THE CHURCH IN EPHESUS The city of Ephesus was one of the most important cities of the ancient world. Ephesus had a problem. It was the center of a fertility type of pagan religion. It was a religion that basically worshiped sexual reproduction. It was also home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. These Christians in Ephesus lived in that kind of a setting. Yet they were a church Jesus wrote to and said, "I praise you. You are working hard and you are not giving up. You are hanging in there. You are keeping on keeping on."