The Seven Churches of Revelation: Smyrna, 2:8-11

The letter to Smyrna has a similar form as the one to Ephesus. Jesus identifies Himself, says that He knows (intimately) what they are going through, commends them, and closes with a great promise to faithful Christ-followers. But there is a difference: the Church at Smyrna (along with the Church at Philadelphia) receives no rebuke from Jesus.
Smyrna is 40 miles north of Ephesus. It had about 100,000 people in the 1st Century. The name is related to the perfume myrrh. (fitting since the fragrance is extracted by crushing the plant) The city worshipped many gods, including the Emperor. In addition, Polycarp, the last disciple of the Apostle John, was martyred there in AD168.
This church was doing right. They were faithfully serving and loving, but Jesus warned them that difficult times were coming. I’m calling Smyrna the Rich Church because of verse 9, but generally, this is considered the Suffering Church. Physically and economically, these people were hurting, and it was about to get worse.
Even today, we often think that physical comfort and prosperity are the signs of being right with God, but biblically, that is seldom the case. Jesus possessed little of the world’s wealth, and neither did His followers. Jesus even told us not to store up our treasure here, where it can degrade or be stolen, but to store up our wealth in Heaven—in God’s Kingdom. This is counter-intuitive, but Jesus affirms that these poor, struggling believers were, in reality, rich.
These people were faithfully serving God, but their world was about to turn upside-down! In preparation, they needed to know the reality of a couple things. We, too, will go through trials and we need to know these same realities: the reality of who Jesus is, and the reality of the Christian life.