the rest of the lights that make up the church. But the crucial point is that Jesus calls the angel, not the whole community to repentance.

Jesus is applying the terms of the Davidic covenant to the order of the church. Under the terms of the Davidic covenant (2 Samuel 7), the health of Israel depended on the faithfulness of the king. The church as a whole is likewise dependent on the faithfulness of its head, who fortunately is Jesus. Because He is indefectible, so is the church, considered as a whole.

From the letter to Ephesus, it appears that units within the church – the church in Ephesus or Jerusalem or Rome or Constantinople or Geneva or Canterbury or Boston – can defect, and they defect when their angels leave their first love and first works and fail to repent. 

There seems to be every reason for applying this more particularly: The future of First Presbyterian of Macon or St. Mark United Methodist Church or Toledo or Sacred Heart Catholic Church of Bartlesville or any of a million other churches is bound up with the faithfulness of the church’s “angel.”

It’s a heavy burden. So, as James says, “Be not many teachers.”