Now we come to the promise to the overcomer: “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (v. 7). To overcome in these seven epistles means to overcome the degraded situation of the churches. In this epistle, it means to recover our first love toward the Lord and to hate the works of the Nicolaitans, the hierarchy which the Lord hates.
In 2:7 the Lord said that to him who overcomes He will give to eat of the tree of life. Religion always teaches, but the Lord feeds (John 6:35). The apostle Paul did the same thing, feeding the believers (1 Cor. 3:2). For the proper church life and the recovery of the church life, that is, for the proper growth in the Christian life, what we need is not merely the mental apprehension of teachings, but the eating in our spirit of the Lord as the bread of life (John 6:57). Even the words of the Scripture should not be considered as merely doctrines to teach our mind, but as food to nourish our spirit (Matt. 4:4; Heb. 5:12-14). Here in this epistle the Lord promises to give the overcomer “to eat of the tree of life.” This refers back to Genesis 2:8-9, and 16 concerning the matter of eating ordained by God. In the epistle to the church in Pergamos, the Lord promises the overcomer to eat of “the hidden manna” (2:17), which refers to the eating of manna by the children of Israel in the wilderness (Exo. 16:14-16, 31). And in the epistle to the church in Laodicea, the Lord promises to dine with the one who opens the door to Him (3:20). To dine is not merely to eat one food, but to eat the riches of a meal. This may refer to the eating of the rich produce of the good land of Canaan by the children of Israel (Josh. 5:10-12). This indicates that the Lord desires to recover the eating by God’s people of the proper food, as ordained by God and typified by the tree of life, the manna, and the produce of the good land, all of which are types of the various aspects of Christ as food to us. The degradation of the church distracts God’s people from the eating of Christ as their food to the teaching of doctrines for knowledge. In the church’s degradation are the teaching of Balaam (2:14), the teaching of the Nicolaitans (2:15), the teaching of Jezebel (2:20), and the teaching of the deep things of Satan (2:24). Now the Lord comes in these epistles to recover the proper eating of Himself as our food supply. We must eat Him not only as the tree of life and the hidden manna, but also as a meal full of His riches.
The word for tree here, as in 1 Peter 2:24, is wood in Greek, not the usual word used for tree. In the Bible, “the tree of life” always refers to Christ as the embodiment of all the riches of God (Col. 2:9) for our food (Gen. 2:9; 3:22, 24; Rev. 22:2, 14, 19). Here it refers to the crucified (implied in the tree as a piece of wood—1 Pet. 2:24) and resurrected (implied in the zoe life—John 11:25) Christ who is in the church today, the consummation of which will be the New Jerusalem, in which the crucified and resurrected Christ will be the tree of life for the enjoyment of all God’s redeemed people for eternity (22:2, 14).
It was God’s original intention that man should eat of the tree of life (Gen. 2:9, 16). Due to the fall, the tree of life was closed to man (Gen. 3:22-24). Through the redemption of Christ, the way to touch the tree of life, which is God Himself in Christ as life to man, has been opened again (Heb. 10:19-20). But in the church’s degradation, religion crept in with its knowledge to distract the believers in Christ from eating Him as the tree of life. Hence, the Lord promises to grant the overcomers to eat of Himself as the tree of life in the paradise of God as a reward. This is an incentive for them to leave the knowledge of religion and to return to the enjoyment of Himself. This promise of the Lord restores the church to God’s original intention according to His economy. What the Lord wants the overcomers to do is what the whole church should do in God’s economy. Due to the church’s degradation, the Lord comes to call the overcomers to replace the church in the accomplishment of God’s economy.
The eating of the tree of life not only was God’s original intention concerning man, but will also be the eternal issue of God’s redemption. All His redeemed people will enjoy the tree of life, which is Christ with all the divine riches as their portion for eternity (22:2, 14, 19). Because of religion’s distraction and the church’s degradation, the Lord in His wisdom makes the enjoyment of Himself in the coming kingdom a reward to encourage His believers to overcome religion’s distracting knowledge of teachings and return to the enjoyment of Himself as the life supply in the church today for the accomplishment of God’s economy.