Ver. 9.--Again, the inspired writer addresses the Christians in Asia,
acquainting them very briefly and simply with his present local
situation; not so much to move their sympathy with him, as to express
his unabated affection for them:--"I am your brother, and companion in
tribulation." Although the "like afflictions were accomplished in his
brethren," the Devil was permitted to "cast" only "some of them into
prison." But it is remarkable that John utters not a word, much less
manifests any resentment, against the persecutor. He was "in the isle
that is called Patmos:"--but he does not say who sent him there.
Historians tell us that he was banished by Domitian, the Roman emperor;
others say, by Nero; but the former is more probable. This island is
proverbially barren. It is situated among a number of islands in the
Aegean sea, a point of the Mediterranean running northward between
Europe and Asia, and not very remote from most of the churches here
addressed.

The ground of controversy between John and his persecutors was "the word
of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ." Of these he "bare record."
(v, 2.) "This," say most expositors, "was the cause of John's
banishment." This unguarded language confounds the difference between a
_cause_ and an _occasion_. John had given no cause of banishment to his
enemies. The true cause of their hostility was their hatred of the "word
of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." For these John contended
earnestly, as Jude enjoined; (ver. 3:) just as Paul and others were
"bold in their God to speak the gospel of God with much contention." (1
Thes. ii. 2.) We have here the standing ground of strife between the
believer and the infidel; between Christ and Belial, between the church
and the world. There is a divine hand interposed all along in this
warfare, and the conflict will terminate only in the extermination of
one of the parties. (Gen. iii. 15; Rev. xx. 10.)