Revelation 2:9 9I know your affliction and poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
The opening verb in this verse, I know (oida) indicates that no one can hide from the piercing eyes of Jesus (see 1:16). Jesus knew what was happening with the Smyrnans in three ways. First, they had experienced affliction and poverty. Affliction (thlipsin) is used in the New Testament for all kinds of trials and tribulations. Believers face trouble from many circumstances, including government, family, unbelievers, sickness, natural disasters, internal conflict, and death. One area of struggle for these believers was poverty, which is the condition of not having enough resources to support oneself or one’s family. It can show up in the lack of food, clothing, or shelter. With little or no social cushion, people in poverty in the first century could experience starvation. There is no indication of why or how these Christians struggled, but like believers today, they may have been rejected by society. Some could have been slaves.
Second, despite their poverty, they were rich. Even though the Smyrnan believers struggled because of physical poverty, they were wealthy in what really matters: their faith in Jesus. Real poverty has nothing to do with a lack of worldly goods. Our wealth as believers is not measured by the money we have. We cannot take our earthly goods with us when we die. We can leave it to the next generation, and it can do good, but our wealth will not determine whether we go to heaven. Money cannot buy us eternal life. Christians may be materially poor but be rich in the blessings of God.
The third problem this church faced was caused by Jews in the local synagogue. Some of these early Christians may have come from the synagogue as Jewish converts. Jesus criticizes these Jews as false and as followers of Satan. They had been deceived by their religiosity and thought they were God’s people, but they were following a lie. This is a strong warning, not only for Jews, but for those who think they are Christians because of name, social location, family background, or even church attendance. These all can be helpful and blessings, but they can also easily deceive us into thinking that we are right with God. We must be alert to the things around us that attempt to deceive us and pull us away from the truth of the gospel.