Rev. 2:10 ... "Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life."
Jesus once said, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God," (Lk. 9:62). Citizenship in the kingdom of God is a unique privilege for man to enjoy, yet it is open to all who will answer the invitation of the Lord, (Mat. 11:28-30), and obey His call of obedience to the gospel, (I Pet. 4:17-19). Once a member of this great spiritual domain, a person must labor to maintain his position. Sin in many guises assails him relentlessly to divert his loyalty from the King, (Mat. 13:18-22), and many are so careless as to let themselves be led away into its pollution again, (II Pet. 2:20-22). When this comes to pass, the apostate's relation to God is severed, (Isa. 59:2), and unless repentance is swift and comprehensive, the erring Christian will forfeit his place in the holy kingdom.
Evidently, many in the churches of Asia Minor in the last decade of the first century were taking up sinful practices, for the dominant theme in the letters to the seven churches in chapters two and three is an urgent call to repentance, (2:5, 16, 21-22; 3:3, 19). Also, there is the persistent warning that one who fails to repent will have his candlestick removed "out of his place." That means the person's place in God's kingdom will be removed (or terminated) since he would no longer be bearing the light of right-eousness and truth. He would then be "cast into outer darkness," (Mat. 22:13), a place for those whose light has ceased to shine.
A person maintains his place in the kingdom of God by his faith, (II Cor. 1:24), and unto this faith he must cling as long as life endures. In fact, he must live by that faith, trust in that faith, and defend that faith even if such loyalty should lead to and result in his death. That is, after all, the real intent of the exhortation in the text above: "Be faithful until death," (or, "even if it leads to your death").
God's reward for those who keep the faith, up to and even into death, is a "crown of life." The life spoken of here is everlasting life, with the emphasis upon both the quantity and the quality thereof. Everlasting life is that which is interminable. Those who die out of the faith are also granted eternal existence, (Mat. 25:46; Mrk. 9:42-48), but its nature is not fitly described by the word "life" with its rich connotations of a glorious state. Rather, the eternal existence of the unrepentent and unregenerate is presented in terms of imprisonment in darkness, misery, hopelessness, and agony. But the everlasting life promised to those who maintain their faith into death is more than unending existence. It is an elevated state marked by joy, peace, rest, beauty, and fellowship with God in His infinite glory. The infidel in his eternal existence shall never experience these wonderful conditions.
The reward of eternal life for the faithful is symbolized as a crown. There are two words in New Testament Greek that mean "crown." One is diadêma, which signifies royalty. The other is stephanos, which denotes victory. In Revelation, Satan is sometimes represented as wearing several crowns at a time, (12:3), but they are always the diadêma and never the stephanos. That is, having taken control of human governments, (Mat. 4:8,9; John 16:11; II Cor. 4:4; Eph. 6:12), the devil wears their crowns of dominion. But the great and final victory shall not go to him, so that he is never presented in Scripture as wearing the crown of victory, the stephanos. Jesus is also represented in Revelation as wearing many crowns, (19:12), but it is highly significant that they are indeed the crowns of victory, stephanoi. The victory in the war between Christ and Satan always goes to Christ, who shall in the end defeat the devil conclusively and forever, (Rev. 20:7-10). And the wonderful promise in Rev. 2:10 is that the Christian who maintains his faith into death shall share in Christ's great victory, for the "crown of life" that shall be given him is a stephanos.
