Revelation 2:19

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

I know your deeds-your love, your faith, your service, your perseverance-and your latter deeds are greater than your first.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I know your works—your love, faithfulness,

King James Version (1611)
I know thy works, and charitie, and seruice, and faith, and thy patience, and thy workes, and the last to bee more then the first.

King James Version
I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.

English Standard Version
"‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

New American Standard Bible
'I know your deeds, and your love and faith, and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.

New Century Version
I know what you do. I know about your love, your faith, your service, and your patience. I know that you are doing more now than you did at first.

THE MESSAGE
"I see everything you're doing for me. Impressive! The love and the faith, the service and persistence. Yes, very impressive! You get better at it every day.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.

Contemporary English Version
I know everything about you, including your love, your faith, your service, and how you have endured. I know that you are doing more now than you have ever done before.

Complete Jewish Bible
I know what you are doing, your love, trust, service and perseverance. And I know that you are doing more now than before.

Darby Translation
I know thy works, and love, and faith, and service, and thine endurance, and thy last works [to be] more than the first.

Easy-to-Read Version
"I know what you do. I know about your love, your faith, your service, and your patience. I know that you are doing more now than you did at first.

Geneva Bible (1587)
I knowe thy workes and thy loue, and seruice, and faith, and thy patience, and thy workes, and that they are mo at the last, then at the first.

George Lamsa Translation
I know your works, and love and faith, and service, and also your patience; and your last works are to be more abundant than the first.

Good News Translation
I know what you do. I know your love, your faithfulness, your service, and your patience. I know that you are doing more now than you did at first.

Lexham English Bible
‘I know your works, and your love, and faith, and service, and patient endurance—and your last works are greater than the first.

Literal Translation
I know your works, and the love, and the ministry, and the faith, and your patience, and your works; and the last being more than the first.

Amplified Bible
'I know your deeds, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your last deeds are more numerous and greater than the first.

American Standard Version
I know thy works, and thy love and faith and ministry and patience, and that thy last works are more than the first.

Bible in Basic English
I have knowledge of your works, and your love and faith and help and strength in trouble, and that your last works are more than the first.

Hebrew Names Version
I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first.

International Standard Version
'I know your works - your love, faithfulness,faith">[fn] service, and endurance - and that your last works are greater than the first.Revelation 2:2;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
I know thy works, and thy love and faith and service; and also thy patience, and thy last works to be greater than the first.

Murdock Translation
I know thy works, and love, and faith, and service, and also thy patience; and that these thy latter works are more than the former.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
I knowe thy workes, and thy loue, seruice, and fayth, and thy patience, and thy deedes, which are mo at the last the at the first.

English Revised Version
I know thy works, and thy love and faith and ministry and patience, and that thy last works are more than the first.

World English Bible
I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
I know thy love and faith, and thy service and patience, and thy last works more than the first.

Weymouth's New Testament
I know your doings, your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance; and that of late you have toiled harder than you did at first.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y knowe thi werkis, and feith, and charite, and thi seruyce, and thi pacience, and thi laste werkis mo than the formere.

Update Bible Version
I know your works, and your love and faith and service and patience, and that your last works are more than the first.

Webster's Bible Translation
I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last [to be] more than the first:

New English Translation
‘I know your deeds: your love, faith, service, and steadfast endurance. In fact, your more recent deeds are greater than your earlier ones.

New King James Version
I know your works, love, service, faith, [fn] and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.

New Living Translation
"I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things.

New Life Bible
I know what you are doing. I know of your love and faith. I know how you have worked and how you have waited long and have not given up. I know that you are working harder now than you did at first.

New Revised Standard
"I know your works—your love, faith, service, and patient endurance. I know that your last works are greater than the first.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
I know thy works, and thy love, and faith, and ministry, and endurance, - and that, thy last works, are more than the first.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I know thy works and thy faith and thy charity and thy ministry and thy patience and thy last works, which are more than the former.

Revised Standard Version
"'I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
I knowe thy workes and thy love service and fayth and thy paciece and thy dedes which are mo at the last then at the fyrste.

Young's Literal Translation
I have known thy works, and love, and ministration, and faith, and thy endurance, and thy works -- and the last [are] more than the first.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I knowe thy workes and thy loue, seruice, and faith and thy pacience, and thy dedes, which are mo at the last then at the firste

Mace New Testament (1729)
your charitable offices, your faith, and your patience, and that your last works exceed the first.

Simplified Cowboy Version
I have seen the great things you've done. I've seen your love and faith, service and fortitude. You are doing more now than you did in the beginning. That's riding for me!

Contextual Overview

¹⁸To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a blazing fire and whose feet are like polished bronze. ¹⁹I know your deeds-your love, your faith, your service, your perseverance-and your latter deeds are greater than your first.²⁰But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols. ²¹Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling. ²²Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds. ²³Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. ²⁴But I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned the so-called deep things of Satan: I will place no further burden upon you. ²⁵Nevertheless, hold fast to what you have until I come. ²⁶And to the one who is victorious and continues in My work until the end, I will give authority over the nations. ²⁷He will rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like pottery-just as I have received authority from My Father.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

know: Revelation 2:2, Revelation 2:9, Revelation 2:13

charity: 1 Corinthians 13:1-8, Colossians 3:14, 1 Thessalonians 3:6, 2 Thessalonians 1:3, 1 Timothy 1:5, 1 Peter 4:8, 2 Peter 1:7

patience: Revelation 2:3

the last: Revelation 2:4, Job 17:9, Psalms 92:14, Proverbs 4:18, John 15:2, 2 Peter 3:18

Reciprocal: Numbers 5:18 - the priest Jeremiah 7:11 - even Matthew 24:46 - General John 1:48 - when John 10:14 - know 1 Corinthians 8:3 - is 1 Thessalonians 1:3 - your 1 Timothy 2:10 - with Revelation 2:5 - and do Revelation 3:1 - I know Revelation 13:10 - Here

Cross-References

Genesis 1:28
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth."

Genesis 2:4
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made them.

Genesis 2:8
And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.

Genesis 2:20
The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

Genesis 2:22
And from the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man, He made a woman and brought her to him.

Genesis 2:23
And the man said: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for out of man she was taken."

Genesis 6:20
Two of every kind of bird and animal and crawling creature will come to you to be kept alive.

Genesis 9:2
The fear and dread of you will fall on every living creature on the earth, every bird of the air, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are delivered into your hand.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I know thy works,.... Good works, as appears from the particular enumeration of them afterwards, and the commendation of proficiency in them, the last being more than the first, and the distinction from the evil ones in Revelation 2:20; this is said to the faithful followers and professors of Christ in this interval:

and charity; by which is meant not a relieving the wants of the poor; much less such a charity as connives at the errors and heresies of men; but the divine grace of love to God nod Christ, and the saints, without which a profession of religion is a vain thing; and, generally speaking, this grace is most in exercise in a time of trouble and persecution:

and service; or "ministry", meaning either the ministry of the word, which was exercised by many with great zeal, diligence, and faithfulness, as by Wickliff, John Huss, Jerom of Prague, and others; or the ministering to the necessities of the poor saints, as an evidence of their charity or love; or else the service of God is here intended, which is but reasonable, and is his due, and ought to be performed to him only, and that with fear and fervency, in faith, and with a pure conscience, with humility, and without mercenary views, and in righteousness and true holiness; or the service of love which the saints perform to one another, as praying for one another, bearing one another's burdens, admonishing and reproving for sin, restoring such as are gone astray, comforting the distressed, building up one another in their most holy faith, and exhorting and stirring up each other to the duties of religion:

and faith; not the doctrine of faith, as preached by the ministers of the word, and held and maintained by the true professors of it; but either the grace of faith, or the profession of both; or rather the faithfulness, both of the ministers and private believers of those times, as the Waldenses and Albigenses, the Lollards and Wickliffites, who abode by, and were faithful to the light which they had received:

and thy patience; in suffering for the sake of Christ and the Gospel: and very much it was they did endure, and yet held out to the end:

and thy works, and the last [to be] more than the first; that is, that their works or acts of love to God and Christ and one another, and of service to God and to the saints, and of faith and faithfulness in the cause of God, and of patience in suffering for the Gospel of Christ, were more in quantity, and greater in quality, toward the close of this period, which brought on the Reformation, than at the beginning of it; and which were done by the persons before mentioned, and by others.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I know thy works - See the notes on Revelation 2:2. He knew all they had done, good and bad.

And charity - Love; love to God, and love to man. There is no reason for restricting this word here to the comparatively narrow sense which it now bears. Compare the notes on 1 Corinthians 13:1.

And service - Greek, “ministry” - διακονίαν diakonian. The word would seem to include all the service which the church had rendered in the cause of religion; all which was the proper fruit of love, or which would be a carrying out of the principles of love to God and man.

And faith - Or, fidelity in the cause of the Redeemer. The word here would include not only trust in Christ for salvation, but what is the proper result of such trust - fidelity in his service.

And thy patience - Patient endurance of the sorrows of life - of all that God brought upon them in any way, to test the reality of their religion.

And thy works - Thy works as the fruit of the virtues just mentioned. The word is repeated here, from the first part of the verse, perhaps to specify more particularly that their works had been recently more numerous and praiseworthy even than they had formerly been. In the beginning of the verse, as in the commencement of each of the epistles, the word is used, in the most general sense, to denote all that they had done; meaning that he had so thorough an acquaintance with them in all respects that he could judge of their character. In the latter part of the verse the word seems to be used in a more specific sense, as referring to good works, and with a view to say that they had latterly abounded in these more than they had formerly.

And the last to be more than the first - Those which had been recently performed were more numerous, and more commendable, than those which had been rendered “formerly.” That is, they were making progress; they had been acting more and more in accordance with the nature and claims of the Christian profession. This is a most honorable commendation, and one which every Christian, and every church, should seek. Religion in the soul, and in a community, is designed to be progressive; and while we should seek to live in such a manner always that we may have the commendation of the Saviour, we should regard it as a thing to be greatly desired that we may be approved as making advances in knowledge and holiness; that as we grow in years we may grow alike in the disposition to do good, and in the ability to do it; that as we gain in experience, we may also gain in a readiness to apply the results of our experience in promoting the cause of religion. He would deserve little commendation in religion who should be merely stationary; he alone properly develops the nature of true piety, and shows that it has set up its reign in the soul, who is constantly making advances.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Revelation 2:19. I know thy works — And of these he first sets forth their charity, τηναγαπην, their love to God and each other; and particularly to the poor and distressed: and hence followed their faith, τηνπιστιν, their fidelity, to the grace they had received; and service, την διακονιαν, and ministration; properly pious and benevolent service to widows, orphans, and the poor in general.

And thy patience — την υπομονην σου Thy perseverance under afflictions and persecutions, and thy continuance in well-doing. I put faith before service according to the general consent of the best MSS. and versions.

Thy works — The continued labour of love, and thorough obedience.

The last to be more than the first.] They not only retained what they had received at first, but grew in grace, and in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. This is a rare thing in most Christian Churches: they generally lose the power of religion, and rest in the forms of worship; and it requires a powerful revival to bring them to such a state that their last works shall be more than their first.