Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, July 29, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Wealth doesn’t protect us from suffering. People seem to think it will. Or they want it to. So they seek after it at the expense of others, of relationships, of their health and well-being, of their integrity. I wonder about this statement in Revelation, that Jesus knows the church at Smyrna’s “affliction and your poverty even though you are rich.” Is he pointing out that their wealth will not save them from persecution (i.e. the slander of the false Jews)? Or is he calling them out for focusing on wealth? The letters affirm some aspects of these churches and condemn others. In either interpretation, the fact remains that it doesn’t matter how much material wealth we accumulate, we will still face pain, grief, uncertainty, and death. Better to seek after truth, compassion, justice, and love. These will not prevent our suffering either. But they will sustain us through whatever life throws at us in a way money simply cannot.
What is the most valuable thing I have?
