Revelation 2:2

I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false;

I know ... This clause appears throughout the letters, reminding all people that, "All things are naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13).

Works ... toil ... patience ... Like the other letters, except in cases where no commendation was possible, this one begins with the Lord's approving recognition of their good points. No list of their works is given, but presumably there were many. Scholars point out that "toil" refers to arduous, sweat-producing labor. They were indeed working at their religion. "Patience" here is the great New Testament word [@hupomone], meaning: "The gallantry which accepts suffering, hardship and loss and turns them into grace and glory."[9]

And didst try them that call themselves apostles ... Many commentators have pointed out that, "To the apostle John, apostle always means one of the Twelve";[10] and so we understand it here. There were men pretending to be apostles in the highest sense of that word. Those who reject this view suggest that this was such a bold claim that none would have dared to make it; but they forget that some even pretended to be Christ! We find full agreement with Carpenter who considered this verse "additional evidence of an early date of the Apocalypse."[11] Supporting the same interpretation, Plummer said:

In 68 A.D., when contemporaries of the apostles were abundant, the claim to be an apostle might with some show of reason be made; but in 95 A.D. such a claim would be ridiculous.[12]

Practically all interpreters are aware of this, but having already chosen a late first century date, they are compelled to insist that "apostles" is here used in some secondary sense. Plummer commented on that thus:

Trench admits this (the implication of an early date), and hence tells us that "apostles" must not be pressed, as though it implied a claim to have been sent by the Lord Jesus; but this is exactly what "apostle" does imply.[13]

Didst try them ... and find them false ... That Christ himself commended the diligence and faithfulness of the Ephesian church in disproving the claims of false apostles indicates that the false claims were reasonably and plausibly advocated, and that the refutation of them was not always easy.

[9] William Barclay, The Revelation of John (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976), p. 24.

[10] G. B. Caird, The Revelation of St. John the Divine (New York: Harper and Row, 1966), p. 30.

[11] W. Boyd Carpenter, Ellicott's Bible Commentary, Vol. VIII (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), p. 540.

[12] A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 57.

[13] Ibid.