Instructions given to members of the church of Smyrna by the Lord Jesus Christ are as follows:

Passage

¹⁰ Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10)

Understanding

Do not fear, be faithful until death.

After the victory over the four kings where Abram takes a force of 318 men and attacks a group of armies that had just finished a crusade ending in a victory over five kings, God then tells Abram, “Do not fear”. Some things are worse than death, God understands and says, “Do not fear.”

An example of being tested for ten days is Daniel and his friends with their request to abstain from the king’s choice food. Later, Daniel’s friends are still in captivity yet remain faithful to God even at the risk of death.

Risk warning

Death will and is about to happen.

References

Do not fear

1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying,

“Do not fear, Abram,
I am a shield to you;
Your reward shall be very great.” (Genesis 15:1)

Be faithful until death

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; ¹⁸ it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” ¹⁹ He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. (Hebrews 11:17-19)

Tested for ten days

¹² “Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. (Daniel 1:12)

Until death

¹⁷ If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18)

Death will and is about to happen

²⁵ For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matthew 16:25)

³¹ I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. (1 Corinthians 15:31)

¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

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