In Revelation 2:11 the overcomer, who was also a martyr (see verse 10)

was not only assured of 'the crown of life', but that he would not be 'hurt

of the second death'.  Now if the second death be the doom of the ungodly at

the final judgment, what congruity is there between two such opposite

You will receive the crown of life.

You will not be hurt of the second death?

Let us investigate the purport of the strange word 'hurt'.  The Greek

word thus translated is adikeo, and means, literally, 'to be unjust' and is

so translated in Revelation 22:11:

that is

unjust, let him be unjust still:

And

he that

is filthy, let him be filthy still:

And

he that

is righteous, let him be righteous still:

And

he that

is holy, let him be holy still'.

Here we have two groups: unjust and filthy, righteous and holy, and

these are immediately associated with 'reward', 'to give every man according

as his work shall be' (Rev. 22:12).  At first, this strange word 'unjust'

makes the problem harder.  Is there unrighteousness with God?  God forbid,

for if so, says Paul, how shall He judge the world?

Adikeo is translated 'hurt' nine times in the book of the Revelation,

the first occurrence being the phrase 'hurt of the second death', the last

and balancing passage being 'unjust' in Revelation 22:11.  By taking a wider

canvass of the usage of adikeo, Caleb and Joshua are types of the overcomers,

but those who murmured in the wilderness who fell, are types of believers who

fail.  They All were baptized unto Moses, they All ate the same spiritual

meat, but with Many of them God was not well pleased, and these things were

an ensample to the Corinthian believer.  Those who, in the day of the Beast,

avoid 'dying daily', may be hurt of the 'second' or 'after' death as a

The overcomers, who not only 'live' but 'reign' with Christ during the

Millennium, are said to be 'priests of God and of Christ' (Rev. 20:6).  These

overcomers were martyrs who withstood the dreadful pressure brought to bear

upon them during the final years of antichristian persecution.  The apostle

makes a distinction between 'living' and 'reigning' in 2 Timothy 2:11 -13,

and establishes the essential difference between being made meet by grace to

be partakers of the inheritance, and of attaining unto 'the reward' of the

inheritance (Col. 1:12; 3:22 -25).  In like manner Romans 8:16 -18 shows the

difference that there is between children of God who are heirs, and children

of God who are joint -heirs with Christ.  The second company 'suffer with

Him' that they may be also glorified together.  This leads us to the one

reference to the kingdom in Ephesians.  It is prefaced by a dreadful list of

sins, concluding with the words:

'For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor

covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom

of Christ and of God' (Eph. 5:3-5).

This dreadful list should be compared with Revelation 22:15, where

exclusion from the New Jerusalem, and consequently from the reign of 'God and