I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
I know thy works - His omniscience. Not merely 'thy professions, desires, good resolutions' (Revelation 14:13, end).
Thy labour. A C omit "thy;" 'Aleph (') B support it. х Kopon (G2873) means 'labour unto weariness.']
Patience - persevering endurance.
Bear, х bastasai (G941)] - evil men: the Ephesian church regarded as an intolerable burden. We are to 'bear (same Greek, Galatians 6:2) burdens of weak brethren; but not of false brethren.
Tried, х epeirasas (G3985)] - by experiment; not х dokimazete (G1381)] 'test,' as 1 John 4:1. The apostolical churches had the miraculous gift of discerning spirits. So (Acts 20:28-30) Paul presciently warned the Ephesian elders of the coming false teachers, and warned Timothy at Ephesus. Tertullian ('De Baptism.,'
17) and Jerome ('In Catal. Vir. Illustr. in Luca,' 7) record of John, that when a professedly canonical history of Paul's acts had been composed by a presbyter of Ephesus, John convicted the author and condemned the work. So once he would not remain under the same roof as Cerinthus the heretic.
Say they are apostles - probably Judaizers. Ignatius ('Ad Ephesum,' 6) says, 'Onesimus praises exceedingly your good discipline, that no heresy dwells among you;' and ('Ad Ephesum,' 9), 'Ye did not permit those having evil doctrine to sow their seed, but closed your ears.'