This week’s church is in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. Yes that’s the tagline for the Philadelphia in the US, but we didn’t coin the phrase. Brotherly love is what Philadelphia means in the Greek. This is a place along a trade route linking Europe to Asia and where earthquakes are common. This little church was harassed by what Jesus refers to as “the synagogue of Satan, those who claim to be Jews but are not”

Jesus’ reassurance to this ‘church of little strength’ is poignant; “I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.”

To be loved is a basic human need – we must have it and we try all sorts of ways to get it. When feeling crushed under the weight of pain, rejection, and suffering one of the most jarring accusations, whether it be from within or without, is the thought that God has forsaken, that I am not loved by Him.

Alternately, one of the most strengthening, courage giving realities is that God does in fact love me – regardless of what the circumstances may be. God has loved me with an everlasting, unfailing, secure and steadfast love. This truth is often under attack when trials come our way. This question of being loved is common for us to ask when we are hurting. There is one place we can go for assurance of God’s love and that is the cross of Christ. It doesn’t answer our confusion or the why of our pain. But it does prove that we are in fact loved. We can trust Jesus because He has loved us. Let this truth sink in and give you strength to keep His word and declare His name.

Prepare for this week’s teaching by reading Revelation 3:7-13 with Romans 8:31-39

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To keep the gospel in the forefront as we read these letters, we invite you to memorize Revelation 12:11: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

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