Come and study the Holy Scriptures with us as Father Stephen DeYoung teaches verse by verse on the podcast, The Whole Council of God.

Father Stephen holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies, and it's an Orthodox priest serving at Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Lafayette, Louisiana.

So verse 9, that's sort of the introduction to the general

letter, right? The greetings and that kind of thing. And he's now planted a whole bunch of seeds

for what he's going to be doing in the rest of the book. So now he's going to sort of frame the book.

So verse nine, I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,

was on the island that is called Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Just like the last time he said, the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ,

the word should be capitalized there.

The word word.

This is talking about Christ.

So he identifies himself, again, as St. John.

He says, they're brother and companion in three things. And the

tribulation, right? So the tribulation is not something that's going to happen two thousand

years in the future. The tribulation is something that's happening right then. Right? What's

he referring to? He's referring to the persecution. They're facing persecution

for the sake of Christ. They're suffering it. So is St. John. So he's their brother and

companion in that persecution, but also in the kingdom. What's he referring to with the kingdom?

Well, what we just saw. Christ rules over

the kings of the earth. He's made us kings. Right. So he says, I'm also your brother in that at

the same time. So he's saying, we as Christians are at the same time being persecuted. I'm out

here in exile and assault mine, but I'm also a king, right? Because Christ shares his rule with me.

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