The relation between mission and ethics in the Book of Revelation

Abstract

While character formation plays a pivotal role in understanding ethics and mission in New Testament studies, this study attempts to answer the fundamental questions: (1) What does the dynamic relationship between mission and ethics in Revelation entail?(2) What mission and ethics lessons can be extracted from the book of Revelation? (3) How would the messages from the book of Revelation influence the mission and ethics of contemporary Christians? The focus of my investigation is Revelation 2-3; I have emphasised on the seven proclamations since they form a foundation of the book of Revelation. The first few chapters are an attempt to envisage the re-alignment character of the messages of the seven proclamations. Thus, I emphasised identity, ethics, ethos and mission as being crucial for the explication of the messages to the seven congregations. This lays a foundation on how character formation plays an important role in the seven proclamations of Revelation 2-3. An exhaustive analysis of chapter 2-3 helped to identify the problem within the communities of faith and to come up with a relevant solution to the problem identified. The study begins with a detailed exegetical synopsis of each of the messages to the seven proclamations in Revelation 2-3. The analysis suggests that the major themes of this work are identity, ethics, ethos and mission. I also tried to make a distinction between identity, ethics, ethos and mission in my implicit attempt to investigate their interconnection. Although this was going to be impossible if the methodology of character formation by Stanley Hauerwas was not employed in this study. For this reason a relevance-based investigation must begin with an implicit cognitive call for mission and ethics within the context of the seven churches in Asia. Meanwhile, the consequences of relevant communities are that the majority were opposing the common practices. At the end it is clear that the biblical narratives have an effect of shaping what we call a community of character, a body of people taught by Gods‟ grace to live in non-violence, forgiveness and as a peace loving community.