What if we do not overcome? What if we do not fiercely repent and turn our life around? What if we listen to those around us who tell us "it is not this hard to be a Christian"?

We will lose our crown.

When the Lord says the rewards are to the overcomers the inference is clear: no overcoming, no reward.

Go through these two chapters and make a list of the rewards to the overcomer. The nonovercomer will receive none of these. What will that mean? It means that if he is admitted to the Kingdom of God it will be as a naked spirit, saved, like Lot, by the fires of Divine judgment, no inheritance, no crown of glory, no conquering resurrection life, no white robe of the priesthood, no part in the temple of God.

In the case of the believer in Ephesus who does not return to his first love, his first enthusiasm and devotion, it means he is not given to eat of the Tree of Life. Spiritual death continues to abound in his personality. He will not be raised in the first resurrection, the resurrection that will take place when the Lord returns. The door will be shut in his face. He is flirting with outer darkness, and perhaps the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.

He believes that Jesus is the Christ. So do the demons. The demons do not willingly obey Christ, He is not their personal Lord. Such also is the case with the faithless, disobedient Christian.

Christ died for the sins of the whole world, according to the Scripture. But to be saved we must obey His Word every day. To not do so is to be a lazy, worthless, servant. To not bear the fruit of moral transformation is to risk being cut from the Vine, to be removed from Christ.

We shall use the reward to the Church in Ephesus, the opportunity to eat of the Tree of Life, as an illustration of how we are to approach all of the rewards designated for the victorious saints. The true Church of Jesus Christ attains the glory promised to it by overcoming through Christ the various shortcomings mentioned in the two chapters we are discussing. The rewards are aspects of the promised glory. Apart from them the Church remains spotted and wrinkled.

The Tree of Life always is in the middle of the Paradise of God. The Tree of Life is the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other Tree of Life, except for those who are abiding in Him and are an integral part of Him. They will become trees of life as they grow to maturity.

The sin of Adam and Eve was disobedience to God. Sin brought death—separation from God. The consequence of learning of their nakedness was guilt, a fearful attitude toward God. Then God punished them by driving them from the garden.

In God's love He made their bodies subject to death so that their inner nature could be separated from the dust until such time as their inner nature would regain access to the Tree of Life.

This is why Jesus, the Tree of Life, came to the earth. It is so we, the descendants of Adam and Eve, can keep on receiving eternal life until we are able to have a body that also is filled with eternal life.

Now, how does this work out in practice?

To be continued.