“And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis write: “He who has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars says these things: “I know your works, that you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
Parallel Translations
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“And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis write: “He who has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars says these things: “I know your works, that you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
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And wryte vnto the messenger of the congregacion of Sardis: this sayth he that hath the sprete of god and the vii. starres. I knowe thy workes thou haste a name that thou lvyest and thou art deed.
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ANd write vnto the Angel of the Church which is at Sardis, These things saith he that hath the seuen Spirits of God, and the seuen starres, I knowe thy workes: for thou hast a name that thou liuest, but thou art dead.
Cross-references (25)
Passages linked to Revelation 3:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Timothy 5:6 But she who gives herself to pleasure is dead while she lives.
- James 2:26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
- Revelation 1:4 John, to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from God, who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before his throne;
- Colossians 2:13 You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
- Jude 1:12 These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
- Luke 15:24 for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.
- Revelation 2:19 “I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first.
- Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
- Luke 15:32 But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ ”
- Revelation 1:16 He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.
- Ephesians 2:1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
- Revelation 1:20–2:2 The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lamp stands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven assemblies. The seven lamp stands are seven assemblies. “To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write: “He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks among the seven golden lamp stands says these things: “I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can’t tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false.
- Revelation 2:13 “I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and didn’t deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
- John 1:16 From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.
- John 1:33 I didn’t recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘On whomever you will see the Spirit descending and remaining on him is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’
- Revelation 1:11 saying, “What you see, write in a book and send to the seven assemblies: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”
- Revelation 4:5 Out of the throne proceed lightnings, sounds, and thunders. There were seven lamps of fire burning before his throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
- John 3:34 For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives the Spirit without measure.
- John 7:37-39 Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.” But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn’t yet glorified.
- John 20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit!
- Acts 2:33 Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear.
- 1 Peter 1:11 searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them.
- Revelation 5:6 I saw in the middle of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.
- John 15:26-27 “When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
- Revelation 2:9 “I know your works, oppression, and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (29 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Sardis is the name of a most flourishing and…
Sardis is the name of a most flourishing and famous City, where the Kings of Lydia kept their courts.
Thou art said to live, but art dead indeed.
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The fifth place is unto the Pastors of Sardis. The exordium is taken out of verses 4 and 16 of the first Chap.
The proposition of reproof is in this verse: of exhortation joined with a threatening in the two verses that follow, and of qualification by way of correction unto the comfort of the good which yet remained there, verse 4.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1 And unto the angel of the church in…
1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
Ver. 1. I know thy work] Sapiens nummularius Deus est; nummum fictum non recipiet. (Bernard.) Though men may be deceived, God is not mocked. He knows that many cry, "The temple of the Lord," that yet nothing care for the Lord of the temple. Deifica professio et diabolica actio. (Ambrose.) God likes not such creaking and cracking.
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And that thou hast a name] Many content themselves with a name of Christians; as if many a ship hath not been called Safe-guard or Good-speed which yet hath fallen into the hands of pirates.
And art dead] All thy specious works therefore are but dead works; thou canst not serve the living God.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The angel of the church: See Poole on "Rev…
The angel of the church: See Poole on "Rev 2:12".
Write: See Poole on "Rev 1:11".
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The seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars: See Poole on "Rev 1:3", See Poole on "Rev 1:20".
I know thy works: this phrase here (as appears from what follows) can signify nothing but Christ’s comprehension of the works of this church in his understanding, not his approbation of them.
That thou hast a name that thou livest; the ministry of this church had a name, that is, were reported as famous for their faith, diligence, and holiness; but their faith, without suitable works, was dead, and they were no better than hypocrites.
And art dead; spiritually dead.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain This chapter began the fifth epistle which Christ wrote…
This chapter began the fifth epistle which Christ wrote and directed to the church at Sardis.
In which observe, 1. The glorious description given of our Lord Jesus Christ, namely, that he has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; that is, according to some, he hath the Holy Spirit of God proceeding from him as from the Father: and because he had power to send the Holy Ghost, together with the Father, he is therefore said to have the seven spirits of God; so the Holy Ghost is called, because of the perfection and variety of his gifts and graces, influences and operations. Others by the seven Spirits understand created angels; and the seven Spirits being joined with seven Stars, intimate according to these, that Christ is the Lord of angels and ministers, he upholds his ministers, and has angels always at hand to defend his members.
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Observe, 2. This church’s partial opinion of herself; in her own and others’ esteem, she was alive; thou hast a repute for an excellent church, thy profession causes many to think and speak well of thee: Thou hast a name that thou livest.
Observe, 3. Christ’s impartial judgment concerning her, as one that knew her better than either others did, or herself could know her: thou sayest thou art dead or dying, thyself and others are deceived concerning thee.
Learn hence, 1. That it is possible for a professing people to be alive in their own and others’ esteem, and yet to be dead or dying in God’s account; at the same time that they make a splendid and glorious profession of religion, they may be under the reign and power of hypocrisy.
Learn hence, 2. That no religious pretences, no fair shows, can possibly hide a person’s or a people’s hypocrisy from God’s eye: thou sayest that thou art thus, but I know thee better than others do, or thou canst know thyself; thou hast a name to live, but thou art dead.
Observe, 4. The counsel given by Christ to this languid and languishing church.
1. To be watchful; to shake off her drowsiness and formality; no reformation can be expected, if due consideration, watchfulness, and care, be not exercised.
2. To strengthen the things that are ready to die; that is, blow up every spark of grace which lodges under the ashes of much corruption, and keep it from going quite out. Spirituals are to be succoured and strengthened, if once they grow languishing and dying, lest they grow quite dead.
3. To remember what they had received and heard from Christ’s apostles and ministers: to hold fast the truths received, and to repent of what is evil, and to reform what has been done amiss; intimating, that it is the duty of Christians to remember those truths which they have heard and received, and also to hold fast what they have heard and received: and that renewed repentance is the duty of Christians, as well as initial repentance.
Observe, 5. The complaint which Christ brings in against the church of Sardis, I have not found thy works perfect before God; not full, says the original, that is, not filled up with that sincerity and zeal which God requires: a man may be full of good works, and yet his prayer not full, but vain and empty; sincerity is the fulness or filling up of all duties: it is not common frailty, but the want of sincerity and soundness, zeal and seriousness, which Christ complains of.
Observe, 6. The danger threatened to security and slothfulness, If thou shalt not watch, I will come upon thee as a thief; that is, I will surprise thee with my judgments in the midst of thy security, as a thief does persons when they are asleep, and least expect him; the expression plainly intimates, both the suddenness of the judgment, and the severity of the judgment threatened.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here is, I. The preface, showing, 1. To whom…
Here is, I. The preface, showing, 1. To whom this letter is directed: To the angel of the church of Sardis, an ancient city of Lydia, on the banks of the mountain Tmolus, said to have been the chief city of Asia the Less, and the first city in that part of the world that was converted by the preaching of John; and, some say, the first that revolted from Christianity, and one of the first that was laid in its ruins, in which it still lies, without any church or ministry. 2. By whom this message was sent - the Lord Jesus, who here assumes the character of him that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars, taken out of Rev 1:4, where the seven spirits are said to be before the throne. (1.) He hath the seven spirits, that is, the Holy Spirit with his various powers, graces, and operations; for he is personally one, though efficaciously various, and may be said here to be seven, which is the number of the churches, and of the angels of the churches, to show that to every minister, and to every church, there is a dispensation and measure of the Spirit given for them to profit withal - a stock of spiritual influence for that minister and church to improve, both for enlargement and continuance, which measure of the Spirit is not ordinarily withdrawn from them, till they forfeit it by misimprovement. Churches have their spiritual stock and fund, as well as particular believers; and, this epistle being sent to a languishing ministry and church, they are very fitly put in mind that Christ has the seven spirits, the Spirit without measure and in perfection, to whom they may apply themselves for the reviving of his work among them. (2.) He hath the seven stars, the angels of the churches; they are disposed of by him, and accountable to him, which should make them faithful and zealous. He has ministers to employ, and spiritual influences to communicate to his ministers for the good of his church. The Holy Spirit usually works by the ministry, and the ministry will be of no efficacy without the Spirit; the same divine hand holds them both.
II. The body of this epistle. There is this observable in it, that whereas in the other epistles Christ begins with commending what is good in the churches, and then proceeds to tell them what is amiss, in this (and in the epistle to Laodicea) he begins,
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1. With a reproof, and a very severe one: I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Hypocrisy, and a lamentable decay in religion, are the sins charged upon this church, by one who knew her well, and all her works. (1.) This church had gained a great reputation; it had a name, and a very honourable one, for a flourishing church, a name for vital lively religion, for purity of doctrine, unity among themselves, uniformity in worship, decency, and order. We read not of any unhappy divisions among themselves. Every thing appeared well, as to what falls under the observation of men. (2.) This church was not really what it was reputed to be. They had a name to live, but they were dead; there was a form of godliness, but not the power, a name to live, but not a principle of life. If there was not a total privation of life, yet there was a great deadness in their souls and in their services, a great deadness in the spirits of their ministers, and a great deadness in their ministrations, in their praying, in their preaching, in their converse, and a great deadness in the people in hearing, in prayer, and in conversation; what little life was yet left among them was, in a manner, expiring, ready to die.
2. Our Lord proceeds to give this degenerate church the best advice: Be watchful, and strengthen the things, etc., Rev 3:2. (1.) He advises them to be upon their watch. The cause of their sinful deadness and declension was that they had let down their watch. Whenever we are off our watch, we lose ground, and therefore must return to our watchfulness against sin, and Satan, and whatever is destructive to the life and power of godliness. (2.) To strengthen the things that remain, and that are ready to die. Some understand this of persons; there were some few who had retained their integrity, but they were in danger of declining with the rest. It is a difficult thing to keep up to the life and power of godliness ourselves, when we see a universal deadness and declension prevailing round about us. Or it may be understood of practices, as it follows: I have not found thy works perfect before God, not filled up; there is something wanting in them; there is the shell, but not the kernel; there is the carcase, but not the soul - the shadow, but not the substance. The inward thing is wanting, thy works are hollow and empty; prayers are not filled up with holy desires, alms-deeds not filled up with true charity, sabbaths not filled up with suitable devotion of soul to God; there are not inward affections suitable to outward acts and expressions. Now when the spirit is wanting the form cannot long subsist. (3.) To recollect themselves, and remember how they have received and heard (Rev 3:3); not only to remember what they had received and heard, what messages they had received from God, what tokens of his mercy and favour towards them, what sermons they had heard, but how they had received and heard, what impressions the mercies of God had made upon their souls at first, what affections they felt working under their word and ordinances, the love of their espousals, the kindness of their youth, how welcome the gospel and the grace of God were to them when they first received them. Where is the blessedness they then spoke of? (4.) To hold fast what they had received, that they might not lose all, and repent sincerely that they had lost so much of the life of religion, and had run the risk of losing all.
3. Christ enforces his counsel with a dreadful threatening in case it should be despised: I will come unto thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know the hour, Rev 3:3. Observe, (1.) When Christ leaves a people as to his gracious presence, he comes to them in judgment; and his judicial presence will be very dreadful to those who have sinned away his gracious presence. (2.) His judicial approach to a dead declining people will be surprising; their deadness will keep them in security, and, as it procures an angry visit from Christ to them, it will prevent their discerning it and preparing for it. (3.) Such a visit from Christ will be to their loss; he will come as a thief, to strip them of their remaining enjoyments and mercies, not by fraud, but in justice and righteousness, taking the forfeiture they have made of all to him.
4. Our blessed Lord does not leave this sinful people without some comfort and encouragement: In the midst of judgment he remembers mercy (Rev 3:4), and here (1.) He makes honourable mention of the faithful remnant in Sardis, though but small: Thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; they had not given into the prevailing corruptions and pollution of the day and place in which they lived. God takes notice of the smallest number of those who abide with him; and the fewer they are the more precious in his sight. (2.) He makes a very gracious promise to them: They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy - in the stola, the white robes of justification, and adoption, and comfort, or in the white robes of honour and glory in the other world. They shall walk with Christ in the pleasant walks of the heavenly paradise; and what delightful converse will there be between Christ and them when they thus walk together! This is an honour proper and suitable to their integrity, which their fidelity has prepared them for, and which it is no way unbecoming Christ to confer upon them, though it is not a legal but a gospel worthiness that is ascribed to them, not merit but meetness. Those who walk with Christ in the clean garments of real practical holiness here, and keep themselves unspotted from the world, shall walk with Christ in the white robes of honour and glory in the other world: this is a suitable reward.
III. We now come to the conclusion of this epistle, in which, as before, we have,
1. A great reward promised to the conquering Christian (Rev 3:5), and it is very much the same with what has been already mentioned: He that overcometh shall be clothed in white raiment. The purity of grace shall be rewarded with the perfect purity of glory. Holiness, when perfected, shall be its own reward; glory is the perfection of grace, differing not in kind, but in degree. Now to this is added another promise very suitable to the case: I will not blot his name out of the book of life, but will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Observe, (1.) Christ has his book of life, a register and roll of all who shall inherit eternal life. [1.] The book of eternal election. [2.] The book of remembrance of all those who have lived to God, and have kept up the life and power of godliness in evil times. (2.) Christ will not blot the names of his chosen and faithful ones out of this book of life; men may be enrolled in the registers of the church, as baptized, as making a profession, as having a name to live, and that name may come to be blotted out of the roll, when it appears that it was but a name, a name to live, without spiritual life; such often lose the very name before they die, they are left of God to blot out their own names by their gross and open wickedness. But the names of those that overcome shall never be blotted out. (3.) Christ will produce this book of life, and confess the names of the faithful who stand there, before God, and all the angels; he will do this as their Judge, when the books shall be opened; he will do this as their captain and head, leading them with him triumphantly to heaven, presenting them to the Father: Behold me, and the children that thou hast given me. How great will this honour and reward be!
2. The demand of universal attention finishes the message. Every word from God deserves attention from men; that which may seem more particularly directed to one body of men has something in it instructive to all.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And unto the angel of the church in Sardis…
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write,.... Of the city of Sardis See Gill on Rev 1:11 when, and by whom this church was founded, and who was the present angel or pastor of it, is not now to be certainly known; however, here was a church in the "second" century, of which Melito was then pastor; and he is thought by some to be the angel here intended; this man wrote upon the book of the Revelation, and an apology for the Christians, sent to the Emperor Antoninus Verus, in whose time he lived (c); and in the "third" century a church remained in this place; and also in the "fourth", as appears from the council of Nice, which makes mention of it; and likewise in the "fifth", as is evident from the acts of the synod at Chalcedon, in which age it was the metropolitan church of the Lydians; and in the "sixth" century there was a bishop of this church in the fifth synod at Constantinople; and in the "seventh" century, Marinus bishop of Sardis assisted at the sixth synod in the same place; and in the "eighth" century, Euthymius bishop of it was present in the Nicene synod; and even in the "ninth" century mention is made of an archbishop of Sardis (d): but now there are but very few Christians to be found here, and who have not a place to worship in, nor any to minister to them (e). This church represents the state of the church from the time of the Reformation by Luther and others, until a more glorious state of the church appears, or until the spiritual reign of Christ in the Philadelphian period; under the Sardian church state we now are: (this was published in 1747, Ed.) that this church is an emblem of the reformed churches from Popery, is evident not only from its following the Thyatirian state, which expresses the darkness of Popery, and the depths of Satan in it; but from its being clear of Balaam, and those that held his doctrine; and from the Nicolaitans and their tenets, and from Jezebel, and those that committed adultery with her; things which the two former churches are charged with; but from these the present church reformed. This city of Sardis was once a very flourishing and opulent city; it was the metropolis of Lydia, and the royal seat of the rich King Croesus, though now a very poor and mean village; and may denote the magnificence and splendour of this church state, at least in name and figure, it has appeared in, in the world; though now in a very low and mean condition, and may be worse before the spiritual reign of Christ begins in the next period: there may be some allusion in the name of this church to the precious stone "sarda", which, Pliny says (f), was found about Sardis, and had its name from hence; the same with the Sardian stone in Rev 4:2. This stone, naturalists say (g), drives away fear, gives boldness, cheerfulness, and sharpness of wit, and frees from witchcrafts and sorceries; which may be expressive of the boldness and courage of the first reformers; of the cheerfulness, joy, and pleasure, which appeared in their countenances, and which they spread in others by preaching the doctrines of the Gospel; and of those excellent gifts and talents both of nature, learning, and grace, by which they were fitted for their service; and of their being a means of delivering men from the witchcrafts of Jezebel, and the sorceries of the whore of Rome: and perhaps some allusion may be in this name, as is thought by Cocceius, to the Hebrew word "sarid", which signifies a "remnant", since in this church state there was a remnant according to the election of grace, a few names, whose garments were undefiled; or to the word "sered", which signifies a carpenter's rule or line; since the first reformers were endeavouring to bring every doctrine and practice to the rule and line of God's word:
these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God; the fulness and perfection of the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God, as in Rev 1:4, which Christ, as Mediator, has without measure, and are at his dispose, and which he, having received for men, gives unto them; and at the time of the Reformation bestowed them on many eminent servants of his in a very plenteous manner; for which reason he assumes this character in writing to this church:
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and the seven stars; the ministers of the Gospel; see Gill on Rev 1:16, Rev 2:1; these were filled by Christ at this time with evangelical light and knowledge; and were sent, and held forth by him as lights in the world; and were instruments in his hand for great good; and were wonderfully held, kept, and preserved by him, notwithstanding the greatness of their work, their weakness in themselves, and the power, rage, and fury of the antichristian party; Luther is a remarkable instance of this: Christ's making use of the same title here as in the epistle to the church at Ephesus, which represents the apostolic church, may show that this church state bore some degree of likeness to that, and that it was a sort of renewing of it:
I know thy works; good works chiefly; the nature and imperfection of them; and also bad works: that
thou hast a name that thou livest: the reformed churches have had a name for spiritual living, by faith on Christ's righteousness only for justification, that article being the great article of the Reformation: there was in them an appearance of liveliness, by their zeal for Gospel doctrine and worship, and a form of living according to godliness; they were esteemed, were celebrated, and famous for these things, especially for living by faith on Christ's righteousness:
and art dead; or "but art dead"; for, the most part, or greater part of the members of these churches, are dead in trespasses and sins; and as for the rest, they are very dead and lifeless in their frames, in the exercise of grace, and in the discharge of duties; and under great spiritual declensions and decays, just as it were ready to die; and but few really alive in a spiritual sense, and especially lively, or in the lively exercise of grace, and fervent discharge of duty; yea, dead as to those things in which they had a name to live: and this seems to be our case now, who, it is to be hoped, are at, or towards the close of this period,
(c) Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 4. c. 13. 26. & l. 5. c. 24. (d) Hist. Eccl. Magdeburg. cent. 3. c. 2. p. 3. cent. 4. c. 2. p. 3. cent. 5. c. 2. p. 3. c. 7. p. 418. cent. 6. c. 2. p. 4. cent. 7. c. 2. p. 3. c. 10. p. 254. cent. 8. c. 2. p. 4. cent. 9. c. 3. p. 3. (e) Smith. Notitia, p. 138. (f) Nat. Hist. l. 37. c. 7. Albert. Magn. de Reb. Metall. l. 2. c. 17. (g) Ruaeus de Gemmis, l. 2. c. 6. Albert. Magn. de Rebus Metall. l. 2. c. 17. Schroder. Pharmacopoeia, l. 3. c. 5. p. 18.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The seven spirits of God - The Holy Spirit,…
The seven spirits of God - The Holy Spirit, from whom alone all spiritual life and strength proceed. And the seven stars - which are subordinate to him. Thou hast a name that thou livest - A fair reputation, a goodly outside appearance. But that Spirit seeth through all things, and every empty appearance vanishes before him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The epistle to the Church of Sardis, 1-6.
CHAPTER III.
The epistle to the Church of Sardis, 1-6.
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The epistle to the Church of Philadelphia, 7-13.
The epistle to the Church of Laodicea, 14-22.
NOTES ON CHAP. III.
Epistle to the Church at Sardis.
Verse 1. The seven Spirits, of God] See the note on Rev 1:4; Rev 1:16, c.
Thou hast a name that thou livest] Ye have the reputation of Christians, and consequently of being alive to God, through the quickening influence of the Divine Spirit but ye are dead-ye have not the life of God in your souls, ye have not walked consistently and steadily before God, and his Spirit has been grieved with you, and he has withdrawn much of his light and power.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Rev 3:1. To the angel of the church in…
Rev 3:1. To the angel of the church in Sardis write — This city, “once the renowned capital of Crœsus and the rich Lydian kings, is now no longer worthy of the name of a city. It lies about thirty-three miles to the south of Thyatira, and is called by the Turks, Sart, or Sard, with little variation from the original name. It is a most sad spectacle; nor can one forbear weeping over the ruins of so great a city: for now it is no more than an ignoble village, with low and wretched cottages of clay; nor hath it any other inhabitants besides shepherds and herdsmen, who feed their flocks and cattle in the neighbouring plains. Yet the great extent and grandeur of the ruins abundantly show how large and splendid a city it was formerly. The Turks themselves have only one mosque, a beautiful one indeed, perverted to that use from a Christian church. Very few Christians are here to be found; and they, with great patience, sustain a miserable servitude; and, what is far more miserable, are without a church, without a priest among them. Such is the deplorable state of this once most glorious city; but her works were not found perfect; that is, they were found blameable before God; she was dead even while she lived; and she is punished accordingly.” — Bishop Newton. Mr. Lindsay, however, informs us, that there is a small church establishment on the plains of Sardis, where, about five years ago, the few Christians who dwell around the modern Sart, and who had been in the habit of meeting at each other’s houses for the exercise of religion, built a church within view of ancient Sardis; and that there they maintain a priest. In consequence of this, the place has gradually risen into a little village, now called Tartarkeury, and thither the few Christians of Sart, who amount to seven, and those in its immediate vicinity, resort for public worship, and form together a congregation of about forty. There appears then still a remnant, a few names even in Sardis, which have been preserved. “I cannot repeat,” says he, “the expressions of gratitude with which they received a copy of the New Testament in a language with which they were familiar. Several crowded about the priest to hear it on the spot; and I left them thus engaged.”
These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God — That is, the Holy Spirit, from whom alone all spiritual gifts and graces proceed; or he who presides over and orders the various dispensations of the Spirit, and produces thereby such wonderful effects; and the seven stars — Which represent the ministers of the churches, all whose motions he continues to govern and direct, according to his all-wise and gracious pleasure. I know thy works — The state thou art in, and thy conduct: and that thou dost not answer that character which thou generally maintainest in the neighbouring churches for true religion and virtue; that thou hast a name that thou livest — A fair reputation; the character of being truly alive unto God; of possessing spiritual life here, and being in the way to eternal life hereafter; but art dead — Art really destitute of that life, and in the way to the second death.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The Epistle to the Church at Sardis
The Epistle to the Church at Sardis
The contents of the epistle to the church at Sardis Rev 3:1-6 are:
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The usual salutation to the angel of the church, Rev 3:1.
(2)The usual reference to the attributes of the Saviour - those referred to here being that he had the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars, Rev 3:1.
(3)The assurance that he knew their works, Rev 3:1.
(4)The statement of the uniqueness of the church, or what he saw in it - that it had a name to live and was dead, Rev 3:1.
(5)A solemn direction to the members of the church, arising from their character and circumstances, to be watchful, and to strengthen the things which remained, but which were ready to die; to remember what they had received, and to hold fast what had been communicated to them, and to repent of all their sins, Rev 3:2-3.
(6)A threat that if they did not do this, he would come suddenly upon them, at an hour which they could not anticipate, Rev 3:3.
(7)A commendation of the church as far as it could be done, for there were still a few among them who had not defiled their garments, and a promise that they should walk before him in white, Rev 3:4.
(8)A promise, as usual, to him that should be victorious. The promise here is, that he should walk before him in white; that his name should not be blotted out of the book of life; that he should be acknowledged before the Father, and before the angels, Rev 3:5.
(9)The usual call on all persons to hear what the Spirit said to the churches.
Sardis was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, one of the provinces of Asia Minor, and was situated at the foot of Mount Tmolus, in a fine plain watered by the river Pactolus, famous for its golden sands. It was the capital where the celebrated Croesus, proverbial for his wealth, reigned. It was taken by Cyrus (548 bc), when Croesus was king, and was at that time one of the most splendid and opulent cities of the East. It subsequently passed into the hands of the Romans, and under them sank rapidly in wealth and importance. In the time of Tiberius it was destroyed by an earthquake, but was rebuilt by order of the emperor. The inhabitants of Sardis bore an ill repute among the ancients for their voluptuous modes of life. Perhaps there may be an allusion to this fact in the words which are used in the address to the church there: “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.”
Successive earthquakes, and the ravages of the Saracens and the Turks, have reduced this once-celebrated city to a heap of ruins, though exhibiting still many remains of former splendor. The name of the village which now occupies the place of this ancient capital is Sart. It is a miserable village, comprising only a few wretched cottages, occupied by Turks and Greeks. There are ruins of the theater, the stadium, and of some ancient churches. The most remarkable of the ruins are two pillars supposed to have belonged to the temple of Cybele; and if so, they are among the most ancient in the world, the temple of Cybele having been built only three hundred years after that of Solomon. The Acropolis serves well to define the site of the city. Several travelers have recently visited the remains of Sardis, and its appearance will be indicated by a few extracts from their writings. Arundell, in his “Discoveries in Asia Minor,” says: “If I were asked what impresses the mind most strongly in beholding Sardis, I should say its indescribable solitude, like the darkness of Egypt - darkness that could be felt. So the deep solitude of the spot, once the ‘lady of kingdoms,’ produces a corresponding feeling of desolate abandonment in the mind, which can never be forgotten.”
John Hartley, in regard to these ruins, remarks: “The ruins are, with one exception, more entirely gone to decay than those of most of the ancient cities which we have visited. No Christians reside on the spot: two Greeks only work in a mill here, and a few wretched Turkish huts are scattered among the ruins. We saw the churches of John and the Virgin, the theater, and the building styled the Palace of Croesus; but the most striking object at Sardis is the temple of Cybele. I was filled with wonder and awe at beholding the two stupendous columns of this edifice, which are still remaining: they are silent but impressive witnesses of the power and splendor of antiquity.”
The impression produced on the mind is vividly described in the following language of a recent traveler, who lodged there for a night: “Every object was as distinct as in a northern twilight; the snowy summit of the mountain (Tmolus), the long sweep of the valley, and the flashing current of the river (Pactolus). I strolled along toward the banks of the Pactolus, and seated myself by the side of the half-exhausted stream.
“There are few individuals who cannot trace on the map of their memory some moments of overpowering emotion, and some scene, which, once dwelt upon, has become its own painter, and left behind it a memorial that time could not efface. I can readily sympathize with the feelings of him who wept at the base of the pyramids; nor were my own less powerful, on that night when I sat beneath the sky of Asia to gaze upon the ruins of Sardis, from the banks of the golden-sanded Pactolus. Beside me were the cliffs of the Acropolis, which, centuries before, the hardy Median scaled, while leading on the conquering Persians, whose tents had covered the very spot on which I was reclining. Before me were the vestiges of what had been the palace of the gorgeous Croesus; within its walls were once congregated the wisest of mankind, Thales, Cleobulus, and Solon. It was here that the wretched father mourned alone the mangled corse of his beloved Atys; it was here that the same humiliated monarch wept at the feet of the Persian boy who wrung from him his kingdom. Far in the distance were the gigantic “tumuli” of the Lydian monarchs, Candaules, Halyattys, and Gyges; and around them were spread those very plains once trodden by the countless hosts of Xerxes, when hurrying on to find a sepulchre at Marathon.
“There were more varied and more vivid remembrances associated with the sight of Sardis than could possibly be attached to any other spot of earth; but all were mingled with a feeling of disgust at the littleness of human glory. All - all had passed away! There were before me the fanes of a dead religion, the tombs of forgotten monarchs, and the palm-tree that waved in the banquet-hall of kings; while the feeling of desolation was doubly heightened by the calm sweet sky above me, which, in its unfading brightness, shone as purely now as when it beamed upon the golden dreams of Croesus” (Emerson’s “Letters from the Aegean,” p. 113ff). The present appearance of the ruins is shown by the engraving in this volume.
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis - notes on Rev 1:20.
These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God - See the notes on Rev 1:4. If the phrase, “the seven Spirits of God,” as there supposed, refers to the Holy Spirit, there is great propriety in saying of the Saviour, that he has that Spirit, inasmuch as the Holy Spirit is represented as sent forth by him into the world, Joh 15:26-27; Joh 16:7, Joh 16:13-14. It was one of the highest characteristics that could be given of the Saviour to say, that the Holy Spirit was his to send forth into the world, and that that great Agent, on whose gracious influences all were dependent for the possession of true religion, could be given or withheld by him at his pleasure.
And the seven stars - See the notes on Rev 1:16. These represented the angels of the seven churches (notes on Rev 1:20); and the idea which the Saviour would seem to intend to convey here is, that he had entire control over the ministers of the churches, and could keep or remove them at pleasure.
I know thy works - See the notes on Rev 2:2.
That thou hast a name that thou livest - Thou dost profess attachment to me and my cause. The word “life” is a word that is commonly employed, in the New Testament, to denote religion, in contradistinction from the natural state of man, which is described as death in sin. By the profession of religion they expressed the purpose to live unto God, and for another world; they professed to have true, spiritual life.
And art dead - That is, spiritually. This is equivalent to saying that their profession was merely in name; and yet this must be understood comparatively, for there were some even in Sardis who truly lived unto God, Rev 3:4. The meaning is, that in general, the profession of religion among them was a mere name. The Saviour does not, as in the case of the churches of Ephesus and Thyatira, specify any prevailing form of error or false doctrine; but it would seem that here it was a simple waist of religion.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain To the Angel of the church of Sardis. He…
To the Angel of the church of Sardis. He begins with a severe reprehension, thou hast the name of being alive, and thou art dead, which we may understand of the greatest part of them, and of being dead by the worst of deaths, which is that of sin. (Witham) --- In the style of the sacred writers, to live, is to be in the state of grace, and to bring forth good works; as, to be dead, is to live in sin, and the neglect of Christian duties. (Calmet) --- Here we see that the opinion of men is no advantage to us, when our internal dispositions are not correspondent to our external appearance. For what we are in thy sight, O Lord, so much we are, and no more, says St. Augustine. --- The bishop is charged with this fault, that he did not watch and take care of his flock. He is admonished to repent, and to strengthen those that were not dead, but ready to die.[1] (Witham) --- God does not seek to surprise us and lay snares for us. But when he tells us that he will come like a thief, it is only to admonish us not to slumber. Had he wished to take us unawares, he never would have admonished us beforehand. (Calmet) --- But thou hast a few names, &c. That is, a few persons not yet defiled, neither as to their consciences, souls, nor bodies. --- They shall walk with me in white apparel, &c. It is a new way of expressing the happiness of heaven. (Witham) --- White is the color of joy, festivity, and triumph. The Angels always appear clothed in white. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain Revelation Chapter 3
Revelation Chapter 3
There is no threat of removing the candlestick: that was settled. Judgment, setting aside the assembly, was fixed. But this body would be treated as the world, not ecclesiastically as a corrupt assembly. (compare 1Th 5:1-28) However, some had preserved their integrity, and would be owned; and they would walk with Christ as those that had done righteousness. This was the promise too. They had confessed His name practically before men, before the world, and theirs would be confessed before God when the nominal assembly was treated as the world. They were real Christians in the midst of a worldly profession, and their names would not be struck out of the register, then ill-kept on earth, but infallibly rectified by heavenly judgment. It has been remarked that, simultaneously with bringing in the Lord’s coming, the ear to hear comes after the distinguishing the overcomers. Such a remnant only is looked for. I cannot doubt that we have Protestantism here.
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The assembly of Philadelphia has a peculiarly interesting character. Nothing is said of its works, but that Christ knows them. But what is interesting in it is that it is peculiarly associated with Christ Himself. Christ, as in all these last assemblies, is not seen in the characters in which He walked in the midst of the assemblies, but in such as faith peculiarly recognises when ecclesiastical organization has become the hot-bed of corruption. Here it is His personal character, what He is intrinsically, holy and true, what the word displays and requires, and what the word of God is in itself-moral character and faithfulness. Indeed this last word includes all: faithfulness to God within and without, according to what is revealed, and faithful to make good all He has declared.
Christ is known as the Holy One. Then outward ecclesiastical associations or pretensions will not do. There must be what suits His nature, and faithful consistency with that word which He will certainly make good. With this He has the administration; and opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens. See what His path was on earth: only then graciously dependent, as we are. He was holy and true, to man’s view had a little strength, kept the word lived by every word that proceeded out of God’s lips waited patiently for the Lord, and to Him the porter opened. He lived in the last days of a dispensation, the holy and true One, rejected, and, to human eye, failing in success with those who said they were Jews, but were the synagogue of Satan. So the saints here: they walk in a place like His; they keep His word, have a little strength, are not marked by a Pauline energy of the Spirit, but do not deny His name. This is the character and motive of all their conduct. It is openly confessed, the word kept, the Name not denied. It seems little; but in universal decline, much pretension and ecclesiastical claim, and many falling away to man’s reasonings, keeping the word of Him that is holy and true, and not denying His name is everything.
And this element is noticed. Christ, the holy and true One, is waiting. Here on earth He waited patiently for Jehovah. It is the character of perfect faith. Faith has a double character-energy which overcomes, and patience which waits for God and trusts Him. (See the first in Heb 11:23-34: the latter in Rev 3:8-22.) It is the latter which is found here; the word of patience kept.
But as regards the former substantive qualities, keeping the word and not denying Christ’s name (though with a little strength) in presence of ecclesiastical pretension to a successional God-established religion, promises were given. Christ would force these pretentious claimants to divine succession to come and own that He had loved those who kept His word. An open door was given at present, and no man could shut it; just as the porter had opened to Him, so that scribes and Pharisees and priests could not hinder it. In the future they would have to own themselves humbled, and that those who followed the word of the holy and true One were those He had loved.Meanwhile His approbation was sufficient. This was the test of faith-to be satisfied with His approbation, content with the authority of His word.
But there was a promise also as to the Lord’s judgments in the earth. Christ is waiting till His enemies be made His footstool. We must wait for it to see the world set right. We have to go on where the god of this world has his way, though under divine limitation. The thought that good is to have its rights in this world is to forget the cross and Christ. We cannot have our rights till He has, for we have none but His. Judgment (since Pilate had it, and Christ was the righteous One before him) has not yet returned to righteousness. Till then Christ waits, though at the right hand of God; and we wait. It is not persecution and martyrdom, as in Smyrna. It is as hard a task perhaps, or, at any rate, our task now-patience and contentedness with Christ’s approbation, keeping His word, not denying His name.
But then there were other and blessed encouragements. There was an hour of temptation coming upon all the world to try those who belonged to earth, who dwelt there as belonging to it. Some might be spared, victorious in the trial; but those who kept the word of Christ’s patience would be kept from it. On the whole world it would come; and where were they ?-Out of the world. They had not belonged to it when in it. They had been waiting for Christ to take His power-waiting His time to have the world. They belonged to heaven, to Him who was there; and they would be taken to be with Him when the world was to be in the time of terrible trial. There was a special time before He took His power; and not only would they reign with Him in result, but they would be kept from that hour, and had the assurance of it in the time of their trial. And hence the Lord points them to His coming as their hope; not as warning that the unrepentant would be treated as the world when He appeared. He came quickly, and they were to look for the crown then, holding fast what they had, feeble but spiritually associated with Him as they were, lest any should take it.
We have now the general promise in heavenly places marked by special association with Christ; and they are publicly owned in that in which they seemed on earth to have nothing. Others had the pretension to be the people of God, the city of God-to have divine religious title; these were only consistent with His word, and they waited for Christ. Now, when Christ takes His power, when things are real, according to Him in power, they have this place according to God. It was the cross and contempt below; it is the display of God’s name and heavenly city above.
Let us examine the promise to the overcomers here. He who had but a little strength is a pillar in the temple of the God in whom and with whom he is blessed. He was held perhaps for outside the ecclesiastical unity and order; he is a pillar in it in heaven, and will go no more out. On him who was hardly owned to have a part in grace has the name of his rejected Saviour’s God been stamped publicly in glory. He who was hardly accounted to belong to the holy city has its heavenly name written on him too, and Christ’s new name-the name not known to prophets and Jews according to the flesh, but which He has taken as dead to this world (where the false assembly settles down) and risen into heavenly glory. The careful association with Christ is striking here, and gives its character to the promise. “The temple of my God,” says Christ; “the name of my God ;”, “of the city of my God”, “my new name.” Associated in Christ’s own patience, Christ confers upon him what fully associates him in His own blessing with God. This is of peculiar blessing, and full of encouragement for us.
Laodicea follows. Lukewarmness characterises the last state of profession in the assembly. It is nauseous to Christ; He will spue it out of His mouth. It was not mere want of power, it was want of heart- the worst of all ills. This threat is peremptory, not conditional. It brought irremediable rejection. With this want of heart for Christ and His service, there was much pretension to the possession of resources and competency in themselves; “I am rich,” whereas they had nothing of Christ. It is the professing assembly accounting itself rich without having Christ as the riches of the soul by faith. Therefore He counsels them to buy of Him true and approved righteousness, clothing for their moral nakedness, and what gave spiritual sight; for they were, as respects what Christ is and gives before God, poor, naked, and miserable, and specially so. This is Christ’s judgment of their pretended acquisitions according to man. However, as long as the assembly subsists, Christ continues to deal in grace, stands at the door and knocks presses reception of Himself in the closest way on the conscience. If any one, still in what He was going to spue out, heard His voice and opened, He would give him admission to be with Him, and a part in the kingdom.
There is no coming here; nor was there for the judgment of Jezebel. That was practically Babylon; and she is judged before Christ comes. This is spued out of Christ’s mouth, cast off as worthless to Him; but the general body is judged as the world. The Lord’s coming is in Thyatira for the saints, and in Philadelphia too. That is its aspect as to the assembly, and that only. Sardis is reduced, if unrepentant, to the condition of the world, and judged as such. When the state of Laodicea arrives, the assembly is disowned and rejected of Christ in that character: but for that His coming is not to be spoken of. Although Thyatira goes down to the end and closes ecclesiastically the assembly’s history, yet only in the first three is the assembly at large treated as the subject of repentance. In Thyatira space had been given Jezebel to repent, and she did not: and the scene is to close and be replaced by the kingdom. In this respect the last four assemblies go together. There is no prospect of repentance of the whole assembly, or restoration. Sardis is called to hold fast and repent, and remember what she had received; but, if she does not watch, is to be treated as the world. Hence, as we have seen, the call to hear is addressed to overcomers, after the promise.
The character of Christ in connection with this assembly must not be passed over. It brings out the passage from the various condition of the assembly to His authority above and beyond it over the world. Christ personally takes up what the assembly has ceased to be. He is the Amen, the fulfillment and verifier of all the promises, the real witness and revealer of God and of truth, when the assembly is not; and the beginning of the creation of God-Head over all things, and the glory and witness of what it is as from God-as the new creation. The assembly ought to have displayed the power of the new creation by the Holy Ghost; as if any man is in Christ, it is a new creation, where all things are of God. We, as its firstfruits, are created again in Him. The assembly has thus the things which remain. (2Co 3:1-18) But she has been an unfaithful witness of it. Does she possess a part in it ? It is because Christ does, and He is the true beginning of it as really displayed. The responsible witness of it by the Holy Ghost having failed, Christ now takes it up, coming in for its effectual display.
But the series of preparatory events in the world must first be gone into. And it is to be remarked, that there is no mention here of the fact of the Lord’s coming in reference to the assembly. It is promised that He will come quickly; and the assembly is threatened with being spued out of His mouth. But the fact of His coming for His own, or the assembly’s rapture at any time, is not stated. This falls in fully with what we have seen of John’s ministry [9] -his being occupied with the manifestation of the Lord on earth, and scarce touching (and only when needed on leaving the disciples) on heavenly promises. In Joh 14:1-31; Joh 17:1-26 he does it exceptionally. Here it is left out. Even in chapter 12, which remarkably confirms what I say, the rapture is only seen as identified with the catching up of the man-child, Christ Himself. Hence we have no specific relative epoch noted for the taking away the saints here, save that they are taken before the war in heaven which leads to the last three years and a half. But on the other hand the saints belonging to the assembly, or before, are always seen above when the epistles to the assemblies are ended. They are waiting for judgment to be given to them for the avenging of their blood; but they are never seen on earth.
Footnotes for Revelation Chapter 3
9: His character too was for judgment among the assemblies and the assembly on earth; not His own bride, but the outward body here on earth.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Rev_3:1. Sardis, once the wealthy capital of Lydia, and…
FIFTH EPISTLE. SARDIS
Rev_3:1-6
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Rev_3:1. Sardis, once the wealthy capital of Lydia, and the city of Crœsus, is now a poor village, bearing the name of Sart. An earthquake took place here during the reign of Tiberius. Melito was bishop of Sardis about the middle of the second century. For particulars, see Commentaries and Books of Travel.
From the description given of the church, it appears that its members, with the exception of a small remnant, were almost entirely secularized. Though occupying a correct position in respect of creed and worship—having the name of life, therefore—the faith of the church was a dead faith, and its life of that worldly form which is always accompanied by the most manifold moral defilements. Yet the reproach of death is not absolute; otherwise, there could be no question of a part that was in danger of dying or, still less, of a vital strength that should reanimate this part, the elements of which strength the angel must find in the church itself.
“Ewald’s conjecture, that the Christians of Sardis had, on account of their heathenish life, not been molested by the heathen, and that this is the reason why the epistle does not speak of θλῖψις and ὑπομονή, is scarcely in accordance with the text.” (Duesterdieck). Even if [as Düsterdieck avers] “the church had enough of the semblance of Christianity to preclude the friendship of the heathen,” there is no foundation for the assertion that Ewald’s conjecture is not in accordance with the text, save the bare fact that it is not expressly laid down in the text.
That hath the seven Spirits of God.—The seven fundamental forms of the revelation of Christ, in the seven fundamental forms of the working of God’s Spirit, with Whom He (Christ) is anointed without measure; corresponding to the seven stars or fundamental forms of the Church. Why is Christ thus described here? Explanations: Because of His omniscience, penetrating the innermost recesses (De W. and others). But this would be a repetition of the idea set forth by the eyes like a flame of fire (see Thyatira). Unlimited power to punish and reward (Hengstenberg). But the Seven Spirits are not Seven Spirits of judgment. They denote the holy all-sidedness of Christ and Christianity, here as opposed to the false all-sidedness of a sham Christianity, which is conformed to the world. Inasmuch as they are indicative of the fullness of the Spirit of Christ, they are proclaimed to a church which, from its lack of spiritual life, is at the point of death. Bengel: The Seven Spirits have reference to the vital forces which Christ proposes to communicate to the church.
[By the Seven Spirits, as was set forth in the note on Rev_1:5, we must understand the Holy Ghost, “seven-fold in His operations.” Christ is spoken of as having the Spirit, not because in the days of the flesh, as the Son of man, He was anointed with the Spirit without measure (Joh_3:34), but because, as the Son of God, the Spirit of God is His Spirit (Rom_8:9), and because He sends the Spirit (Joh_15:26; Joh_20:22; Act_2:33), Who acts as His representative (Joh_15:18; Joh_15:26). In reference to the fitness of the assumption of this designation in the address to the Angel of the Church of Sardis, Trench well remarks: “To him and his people, sunken in spiritual deadness and torpor, the lamp of faith waning and almost extinguished in their heart, the Lord presents Himself as One having the fullness of all spiritual gifts; able therefore to revive, able to recover, able to bring back, from the very gates of spiritual death, those who would employ the little last remaining strength which they still retained, in calling, even when thus in extremis, upon Him.”—E. R. C.]
And the seven stars.—The Spirits and stars are contrasted here. The seven stars must receive their vital light from the Seven Spirits; these latter are also the source whence Sardis must draw its light.1 [“Since the ‘stars are the angels of the seven Churches’ (Rev_1:20), we must see in this combination a hint of the relation between Christ, as the giver of the Holy Spirit, and as the author of a ministry of living men in His Church (Eph_4:7-12; Joh_20:22-23; Act_1:8; Act_20:28).” Trench.—E. R. C.]
Thy works, that thou hast a name.—We are not to read: and that thou, etc. Düsterdieck interprets: From thy imperfect works I know that thou, etc. The meaning of the passage, however, is, doubtless—the sum of thy works is sham Christianity.
A name.—Several have interpreted this as referring to the fortuitous name of the bishop (Zosimus, etc.), or to his office. Others have better interpreted it by referring it to the outward semblance of the church. [“In name” (Barnes); “Nominally” (Alford); thou hast the reputation.—E. R. C.]
Thou livest.—In accordance with the conception of life in Christ. [“The word life is a word that is commonly employed in the New Testament to denote religion, in contradistinction from the natural state of man, which is described as death in sin.” Barnes.—E. R. C.]
And thou art dead.—Spiritual deadness, as spiritual sleep, indulged in to the furthest extremity which admits of a waking; hence the admonition of Rev_3:2. Our passage, particularly, proves that the state of the angel represents the state of the church.
Rev_3:2. Become thou watching.—This is a stronger term than the simple awake. Watchfulness or wakefulness must become as much an attribute of the angel’s life as sleep—carelessness, indifferentism—is now.
And strengthen the things which remain.—Here also we must take the angel in his connection with the church. It does not mean, therefore, the remaining good in thy soul (Bengel); nor, the rest of those in the church; but the dying, though not yet dead, life which constitutes the vitality hitherto possessed by the church. Novatianism could only have written: the ones who remain [τοὺς λοιπούς], and it is true that, from another point of view, there would necessarily be a reference to persons as constituting the remainder (Eze_34:4). The present passage, however, treats of the general edification of the church, not directly of the special cure of souls. The “official conception” of the angel regards τὰ λοιπά as representative of the laity (Hengst.).
[Alford thus writes: “The latter view (that τὰ λοιπά refers to persons), is taken by (Andr., Areth., as reported in Düsterd., but not in Catena) Calov., Vitr., Eichh., De Wette, Stern, Ebrard, Düsterd., Trench, et al. And there is nothing in the construction to preclude the view. But if I mistake not, there is in the context. For to assume that the λοιποί could be thus described, would surely be to leave no room for those mentioned with so much praise below, in Rev_3:4.”—E. R. C.]
For I have not found thy works perfect [completed].—Good works are not the only ones intended here—at the best, they are still imperfect, as a matter of course; nor is the external conduct in general referred to; but the actual collective works as phenomena of the spiritual condition; they are not complete before Christ’s God; in His light and judgment they lack the impress of the New Testament spirit, the stamp of principial perfection in the purity and sincerity of love. Pure, ripe, rich are the predicates of Christ’s works and of Christian works in Him.
[“The word here employed is not that which we commonly render ‘perfect;’ not τέλεια, but πεπληρωμένα; so that the Lord contemplates the works prepared and appointed in the providence of God for the faithful man to do as a definite sphere (Eph_2:10), which it was his duty and his calling to have fulfilled or filled to the full, the same image habitually underlying the uses of πληροῦν and πληροῦσθαι (Mat_3:15; Rom_13:8). This sphere of appointed duties the Sardian Angel had not fulfilled; not, at least, ‘before God;’ for on these last words the emphasis must be laid. Before himself and other men his works may very likely have been ‘perfect,’ indeed we are expressly told that he had ‘a name to live,’ Rev_3:1, etc.” Trench.—E. R. C.]
Rev_3:3. Remember, therefore.—Not only the reception of the Gospel on the part of the church (how received), but also its character as Gospel (how heard), is specified by πῶς. In each connection there is a reference to the qualitative nature of living Christianity. The degeneration of the subjective keeping of God’s word is accompanied by a degeneration of the objective form of truth; orthodoxy itself, when dead, becomes heterodoxy; Thus, not only the receiving, but also the thing received, must be traced back to original (principial) vitality. Dead orthodoxy sinks the doctrine in doctrines, the primary articulation in derived articles. The result of right remembrance, which always constitutes the essence of true repentance, will be a compliance with the following commands.
[“This may refer either to some peculiarity in the manner in which the Gospel was conveyed to them—as by the labors of the Apostles, and by the remarkable effusions of the Holy Spirit; or to the ardor and love with which they embraced it; or to the greatness of the favors and privileges conferred on them; or to their own understanding of what the Gospel required, when they were converted. It is not possible to determine in which sense the language is used, but the general idea is plain, that there was something marked and unusual in the way in which they had been led to embrace the Gospel, and that it was highly proper in these circumstances to look back to the days when they gave themselves to Christ.” Barnes. “The charge against Sardis is not a perverse holding of untruth, but a heartless holding of the truth; and therefore I cannot but think that the Lord is graciously reminding her of the heartiness, the zeal, the love with which she received the truth at the first.” Trench.—E. R. C.]
And hold fast and repent.—The distinctions of Bengel are not applicable to this passage (see Düsterdieck).—True holding and keeping is a constant seizing and holding fast; here, a renewed seizing and holding fast that lead to repentance. The significance of the perfect εἴληφας, as contrasted with the aorist ἤκουσας, indicated by Ewald, would have greater weight if λαμβάνειν did not denote the manner of the subjective appropriation.
[Hold fast.—“1. The truth which thou didst then receive; 2. What remains of true religion among you. Repent in regard to all that in which you have departed from your views and feelings when you embraced the Gospel.” Barnes.—E. R. C.]
If, therefore, thou dost not watch.—Stress is again laid upon the main matter, and a threat connected with its non-observance. The threat itself corresponds with the command. To spiritual sleepers the Lord, as Judge, always comes as a thief in the night (Mat_24:42). Spiritual sleepers have lost all perception, by their spiritual senses, of the threatening signs of the development of judgment unto its catastrophe. As this applies to the judgment at the end of the world, so it also holds good in regard to all preliminary judgments upon whole congregations as well as upon individual souls. Even though there may be an obscure presentiment of judgment, the proximity and actual hour of it take its objects by surprise; the hour is hidden from the sleepers, and the judgment comes upon them in as strange a form as a thief.
Rev_3:4. But thou hast a few names in Sardis.—The Lord’s righteous verdict always distinguishes between the guilt of communities and the guilt or innocence of individuals; here also the distinction is made. The contrast which the persons indicated in the text present to the dead mass of the church, makes them appear as living members, known to the eye of the Lord by name [comp. Joh_10:3]; after being made to prostrate themselves under the general verdict, they are relatively excepted from that verdict as individuals.
[“In most cases, where error and sin prevail, there may be found a few who are worthy of the Divine commendation; comp. Rom_11:4.” Barnes.—E. R. C.]
Which have not defiled their garments.—This sentence is not absolute praise, inasmuch as it is simply negative; still it is great praise, inasmuch as the individuals referred to have withstood the general infection. On the various one-sided explanations of the garments (the body, as the garment of the soul; the conscience; the righteousness of faith, the baptismal robe), also Ebrard’s interpretation, see Düsterdieck [this commentator regards all such special interpretations as an unwarrantable straining of the text.—Tr.]. But neither must we stop at the general conception, maculari per peccatum (Lyra), against which Aretius and Vitringa have insisted upon the ideas of life and its actions, or confession and morals. The divine sharp-sightedness of the Lord is proved by the fact that among the Sardians who have the semblance of life, He perceives their defilement or non-defilement by the mere appearance of their life, by their actions. If the works of the majority, in their negative aspect, were formerly characterized as not complete, not perfect, here they are indirectly characterized as polluted, defiled by the filth of worldliness, of earthly-mindedness, of heathenishness; thus Christ passed sentence upon the pious-mouthed Pharisees, judging them from their very words. And so the spotted garments do really refer to the polluted consciences, and, symbolically, to the defiled baptismal robe.
[“That ‘white raiment’ there [Rev_3:5] is the garment of glory—this the garment of grace. That incapable of receiving a stain, being part of an inheritance which, in all its parts, is ἀμίαντος (1Pe_1:4); this, something to which σπῖλοι (Eph_5:27; Jam_3:6), μιάσματα (2Pe_2:20), μολυσμοί (2Co_7:1), can only too easily adhere. … This, itself a wedding garment (Mat_22:11-12), but not necessarily identical with the fine linen, clean and white, the righteousness of saints (Rev_19:8), is put on at our entrance by baptism into the Kingdom of grace; that at our entrance by the resurrection into the Kingdom of glory.” Trench. “There can be little doubt that the simpler and more general explanation is the right one; viz.: who have not sullied the purity of their Christian life by falling into sin.” Alford. So also Barnes.—E. R. C.]
And they shall walk with Me in white.—The reward of these is appropriate to their conduct, yet far superior to it. “The white robes, with their ‘bright hue of victory’ (Bengel), are peculiar to the inhabitants of Heaven (Rev_3:5; Rev_6:11; Rev_7:9; Rev_19:8). Those who keep their garments undefiled in this earthly life, shall walk with Christ (μετ’ ἐμοῦ, compare Luk_23:43; Joh_17:24) in white robes, living, thus adorned, in statu gloriæ immortalitatis (N. de Lyra), before the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the full and blessed enjoyment of fellowship with Him” (Duesterdieck). On a reference of the promise to the Israelitish sacerdotal dress, see Düsterdieck.
Because they are worthy.—Here also we learn, in accordance with Scripture, to distinguish between the righteousness of faith in the court of the Spirit and the repentant conscience, and righteousness of life in the tribunal of the Judge of the world (Rev_16:5); recognizing the fact, however, that the latter is always conditioned upon the former.
[“They have shown themselves worthy to be regarded as followers of the Lamb; or they have a character that is fitted for Heaven. The declaration is not that they have any claim to Heaven, on the ground of their own merit, or that it will be in virtue of their own works that they will be received there; but that there is a fitness or propriety that they should thus appear in Heaven.” Barnes. “God’s word does not refuse to ascribe a worthiness to men (Mat_10:10-11; Mat_22:8; Luk_20:35; Luk_21:36; 2Th_1:5; 2Th_1:11); although this worthiness must ever be contemplated as relative and not absolute. … There are those who ‘are worthy,’ according to the rules which free grace has, although there are none according to those which strict justice might have laid down.” Trench.—E. R. C.]
Rev_3:5. He that conquereth shall thus be clothed in white garments.—The ever-recurring term ὁ νικῶν has here the special meaning of victory over temptation emanating from the subtle worldly-mindedness and slumbrous spirit of the church. The faithful in Ephesus had to overcome the temptation of excess in external works, amid which the first love grew cold. Believers in Smyrna had to overcome the trial of persecutions unto death. Believers in Pergamus were to overcome anomianism. Believers in Thyatira must be victorious over fanaticism. The Philadelphians were tried with Judaism, and the Laodiceans, finally, had the temptation to self-righteousness to surmount. The richer expression, he shall thus be clothed, etc., gives prominence to the free act of grace in the righteous recompense; as does also the clause:
And I will not [Lange, never (οὐ μὴ)] wipe out his name.—His name was entered in the Book of Life simultaneously with his calling and conversion. Such names may, however, be wiped out—a destiny awaiting many in Sardis.2 But the names of the conquerors shall never be wiped out.
The figurative expression, book of Life, borrowed from the registers of the living citizens of a community (see Düsterd.), like the idea of calling, is not always used in exactly the same sense; sometimes it predominantly denotes the actualized ethical relation of man to God (Psa_69:28; Isa_4:3; Dan_12:1; Rev_20:12; Rev_21:27); sometimes it is pre-eminently, significant of the relation and conduct of Divine grace to man (Exo_32:32; Psa_139:16; Rev_17:8); and sometimes the predominant idea is that of the concrete unity of the two elements which we have mentioned, the reciprocal relation of which is always implied (Php_4:3; Rev_13:8).3
But I will confess his name.—Third promise. The recurrence of the name is significant. It is the mark of a dead church-life that only a collective Christianity remains, that Christian names, pronounced personalities, are lacking. In Sardis, however, there are still a few such names; and these the Lord will confess by name as His own, before God His Father, and before the angels of God—in the most glorious circle of life, therefore. Highest glorification of the highest definiteness of their personal life! [Comp. Mat_10:32 Luk_12:8.—E. R. C.]
[“It is a very instructive fact, that everywhere else in the epistles to all the churches, save only to this and to Laodicea, there is mention of some burden to be borne, of a conflict either with foes within the church or without, or with both. Only in these two nothing of the kind occurs. The exceptions are very significant. There is no need to assume that the church at Sardis had openly coalesced and joined hands with the heathen world; this would in those days have been impossible; nor yet that it had renounced the appearance of opposition to the world. But the two tacitly understood one another. This church had nothing of the spirit of the Two Witnesses, of whom we read that they ‘tormented them that dwelt on the earth’ (Rev_11:10), tormented them, that is, by their witness for a God of truth and holiness and love, Whom the dwellers on the earth were determined not to know. … The world could endure it because it too was a world.” Trench.—E. R. C.]
SIXTH EPISTLE. PHILADELPHIA
Rev_3:7-13
Philadelphia, like Sardis, was situated in Lydia, about thirteen hours’ journey southeast from that capital. It derived its name from its builder, the Pergamese king, Attalus Philadelphus. Though frequently visited by earthquakes, the city still exists under the Turkish name of Alah Shehr, a living monument of the faithfulness of Divine promises in the midst of ruins. Comp. the Encyclopædias and Books of Travel. On its church-historical reminiscences see Düsterdieck. In Philadelphia, as in Smyrna, there was a “synagogue of Satan,” i. e., an association of Judaistic enemies of Christianity, in opposition to which the epistle, whose images are theocratic throughout (see Düsterdieck), signalizes the church as the true people of God.
Rev_3:7. These things saith the Holy [One], the True [One].—The Lord’s self-designation is here in perfect accordance with the theocratic idea of God, and that in reference to the question as to which is the true people of God. The description is connected as a whole with the import of the Son of Man, Rev_1:13, in accordance with Daniel 7.
The Holy One.—The specific predicate of the God of Israel, the Sanctifier to Himself of a peculiar people—or a people of possession (see 1Pe_1:15-16). “Christ, rejected and blasphemed by the synagogue of Satan, is nevertheless, simply and plainly the Holy One, the true Messiah and Lord of the Church” (Düsterdieck). The personal manifestation of the God of Israel, the Founder of the Theocracy. Düsterdieck (p. 186) cites a number of instances of the misapprehension or ignoring of this obvious reference.
[Comp. Luk_1:35; Act_3:14. “Christ claims here to be ὁ Ἅγιος, the Holy One; cf. Act_2:27; Act_13:35; Heb_7:26. In all these passages, however, ὅσιος, not ἅγιος, stands in the original; nor are these words perfectly identical, though we have but the one word, ‘holy,’ by which to render them both. The ὅσιος, if a man, is one who diligently observes all the sanctities of religion; anterior, many of them, to all law, the ‘jus et fas,’ with a stress on the latter word. If applied to God, as at Rev_15:4; Rev_16:5, and here, He is One in whom these eternal sanctities reside; who is Himself the root and ground of them. The ἅγιος is the separate from evil, with the perfect hatred of the evil. But holiness, in this absolute sense, belongs only to God; not to angels, for He chargeth His angels with folly (Job_4:18), and certainly not to men (Jam_3:2; Gen_6:5; Gen_8:21). He then that claims to be ‘the Holy One’—a name which Jehovah in the Old Testament continually claims for Himself—implicitly claims to be God,” etc. Trench. “As opposed to the συναγωγὴ τοῦ σατανᾶ below.” Alford.—E. R. C.]
The True One.—In the New Testament, the term, “the true” [der Wahrhaftige, ἀληθινός, veritable, see Comm. on John, p. 460, Am. Ed.—E. R. C.] denotes not only the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (2Co_1:20), but also the substance of the Old Testament shadowy sketches (Joh_1:17). Accordingly, the attribute ἀληθινός is related to ἀληθής, and founded thereupon; the two epithets are contra-distinguished, however, by the pre-eminence of the idea of substantiality. of true spiritual life, in ἀληθινός, Comp. the series of interpretations cited by Düsterd. The blasphemies of the Jews who refused to see in the Lord aught but the hanged one”—hence, a false Messiah—are correctly pointed out by Hengstenberg as the antithesis to ὁ ἀληθινός. As Christ is personal holiness as the realized fundamental idea of the Old Covenant, so He is also the True in the sense of the fulfillment and essential consummation of the Old Testament, the perfect essential form of the Messiah.
[“We must not confound ἀληθινός (=verus) with ἀληθής (=verax). God is ἀληθής (=ἀψενδής, Tit_1:2), as He cannot lie, the truth-speaking and truth-loving God; with whom every word is Yea and Amen; but He is ἀληθινός, as fulfilling all that is involved in the name God, in contrast with those which are called gods, … That is άληθινός, which fulfills its own idea to the highest possible point. … Nor is άλιθινός only, as in this case of God, the true as contrasted with the absolutely false; but as contrasted with the subordinately true, with all imperfect and partial realizations of the idea; thus Christ is φῶς ἀληθινόν (Joh_1:9; 1Jn_2:8), ἄρτος ἀληθινός (Joh_6:32), ἄμπελος ἀληθινή (Joh_15:1); there is a σκηνὴ αληθινή in Heaven (Heb_8:2). In each of these cases, the antithesis is not between the true and the false, but between the perfect and the imperfect, the idea fully and the idea only partially realized; for John the Baptist also was a light (Joh_5:35), and Moses gave bread from Heaven (Psa_105:40), and Israel was a vine of God’s planting (Psa_80:8), and the tabernacle pitched in the wilderness, if only a figure of the true, was yet pitched at God’s express command (Exodus 25).” Trench.—E. R. C.]
That hath the key of David.—The key of the house of David was kept by the steward of his house; it was the province of this official to grant or deny access to the king, and to decide all questions of presentability at court. According to Isa_22:22, the key was given to Eliakim, after being taken from Shebna.4 This key to the perfected theocratic Royal House, the House of the Messiah, the Messianic Kingdom, is now held by Christ the Messiah Himself (not by a steward); He and He alone decides, first, by His word and Spirit in the Church, and, again, by His authoritative rule in the world, the question as to who belongs to the people of God. And thus He forms in His Church the contrast to the synagogue of Satan. That which the Judaists would exclude, He includes; what they would include, He excludes. The difference, however, is that their communion, like their excommunication, is a mere delusion, whilst His acts have absolute reality. When He opens, none can shut: the world cannot take away His peace—no, not even from the martyr. When He shuts, none can open: the sentence of judgment which He by His Spirit executes in the spirits of men, can be invalidated by no fanatical self-delusion, or deception on the part of others.
[“Christ teaches us here that He has not so committed the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, with the power of binding and loosing, to any other, His servants, here, but that He still retains the highest administration of them in His own hands.” Trench. Is not “emphasis” to be laid on “the ὁ ἔχων”—the “steward” may hold the key, subject to the authority of the Master, the latter alone can be said to possess it? This view supports the interpretation of Düsterdieck given below.—E. R. C.]
Various interpretations. Christ alone opens the Holy Scriptures; Lyra.5 The cross of Christ instrumentum omnipotentiæ; Alcasar. That supreme power which is the property of the Lord, Mat_28:18; Düsterd. and others. Christ, as Lord and King of the Kingdom, admits into it and excludes from it (Düsterd., Hengst., and others).
Rev_3:8. I know thy works.—We do not, with Bengel and others, pass over the next word ἰδού, etc., and find a specification of the works in the subsequent ὅτι, etc.; but neither are they “destitute of further qualification” [Düsterd.]; on the contrary, they contain the motive of the following: Behold I have given [δέδωκα, etc.]; they are consequently an expression of full recognition.
Before thee a door opened.—Does this mean: The door into the Kingdom of God is opened for the church, though the Judaists would fain shut it, or is it a door to successful activity?6 The former apprehension, with various modifications, is supported by Bengel, Hengstenberg and others (see Düsterd.), whilst most commentators favor the latter conception, interpreting the passage as referring to the church’s opportunity for missionary labors. Düsterdieck declares in favor of the latter view, with reference to Rev_3:9. The connection may also be thus construed, however: So far from thine adversaries being able to shut the door upon thee, they shall be constrained to turn to thine open door themselves. If we translate thus: Behold, I have determined that the door shall stand open before thee, we include both particulars, and it generally proves that that church which itself enters into the Kingdom of God draws in others with it.7
For thou hast little strength.—This must not be understood as indicative of spiritual weakness (a lack of miraculous gifts, Lyra), but of the external smallness or insignificance of the church (Düsterd., et al. [“The words ‘little strength’ may refer either to the smallness of the number; … or it may refer to the spiritual life and energy of the church—meaning that, though feeble, their vital energy was not wholly gone. The more natural interpretation seems to be to refer it to the latter.” Barnes. It may refer to either of these, or both; conjoined with their lack of temporal wealth.—E. R. C.]). Though thou hast little strength [“not as E. V., ‘a little strength,’ thereby virtually reversing the sense of the words: μικρὰν ἔχεις δύν. importing ‘thy strength is but small,’ and the E. V. importing ‘thou hast some strength,’ the fact of its smallness vanishing under the indefinite term ‘a little,’ … and (using that little well).” Alford.—E. R. C.].—The sense is, though thou hast little strength, Thou didst keep, etc. [This idea of the German, weakened by the parenthesis, must be preserved.]
Thou didst keep My word, etc.—The church has already proved its faithfulness by confessing Christ in tribulation; therefore the Lord will grant it spiritual success exceeding the measure of its external power.
Rev_3:9. Behold, I will make them [Lange: I give (δίδωμι) that some] of the synagogue of Satan.—Here also that community of Judaism which assumes to be the true Israel,8 is denominated a synagogue of Satan, with the same energy with which the Johannean Gospel opposes Judaism. Even from this community of demonic adversaries, the church shall win some souls. Here, too, the διδῶμι has more the appearance of an enactment than of a gift. He makes a disposition of these few already; subsequently He causes them to come.
And fall down before thy feet.—As it was prophesied in the Old Testament that the Gentiles should be converted and come unto Zion to the Jews, so here it is predicted that the Judaizing Jews shall in their conversion come to the Church of Christ as the true Zion. Even the προσκυνεῖν, as an expression of homage, and, at the same time, humiliation before the Church of Salvation and of the presence of the Lord, is heard in the following prophecies: Psa_72:9; Isa_2:3; Isa_49:23; Isa_60:14; Zec_8:20. On the misinterpretation of this passage in favor of the Catholic Hierarchy, see Düsterd., p. 192.9
And to know that I have loved thee.—Ἠγάπησα denotes a continuous love, begun in the past. Düsterd. refers this demonstration of love to the death of Christ, in which case Philadelphia would only represent the Church total. Others interpret the word as indicative of the superiority or excellence of the Philadelphian church. De Wette: That I have known thee to be a faithful church. Both considerations must, however, be recognized in their unity: That My love to thee has become manifest in thy life of faith. The recognition of Christ is implied with the recognition of the church, and as the real motive of the latter. Düsterdieck gives prominence to the thought that the Jews shall know the love of Christ as manifested in His death upon the cross, whilst now they still blaspheme Him as a crucified malefactor.
Rev_3:10. Because thou didst keep the word of My patience [endurance].—Düsterdieck makes the pronoun μου relate, not to τῆς ὑπομ. alone (like Ewald, De Wette, Hengstenberg and others), but to the whole conception τὸν λόγ., etc. (with Grot., Eichhorn and others). But the reading: My word of patience, gives rise to obscurity, suggesting the thought that the words of other teachers have glorified patience. There are also different explanations of this apprehension of the sentence. The word which, among other things, prescribes patience (Heinrich); The word which bestows and demands patience (Düsterd.). Isolated utterances of Christ, recommending patience—Christian patience (Hengstenberg. This interpretation approximates the other).
[Barnes: “My word commanding or enjoining patience, that is, thou hast manifested the patience which I require.” Trench: “Better, however, to take the whole Gospel as ‘the word of Christ’s patience,’ everywhere teaching, as it does, the need of a patient waiting for Christ, till He, the waited-for so long, shall at length appear.” The translation, constancy or endurance, or steadfastness, is altogether to be preferred; the idea of patience is rather that of uncomplaining submission under trial—in this sense it is a misnomer to speak of the ὑπομονή of Job, Jam_5:11.—E. R. C.]
The word of the patience of Christ is also variously interpreted as the word of My passion, My constancy (Calov.). The word which, as the word concerning the cross, demands, in respect of its purport and in respect of the obligation which it imposes, steadfastness such as is peculiar to Christ and His people (Vitringa). We read: The word ripened in persecution into a word of perseverance, to the martyrs’ testimony [martyrium], to confession. Hence: Thou hast kept my word in the fiery trial of temptation and opposition, when the word concerning the cross became a word of the cross;—the word in the beauty and power of the cross. The Holy Scriptures contain multiplied references to ὑπομονή; particularly Rev_2:2-3; Rev_2:19; Rev_13:10; Rev_14:12 [Luk_8:15; Luk_21:19; Rom_2:7; Rom_5:3-4; Rom_8:25; Rom_15:4-5; 1Th_1:3; 2Th_3:5; Heb_10:36; Heb_12:1; Jam_1:3-4, etc.—E. R. C.]
I also will keep thee.—Three-fold interpretation: [1] Thou shalt be excepted from the hour of temptation. [2] Thou, with all the faithful, shalt be preserved from the plagues of unbelievers. [3] Thou shalt be kept through exterior temptation; it shall not become to thee an internal temptation to apostasy (Vitringa, Hengstenb., and others). Düsterdieck: “The expression τηρ. ἐκ must be distinguished from τηρ. ἀπό.”
From the hour of temptation.—The hour of temptation is the culminating point in the time of temptation (Luk_22:53), the moment of the crisis. In general, doubtless, the severe conflicts of faith which the Church must undergo previous to the Coming of the Lord (see Rev_3:11) are here intended, as bringing with them the danger of apostasy.
More particular definitions: The preservation represented Rev_7:3 sqq. (Ewald, De Wette); the tribulations of Antichrist (Primasius); in addition to these, the plagues of the sixth angel (Bede).—Needless limitations.
False modifications: The persecutions under Nero (Grotius), Domitian (Lyra), Trajan (Alcasar and others).
[A πειρασμός is aught that tends to cause to swerve from the right (either in feeling or action), whether it be a promise, an allurement, a prophecy of evil, a threat, a persecution, or an affliction (see Luk_4:13; Luk_8:13; Luk_22:28; Luk_22:40; Luk_22:46; Act_20:19; 1Co_10:13; Gal_4:14; 1Ti_6:9; 1Pe_1:6; 1Pe_4:12, etc.). It is so styled because it is a trial, a test, of faith or the spirit of obedience. The hour of temptation (testing) is doubtless that special period referred to, 1Pe_4:12 (τῇ ἐν ὑμῖν πυρώσει πρὸς πειρασμὸν ὑμῖν γινομένῃ), and by our Lord, Mat_24:21-22; (a period both of testing and of punishment—primarily, however, of the former). This special period, be it observed, is distinguished from the period of ordinary πειρασμοί referred to 1Pe_1:6, and Mat_24:4-13. It is also to be observed that the promise is not of preservation in trial, as was the promise to Peter, Luk_22:32; but of preservation from (ἐκ) the hour or period of trial (comp. 2Pe_2:9). The idea of this promise seems to be, that as the Philadelphians had continued steadfast throughout the period of ordinary testing, they were to be exempted from those extraordinary πειρασμοί which were to come upon the world.—E. R. C.]
Which is about to come upon all the world [οἰκουμένη].—Though it is relatively true that the Roman empire was the οἰκουμένη [Grot., Vitr., Stern, et al.].10 it must here symbolize the whole of the inhabited world. This is indicated by the next clause.
To try them that dwell upon the earth.—According to Düsterdieck, “the mass of mankind in antithesis to believers, redeemed out of all peoples.” The following passages are cited in illustration of this view: Rev_6:10; Rev_11:10; Rev_13:8; Rev_13:14. It results from Rev_13:8, however, that the inhabitants of the earth are more or less identified with unbelievers only on account of the great majority of the latter over believers. It is true that the temptation comes, as a judicial infliction, only upon the unbelieving; yet the tempting fact comes, as a rigorous trial, upon believers also, in order to their confirmation. This result they owe to Divine preservation.
Rev_3:11. I come quickly.—Constantly recurring announcement, designed for the awakenkening and terrifying of foes and the consolation and elevation of the pious. We would again insist upon the fact, that it is no definition of time in the common chronological sense; it is to be apprehended in an exalted religious sense. The term ταχύ always involves the surprisingness of the coming, as unexpected, sudden, terribly early and terribly great.
Hold that fast which thou hast.—See Rev_1:3; Rev_2:25; Rev_22:7. Cherish the charism peculiar to thee. The ever new reproduction and more thorough acquisition of the thing possessed is expressed, together with the holding of it fast (Mat_24:13). Here the charism of steadfastness in the faith is denoted. [“Whatever of truth and piety you now possess.” Barnes.—E. R. C.]
That no man take thy crown.—That no man despoil thee of the victor’s wreath.11 that awaiteth thee at the goal; i. e. that none cause thee to lose it. Not, therefore, in the sense of another’s coming before and winning it in the church’s stead (Grot.). Μηδείς, however, represents the power of temptation, finally concentrated in Antichrist, with reference to the competitive contests of antiquity.
Rev_3:12. A pillar in the temple.—The distinct promise corresponds again to the distinct conduct of the church: 1. A pillar in the spiritual Temple of God; 2. An eternally consecrate inmate of the Temple; 3. Adorned with the three-fold inscription: a. With the name of God; the complete expression of perfect religiousness. b. With the name of the City of God; the complete expression of perfect ideal churchliness. c. With the name of Christ; the complete expression of perfect Christliness, which embraces in one both the foregoing considerations. This promise will, of course, not be perfectly fulfilled until the Coming of the Lord; yet we cannot, with Düsterdieck, regard its fulfillment as exclusively subsequent to the second Advent. Düsterdieck not only denies the reference of the promise to the Church Militant alone (Lyra, Grot., and others), but he even disputes its application to it and the Church Triumphant (Vitringa and others). [“The promised reward of faithfulness here is, that he who is victorious would be honored as if he were a pillar or column in the Temple of God. Such a pillar or column was partly for ornament, and partly for support, and the idea here is, that in that Temple he would contribute to its beauty and the justness of its proportions, and would at the same time be honored as if he were a pillar which was necessary for the support of the Temple.”—Barnes. Alford judiciously observes: “It is no objection to this view (substantially the one set forth above) that in the heavenly Jerusalem there is no Temple, Rev_21:22; but rather a corroboration of it. That glorious City is all Temple, and Christ’s victorious ones are its living stones and pillars. Thus, as Düsterdieck well remarks, the imagery of the Church Militant 1Co_3:16 sqq.; Eph_2:19 sqq.; 1Pe_2:5 sqq., is transferred to the Church Triumphant, but with this difference, that the saints are no longer the stones merely, but now the pillars themselves, standing on their immovable firmness,” This passage is but one of many which set forth the pre-eminence of the victorious saints of the present dispensation, in the future æon of blessedness and glory. They are the ἀπαρχή, the first fruits, Jam_1:18; Rev_14:4; the bride, Rev_21:9; kings in the Kingdom then to be established, Rev_2:26; Rev_3:22; priests in the holy congregation, Rev_1:6; Rev_5:10; Rev_20:6; pillars in the heavenly Temple. (See also note on Rev_2:26.)—E. R. C.]
And he shall nevermore go out. (Καὶ ἔξω οὐ μὴ ἐξέλθη ἔτι.)—The pillar shall not be put out, according to Ewald and others. But there is doubtless a change of figure. The victor can no more fall away or be separated from the blessed fellowship of God. His secure position in the eternal Temple as a pillar, for firmness and beauty, is only equalled by his sure establishment therein as an inmate. [Continued purity, and exemption from association with anything impure, seem to be emphasized by the use of ἔξω; comp. Rev_22:15.—E. R. C.] Hengstenberg justly says, that this applies to every Christian, for to be a Christian is to be a victor. The inscription also refers to the victor, not to the pillar, see Rev_14:1. On the reference of the name of Jesus to Jesuani, Jesuitæ, see Düsterdieck’s note, p. 197.
An analogue of the three names in Jewish Theology, see in Düsterdieck, p. 198.
Which cometh down out of heaven.—See Revelation 21. As the Church in this world is ever growing more spiritual, so the Church in the other world is constantly becoming more real, more corporeal, until its perfect worldly appearance is consummated in the resurrection. [See under Rev_21:1-3.—E. R. C.]
As the three names, in close connection with the Trinity, are expressive of a three-fold manifestation of the Divine image in the beatified one, so they also denote a three-fold appertinency or consecrateness on his part.
[And I will write upon him the name of my God.—“Christ will write this name of His God upon him that overcometh—not upon it, the pillar. It is true, indeed, that there were sometimes inscriptions on pillars, which yet would be στῆλαι, rather than στῦλοι; but the image of the pillar is now dismissed, and only the conqueror remains. In confirmation of this, that it is the person, and not the pillar, whom the Lord contemplates now, we find, further on, the redeemed having the name of God, or the seal of God on their foreheads (Rev_7:3; Rev_9:4; Rev_14:1; Rev_22:4), with probable allusion to the golden plate, inscribed with the name of Jehovah which the High Priest wore upon his (Exo_28:36-38). In the ‘Kingdom of priests’ this dignity shall not be any more the singular prerogative of one, but the common dignity of all.” Trench.—And the name of the City of my God.—“What the name of this City is, we are told Eze_48:35 : ‘The Lord is there.’ Any other name would but faintly express the glory of it; ‘having the glory of God’ (Rev_21:11; Rev_21:23). He that has the name of this City written upon him is hereby declared free of it. Even while on earth he had his true πολίτευμα ἐν οὐρανοῖς (Php_3:20; see Ellicott thereon), the state, city or country to which he belonged was a heavenly one; but still his citizenship was latent; he was one of God’s hidden ones; but now he is openly avouched, and has a right to enter in by the gates to the City (Rev_22:14).” Trench.—And.… My new name.—“This ‘new name’ is not ‘The Word of God’ (Rev_19:13), nor yet ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’ (Rev_19:16). It is true that both of these appear in this Book as names of Christ; but at the same time neither of them could be called His new name; the faithful having been familiar with them from the beginning; but the ‘new name’ is that mysterious and, in the necessity of things, uncommunicated and, for the present time, incommunicable name, which, in that same sublimest of all visions, is referred to: ‘He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself’ (Rev_19:12); for none but God can search out the deep things of God (1Co_2:12; cf. Mat_11:27; Jdg_13:18). But the mystery of this new name, which no man by searching could find out, which in this present condition no man is so much as capable of receiving, shall be imparted to the saints and citizens of the New Jerusalem. They shall know even as they are known (1Co_13:12).” Trench.—E. R. C.]
[The following extract from Gibbon’s Decline and Fall (Rev 54) will be read with interest in this connection: “Two Turkish chieftains, Sarukhan and Aidin, left their names to their conquests, and their conquests to their posterity. The captivity or ruin of the seven churches of Asia was consummated; and the barbarous lords of Ionia and Lydia still trample on the monuments of classic and Christian antiquity. In the loss, of Ephesus, the Christians deplored the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick, of the Revelation; the desolation is complete; and the temple of Diana, or the church of Mary, will equally elude the search of the curious traveller. The circus and three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sardis is reduced to a miserable village; the God of Mahomet, without a rival or a son, is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira and Pergamus; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy, or courage. At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emperors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above four-score years; and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect, a column in a scene of ruins; a pleasing example that the paths of honor and safety may sometimes be the same.”—E. R. C.]
SEVENTH EPISTLE. LAODICEA
Rev_3:14-22
Our Laodicea was situated on the river Lycus in Phrygia Major, in the neighborhood of Colosse and Hierapolis; it was a large and rich commercial city. Bearing earlier the name of Diospolis, and then of Rhoas, it received its subsequent appellation in honor of Laodice, the Queen of King Antiochus II. In the year 62 this city, like Colosse and Hierapolis, was destroyed by an earthquake, but was speedily rebuilt. An insignificant town called Eskihissar, surrounded by ruins, now forms the last trace of its existence. Laodicea was the last of the seven churches; hence, a circular letter to these (the Epistle to the Ephesians) had, on reaching this city, arrived at its final destination, and from there an exchange could readily be effected between it and the Epistle to the Colossians (Col_4:16). Notwithstanding this, Winer still talks of a lost letter from Paul to the Laodiceans.12 The bearer of the seven epistles, having gone northward from Ephesus through Smyrna to Pergamus, turned southward to Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea; thus traversing a trivium and a quadrivium.13
For further particulars, see Encyclopedias, Books of Travel and Geographical works.
“A bishop and martyr of Laodicea, called Sagaris (A. D. 170), is mentioned by Eusebius, H. E. iv. 20; v. 24; even Archippus (Col_4:17) is named as bishop (Const. Apost. viii. 46). Each has been regarded as the angel of the church; and in the expression ἡ ἀρχὴ τ. κτ., Rev_3:14, Hengstenberg has even discovered an allusion to the name of Arch-ippus as the most influential leader of the church at Laodicea.” (Duesterdieck.) A curious discovery, certainly!
Colossians 2. does not distinctly prove, as Düsterdieck assumes, that in Paul’s time the Laodicean church, as well as that at Colosse, was in danger from erroneous theosophic doctrines, though Vitringa, with astonishing acuteness, maintained that there were traces of such things in the very epistle that we are examining (Düsterdieck, p. 199). The spiritual condition of the church may be clearly gathered from the epistle addressed to it, but cannot be explained from the external circumstances of the church itself.
Rev_3:14.14 These things saith the Amen.—Here also a harmony of all parts may be taken for granted at the very outset. The central point of all the terms contained in the epistle lies, manifestly, in the false self-gratulation of the Church as expressed in Rev_3:17. In the first place, such a morbid assurance of completeness, involving a cessation from striving, and even from aspiration—such a conviction of having arrived at a state in which all need is done away with (πεπλούτηκα)15—does not arise in a healthy condition of faith, for even on the firm ground of the peace of reconciliation, such a condition implies—nay, is itself—a longing and striving after perfection (the true righteousness of faith, an agonizing after righteousness of life).
But, again, this assurance of completeness and consequent stoppage of all exertion does not spring into existence where there is a mere legal holiness of works; the goad of the law is constantly rousing those under its bondage—or, at least, the worthier portion of them—from the false repose to which they, for a moment, may have yielded, and urging them on. Spiritualism [Spiritualismus],16 however, is always and everywhere thoroughly satisfied, whether it appear in a mystical form, declaring, I too am a son of God, or in a rationalistic guise, affirming that there is no such thing as a son of God, no such thing as the Atonement. Spiritualism [Spiritualismus] has the property of not being warm, because it has no spiritual [geistlich] blood, no social, historical or personal life; but neither is it cold, for it has its religious views and opinions, its party even, for which it can, for a time, be enthusiastically or fanatically hot. It does not, however, grow warm for the living fellowship of God and the Church of God. Now this spiritualism [Spiritualismus] may, in Laodicea, as well as elsewhere, have been based upon the antecedents of theoretical, theosophic heresies; at the writing of the epistle, however, these heresies were a vanishing point in the background; the enthusiastic soarings in the clouds had been succeeded by the reactionary fall of satiety and lukewarmness. Hence the word of revelation does not directly attack theoretical errors of the church, but its practical appearance, so specifically modified, however, that we perceive the epistle to be also aimed at the germs of the church’s corruption latent in the background.
The self-designation of Christ is the first instrument for the accomplishment of the design we have just stated. The Amen, the faithful and true [genuine] Witness, the Originator (ἀρχή, see Col_1:18) of the creation and redemption.17 He is the Amen as the perfect and complete personal conclusion of the revelations of God, beyond Whom there can be no angelic or philosophic or spiritualistic [spiritualistisch] revelations,18—the focus of the Divine sun of revelation, through Whom alone true vital heat is to be got. He is the faithful and essential, perfectly historical and real Witness of the truth, in face of Whom the inflated illusions, images and systems of spiritualism [Spiritualismus] must vanish away. He is the living, personal Principle of the whole creation; hence there is no principial life of spirits or spirit outside of that cosmical order of the Kingdom, which is comprehended in Him.
With this description of Christ, the description of the church corresponds. Its works are specifically merged in its character, and this character is lukewarmness—not lukewarmness as positivism, however, but as a double negation: neither cold nor warm. If the church were cold, if it were a stranger to Christ, like the heathen, or even if it cherished a positive antipathy against Him, He would not approach it in the character of a Judge; it might yet become, warm. It has just enough Christianity to come under condemnation, but not sufficient to attain to blessedness, for the reason that it is not warm.
This condition, in its approximation to eternal hopelessness, wrings from the Judge Himself, in His blessed majesty, a sigh that seems laden with a human grief: O that thou wert cold or warm!—Again, the condition of the church is illustrated by the figure of lukewarm water, which, when drunk, causes nausea: I am about to (not yet: I will) spew thee out of my mouth; i. e. reject with lively indignation and repulsion.
Not cold, not warm, but lukewarm. This attitude toward the Lord, His word and His Church, is based upon the church’s conduct toward itself, upon its spiritual [geistlich] pride. This pride is likewise expressed three-foldly: I am rich—I have become rich to excess or satiety—I have need of nothing (or, as it may also be rendered, no person, no Saviour, no fellowship). The first declaration is expressive of the church’s self-deception in imagining that it can be rich independently. In the second declaration, the church intimates, that in some way or other (by an arcanum or a would-be new idea) it has become rich, and that its wealth is forever an accomplished fact. In the third declaration, the fearful consequence is announced: it has need of nothing more; it is subjectively free from all heavenly and earthly props; its satiety is the complete caricature of the blessedness of true faith, having an imaginary exaltation in an imaginary omniscience.
Its false self-appraisement is met by the annihilating sentence of the Lord:
Thou knowest not.—Ignorance, and that in relation to the most immediate and necessary knowledge—ignorance of its own condition; ignorance in its most aggravated form—self-blinding, constitutes the basis of its wants. The church (represented by her character, her masculine life-picture) knows not that she is, on the one hand, the wretched one, the specific bearer of the burdens of a salvationless state; and, on the other, the one pitiable above all Others, on whom, also, the Lord wills yet to have pity in consideration of her ignorance (see Luk_23:34). The three fundamental traits of this woful picture are: poor and blind and naked; poor in reference to the true riches of life; blind in reference to truth and knowledge; naked in reference to the utter want of a truly spiritual [geistlich] appearance in genuine good works or signs and evidences of the inner life.
The counsel of the Lord is in harmony with the situation. The church is admonished to buy all that she lacks of Him. For of Him alone can the beggar buy—buy for nought (Isa_55:1), and yet buy, inasmuch as it is only under moral forms and conditions that the free gift is received; its reception implies the surrender of a whole world of counterfeit value, and thus there is a difference between its bestowal and the actual giving of alms to a beggar. The first proffer is that of gold—gold purified by fire; the heavenly riches of righteousness, in the sterling quality of the fidelity of faith; purified by the fire of tribulation, and thus proven to be genuine gold. The spiritualist [Spiritualist] dares not expose his gilded fancies to the fire of tribulation. The church’s nakedness is the second thing provided for—in advance of her blindness; and this is, doubtless, because a modicum of sight is pre-supposed in the first and second acts, and because it is high time that the manifestation of the shame of her nakedness, appearing, as it necessarily will, in moral scandals, should be averted by demonstrations of Christian life, in white garments, which are connected with the gold of faith. Then comes the eye-salve of truth, in order to the gaining of true and perfect sight in Christian knowledge, from which the spiritualist [Spiritualist], in his false conceit of knowledge, is most remote.
The severe utterance of the Lord is next exempted from all suspicion of partyism, party-strife or school-wrangling. The truth of Christ, under whatever aspect it is viewed, always turns to rebuke when it encounters falsehood; and the very fact of its rebuking and chastening is designed to teach the person thus exercised, that the love of Christ has not yet given him up, and that, on the contrary, it would fain win him by these means of rebuke and chastening—that it is thereby calling him to repentance.
Rev_3:20. Behold, I stand at the door.—With the peculiar species of sinfulness in the condition of the church, the peculiar form of repentance corresponds. An obliteration of the consciousness of man’s liberty of election is partly the cause, partly the effect of spiritualism [Spiritualismus]; the nerve of moral freedom, is paralyzed, and the sense of moral greatness, as exemplified in the history of the world, is obscured. Therefore Christ—Who has not for a long time been, in this high-flying spiritualism [Spiritualismus]—stands at the door of the soul and knocks. He finds the door shut; still He does not burst it in; He knocks and begs for admittance. In face of this conduct of the royally Free, the unfree should rouse him from his palsy. If any man.—This, indeed, is not to be expected of the mass of blinded ones, yet it may be hoped of individuals.
If any man hear My voice.—There is help for any one who still has an ear for this—for the affectionate tone, the loving call of Jesus’ voice. Amid his spiritual [geistig] waverings betwixt light and darkness, his heart, constantly declining, as it is, into an indifference to personal love, is not yet quite dead. This is proved by the fact of his opening the door to the Lord, by his reception of the personal Christ as his Friend and Saviour. And what then? With the peculiar modification of repentance, the peculiar modification of grace corresponds. The subsequent word of promise is, assuredly, meant for all who are converted, but especially is it intended for the returning spiritualist [Spiritualist].
I will come in to him and will sup with him.–In the case of the spiritualist [Spiritualist], above all, the new life must take the form of the most intimate communion, of personal fellowship with the Lord. This communion is primarily Christ’s supping with him; his heart, his property, his bread henceforth belong to the Christian fellowship. But the higher form of this new life is that he, on his part, sups with Christ, that he becomes a participant in His blessed, heavenly life. And though the general reference here is to the meal of vital communion, the restoration of the spiritualist [Spiritualist] will also be particularly evidenced in a proper appreciation of the Lord’s Supper, the social Christ, a Sacrament which he has before despised in his imagined self-sufficiency.
In this epistle, as in all the others, the concluding promise to the victor is in perfect harmony with all that has gone before.
Rev_3:21. To him that conquereth will I grant to sit with Me on My throne.—The throne of Christ is the glory of His Kingdom—the sitting on His throne, the personal vital possession of this glory; the sitting with Him on this throne is, therefore, the co-enjoyment of this highest definiteness of perfected personal life. This future forms the extremest contrast to the expectation of the spiritualistic [spiritualistisch] indifferentist who holds that he is to be swallowed up in the waves of the general, impersonal world-essence.
But the promise unfolds still greater glories:
And sat down with My Father.—We can imagine nothing concerning a fellowship in God’s personal exaltation above the world, above the transitoriness, unfreeness, and imperfection of the world. The words at the head of this paragraph, however, unmistakably form the culminating point of the contrast to the nihilistic views of the indifferentistically lukewarm mind, the positive counterpart of the negative Buddhistic Nirvana.
The solemn conclusion appeals for the last time to the organization, the capacity, the destination of man; for the last time to man’s freedom and to the first stirrings of freedom in hearing and obeying; for the last time to the high calling of the Christian—to hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. The words this time have a seven-fold weight, for they form the conclusion not only of the last letter, but of all the foregoing epistles likewise.
The more general import of Christ’s declaration, Behold, I stand at the door, is this, viz., that the last epistle sketches the last form of the church, and touches upon the Parousia.
After this general consideration of the final epistle, we present, briefly, the following exegesis of particular points:
Rev_3:14. The Amen, 2Co_1:20.—[“Referring, as is the case in every epistle, to some attribute of the speaker adapted to impress their minds, or to give peculiar force to what He was about to say to that particular church. … The word amen means true, certain, faithful; and, as used here, it means that He to whom it is applied is eminently true and faithful. What He affirms is true; what He promises or threatens is certain. Himself characterized by sincerity and truth (2Co_1:20), He can look with approbation only on the same in others; and hence He looks with displeasure on the lukewarmness which, from its very nature, always approximates insincerity.” Barnes. It may also be observed that a state of lukewarmness is a state of indifferentism, of partial unbelievingness. The lukewarm hear as though the promises and threats of their teachers were as vain as the wind. It was most appropriate that the Great Teacher should endeavor to arouse the Laodiceans to heed His words, by an epithet declarative of His sincerity, and the truth and certainty of His declarations.—E. R. C.] The Hebrew expression is, doubtless, thoroughly akin to the subsequent Greek terms (Bengel and others); yet there is a distinction between absolute certainty and absolute faithfulness and actuality, and we have here no mere climax (Düsterdieck).—See Düsterd. on unsupported interpretations.
[The faithful and true Witness—“He is ‘the Witness, the faithful and the true,’ in that He speaks what He knows, and testifies what He has seen. The thought is a favorite and ever-recurring one in the Gospel of St. John (Joh_3:11; Joh_3:32-33); but does not appear in any other. … Of the two epithets, the first, πιστός, expresses His entire trustworthiness. The word is employed in the New Testament, as elsewhere—now as trusting or believing (Joh_20:27 : Act_14:1), now as trustworthy or to be believed (2Ti_2:22; 1Th_5:27; 1Jn_1:9). Men may be πιστοί in both senses, the active and the passive, as exercising faith, and as being worthy to have faith exercised upon them. God can be only πιστός in the latter. … It will be seen that the truthfulness of Christ as a Witness is asserted in the πιστός, not, as might at first sight be assumed, in the ἀληθινός that follows, or at least in it only as one quality among many. Christ is a μάρτυς ἀληθινός (not ἀληθής), in that He realized and fulfilled in the highest sense all that belonged to a witness. Three things are necessary thereto. He must have been αὐτόπτης; having seen with his own eyes that which he professes to attest. He must be competent to relate and reproduce this for others. He must be willing faithfully and truthfully to do this. These three things meeting in Christ, and not the presence of the last only, constitute Him a ‘true19 Witness,’ or one in whom all the highest conditions of a witness met.” Trench.—E. R. C.]
[The beginning (ἀρχή) of the creation of God.]—[1] The principle of the creation; see Col_1:15.—False interpretations: [2] The Prince [Fürst, first] of the creation; [3] The Founder of the. new creation, the Church; [4] The first and most glorious Creature of the creation. See Joh_1:1 sqq. [The first of the preceding views, the one adopted by Lange, is the one advocated by Alford and Trench. Their arguments as against the 4th, or Arian, view, are embodied in the following extract from Barnes. Both these distinguished commentators cite, as supporting their opinions as to the use of the term ἀρχή, many passages from Apocryphal and early Christian authors. Trench writes as follows: “For the use of ἀρχή in the sense and with the force which we here demand for it as ‘principium,’ not ‘initium’ (though these Latin words do not adequately reproduce the distinction), comp. the Gosp. of Nicod. c. 25, in which Hades addresses Satan as ἡ τοῦ θανάτου ἀρχὴ καὶ ῥίζη τῆς ἁμαρτίας; and further, Dionysius, the Areopagite (c. 15): ὁ θεὸς ἐστὶν πάντων αἰτὶα καὶ ἀρχή; and again, Clement of Alex. (Strom. iv. 25): ὁ θεὸς δὲ ἄναρχος, ἀρχὴ τῶν ὅλων παντελής. These, and innumerable other passages, abundantly vindicate for ἀρχή that active sense which we must needs claim for it here.” Barnes, who adopts the 2d of the above views, presents the entire subject in the following powerful language: “The phrase here used is susceptible, properly, of only one of the following significations, viz.: either (a) that He was the beginning of the creation in the sense that He caused the universe to begin to exist, that is, that He was the author of all things; or (b) that He was the first created being; or (c) that He holds the primacy over all, and is at the head of the universe. It is not necessary to examine any other proposed interpretations, for the only other senses Supposed to be conveyed by the words, that He is the beginning of the creation in the sense that He rose from the dead as the first-fruits of them that sleep, or that He is the head of the spiritual creation of God, are so foreign to the natural meaning of the words as to need no special refutation. As to the three significations suggested above, it may be observed, that the first one—that He is the author of the creation, and in that sense the beginning, though expressing a Scriptural doctrine (Joh_1:3; Eph_3:9; Col_1:16), is not in accordance with the proper meaning of the word here used—ἀρχή. The word properly refers to the commencement of a thing, not its authorship, and denotes properly primacy in time, and primacy in rank, but not primacy in the sense of causing anything to exist. The two ideas which run through the word, as it is used in the New Testament, are those just suggested. For the former—primacy in regard to time—that is properly the commencement of a thing, see the following passages where the word occurs: Mat_19:4; Mat_19:8; Mat_24:8; Mat_24:21; Mar_1:1; Mar_10:6; Mar_13:8; Mar_13:19; Luk_1:2; Joh_1:1-2; Joh_2:11; Joh_6:64; Joh_8:25; Joh_8:44; Joh_15:17; Joh_16:4; Act_11:15; 1Jn_1:1; 1Jn_2:7; 1Jn_2:13-14; 1Jn_2:24; 1Jn_3:8; 1Jn_3:11; 2Jn_1:5-6. For the latter signification—primacy of rank or authority—see the following places: Luk_12:11; Luk_20:20; Rom_8:38; 1Co_15:24; Eph_1:21; Eph_3:10; Eph_6:12; Col_1:16; Col_1:18; Col_2:10; Col_2:15; Tit_3:1. The word is not, therefore, found in the sense of authorship, as denoting that one is the beginning of anything in the sense that he caused it to have an existence. As to the second of the significations suggested, that it means that He was the first created being, it may be observed (a) that this is not a necessary signification of the phrase, since no one can show that this is the only proper meaning which could be given to the words, and therefore the phrase cannot be adduced to prove that He is Himself a created being. If it were demonstrated from other sources that Christ was, in fact, a created being, and the first that God had made, it cannot be denied that this language would appropriately express that fact. But it cannot be made out from the mere use of the language here; and as the language is susceptible of other interpretations, it cannot be employed to prove that Christ is a created being, (b) Such an interpretation would be at variance with all those passages which speak of Him as uncreated and eternal; which ascribe Divine attributes to Him; which speak of Him as Himself the Creator of all things. Compare Joh_1:1-3; Col_1:16; Heb_1:2; Heb_1:6; Heb_1:8; Heb_1:10-12. The third signification, therefore, remains, that He is ‘the beginning of the creation of God,’ in the sense that He is the Head or Prince of the creation; that is, that He presides over it so far as the purposes of redemption are to be accomplished, and so far as it is necessary for those purposes. This is (a) in accordance with the meaning of the word, Luk_12:11; Luk_20:20, et al., ut supra, and (b) in accordance with the uniform statements respecting the Redeemer, that ‘all power is given unto Him in Heaven and in earth’ (Mat_28:18); that God has ‘given Him power over all flesh’ (Joh_17:2); that all things are ‘put under His feet’ (Heb_2:8; 1Co_15:27); that He is exalted over all things, Eph_1:20-22. Having this rank, it was proper that He should speak with authority to the church at Laodicea.”—E. R. C.]
Rev_3:15. Thy works.—Works are of value only as indications of the character of the persons performing them. Lukewarm hearts, lukewarm works, and vice versâ. [See comments on Rev_2:2.—E. R. C.]—[That thou art neither cold nor hot (Lange: warm)].—The application to this passage of the distinction between the perfectly righteous, the perfectly unrighteous, and those occupying a middle position, is misleading; far more applicable is Dante’s description of the sinners peopling that portion of Hell which lies immediately beyond the direful portal—wretches too bad for Heaven, and even for Hell; i.e., the present passage of Scripture speaks of qualitative not of quantitative things. Most certainly the warm one is he who hangs upon the Lord, for only a personal relationship of love to Jesus, and conduct actuated by that love, make warm life. Whilst De Wette and others regard ψυχρός as the antithesis to ζεστός, Düsterdieck, with Hengsten. and others, justly insist that the antithesis is a vacillating middle conduct. Düsterdieck’s positive definition of coldness as enmity and resistance to the Lord, such as were manifested by Saul of Tarsus, is, however, as incorrect as Hengstenberg’s theory concerning a cold person who is painfully sensible of his coldness. The antitheses are: the believer—the non-believer—and in the midst, the half-believer, who in his inmost soul is already an unbeliever. [I would, etc.—“Ὄφελον, properly the second aorist of ὀφείλω, but now grown into an adverbial use (= utinam), has so far forgotten what at the first it was, as to be employed promiscuously in all numbers and persons; cf. 1Co_5:8; 2Co_11:1. It governs an indicative, not an optative, here (ἦς, not εἴης, is the right reading), inasmuch as the Lord is not desiring that something even now might be, but only that something might have been. In form a wish, it is in reality a regret.” Trench. But in what respect is a lukewarm worse than a cold condition? The author just quoted answers the question thus: “Best, I think, … by regarding the ‘cold’ as one hitherto untouched by the power of grace. There is always hope of such an one, that, when he does come under those powers, he may become a zealous and earnest Christian. He is not one on whom the grand experiment of the Gospel has been tried, and has failed. But the ‘lukewarm’ is one who has tasted of the good gift, and of the powers of the world to come, who has been a subject of Divine grace, but in whom that grace has failed to kindle more than the feeblest spark. The publicans and harlots were ‘cold,’ ‘the Apostles ‘hot’. The Scribes and Pharisees, such among them as that Simon in whose house the Lord sat and spake the parable of the fifty and the five hundred pence (Luk_7:36-47), they were ‘lukewarm.’ It was from among the ‘cold’ and not the ‘lukewarm,’ that He drew recruits.”—E. R. C.]
Rev_3:16. The figure is unmistakably derived from the nauseating effect of lukewarm water when taken into the mouth. [The figure is indicative of most fearful woe, namely, utter rejection by Christ as loathsome.—E. R. C.] The μέλλειν must be distinguished from a positive θέλειν.
Rev_3:17. I am rich.20—This is not, as a number of commentators suppose, to be referred to the earthly wealth of the flourishing emporium of Laodicea, though the connection between external riches and the danger of an inward conceit of riches cannot be ignored. Comp. the Old and New Testaments. The fancied wealth of spiritual goods is, therefore, the thing intended, in accordance with most commentators. [“So far as the language here is concerned, this may refer either to riches literally, or to spiritual riches. … It is not easy to determine which is the true sense, but may it not have been that there was an allusion to both, and that, in every respect, they boasted that they had enough?” Barnes.—E. R. C.] Note the climax: πλόυσιός εἰμι, etc., [see p. 134.]
And knowest not.—This is no mere simple self-delusion; it is marked in its character, being an aggravated ignorance, over against a supposed multiplied knowledge.—That thou, even thou.—ὁ ταλαίπωρος—the wretched one, par excellence.
Rev_3:18. I counsel thee.—The “dash of irony” which Ebrard discovers in this expression, may consist in the fact that Christ does not here approach the spiritualistic [spiritualistisch] indifferent in His historical authority, because such an one has loosed the bond of historical obedience. He meets him on the ground of his false liberty. If he will not obey the voice of the Lord, he must still hear the language of truth.21 Perfectly analogous to this form is the further declaration: Behold, I stand at the door—a hint to the Church in her dealing with [self-] emancipated spirits [emanzipirte Geister].22
To buy.—There can be no question of an actual purchase by a meritum de congruo; for Laodicea is poor and naked, and the thing to be procured is gold. Yet the usual Protestant idea.—the church must simply surrender her self-conceit; that is the purchase-price (Vitringa, Bengel, and others)—conceals in some measure the true relation of things. Such a surrender invariably presupposes an advance toward the Saviour in penitence and self-denial.23 According to Ebrard, the Lord’s counsel should be followed invertedly; first, eye-salve, then raiment, then gold. There are substantial grounds, however, for the order given. The gold purified in the fire, the fidelity of faith, tested in temptation and trial (Hengstenberg, fides; à Lapide, caritas; Düsterd., spiritual good things; Ebrard, good fruits). [Is it not the righteousness of Christ, imputed to him who believes, by virtue of which the possessor becomes rich (comp. Rom_5:15-18; 2Co_8:9)?—E. R. C.]
White garments.—Throughout the Apocalypse, these represent the victorious adornment of that righteousness of life which is based upon the righteousness of faith. Hence they are not of like meaning with the gold (Düsterd.), nor do they denote the subjective purification of the heart (Ebrard), which cannot be seen as can white garments. [May not the reference be to the entire righteousness of sanctification (holiness of heart and life) produced by the Spirit? The garments of the Saints are white within as well as without.—It may here be remarked, that it is utterly vain to expect that any one material figure should set forth a spiritual truth in all its phases.—E. R. C.]
The eye-salve, κολλούριον (the classic form is κολλύριον), is likewise differently explained (as the word of God, the gift of the Holy Spirit Who enlightens).
Rev_3:19. Ἐγώ.—After the Lord’s apparent self-coördination with the church, His high and sovereign personality emerges once more to view. This is the case here, however, especially in order to the expression of the fact, that His rebuke and chastening are pure love, and that His love can chasten and punish; and all this in contrast to the loose and anti-personal nature of indifferentism, which perverts love into laxity, accounts punishment as harshness, and utterly sunders the two. [Comp. Heb_12:5-13; Pro_3:12.—E. R. C.]
As many as I love.—Düsterdieck justly insists, in opposition to Vitringa, that this does not apply merely to the better portion of the church.
[I rebuke and chasten.]—The relation of ἐλέγχειν and παιδεύειν is in harmony with Christian liberty. The sinner must first suffer himself to be convicted, intellectually corrected; then grace begins to exercise an affectionate discipline over conscience and life.
[For a full discussion of the force of ἐλέγχειν, see Lange on Joh_16:8 (Am. Ed., pp. 472 sqq.). Trench writes that it is “more than ἐπιτιμᾶν, with which it is often joined; see my (his) Syn. of the N. T., § 4. It is so to rebuke, that the person rebuked is brought to the acknowledgment of his fault, is convinced, as David was when rebuked by Nathan (2Sa_12:13).” This definition will scarce bear the test of thorough exegesis. It is manifest that in the use of the term Mat_18:5; Luk_3:19, an acknowledgment of sin is not contemplated, but the contrary. The word is one which expresses the act of an agent, and not the effect of that act upon its object; it is such a presentation of the truth as leaves the object without excuse for not believing (camp. Joh_8:46; Joh_16:8; 1Co_14:24; Eph_5:11; Eph_5:13; 1Ti_5:20; 2Ti_4:2; Tit_1:9; Tit_1:13; Tit_2:15; Heb_12:5; Jam_2:9). The necessary consequence of rebuke thus defined may, indeed, be a dim, inchoate perception of the right, but not necessarily that completed judgment, that conviction, which involves an acknowledgment even to self; and even this perception is not necessarily contemplated in the use of the term. (In Joh_3:20; Joh_8:9; the only other passages in which the term occurs, its use is peculiar. In the latter the man was his own rebuker—conviction preceded rebuke; in the former, the idea is somewhat similar—here a dim perception of the fact of sin leads the transgressor, instinctively, to avoid the light which will clearly manifest his unworthiness.) The term παιδεύειν is also too much restricted by Trench, and apparently by our author. The former writes: “Παιδεύειν, being in classical Greek to instruct, to educate, is in sacred Greek to instruct or educate by means of correction, through the severe discipline of love,” etc. This is the meaning of the English word chasten, which was used by our translators to render the word whenever, in their judgment, the παιδεία was castigatory (1Co_11:32; 2Co_6:9; Heb_12:6-7; Heb_12:10; see also παιδεία in Heb_12:5; Heb_12:7-8; Heb_12:11; and παιδευτής, Heb_12:9); but it is by no means the established sacred usage of the original term. That fatherly correction was not always contemplated, see Luk_23:16; Luk_23:22 (and perhaps 1Ti_1:20); that castigation was not always implied, see Act_7:22; Act_22:3; 2Ti_2:25; Tit_2:12; also παιδεία, Eph_6:4; 2Ti_3:16; and παιδευτής Rom_2:20. An apparent force is given to the remark of Trench from the frequent recurrence of the word (and its allies) in Hebrews 12, where it appears eight times out of the twenty-one instances of its New Testament use. These, however, in an exegetical point of view, constitute but one appearance. It appears in only thirteen independent passages; in three of these only do the contexts require us to limit its specific meaning to the training of castigation (Heb_12:5-10; 1Co_11:32; 2Co_6:9—possibly four, if we include 1Ti_1:20); and in seven this specific meaning is excluded by the context (see above). The classical force of the word is retained in the Scriptures. Its proper meaning is to discipline, to educate; and into this education enter all the elements of spiritual training. Παιδεύειν includes ἐλέγχειν. A context may, indeed, limit the education spoken of to one specific kind. In such case only have we a right to regard it as limited. In the passage under consideration, in which sin is referred to, doubtless, chastisement was contemplated; but we should not suppose that chastisement alone was in the view of the Divine speaker. This very epistle entered into the παιδεία.—E. R. C.]
[Be zealous, therefore, and repent.—“This word (ζηλεῦε), through ζῆλος connected with ζέω and thus with ζεστός (Rev_3:15), is chosen as the special word of exhortation, with special reference to the lukewarmness,” etc. Trench. “Be earnest, strenuous, ardent, in your purpose to exercise true repentance, and to turn from the error of your ways.” Barnes.—E. R. C.]
Rev_3:20.—This verse also makes part of the special word to Laodicea; it is not, therefore, an epilogue to the whole (Vitringa). Yet the entire proceeding here described forms a picture which closes the preceding epistles and touches upon the approaching Parousia.
The door.—Generally interpreted, the door of the heart, the knocking being referred to the word of God, the Holy Ghost, special visitations. [Compare Son_5:2-6.—He knocks in every incident of providence—in every act of παιδεία—that produces the thought of Himself in the mind.—E. R. C.] The door of the heart however, is the personal liberty. The standing before this door is expressive of three things: 1. Christ is not in the heart of the lukewarm; 2. He recognizes the liberty of shutting Him out which the lukewarm person possesses; 3. He makes a positive assault upon that unfreeness which lies in the abuse of liberty. The Lord’s knocking in the last time is a synthesis of the threatening presages of judgment and His word. According to Bengel, the promise, I will sup with him, mast be understood of the earthly life; he with Me, of the heavenly. The promise, however, distinguishes in a general manner a lower and higher grade of spiritual life (Martha, Mary). Our passage has nothing to do with the figure of the Marriage; it treats of the establishment of a personal intimate relationship between Christ and the individual church, or, better, the individual soul. [Compare Joh_14:21-23.—E. R. C.]
Rev_3:21. The promise, in its special greatness, certainly corresponds to the special greatness of the victory to be gained by the Laodicean (Ebrard); in its peculiar nature, however, it also forms a contrast to the destruction whence he must tear himself. According to Düsterdieck, this promise is merely the greatest and last. But as the final promise it points, with peculiar expression, to the all-embracing, consummate victorious form of the heavenly glory. Düsterdieck justly discards the distinction of different thrones of the Father and the Son (Calov.), referring to the oneness of the throne in Rev_22:1. [Is it not a promise of kingship in the Basileia (comp. Dan_7:27; Mat_25:21; Luk_22:30; and the Excursus on the Basileia, p. 93 sqq.)?—E. R. C.]
SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS ON THE HISTORICAL REALIZATION OF THE PROPHETIC CHURCH-PICTURES
We wish, first of all, to establish the following points:
1. The seven epistles are by no means episcopal letters designed as an introduction to the Apocalypse; they are prophetic letters, constituting the first part of the Apocalypse itself, and forming a foundation for the whole.24
2. Hence, the life-pictures of the seven churches are not merely historical portraits of the Apostolic Church (issued through an episcopal medium, but of prophetic depth and form); they are also prophetic types of churchly conditions, which shall hold good until the end of the world.
3. Still, we should bind ourselves to the general chronological Church-historical conception of the Apocalypse if, in the succession of these pictures, we were to pretend to discover distinct periods of Church-history.25
4. Notwithstanding this, the Prophetic Spirit has, out of the synchronistic coördination of the seven Asiatic churches, indubitably made an ideal succession which, in its beginning and end, is at the same time unmistakably historical. For Ephesus is manifestly a picture of the Church toward the end of the apostolic time, whilst Laodicea pictures it as it shall be in the last time, according to the fundamental traits of that time, as predicted Mat_24:37 sqq. And thus individual attempts at exposition, conceiving of the seven churches as historical periods, may be worthy of notice; in any case, the ideal foundation, the prophetic view of a spiritual world-historical process of development, such as we have sketched above, must be retained. The attempts themselves, however, are by their disagreement characterized as mere attempts.
The construction of the Catholic Theologian Holzhauser is incorporated by Haneberg in his History of Biblical Revelation, p. Rev 690:
1. Ephesus: End of the apostolic age. 2. Smyrna: Time of the martyrs. 3. Pergamus—Confession of faith: Time of the great Church fathers, from the fourth to the sixth century. 4. Thyatira—Laudable condition: Time of the Church’s domination, from Justinian to Charlemagne; warning (?) against worldliness—Jezebel. 5. Sardis: Semblance of Christianity; the prevailing condition of the Church at the present time. 6. Philadelphia—Destitute of exterior power, yet witnessing a faithful confession: Perhaps our immediate future. 7. Laodicea, i. e., people’s judgment: The end.
Sander furnishes a Protestant pendant to this:
1. Ephesus: Like Holzhauser. 2. Smyrna: As above. 3. Pergamus: Period from Constantine the Great to the middle of the eighth century. 4. Thyatira: From the middle of the eighth century to the Reformation. 5. Sardis: Time of dead orthodoxy, from the end of the sixteenth century to about the latter half of the eighteenth. 6. Philadelphia: Church of Brotherly Love, signalized by the phenomena of Pietism, Herrnhutism, Methodism. 7. Laodicea: Picture of the final period.
We can affirm with certainty that the seven life-pictures are continued side by side through all ages of the Church; now one, and now another, predominating; one prevailing at this place and another at that. There have been illustrations of the figure of Jezebel in all ages. And were there no Philadelphia in the very last time, where would the Lord find His Bride?
[Additional Note on the Historico-prophetic Character of the Seven Churches.
—As to the nature of the Seven Churches, there are three (logically) possible hypotheses. I. The Historic—that they were merely seven churches in Asia Minor; II. The Prophetic—that (having no proper historic character, as existing when the Apocalypse was written), they represent merely seven ages of the Church; III. The Historico-prophetic—that they were seven churches then existing, but also typical of seven periods of Church history. The generic Historico-prophetic hypothesis is divisible into two species: 1. The simple Historico-prophetic—that merely seven prophetic periods were indicated; 2. The complex Historico-prophetic—that seven periods were indicated in which all the types should be exemplified, one exemplification however being predominant in each period, in the order indicated. There have been few, if any, supporters of the II. hypothesis; nearly all commentators who have advocated the prophetic character of the churches, have admitted that the types were realized in the churches mentioned. It is probable, also, that there are no advocates of the I., or Historic, hypothesis, who do not also admit that the seven historic churches were, in some sort, representative of churchly conditions that should be exemplified throughout all periods of the present dispensation. Thus Trench (who, in an exceedingly able Excursus at the end of his work on The Epistles to the Seven Churches, opposes the III., or what he styles the “Periodist,” hypothesis, admits that 1. “These seven epistles, however, primarily addressed to these seven churches of Asia, were also written for the edification of the Universal Church;” 2. “These seven churches of Asia are not an accidental aggregation, which might just as conveniently have been eight, or six, or any other number; that, on the contrary, there is a fitness in this number, and that these seven do in some sort represent the Universal Church; that we have a right to contemplate the seven as offering to us the great and leading aspects, moral and spiritual, which churches gathered in the name of Christ out of the world will assume. … (But) though not exhaustive, … they give us on a smaller scale ὡς ἐν τύπῳ, the grander and more recurring features of that life (the new life which Christ brought into the world); are not fragmentary, fortuitously strung together; but have a completeness, a many-sidedness, being selected probably for this very cause; here, perhaps, being the reason why Philadelphia is included and Miletus past by; Thyatira, outwardly so insignificant, chosen, when one might have expected Magnesia or Tralles. … That these churches are more or less representative churches, and were selected because they are so; that they form a complex within and among themselves, mutually fulfilling and completing one another; that the great Head of the Church contemplates them for the time being as symbolic of the Universal Church, implying as much in that mystic seven, and giving many other indications of the same.” It is also probable that there are few, if any, who adopt the first species of the Historico-prophetic view, all the advocates of this generic hypothesis adopting more or less completely the second—the one designated in this note as complex. This latter specific view, is the one that will be advocated in this paper; as there is no danger of confusion it will be styled simply, Historico-prophetic.
In order to the complete establishment of this hypothesis, three points must be proved: 1. That the Seven Churches are representative of the Universal Church. 2. That they are representative of different forms of Church-life, each of which is always existent, to a greater or less degree, in every period of Church-history. 3. That they are, in their order, representative of the predominant characteristics of the Church in seven periods of her history between the writing of the Apocalypse and the second Advent of Christ.
1. The proof of the first of these points is ably set forth in the language of Trench, quoted above. The following, however, is presented as a more complete exposé of the facts upon the view of which the truth of this proposition may be concluded, viz.: The nature of the Apocalypse as a Book for the Universal Church (chs. Rev_1:1-3; Rev_22:6-20 [16]); the mention of the seven churches in immediate connection with an Introduction contemplating the Universal Church (comp. Rev_1:1-3 with 4); the choice of the number seven (the sacred, mystic number, symbolic of completeness), when there were other, and in some instances, more prominent, churches in the geographical district; the manifest parallelism of the seven candlesticks and the seven stars, with the seven Spirits of God, Rev_1:4; Rev_3:1 (“the Holy Ghost sevenfold in His operations” in the Church), and with the sevenfold description of the person of Christ, Rev_1:14-16; their being symbolized by the seven-branched candelabrum of the Tabernacle (itself, doubtless a symbol of the one light-giving Church, manifold in its branches) tended by the Great High Priest, Rev_1:13; Rev_2:1 (see Notes); the characteristics of the respective churches which set forth every conceivable form of Church-life, each being the complement of all the others, as is each beam of the seven-colored rainbow; the constant call throughout the epistles for all to hear (and heed) the things said unto the churches, a call manifestly contemplated, and in essence resumed, in the conclusion of the Book, where the address is unquestionably to the Universal Church (Rev_22:6-20); all these things are inconsistent with the idea that Rev_1:4 to Rev_3:22, is an unnoted episode, in which merely seven churches (and these not, all of them, the most prominent even in their own geographical district) should have been addressed; but, on the other hand, require the hypothesis that, whilst the seven churches specified were specifically addressed, they were selected and addressed as types of Church-life then existent, and that should continue to exist until Christ should come again.
2. An à priori probability as to the truth of the second point—viz., that each of these forms typified a form existent in every period of Church history—arises from all that has been said under the preceding head. Manifestly, they were all existent, in the apostolic age, in the churches specified; and the most cursory view of history is sufficient to show that these churches have always had their analogues—in every age, there has been somewhere, a Philadelphia, a Sardis, a Laodicea.
3. The proof of the third point—viz., that the Seven Churches are, in their order, representative of the predominant characteristics of the Church in the seven periods of her history—is based entirely on observation of history. On this point Trench, after stating objections to the hypothesis, remarks: “But all such objections, with all those others which it would only be too easy to make, might indeed be set aside or overborne, if any marvellous coincidence between these epistles and the after-course of the Church’s development could be made out; if history set its seal to these, and attested that they were prophecy indeed; for when a key fits perfectly well the wards of a complicated lock, and opens it without an effort, it is difficult not to believe that they were made for one another. But there is nothing here of the kind.” He admits that “there are two or three fortunate coincidences here between the assumed prophecy and the fact. … Smyrna, for instance, represents excellently well the ecclesia pressa in its two last and most terrible struggles with heathen Rome; so too for such Protestant expositors as see the papacy in the scarlet woman of Babylon, the Jezebel of Thyatira appears exactly at the right time,” etc. His principal objection—viz., that resemblance fails between the church of Philadelphia and the churches of the Reformation, in that the latter suffered the “open door” set before them “to so great an extent to be closed again”—is based altogether upon his own interpretation of the open door—that it was to the heathen. If by this be understood an open door to the Kingdom of Heaven (see Note on Rev_3:8), which had been previously closed by those who made void the law of God by their traditions (comp. Mat_23:13; Luk_11:52), the coincidence becomes no less striking than in the case of Smyrna. And if by Jezebel is understood, not the scarlet woman of the Papacy, but a world-element brought into a position of power in the Church by the unholy marriage of Church and State—in time assuming the position of a teacher and introducing heathen abominations (see Note on Rev_2:20), the coincidence between Thyatira and the period following the union becomes more striking than as presented above.
The scheme set forth in the following paragraph, which, as to the great periods indicated, is substantially that of Vitringa, is suggested for consideration. It may here be remarked that, upon the supposition of the truth of the hypothesis, it does not necessarily follow that the different periods should have distinctly defined termini; it is rather to be expected that, like the colors of the rainbow, the characteristics of adjacent periods, manifestly distinct in their central portions, should blend into one another at each beginning and end.
Ephesus: The Church of first love, but declining—the primitive era extending to a time between the date of the Apocalypse and the Decian persecution, A. D. 250. Smyrna: the Church faithful in trial—the period of persecution extending from near the beginning of the third century to about A. D. 312. Pergamus: The Church beginning in persecution (martyrdom of Antipas), subsequently brought under the protection of the world-power (dwelling [κατοικεῖν=secure habitation] where Satan’s throne is), earnest in working and faithful in the confession of essential truth, yet having those who, like Balaam, taught the world-power to seduce to heathen customs—the period beginning at the close of persecution, A. D. 312, and extending through the era of Constantine to about A. D. 700. (This was the period of Athanasius, Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Chrysostom; of the protests against Arianism and Pelagianism; of the first five Œcumenical Councils; and also of the introduction of pompous ceremonies and image worship, after the manner of the heathen). Thyatira: The Church of earnest working, yet of unholy union with the world-power, in which the State itself, as an authority and a permitted teacher, established heathen rites—a period intimately connected with the former, yet in its culmination different; having its roots, indeed, in the era of Constantine, but, as a distinct period, really beginning with the transformation of alliance into marriage with the State, culminating in the era of Charlemagne, and running on until lost in the period typified by Sardis, at some time before A. D. 1200. (This was a period of great charities and extensive missionary operations in Britain and throughout northern, central and eastern Europe, and yet of unholy union with, and subjection to, the civil power. In the West, the right of patronage was developed, the right of kings to confirm and invest bishops was established, and that of the emperor to confirm the election of the Pope; in the East the subservience of the Church was still more complete. Heathenish customs, which at the first seemed to have been adopted out of compliance with the world, now became, especially in the East, a matter of state control. On the subject of image worship, Gieseler well remarks that “orthodoxy changed according to court caprice;” it was abolished by Leo Isauricus, A. D. 726–730, but restored by the infamous Irene, who, A. D. 787, summoned a Synod at Nice, which, under her authority and influence, decreed in its favor; again, under imperial authority, it was abolished, and again restored by the Empress Theodora, who, A. D. 842, instituted a yearly festival [ἡ κυριακὴ τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας] in commemoration of its establishment [see Gieseler’s Church History, Period III. Div. 1; and Historians generally on Century VIII]. This was an extended period in which ample space was given for repentance.) Sardis: The Church of uncompleted works, of mere ritual observances, of spiritual death; in which, however, a few living souls were found—the period blending with the spiritual declensions of the preceding, and extending through the dark ages to the Reformation. This was a period in which true religion was confined almost entirely to small and oppressed bodies, as the Paulicians, Albigenses and Waldenses. Philadelphia: The faithful Church, to be preserved, before whose members was set an open door to the Kingdom—a period beginning with the “morning-star of the Reformation,” near A. D. 1400, and extending in appreciable degree to the present time. Laodicea: The outwardly prosperous, but lukewarm Church. Has not this period already begun? That this is a day of unequaled outward prosperity for the Church is acknowledged by all. Is it not also a period of lukewarmness even in Protestant lands? It is true that this is a time in which, as compared with the absolute works of former days, great schemes of Christian beneficence are in operation. Spiritual warmth, however, is to be estimated, not by the absolute amount of work performed, but by the proportion which that amount bears to ability. The existing schemes of beneficence are sustained and operated by only a portion of the nominal Church; and still further, they bear a scarce appreciable proportion to the ability even of the portion nominally engaged in them. In point of fact, are not these schemes the work of the Philadelphia which, still preserved, is embosomed within the increasing Laodicea?26—E. R. C.]
Footnotes:
[1]Comp. Ebrard’s polemical suggestion, p. 572. See Düsterdieck, p. 178.
[2][It is not asserted in this passage that the names of any who shall finally perish were ever entered in the Book of Life, nor is it necessarily implied.—E. R. C.]
[3][The phrase: βίβλος (τῆς) ζωῆς, occurs Php_4:3; Rev_3:5; Rev_20:15, and βιβλίον τῆς ζωῆς, Rev_13:8; Rev_17:8; Rev_20:12; Rev_21:27. (Exo_32:2; Dan_12:1, probably refer to the same, although the word ζωῆς does not appear; and possibly Psa_69:28, and Isa_4:3, may have a similar reference.) In all these passages it is manifest that the simple hypothesis of a register (figurative, of course), of those who are to inherit eternal life, satisfies every contextual requirement.—E. R. C.]
[4][Isa_22:22. (LXX.) Δὠσω αυτῷ τὴν κλεῖδα οἴκου Δαυὶδ ἐπὶ τῷ ὤμῳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀνοίξει καὶ οὐκ ἔσται’ ὁ ἀποκλείων, καὶ κλείσει καὶ οὐκ ἔσται ὁ ἀνοίγων.—E. R. C.]
[5][There is no connection between this key and “the key of knowledge,” spoken of Luk_11:52.—E. R. C.]
[6][Prof. Stuart advocates a third interpretation, viz.: (as presented by Barnes) “that they had before them an open way of egress from danger and persecution.”—E. R. C.]
[7][The view of Düsterd. (Alford, Trench) and others requires more than this—it demands that the door opened should be between the church and the unconverted; comp. (as referred to by Trench) 1Co_16:9; 2Co_11:12; Act_14:27; Col_4:3. It is true that Christ does open this door; but is not the door which He unlocks with the key of David that which leads into the Kingdom of Heaven? As King, He bursts open the gates of His enemies. Rev_3:9 can hardly be regarded as supporting the view of the text; being “made of the Synagogue of Satan,” and “falling down before the church” (not worshipping before God), are not the results of the open door to the unconverted, referred to in 1Co_16:9, etc.—E. R. C.]
[8][See foot-note to chapter Rev_2:9.—E. R. C.]
[9][There can be no doubt that there is special reference here to the prophecies of Isa_49:23; Isa_60:14; and there can be as little doubt that a conversion is implied in these prophecies. The conversion, however, is not that of the present missionary era of the Church—that which follows the preaching of the Gospel to the unconverted through the “open door” alluded to in 1Co_16:9, etc.;—during which time the converts are at once admitted into the Church. It is a conversion which is consequent upon the subjection of the nations to the established Basileia.—On Isa_49:23, J. A. Alexander thus comments: “The addition of these words, ‘face toward the earth,’ determines the meaning of the preceding verb (LXX. προσκυνήσουσι) as denoting actual prostration, which is also clear from the next clause, where the licking of the dust cannot be naturally understood as a strong expression for the kissing of the feet or of the earth, in token of homage, but is rather like the biting of the dust in Homer, a poetical description of complete and compulsory prostration, not merely that of subjects to their sovereign, but of vanquished enemies before their conquerors (comp. Mic_7:17; Psa_72:9).” A conversion is implied in this passage under consideration, it is true; but that which was directly contemplated in this threat of the Lord is subjugation. See also preceding note, and the Excursus on the Basileia, pp. 93 sqq.—E. R. C.]
[10][There is no authority for this limitation of the prime reference of οἰκουμένη (comp. Mat_24:14; Luk_4:5; Act_17:31; Rom_10:18; Heb_1:6; Rev_12:9; Rev_16:14).—E. R. C.]
[11][Στέφανος=that which is at once the wreath of the victor and the crown of the king. See note on ch Rev_2:10—E. R. C.]
[12][There are three opinions concerning the destination of the Epistle to the Ephesians: 1. That it was addressed specifically to the church in Ephesus; 2. That it is the Epistle to (from=ἐκ) Laodicea mentioned Col_4:16 3. That it was a circular letter for all the churches of Asia Minor. For full discussions of the entire subject see Conybeare and Howson’s Life and Epistles of St. Paul, Alford, Eadie, Hodge, the Lange Comm. on Ephesians (Am. Ed.), etc. The evidence in favor of the last two opinions is of the most meagre character.—E. R. C.]
[13][Of all this there is not one particle of evidence.—E. R. C.]
[14][On this and several following pages, Lange presents a general view of the epistle. Special exegetical comments and additions may be found pp. 135 sqq—E. R. C.]
[15][The marvellous compendiousness of the German language is forcibly illustrated here. Six words present all that our translation has given in the space comprised within the last period and πεπλούτηκα, with the exception of “in the first place,” which in the German occurs further on. We cite the pregnant six: Ein solches krankhaftes Fertigsein und Bedürfnisslosgewordensein. Perhaps it is but fair to remark that the final octosyllable is composed of a substantive, an adjective, a participle, and an infinitive.—Tr.]
[16][Lange seems to have employed this word, coined from the Latin as a generic term representative of the doctrine of those who deny the necessity of an external atonement, revelation and ordinances—affirming that the spirit of a man is sufficient unto itself. In this sense it includes the wildest mystics and the baldest rationalism. The only English word by which it can be rendered is spiritualism. The use of this term, however, is objectionable, as it is already employed in English in two or three different senses. As far as possible to avoid confusion, whenever it and the allied words spiritual, spiritualist, occur, the originals will be printed in brackets as above.—E. R. C.]
[17][See comments and additions on pp. 135 sqq.—E. R. C.]
[18][This comment seems to be based on a modern use of the term Amen. As it forms the conclusion of our prayers, it has come to be employed, both in German and English, as a word expressive of conclusion. No such meaning, however, properly belongs to it. Nor is there any reason to suppose that, in the days of the Apostles, it was ever employed in this special conventional sense.—E. R. C.]
[19][The word competent is a better translation. The idea of the original seems to be best brought out in the phrase: the Witness, the faithful and the competent.—E. R. C.]
[20][Trench would connect this verse with the preceding; “placing a colon at the end of Rev_3:16, and a full stop at that of Rev_3:17.”—E. R. C.]
[21][“There is a certain irony, but the irony of Divine love, in these words. He who might have commanded, prefers rather to counsel; He who might have spoken as from Heaven, conforms Himself, so far as the outward form of His words reaches, to the language of earth. To the merchants and factors of this wealthy mercantile city, He addresses Himself in their own dialect.” Trench. “There is a deep irony in this word. One who has need of nothing, yet needs counsel on the vital points of self-preservation.” Alford. Is it not better, as more consistent with the character of the compassionate and long-suffering Saviour, to suppose that there is no irony here? The language, couched indeed in the commercial dialect of those addressed, is such as a loving Father, yearning over indifferent and ungrateful children, might use to win them to better things.—E. R. C.]
[22][By this expression, Lange doubtless would indicate those who, in his own language, might better be styled (self-) emancipated spiritualists. The adjective emanzipirt has, when employed in certain connections, obtained the meaning of self-emancipation—thus an emanzipirte Frau, is a woman who has freed herself from conventionalisms—as we say in English, a strong-minded woman.—E. R. C.]
[23][And so it might be said, that any advance presupposes a previous advance. There must be a beginning of spiritual activity somewhere. This surrender, this giving up the tinsel and rags of one’s own righteousness, is essentially involved in that living faith which rests upon Christ alone for salvation, and which is the beginning of spiritual activity.—E. R. C.]
[24][Are they not, on Lange’s own hypothesis, both episcopal and prophetic? Episcopal, as coming from the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls (1Pe_2:25) to the individual churches in Asia Minor primarily addressed; and also to those portions of the Church throughout the ages respectively prophesied concerning, through the medium of these individual churches as types.—E. R. C.]
[25][We should so bind ourselves, if we pretended (or endeavored) to discover only such distinct periods. If it be recognized that all the types may be exemplified at any one time, although only one predominantly, there is no such binding. Manifestly when these epistles were written, all the types existed as realities; but, almost certainly, the existing Ephesus represented the predominant character of the then extant Church. See Additional Note, beginning in the following column, and paragraph 4 above.—E. R. C.]
[26][Sir Isaac Newton presented a peculiar prophetic scheme. He referred the seven churches to the times of the fifth and sixth seals, which he placed between the periods of the division of the Empire under Dioclesian, A. D. 285, and A. D. 378. All these churches, he held, were destroyed, with the exception of Smyrna and Philadelphia, which were continued as the two Witnesses of Rev_11:3.—E. R. C.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain V. SARDIS.—The Church of deadness, with a few spotless…
V. SARDIS.—The Church of deadness, with a few spotless names, Rev_3:1-6.
1. Sardis—Thirty miles to the southeast from Thyatira, crossing the river Hermus, would bring our St. John, in his apostolic circuit, to the renowned city of Sardis. He would find it situated between the Hermus and the mountain range of Tmolus. Into the Hermus flows the small river Pactolus, from whose “golden sands” it was anciently reported that Croesus largely derived his riches. But Brewer remarks that the sands are sparkling with grains of mica, and suspects that what so glittered in ancient times was not “all gold.” Croesus, he thinks, drew his wealth from the rich alluvium of Hermus, rather than from the “fool’s gold” of the Pactolus.
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The renown of Sardis was at its zenith under Croesus, who was king of all Lydia, by descent from an ancient line. From the record of his wealth we still utter the proverb, “rich as Croesus.” Celebrated, also, is the visit to his court of Solon, the Athenian philosopher and statesman. Of him Croesus asked whom he considered the happiest of men, expecting himself to be named. But Solon gave him answer, remembered by him on his dying day, that none could be pronounced truly happy until he had finished his course of life. Celebrated, too, is the ambiguity of the oracle by which he was deceived to his ruin. When he asked the god if he should fight Cyrus, he was told that if he crossed the river Halys in war he would destroy a great empire. He crossed, to find that the great empire to be destroyed was not that of Cyrus, but his own. Overcome by Cyrus, Lydia and all western Asia fell under the power of the Persians. For some centuries after, the richness of its soil retained its existence as a city, but at the present time it is a profound solitude. “Rarely,” says Svoboda, “can the site of any ancient city so impress the traveller with a sense of astonishment at its stupendous desolation, as does the aspect of Sardis at the present day. Once… its splendour gained for it the title of the Queen of Asia… Here, indeed, all must acknowledge that the prophecy of the Apocalypse has been fulfilled to the letter.” About seventy years after the publication of this Apocalypse, one of the brightest ornaments of the Christian Church was Melito, Bishop of Sardis. He was eminent for piety, learning, and talent; and his writings, some of which are still extant, are wonderful for the variety of subjects discussed by his active mind. They treated, among other things, upon faith, Easter, the first day of the week, the soul and body, the birth of Christ, the incarnation, and Satan. And it is here to be specially noted, that, severe as this letter to this Angel of Sardis is, Melito wrote a comment upon this Apocalypse, not now extant, but unquestionably accepting it as the work of our apostle John.
Hath the seven spirits of God—The two ascriptions here claimed by the Lord are appropriated from John’s descriptions in Rev_1:4-16. The Holy Spirit in its sevenfoldness in him dwells, and the sevenfold Churches, searched, judged, sanctified, or rejected by that Spirit, are in his hand. This is a most solemn awakening style and title with which the epistle to the dead Churches is preluded. And the sevenfoldness, both of the Spirit and the Churches, suggests that all Churches are here typically represented.
I know—With all the intensity, omniscience, and purity of the Spirit.
I know thy works—External and internal.
Hast a name—The word name is thrice used in this epistle. Perhaps the last of the three (Rev_3:5) explains the first two, the written name. The metaphor of Rev_3:5 is drawn from the register-book of cities, in which every citizen’s name was written, and erased at his death or disfranchisement for crime. The Sardian angel, implying also his Church, had a recorded name among the Churches, and that implied life; and yet they were dead. Yet this dead did not mean the fulness of death, but deadness, lifelessness, which, was rapidly becoming death. This is implied in the next verse; for there were some things ready to die, and there was supposed life enough to strengthen and re-enliven them. And it is to this revival of life that the promise of not being blotted out, in Rev_3:5, is given.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain The Church in Sardis. Chap. Rev_3:1-6
The Church in Sardis. Chap. Rev_3:1-6
1. that hath the seven Spirits of God] See the last note on Rev_1:4. Though “the Seven Spirits” were mentioned there, we have not yet heard of them as specially belonging to Christ: but this we End in Rev_3:6.
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and the seven stars] Cf. Rev_2:1. We find the “Spirits” and the “stars,” i.e. Angels, mentioned coordinately, a further argument against identifying the Spirits with Angels, even angels other than these. These attributes of Christ are mentioned, because He speaks as Judge of the Churches: cf. 1Co_2:15 for the conception of judgement as the Spirit’s work.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Sardis.—The modern Sart—now a mere village of paltry…
III.
(1) Sardis.—The modern Sart—now a mere village of paltry huts—once the capital of the old Lydian monarchy, and associated with the names of Crœsus, Cyrus, and Alexander. It was the great entrepôt of dyed woollen fabrics, the sheep of “many-flocked” Phrygia supplying the raw material. The art of dyeing is said to have been invented here; and many-coloured carpets or mats found in the houses of the wealthy were manufactured here. The metal known as electrum, a kind of bronze, was the produce of Sardis; and in early times gold-dust was found in the sand of the Pactolus, the little stream which passed through the Agora of Sardis, and washed the walls of the Temple of Cybele. It is said that gold and silver coins were first, minted at Sardis, and that resident merchants first became a class there. An earthquake laid it waste in the reign of Tiberius; a pestilence followed, but the city seems to have recovered its prosperity before the date of this epistle. The worship of Cybele was the prevailing one; its rites, like those of Dionysos and Aphrodite, encouraged impurity.
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The writer is described in words similar to those in Rev_1:4, as the one who hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars; but there is a difference. There Christ was seen holding the stars in His right hand; here it is said He hath the seven Spirits and also the seven stars. In this language it is difficult to overlook the unhesitating way in which Christ is spoken of as owning or possessing that Holy Spirit who alone can make angels of His Church to shine as stars. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Rom_8:9; Rom_8:11). His promise is, “I will send the Comforter unto you” (Joh_15:26), as possessing all power in heaven and earth. “He is able,” to use the language of Professor Plumptre, “to bring together the gifts of life, and the ministry for which those gifts are needed. If those who minister are without gifts; it is because they have not asked for them.” This the angel of the Sardian Church had not done; his faith and the faith of the Church around him had sunk into a superficial, though perhaps ostentatious, state. Here, then, lies the appropriateness of the description given of Christ, as the source of life and light to His Church.
A name that thou livest.—It is only needful to mention, and to dismiss the fanciful conjecture, that the name of the angel was Zosimos, or some parallel name, signifying life-bearing or living. It is the reputation for piety possessed by the Church of Sardis which is referred to. Living with the credit of superior piety, it was easy to grow satisfied with the reputation, and to forget to keep open the channels through which grace and life could flow, and to fail to realise that the adoption of habits of life higher than those around them, or those who lived before them, was no guarantee of real spiritual life; for “the real virtues of one age become the spurious ones of the next . . . The belief of the Pharisees, the religious practice of the Pharisees, was an improvement upon the life of the sensual and idolatrous Jews whom the prophets denounced. But those who used both the doctrinal and moral improvements as the fulcrum of a selfish power and earthly rank, were the same men after all as their fathers, only accommodated to a new age” (Mozley). Self-satisfaction, which springs up when a certain reputation has been acquired, is the very road to self-deception. The remedy is progress—forgetting the things behind, lest looking with complacency upon the past, moral and spiritual stagnation should set in, and spiritual death should follow.
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The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 1-6. The epistle to the Church at Sardis.…
Vers. 1-6. The epistle to the Church at Sardis. This Church is one of the two which receives unmixed reproof. Smyrna and Philadelphia receive no blame; Sardis and Laodicea receive no praise. Sardis lies almost due south of Thyatira, on the road to Philadelphia, between the river Hermus and Mount Tmolus. It had been in turn Lydian, Persian, Greek, and Roman, and, like its last Lydian king, Croesus, had been celebrated for its wealth. The auriferous stream Pactolus, in summer almost dry, flowed through its marketplace; but its chief source of wealth was its trade. In A.D. 17 "twelve famous cities of Asia fell by an earthquake in the night...The calamity fell most heavily on the people of Sardis, and it attracted to them the largest share of sympathy. The emperor Tiberius promised ten million sesterces (and remitted for five years all they paid to the exchequer" (Tac., "Ann.," 2:47). A little later Sardis was one of the cities of Asia which claimed the honour of erecting a temple in honour of Tiberius, but the preference was given to Smyrna ("Ann.," 4:55, 56). Of the inscriptions which have been, discovered at Sardis, nearly all are of the Roman period. Cybele, or Cybebe, was the chief divinity of Sardis; but no reference to this nor to any of the special features of the city can be traced in the epistle. In the second century, Melito, Bishop of Sardis, held a very prominent place among Asiatic Christians, both in personal influence and in literary work. Among his numerous writings was one on the Apocalypse of St. John. The prosporous and luxurious capital of Lydia is now represented by a few huts and a collection of ruins buried deep in rubbish. It still retains its ancient name in the form Sart.
The Church in Sardis has no Nicolaitans, no Balaam, no Jezebel. But there is worse evil than the presence of what is morally and doctrinally corrupt. The numbness of spiritual torpor and death is more hopeless than unwise toleration. The Church in Sardis, scarcely out of its infancy, has already the signs of an effete and moribund faith; and it is possible that this deadness was a result of the absence of internal enemies.
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He that hath the seven Spirits of God. (see notes on Rev_1:4, Rev_1:16, Rev_1:20; but observe that this designation of Christ does not occur in the opening vision) In Rev_5:6 the Lamb is seen "having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God." The seven Spirits being the Holy Spirit in his sevenfold activity, it is manifest (as Trench observes) that this passage is of importance in reference to the doctrine of the double procession. The Son hath the Spirit, not as One who receives it from the Father, but as One who can impart it to men. As man he received it; as God he gives it. And a Church sunk in spiritual deadness specially needs such a gift. Hence the repetition about having the seven stars, which appears also in the address to the Church in Ephesus. (Rev_2:1) Note, however, that here we have ecwn for kratwn , which would not have been appropriate to express the Son"s possession of the Spirit. It is he who holds in his hand the angels of the Church that also has the Spirit wherewith to quicken them. Those that are alive owe their life and growth to him. Those that are dying or dead may be restored to life by him. Thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead. This, again, is thoroughly in the style of the Fourth Gospel. St. John frequently states some gracious fact, and in immediate sequence gives the very opposite of what might have been expected to result from it. "Thou hast a reputation for life, and (instead of being full of vigour and growth) thou art a corpse." This has been called "the tragic tone" in St. John. (comp. Joh_1:5, Joh_1:10, 11 3:11, 19, 32 5:39, 40 6:36, 43, etc.) In all these cases the contrast is introduced by a simple kai , which may be rendered "and yet;" but the simple "and" is more forcible. Beware of the unworthy literalism which suggests that the Bishop of Sardis bore a name which implied life, e.g. Zosimus, or Vitalis. As already stated, (notes on Rev_1:20) it is improbable that "the angel" means the bishop. And in any case "name" is here used in the common sense of character or reputation. Comp. Herod., 7:138, where the historian says that Xerxes" expedition had the name (ounoma eice) of being directed against Athens, but was really a menace to the whole of Greece. We have very similar uses of onoma in Mar_9:41 and 1Pe_4:16. The Church in Sardis had a name for Christianity, but there was no Christianity in it.
Vers. 1-6. Sardis; or, the dead Church.
This epistle presents no exception to the general rule which we have pointed out regarding all the seven, viz. that our Lord Jesus Christ presents himself to each Church in that special aspect in which it was most appropriate for that Church to regard him. Here he is spoken of as "he that hath the seven Spirits of God a phrase used only in the Apocalypse, and yet, in its meaning, harmonious with all the rest of God"s Word. This leads us at once to observe
I HERE IS A VERY REMARKABLE EXPRESSION TO DENOTE THE DIVINE ENERGY. It is one which shows the infinitude thereof in the Third Person in the Trinity. The number seven is repeatedly used here. It is the symbol of perfection and completeness. We have seven Churches, seven seals, seven thunders, seven vials, seven plagues, seven trumpets. The expression, "the seven Spirits of God," is found in Rev_1:4 and Rev_5:6, as well as in this passage. There is an invariable sequence in the coming of life or power from the Persons in the Trinity, and a corresponding one in the upgoing of devotion from us to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Blessings are from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. Our access is by the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father. The Energizer in each ease is the Holy Ghost. His energy is infinite, both in variety and measure. It is absolutely full, complete, and boundless. If, however, this energy is infinite, it can reveal itself. It has done so. For observe
II HERE IS AN EQUALLY REMARKABLE EXPRESSION CONCERNING OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. We are here bidden to think of him as having the seven Spirits of God. Having risen to heaven, "he received gifts for men, that the Lord God might dwell among them." As Mediator, he has received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost. He is, in his own glorious Person, the channel of all grace from God to the spirit of man. He has, i.e. holds, the seven Spirits of God. He is not only the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, but he also baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. The two are of equal importance. Without the one the other would be impossible. The atoning work was completed on earth; the baptizing work is ever being carried on in heaven. The Gospels record the one; the Acts and the Epistles recount and expound the other. His work of humiliation on earth laid the basis of pardon. His baptizing work as our exalted Redeemer is the secret of power. He has "the seven Spirits of God" ("for the Father giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him"), that he may ever give life and power to those who with open hearts long for "all the fulness of God." Note: The coming together of the Spirit of God and the spirit of man is the secret of inspiration, revelation, religion, regeneration, consecration. When the Spirit of God unveils a truth, there is revelation; when he inbreathes into a man, there is inspiration; when he renews, quickens, and inspires, there is religion, even regeneration and consecration. The Holy Ghost may either illume the mind with truth, or set it on fire with love. And when his power is exerted in all its sevenfold might, any one so charged with Divine energy may receive it in any form whatever, for the purpose of fulfilling any kind of life work which God may have for him to do. There is no limit to our possible equipment for service.
III THIS IS THE SPECIAL ASPECT OF OUR LORD"S WORK AT WHICH A DEAD CHURCH NEEDS TO LOOK. The Church at Sardis was "dead." It had not always been so. At one time it had so much vitality that it had acquired a "name" for being full of quick and quickening force. And, among men, its name still stood. But he whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and who walks among the golden candlesticks, observed a decline in piety. There was as yet the same outside appearance, and yet it was already injured even unto death. We do not read of any opposition or tribulation of any kind that the Church at Sardis had to meet; it was dead. And neither Satan nor any of his hosts will care to disturb either a dead Church or a dead pastor. Nothing would better please the powers of evil than to see such a Church falling to pieces because there was no spirit to keep the bodily framework together! It is no wonder to find such a Church"s works defective. "I have not found thy works filled up before God." Either there were spheres of duty which were altogether neglected, or else those duties were discharged in a spirit grievously lacking in fervour. It is sad indeed when the Lord Jesus sees any Church to be dead! For observe:
1. It is incongruous. For what is the Church? It is, in theory at least, a company of men "alive unto God," bound together for his worship and work. In the world, indeed, death is what we expect to see; but in the Church Death here is fearfully out of place. Nor let us think of Sardis as the only city where a dead Church was to be found. There is very much even now that makes many a pastor sigh and cry, "Oh the death!" Such lethargy, inertness, and slumber steal over this Church and that, so that it is far easier even to move the world than such a Church as this. Surely this is fearfully incongruous for a Church to be so untrue to its name.
2. This death is needless. For he who hath the seven Spirits of God is Lord of his Church. He loves to enrich her with the fulness of life. He is ever ready to hear the prayers of his own. The gift of the Spirit is the one promise of his Word, and its bestowment the one purpose of his life. It has but to be received from him by faith. Then why should any Church be lagging and flagging? There is no occasion for it whatever.
3. This death is unnatural. For it shows that, in spite of the profession of the Church, many in it are holding on to the world. They put on a Christian uniform, and then fight on the world"s side. One of the terrible punishments of olden time was for living men to be chained to a corpse. Not less terribly unnatural is it for the name and honor of a living Saviour to be in any way tied to a dead Church!
4. This death is dishonouring to the Lord Jesus. By dead professors Christ is wounded in the house of his friends. For many a young convert, coming to the Church as the home of a spiritual brotherhood, gets there his first chill of disappointment. And if we were asked Who are most responsible for the scepticism of the age? we should reply Dead professors!
5. This death is offensive to the eye. Spiritual death anywhere is offensive. But, in the Church, which professes to be the very enclosure of life, it is unutterably so. How odious must it be to the Lord and Giver of life to see his own Name and ordinances yoked with spiritual death, especially when he lives and reigns on purpose to give life!
6. A dead Church is in a state in which Christ calls aloud for a review of its condition. There is a fourfold call.
(1) Be watchful. Become so.
(2) Strengthen what is left. All is not lost.
(3) Remember the past those happy days of receiving the truth.
(4) Repent. It is high time, when death has seized on a Church, that its position should be seriously reviewed with the purpose of amendment unto life.
Note:
(a) The life in Christ is not so at the command of the Church as to warrant its dispensing with all possible care for the maintenance of a continual inflow thereof.
(b) The death of a Church is not such a death is that of a corpse. Its responsibilities are not lessened by the fact of its death.
7. This death is most perilous. "If therefore," etc. (ver. 3). Thus again we meet with the thought that, if a Church is not doing its Lord"s work. it certainly will not be spared for the sake of its own. It will matter nothing in the great gathering day of eternity whether any particular Church survives or no. Some Churches make much of their freedom. Some make much of their scriptural order. But life is of more importance than either one or the other. And if any Churches cease to be alive, others with really hearty, earnest life will survive them, though they may be less exact in their form and order. Dead Churches will shrink and sink out of sight; and the Lord Jesus will write a branding epitaph on their tomb: "A dead Church, that once had a name to live.
IV IN A DEAD CHURCH THERE MAY YET BE SOME LIVING SOULS. A Church, as such, may expire in its own shame, yet there may be in it a few living ones. We can see the reason why the living ones are spoken of here as those "who have not defiled their garments;" for in the old Hebrew Law death was defilement. A man who touched a dead body was defiled. In Sardis, though the Church was dead, yet not every member was so. So that it seems there may be, thank God, even in a dead Church, some who, though surrounded with death, never touch it, but live always and everywhere in contact with the Living One, and so "keep themselves unspotted from the world." Note: A man must be in connection with a living Saviour if he would maintain his life. He must not depend on the Church for it!
V TO LIVING SOULS IN A DEAD CHURCH THE SAVIOUR HAS WORDS OF CHEER. Here is a promise which is, in itself, a cluster of promises; but the promises are not to the Church as a Church, only to individuals to those who avoid the touch of the dead now, who are daily overcoming, and will finally overcome.
1. Living on Christ now, hereafter they shall walk with him.
2. They shall be clothed in white raiment. (see Rev_19:8)
3. They shall be had in remembrance before God. "I will not blot his Name out of the book of life". (cf. Mal_3:17 Php_4:3 Luk_10:20 Heb_12:23)
4. They shall be avowed as Christ"s at last. "I will confess his name". (cf. Luk_12:8 Mat_25:34-40) How strictly the Lord Jesus individualizes in the treatment of souls! If there are living souls in a dead Church, or dead souls in a living Church, they will be dealt with by him, not according to the state of the Church, but according to their own. "Every one of us must give account of himself to God." As the inner life here was one between Christ and him, so the public acknowledgment of him will be by Christ of him. He will not be confessed "as a member of the Church at Sardis" or anywhere else. In the great decisive day we shall be saved, not as adherents of any name or cause on earth, but only as those who lived on Christ, and drew their life from him, keeping themselves unspotted from the world. Note how solemn the alternative Alive? or, dead?
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY. Vers. 1-6. The epistle to the Church at Sardis.
Were any one visiting the actual sites where the several Churches spoken of in these letters once stood, he would, ere he came to Sardis, have gone a long way round the circle on the circumference of which they all were. Beginning with Ephesus at the southern end, and proceeding northwards along the seashore, he next would come to Smyrna, then to Pergamos, then to Thyatira, and then, coming down the inland side of the rude circle we have imagined, he would reach Sardis, and proceeding on would come first to Philadelphia and then to Laodicea, the last of the seven. But now we have come to Sardis a notable city in the ancient world, because associated with the great names of Cyrus, Croesus, and Alexander. With this historic fame, however, we have nought to do, but with the religious condition of the Church there as shown in this letter. And, as in all the previous letters, so here, the title assumed by the Lord Jesus has special reference to the condition and need of the Church addressed. Ephesus needed encouragement and warning alike. The Lord, therefore, speaks of himself as "he who holdeth the seven stars in his right hand." Smyrna needed strong support under her heavy trial. The Lord therefore speaks to them as "The First and the Last, who," etc. Pergamos needed that the Word of God should be sharply and severely brought to bear upon her. The Lord therefore tells of himself as "he who hath the sharp sword with the two edges," etc. Thyatira needed to be reminded of the holy and awful wrath of the Lord against such as she was harbouring in her midst. The Lord therefore declares himself to be "he whose eyes are as a flame of fire," etc. And now this Church of Sardis needed to be won back again to true godliness, for though she had a name that she lived, she was dead. The Lord therefore speaks of himself to her as "he who hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars." Now note how this name of the Lord bears
I ON THE SIN WITH WHICH THE CHURCH WAS CHARGEABLE. Observe concerning this sin:
1. It was not that of others. Nought is said of Nicolaitans and followers of Balaam, or of such as Jezebel was. Nothing of false doctrines or of vicious life. These things which are denounced so terribly in other letters are not charged against this Church, and we may therefore assume that they could, perhaps they did, thank God that they were not as those other Churches were.
2. Nor was it that they did nothing. On the contrary, their works are mentioned repeatedly. No doubt there were all wonted ministries, religious observances, charities, and missions. There must have been, for:
3. They were no scandal to others. On the contrary, they had a name, a reputation, an honourable character, as a living Church. Laodicea deceived herself, thinking she was rich; but it is not said she deceived others. This Church, Sardis, did deceive others; she was reckoned by them to be really living, though in fact she was dead; and very probably she had deceived herself also. But:
4. Their works were not perfect before God. Well enough before men, but before him quite otherwise. They were of such sort that he said of those who did them, that they were "dead." They were done, as were the prayers, alms, and lastings of the hypocrites, "to be seen of men." Assuredly not with single eye or with pure motive. They had their reward: people talked of them, and gave them credit as having life. But before God they were dead. Let us remember that it is as before God" everything is to be estimated. Let all who engage in any form of Christian service remember this. It is terribly apt to be forgotten. Remember how St. Paul said, "It is a small thing to me to be judged of you or of any human judgment: he that judgeth me is the Lord; I labour to be accepted of him. The one question for us all is, how will our work appear before God? For:
5. Their condition was one most displeasing to him. The severe tone of the letter proves this. True, we have had such severity before, and shall have it again; for rebuke, and often stern rebuke, was what was needed then and still is by the majority of Churches, always and everywhere. Nevertheless, there is no one of these letters in which the tone is more severe, or the smiting of the Sword of the Spirit sharper, or the solemnity of the appeals addressed to them more arousing or impressive. The epistle to Laodicea is the only one which can be compared with it, and it is to be noticed that the wrong in that Church, whilst very great, is like this in Sardis, that it is free from the foul stains tither of vice or heresy. In the sight of the Lord of the Church there is, it is evident, something more hateful to him than even these. Love to the Lord may linger in hearts even where these are; but if love, the true life of every Church and every individual soul, be gone, then are they to be described as none others are, for they are "dead." Hence in this letter there is no softening, mitigating utterance at all, no mention of good works, but the keynote of the epistle is struck at once, and a startling one it is. But:
6. What was the cause of it all? Now the name our Lord takes to himself in this letter reveals this cause. He by that name declares that in him and from him is all-sufficient grace. Treasure store inexhaustible, riches unsearchable, both for pastor and people. For his were "the seven Spirits of God," and his "the seven stars." And yet, in spite of all this, they were as they were. Oh, was it not shameful, is it not shameful, utterly inexcusable, when the like exists now, that, though abundance of grace is in Christ for us all, we should yet be what he terms "dead"? It was plain, therefore, they had not sought that grace; the fulness of the Spirit"s help neither pastor nor people had implored; and so, as we find, they had given in to the world"s ways. It is evident from the honourable mention of the "few" who had "not defiled their garments," that the rest had. That is to say, they had given in to the world"s ways. Hence St. James speaks of pure religion as being in part this, "Keeping your garments unspotted from the world." And in proof of this there seems to have been a good understanding between the Church and the world at Sardis. They seem to have got along together very well. In every other Church, save this and Laodicea, mention is made of some "burden" which the enmity of the surrounding world laid upon the Church. But not here. As it has been well said (Archbishop Trench), "The world could endure it because it, too, was a world." This Church had nothing of the spirit of the "two witnesses" (Rev_11:10) who "tormented them that dwelt in the earth" by their faithful testimony; or of the Lord Jesus either, who "resisted unto blood, striving against sin," and because he would not yield was crucified. (cf. also RAPC Wis 2:12, etc.) But there was nothing of all this at Sardis. It might have been said of them, as was cynically said the other day of a certain section of ministers of religion amongst us, that "you would find them very well bred, and you might be quite certain they would say nothing to you about your soul." It is an ill sign when the Church and the world are so happy together. There has been compromise somewhere, and it is rarely the world which makes it. It is bad to have no life at all in God"s love; it is worse to have had it and to have lost it; but it is worst of all and may God in his mercy deliver us therefrom to have the name and reputation of possessing this life, and yet to be, in fact, as it was with Sardis, dead in regard thereto. For all around us conduces to deepen such fatal slumber of the soul, and there is an everlasting soothing of them by themselves, the Church and the world alike, saying continually, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace.
II ON THE PUNISHMENT WITH WHICH THE CHURCH IS THREATENED. (Ver. 3) This solemn warning of danger speaks of the Lord"s advent to judgment. But:
1. What is that judgment? The name the Lord has assumed in this letter reveals it. Now, that name was meant partly to show that they were without excuse, but also to remind that, as the Spirit is his to give, so also is it his to withdraw and to withhold. As he can open the doors of grace, and then no man can shut; so also can he shut them, and then none can open. This, then, was what they were to fear, lest he should leave them alone, lest he should take his Holy Spirit from them. David dreaded this, and implored that the Lord would not deal so with him. Better any punishment, any suffering, any pain, any amount of distress, than that the soul should be thus left alone of the Lord.
2. And this judgment would come as a thief; they should not know when or how. There was an ancient proverb that the feet of the avenging gods are shod with wool. Dii laneos habent pedes. The meaning is simply what is here said, that the Divine judgment comes silently, stealthily, secretly, invisibly, unexpectedly, "as a thief." Who can mark the hour when God"s Spirit leaves a man? Who sees the master of the house rise up and shut the door? It is not always true, as the much misleading verse tells"While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return. Before that lamp is quenched, the Holy Spirit"s blessed flame may have been quenched, and he, resisted, grieved, done despite to, may have for ever gone away. And it is equally untrue to affirm that the point of death bars all return. It is not death, but the determined character of the soul, that decides that matter. Death cannot shut the Spirit out nor life ensure that he remain, but the fixed bias and character into which we have settled down. And then:
3. There follows the blotting out of the name, etc. (Ver. 5) Of him who overcomes Christ says, "I will by no means blot out his name." Hence it is implied that the rest he will blot out. Yes, the name may be in that book; through the blessed atonement and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ our names are there; but the question is Will they be allowed to stay there? The branch may be in the Vine; it is so; but "if it bear not fruit, then," etc. Christ has put us all in, but we can force him, all unwilling, to blot us out again. And to be as Sardis was will do this. Have mercy upon us, O Lord!
III ON THEIR RESTORATION. Their sin had not altered the fact that he still had "the seven Spirits," etc. And should the Lord"s earnest word have the effect designed, it would, and we may well believe it did, awake many that slept, and arouse them from the dead, that Christ might give them life. And how would they be encouraged by this revelation of the Lord"s grace! "How sweet the name of Jesus" would sound in their ears! Did it not enable them to say to their adversary, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me." The effort they would have to make would be severe, but here in this name was abundance of grace for all their need. And to encourage them the Lord points them:
1. To the "few" who had overcome. There was, then, no irresistible might in the thraldom in which they were held. These had overcome, so might they. The grace that enabled these was waiting for them likewise. Not only would these "few" be greatly strengthened by the Lord"s remembrance of and special promise to them, but the rest also would learn that victory was possible for them through him who had the "seven Spirits,": etc.
2. To means that, if faithfully used, would be effectual.
(1) Let them become wakeful such is the meaning. This was a primary and imperative need. And when thus awake, let them
(2) remember how they had received and heard. With what earnestness and joy and devotedness of spirit they had begun their Christian career! Let them look back on that. And let them
(3) hold fast, i.e. keep, what remained, for all was not lost yet. The door of hope was not shut. And let them
(4) repent, i.e. have done with all habits, practices, and conduct, with all ways of thinking and speaking, which had lured them into and all but lost them in their deceitfulness. Let them confess it all before the Lord, and come away from it at once and for ever. And
(5) let them strengthen the things which remained. As the traveller crossing the Alps in snowstorm, all but benumbed, striking his foot against the body. of one who had just before passed that way and had sunk down in the snow, overcome by the deadly torpor of the cold as he, roused by the blow and proceeding to use all efforts to awaken the fallen one, happily succeeds, he is made at the same time altogether wakeful and alive himself: so let any whose own spiritual condition is feeble try to make others strong, and they, too, in the endeavour will win strength. Let them thus act. And next he points them to:
3. The reward of these who overcome.
(1) The white robe, symbol of victory, purity, joy.
(2) The fellowship with Christ. "They shall walk with me in white." What enhancement of their blessedness this!
(3) The retention of their names in the book of life. "I will by no means blot out," etc. All the loving purposes which he cherished for them when he entered their names there, they shall realize and enjoy.
(4) The confession of their names before his Father and his angels. What a compensation for the contempt of the world! how insignificant and despicable is that contempt when placed over against this honour which Christ here promises! Ah! who would stay in the sad state of Sardis when a way like this is opened out of it for them? All grace is his, and his for us, if we will avail ourselves of it; for he "hath the seven," etc. S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN Vers. 1-6. (5) The epistle to the Church in Sardis: the decaying Church on the brink of ruin.
The sad spectacle is presented here of a Church dying out. To the angel it is said, "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead." This is the judgment of him who hath "the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars." He holds the stars in his band, for safety in danger, for punishment in unfaithfulness. They cannot escape from him. The Lord of life is the Lord also of death and judgment. The watchword is significant of the slumbering, exposed state of the Church; it is the sharp word of the ever-wakeful LordWatch. "Be thou watchful, and stablish the things that remain, which are ready to die.
I THIS CALL IS RENDERED NECESSARY BY THE CONDITION OF THE CHURCH.
1. The deceitful semblance of life though death lurks within. How strikingly opposed is the appearance to the reality! If all were not actually overcome by death as the word "repent" would imply yet were they on the brink of death; nay, death reigned. A remnant may remain, but of the body as a whole it must be said, "Thou art dead." Or, in more accurate language, spiritual death, which is as a sleep, has palsied the strength and virtue of the Church. "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead.
2. The good that remains is on the verge of ruin. "The things that remain" were "ready to die." Sad, indeed, is the condition of any Church when its last remnant of good is tainted; when a deadly disease seizes upon the last living hope.
3. The imperfectness of all their works in the sight of God. Whatever may have been their appearance to the eye of man, "before God," every work is judged to be unfulfilled, imperfect, incomplete. The strength of the life, the vital force, is abating; all the activities of life, therefore, are faulty. As is the life, so is the work of life.
II THE CALL IS RENDERED NECESSARY BY THE CRITICAL CONDITION TO WHICH THE CHURCH IS REDUCED.
III BY THE THREAT OF SPEEDY JUDGMENT IF THE SIGNS OF REPENTANCE ARE NOT FORTHCOMING. "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
IV THE CALL IS FURTHER URGED BY THE GRACIOUS PROMISE TO THE FEW REMAINING FAITHFUL ONES.
V AND IT IS RENDERED THE MORE IMPRESSIVE BY THE WORDS WHICH POEM THE BACKGROUND OF HOPE TO EVERY ONE THAT OVERCOMETH. These include:
1. Purity.
2. Perpetuity of blessed life.
3. Honourable recognition: "before my Father and before his angels. R.G.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-6. The words of Christ to the congregation at Sardis.
"Sardis," says Dr. Eadie, "was a city of ancient Lydia. Its modern name is Sert Kalesi, and it lies about thirty miles south-cast of Thyatira, and two miles south of the river Hermus.
It is, however, but a miserable village, inhabited chiefly by shepherds, though it is one of the stopping places of the Persian caravans. The original city was plundered by Cyrus, and afterwards desolated by an earthquake, the ruins of it being still visible little distance to the south of the present town. Nothing is now to be seen but a few mud huts, inhabited by ignorant, stupid, filthy Turks, and the only men who bear the Christian name are at work all day in their mill. Everything seems as if God had cursed the place, and left it to the dominion of Satan." A modern traveller says, "I sat beneath the sky of Asia to gaze upon the ruins of Sardis from the banks of the golden-sanded Pactolus. Beside me were the cliffs of that Acropolis which centuries before the hardy Median scaled while leading on the conquering Persians whose tents had covered the very spot on which I was reclining. Before me were the vestiges of what had been the palace of the gorgeous Croesus; within its walls were once congregated the wisest of mankind, Thales, Cleotolus, and Solon. Far in the distance were the gigantic tumuli of the Lydian monarch, and around them spread those very plains once trodden by the countless hosts of Xerxes when hurrying on to find a sepulchre at Marathon. But all had passed away! There before me were the fanes of a dead religion, and the tombs of forgotten monarchs, and the palm tree that waved in the banquet halls of kings." Who founded the Christian community at Sardis, or the exact period when the gospel was first preached there, are questions that have not been, and perhaps cannot be, settled. The address of Christ to this community, as recorded in these verses, forcibly calls our attention to the consideration of three thingsthe general character of the many; the exceptional character of the few; and the absolute Judge of all. Notice
I THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE MANY. They were in a very lamentable condition.
1. They had a reputation for being what they were not. "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead." It was bad enough for them to be "dead," that is, all but destitute of that supreme sympathy with spiritual goodness which is the essence of moral life. It was worse still for them to have the reputation of life, and for them to believe in that reputation. The sight of death is bad enough, but death garbed and decorated with the semblances of life makes it more ghastly to behold. How this community obtained this name for living, this high reputation in the neighbourhood, does not appear, albeit it is not difficult to guess. Perhaps it made loud professions, appeared very zealous and active, and paraded its affected virtues. Then, as now, perhaps, men were taken by their contemporaries to be rather what they appeared than what they were. In these days, and in our England, there are Churches that have the reputation of wonderful usefulness. All their doings, their prayers, their sprinklings and dippings, their pulpit deliverances and their psalmodies, their architectural expansions and numerical additions, are emblazoned in the so-called "Christian" journals, so that they have a great name to live, whereas spiritually they may be all but dead. Reputation is one thing, character is another. Everywhere in a corrupt world like this the basest characters have the brightest reputation, and the reverse. The barren fig tree was covered with luxuriant leafage. "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
2. They were in a state of.spiritual consumption. "That are ready to die." It would seem that, whilst they were not all spiritually dead, there was a spiritual consumption amongst some. "Things ready to die." What things are these? The greatest things in the universe, eternal principles of virtue and truth. What things are comparable to these? To them literatures, markets, governments, are puerilities. There is a spiritual consumption, and the symptoms are manifest. Weakness, morbid appetites, false views of life, etc.
3. They were in a state requiring prompt and urgent attention. "Be thou watchful, and strengthen stablish the things which remain, that are which were ready to die." What is to be done?
(1) They were to be vigilant. "Watchful," wakeful, to shake off slothfulness, open their eyes to eternal realities, fan the dying sparks into a flame.
(2) They were to be curative. "Strengthen the things which remain." How strengthen? Appropriate the true remedial element, fruit from the tree of life; use wholesome food, the "sincere milk of the Word;" take proper exercise inaction leads to disease; "exercise thyself unto godliness;" inbreathe the pure atmosphere of holiness.
(3) They were to be recollective. "Remember therefore how thou hast received." Call up all the good of the past.
(4) They were to be repentant. "Hold fast, and repent." They were to renounce all that was pernicious to spiritual health, and pursue a right course. "Hold fast." Grasp with all the tenacity of their being the good that comes up to memory, as the drowning man lays hold of the rope thrown out on the surging waves.
4. They were in a state of alarming danger. "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou Shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." Such words as these Christ uttered while a tenant of this earth. (Mat_24:32) Retribution generally moves stealthily as a thief. "The feet of the gods are shod with wool," says the old Greek proverb.
II THE EXCEPTIONAL CHARACTER OF THE FEW. "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled did not defile their garments." "These few names," says Dr. Tait," are here to the credit and honour of the Church, the few "things" in connection with the Church in Pergamos were against it and to its condemnation. He who was the angel of the Church does not. seem to have known the few names, just as the prophet did not know the seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed their knees to Baal" Here, then, is goodness amidst social depravity. Three remarks are suggested.
1. That true goodness can exist under external circumstances the most corrupt. Sardis was one of the most dissolute cities of ancient times, but here were Christians. Man is not the creature of circumstances.
2. That true goodness, wherever it exists, engages the specific attention of Christ. Christ noticed the goodness in Sardis; and why?
a. Because it is the highest manifestation of God upon earth.
b. Because it is the result of his mediatorial mission.
c. Because on it depends the progress of humanity.
3. That true goodness will ultimately be distinguished by a glorious reward. The words, "walk with me," etc., imply three ideas.
a. Triumph.
b. Fellowship.
c. Progress.
III THE ABSOLUTE JUDGE OF ALL. Who is the absolute Judge both of the many and the few? He is thus described: "These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars." The absolute Judge of character is here presented in three connections.
1. In connection with the highest influence. "He that hath the seven Spirits of God." Elsewhere we read, "He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him". (Joh_3:34) The Divine Spirit is everywhere. The amount of its possession by any moral being is conditioned by that being"s receptive capacity. No man ever appeared on earth who had the receptive capacity in such measure as Christ had it. He was filled with it. He opened his ministry by saying, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," etc. The more a man has of this Spirit, the more he can communicate of life and power and blessedness.
2. In connection with the highest ministry. "The seven stars." These were, as we have seen, the angels of the seven Churches. What is the highest human ministry? The ministry of the gospel. Those engaged in this work are here called "stars," and these stars are in the hands of Christ. He moulds them with his influence, he burnishes them with his holiness, he fixes them in their orbits, he guides and sustains them in their spheres. He is, in truth, their Centre and Sun. From him they derive their order, their vitality, and their power.
3. In connection with the highest Being. "I will confess his name before my Father." The Father is the greatest Being in the universe. The relationship of Son implies:
a. Resemblance.
b. Reciprocal love.
The Son identifies himself with all his true disciples. "I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Sardis--The fickle Church
Rev_3:1-6
Sardis.
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Sardis--The fickle Church
Among all the messages to the Churches there is no other which is appalling like this to the Church of Sardis. The condemnation and the denunciation are emphatic; the details, however, are obscure, and as we meditate on what is said, it strikes us that this obscurity is due to intentional reserve. This appears, first, in the title given to Christ: These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars. Here we are bidden think, not of the historic Christ, but of the inhabiter of eternity. It is as if, instead of coming forth to reveal Himself, Christ were withdrawing into the recesses of Deity; He seems to be receding from our approaches, not advancing to kindle His peoples adoration and reward their love. The same reserve appears in the description of the Churchs sinfulness: I know thy works, that thou hast a name, etc. That is all, but it is such an all as produces an impression of utter condemnation. The call to repentance, too, lacks something which we are accustomed to find in Gods appeals to His people: Become watchful, and stablish the things, etc. There is no hint that what has perished may be restored. More than once I have seen a tree laden with fruit, its broad green leaves betokening vigorous life, while a formless lump in the stock revealed that once the tree was so cankered that it was not expected to recover; and I have read a parable of the revival of dead graces in mans life. No such alleviating hint is dropped concerning Sardis. The time has not come for it; the need of the hour is for warning, only warning. There is a shortness in the threat: If therefore thou shalt not watch, etc. The Lord does not condescend to say more than is needed. The Church of Sardis knows, after what has been declared, that this coming can only be for judgment, and is left to meditate on the nearness and suddenness of the doom. Even in the acknowledgment that there are faithful persons in Sardis, a few names which did not defile their garments, and the promise made to him that overcometh, the reserve is maintained. So deep is the sin of the Church that it is blessedness only to have been free from it. So dire is the doom that, for them who have escaped it, to have their names not blotted out of the book of life is enough. The Lord will confess their names in heaven, because it is a wonder to find souls from Sardis there. How may we apprehend the condition of Sardis? Perhaps we say, Sardis was a worldly Church; and this is undoubtedly true. She that giveth herself to pleasure is dead while she liveth. Addictedness to things that perish with the using is both the sign of a languid inner life, and certain destruction of the little life which remains. Or we may say that Sardis was an impure Church. Discipline was unknown in it; even the pretence of discipline must have been wanting, when of only a few could it be said that they did not defile their garments. But there is one touch in the description which is full of significance. I have not found any of thy works perfect [that is, finished] before My God. The image suggested is that of a fickle Church, rushing from one thing to another, beginning works and growing weary, taking up and dropping down, impossible to be relied on by God or man. Fickleness is a very common fault; therefore the Lords words to Sardis need to be dwelt on. There is no graver symptom of our time than its prevailing restlessness. So many men and women follow the ever-changing fashion--in dress, or books, or household decoration, or art, in science, in philosophy, in philanthrophy, in scepticism, or in faith. Theirs is not the versatility of a catholic temper, but of a shallow soul; such persons proclaim that they have no taste, that is, no original perceptions, no standard of excellence. There is the same instability among the Churches; the popular religious catch-words are for ever changing. Yesterday the parrot-cry was Orthodoxy; to-day it is Liberality, freedom of thought. There is to them no word of the Lord; they have no profound sense of duty, no consecrating purpose, nothing about which they can say, This one thing I do; this is what I believe with all my heart; of this I am sure; to this I cleave, I can no other, God help me. And if fickleness be thus the sign and symptom that underneath all shews of religious activity there is death, so fickleness works death. The notion such people have that their great need is some new thing, a new impulse, a new call, is part of their soul-sickness. Their real want is the heart to stick to what they are about. Nearly the whole discipline of piety is in the fact that persistency brings lessons which we can learn in no other way. If we try to perfect what we are doing, we learn our defects and how to supply them; we learn what we can do and how to do it; we strengthen the sense of duty, and catch the meaning of hardness; sources of comfort will open to us when sore weary with our work well done; God Himself comes to teach us, and lead us, and be our God. In Sardis, as in Laodicea, there is a special word of comfort to the faithful, because they have found fidelity so hard. Thou hast a few names in Sardis, etc. The promise is itself an implied charge against the many; they are defiled as well as heartless. So it must ever be; the pollutions of the world, the flesh, and the devil are sure to overtake those who are not steadfast in their piety. All the more impressive is Christs assurance that He has not overlooked the few. He who has the seven Spirits is quick to discern fidelity in unlikely places; He watches to discern and to acknowledge them. Fidelity is acknowledged by Christ as of eternal virtue, however it may reveal itself; and the company of those who overcome is one company, whether the victory have been won on a conspicuous or an ignoble field. It seems so reserved an utterance: I will not blot out his name; but the book in which the name is written is the book of life. It is no small honour which is conferred on the clean souls in Sardis when they are declared worthy to walk with Christ in white. There is a touch of exquisite consideration, of appreciation of what their life had been, in the promise with which the message ends: He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments. Heaven shall be to them the consummation of what they had worked for and striven after on earth. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)
Christs message to the formalist; or, feeble because incomplete
I. Delusive appearances; or, the death that simulates life. There is nothing so unmistakable as natural death; in tree, animal, or man, it makes itself fearfully plain. Life may exist in a sluggish or imperfect form, but between the feeblest life and death there is an immeasurable distance. But with spiritual death it is often otherwise. The advances are so stealthy, and so swift, that sometimes every grace and gift has perished before the symptoms of the plague are discerned. Wendell Holmes tells us that in the introduction to Gil Blas it is said, Here lies buried the soul of the licentiate. Where do not souls lie buried? One beneath the self-consciousness of pride, and another beneath ceremonies which are good in themselves, but which may produce evil, if unduly relied upon. Under what sin is thy soul buried. And let us look at the gracious aspect which is presented here of our Lord. When the king of Ethiopia of old heard that the Persian monarch was dead, he remarked, It is no wonder that he died, when he lived on dirt. The allusion, of course, is to corn, which at that period was unknown in Ethiopia. Of Darracott, on the contrary, it was finely said, that he looked as if he lived upon live things, for he possessed such abundant vitality. So is it that a man is like that which he mentally feeds upon; so that if he communes regularly and constantly with Christ, he wilt become Christ-like, and will live by the life of Christ.
II. Decaying graces; or, bad which may become worse. The decay was not as yet thorough in the Church at Sardis; there was still a chance of regaining the lost time, and living by Christ. But unless the Church became vigilant, and took the needful measures, the decay would eventually become complete. The graces of the Spirit are granted only to certain conditions, and they are removed when these essentials depart from us. Incompleteness is decay. I have found no works of thine fulfilled before my God. Their acts of charity and faith had been marred; they were introductions without any succeeding chapters, indeed, but a series of failures. And may not the words imply that one grace cannot live without the other, that they are mutually dependent, that if one be absent, or be wilfully left out, the others will languish and perhaps die? In grace as in nature the balance of life must be preserved. So in grace, every virtue sustains some other, and they rise and fall together.
III. The surprises of judgment: the gracious or the just one. I will come as a thief, Christ threatens, by which I understand that in reference to His judgment He thus describes its stealthiness. And with the unexpected nature of this visitation, is there not also combined the idea of its being unwelcome?
IV. The true citizen of the world is a native of heaven. The true question which we should ask ourselves and each other is not, Are you prepared to die? but, Are you fit to live? Hence, Baine concentrates the meaning of the passage into the phrase, Singular piety in degenerate times is dear to God. (J. J. Ellis.)
The address to Sardis
I. The form of address. Sardis was a city of considerable eminence, nearly equidistant from Smyrna and Thyatira. It was formerly the capital of the kingdom of Lydia, and is celebrated in profane history as the residence of Croesus, proverbial for his great riches, which were seized by Cyrus in aid of his expedition against Babylon. In the usual course of all these cities, it fell, first into the hands of the Persians, then of the Macedonians, and then of the Roman empire. A village only now remains, near which are some ruins of the ancient city. The character in which Christ appears to this Church is taken partly from the dedication in the 4th verse, and partly from the vision in Rev_1:16. This is proof that the whole book, from the commencement, is supposed to be sent with the addresses to the Churches.
II. The rebuke. Hero is no commendation to the Church generally. It is given afterwards, as an exception to a few. This Church had formerly been in a flourishing state. It was composed, at first, of simple-hearted and pious believers. There was life in their ministry, life in their ordinances, life in their social meetings, life in their retirements, and life in their souls. This state of things, however, did not long continue. There was a gradual and imperceptible falling away from the grace of the gospel. The Spirits influences were less desired, and consequently less enjoyed. Zeal was not deficient, nor even fortitude to brave persecution for the sake of their religion. Their works were considerable, and, in some respects, worthy of imitation by those who are actuated by better principles. These are observed by the Saviour, but as serving only to sustain a profession of the vitality of which they were destitute. I know thy works, that thou hast a name, etc. This is displeasing to Christ, because of its gross inconsistency, because of the false aspect which it gives to His kingdom before the world, and because of the dishonour which it casts upon the office of the Spirit of God. A further complaint preferred against this Church is, I have not found thy works perfect before God. The literal meaning is finished, or complete. Their works were imperfect in the principles from which they emanated, and in the ends to which they were directed. They were forms without life, professions without fruit. Another feature of their declension is indirectly asserted in these words, Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. This sentence to a Church, which probably boasted most of the Christian name, and aspired most to ecclesiastical distinction, was peculiarly humiliating. Where the life of godliness fails, it were vain to look for its fruits. The name of Christianity presents a feeble barrier to the corruptions of our fallen nature. What safeguard is there in nominal Christianity against moral defilement?
III. The admonitions. The Saviour exhorts the offenders at Sardis first of all to watchfulness. Be watchful. Let them reflect upon their condition, rouse themselves to vigilant inquiry. They are exhorted to strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. Here is an acknowledgment that some genuine piety continued amongst them. This Church is reminded, how it had received and heard, and is exhorted to hold fast its first instructions, and repent of its deviations from them.
IV. The threatening: If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come, etc.
V. The exception: Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. There were some, even in Sardis, who had escaped the general defilement. In the worse ages of the Church a remnant has been preserved that have kept their garments pure. The Waldenses, Moravians, and others, will be found to authenticate the truth of this observation.
VI. The promise. The threatening is to the many that have fallen, the promise to the few that have not defiled their garments. They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. VII. The application: He that overcometh, the marne shall be clothed in white raiment, etc. (G. Rogers.)
The words of Christ to the congregation at Sardis
I. The general character of the many.
1. They had a reputation for being what they were not.
2. They were in a state of spiritual consumption.
3. They were in a state requiring prompt and urgent attention.
4. They were in a state of alarming danger.
II. The exceptional character of the few.
1. True goodness can exist under external circumstances the most corrupt.
2. True goodness, wherever it exists, engages the specific attention of Christ.
(1) Because it is the highest manifestation of God upon earth.
(2) Because it is the result of His mediatorial mission.
(3) Because on it depends the progress of humanity.
3. True goodness will ultimately be distinguished by a glorious reward.
(1) Triumph.
(2) Fellowship.
(3) Progress.
III. The absolute judge of all.
1. In connection with the highest influence.
2. In connection with the highest ministry.
3. In connection with the highest Being. My Father.
This implies--
(1) Causation.
(2) Resemblance.
(3) Reciprocal love. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Sardis
I. Notice the title which Jesus Christ assumes. He that hath the seven spirits of God.
1. The Holy Ghost is a Spirit of quickening, of conversion, of prayer, of holiness, and of comfort; for all these purposes the Lord Jesus communicates the Holy Spirit, and hence, He describes Himself as having the seven Spirits of God.
2. The expression, doubtless, signifies something transcendently above the claim of the most exalted creature.
II. Observe the deplorable state in which the text describes the church in Sardis to have been.
1. In the visible Church of Christ there are many who have nothing of religion but its lifeless and worthless form. They bear the Christian name, but are totally destitute of Christian principles, and Christian tempers. They are externally clean, and internally impure. They employ language expressive of Christian experience, without possessing correspondent feelings.
2. Genuine Christians are subject to declension in religion.
III. Notice some of the symptoms of the affecting state described in the text.
1. Backsliding usually begins in remissness relative to the most secret exercises of religion. The first steps of a backslider are visible only to God and the individual himself.
2. The effect of spiritual declension soon makes its appearance in the domestic circle.
3. Another symptom of this affecting state is worldly-mindedness.
4. A censorious spirit is a certain symptom of lamentable declension in the things of God in the soul.
5. A love of novelty is another symptom of declension in religion.
6. It is evinced by irritability and unsubmissiveness of temper under trials and afflictions.
IV. The seasonable exhortation which our Lord addressed to the Church in Sardis.
V. This subject addresses itself to three descriptions of character.
1. To those whose souls are prosperous, and who enjoy the inestimable privileges of religion. Be not high-minded, but fear.
2. To those whose case is described in the text. Your experience teaches you that it is an evil thing, and bitter, to sin against God.
3. To those who are totally destitute of genuine religion. Your state is inexpressibly awful, and infinitely dangerous. (J. Hyatt.)
Nominal religion
I. The rebuke given in the text to the Church of Sardis. Beware lest the too partial judgment of men mislead thee as to the judgment of God. Bring thyself to a Scriptural test. Judge as thou wilt be judged at the great day of account.
II. The commendation bestowed, in this address, on a few of the members of the Church of Sardis.
1. There are no circumstances so bad as to render goodness impossible.
2. Even the smallest company of true worshippers is not forgotten before God.
III. The counsel given to the Church of Sardis in this address. There are means of revival which may in every ease be employed with success. The page of history presents to us some splendid examples, in which a body of troops, checked and dispirited for a time, have suddenly beheld the banner, or caught the voice of their leader; and at once, throwing away their doubts and fears, have returned to the fight, scaled the rampart, and crowned themselves with fresh triumphs and glory.
IV. The threat connected with these counsels to the Church of Sardis. All the movements of God, especially in the works of creation, are so precisely in order--the sun and the moon knowing their place, and each season following in the train of the other--that it is difficult to persuade ourselves God will in any case interrupt this regular succession of events, and astonish the sinner by any sudden or unexpected explosion of His wrath. But how often do His visitations thus unexpectedly arrest the ungodly!
V. The promises with which the text closes. (J. W. Cunningham.)
He that hath the seven Spirits.--
The seven Spirits of God
By these seven Spirits of God is meant apparently that One Divine Person, the Holy Spirit, to whom, with the Father and the Son, we render homage and praise. And the reason for the peculiarity of the sevenfold Spirit is because in this book that Spirit is contemplated, not so much in the unity of His person as in the manifoldness of His operations. And, further, that the number seven, being a sacred number, expresses completeness. And so, He that hath the seven Spirits of God represents Jesus Christ as possessing, and as possessing that He may impart, the whole fulness of that quick and Divine Spirit. Thus the first thought to be presented to the moribund Church is of the fulness of Divine life gathered into that Spirit who is not enclosed in inaccessible mysteries of deity, but going forth like the flame of the torch, like the glance of the eye, everywhere where men are. This great Life giver is waiting for all feeble and half-dead Christian hearts to come surging into it if they will, and to fill them with its own vitality. Notice still further that the second of the predicates applied to our Lord here suggests for us one very frequent way in which He cleanses out Churches. He hath the seven Spirits and the seven stars. The stars are the symbols of the angels, and the angels are the representatives of the teachers of the Churches; taking that for granted, is it not beautiful that our Lord should be represented, if I may so say, as holding in one hand the seven Spirits of life and in the other hand the seven stars, or to put away the emblem, and to take another figure in Scripture, in the right hand He held the golden vase full of the anointing oil, in the other hand an empty chalice into which it was poured. Jesus Christ wakes up a dead Church by bringing the seven Spirits of God into the hearts of selected men: for the way in which great revivals of religion in little communities and in big ones is usually brought about is that some man or men are filled with the fulness of God and become weary of forbearing and feel the Word like a fire lit up in their bones, and are so fitted to be Gods instruments for communicating the magnetism of life to the dead Church. And now let me ask you to think of one or two very simple lessons from this vision.
1. First of all, should not this vision shame us all into penitent consciousness of our own deadness? So much life waiting to be bestowed, and so little actually appropriated and possessed by us. The whole flood of ChriSts grace running by our doors, and we, like improvident settlers in some new country, having no provision for storing or for distributing it, but letting it all run to waste.
2. And then, should not this vision set us upon questioning ourselves as to what it is that keeps the life of Jesus Christ out of our hearts? In the winter time in our towns, when the water stops in the houses, why doesnt it come? Because there is a plug of ice in the service pipe; and there is a plug of ice in a great many Christian hearts in connection with their Master. Life is sustained by food, by air, and by exercise. Do you feed the life of Christ in you? Do you read your Bible? You will never be vigorous Christians unless you can say, I have desired the words of Thy mouth more than my necessary food. Life is sustained by air breathed. Do you take that Divine Spirit into yourselves, expanding that capacity by desire, and so oxygenating all your life and cleansing out the corruptions of sin? And life is sustained by exercise. Do you do anything for Jesus Christ? Absolute idleness is a sure way, and it is a very popular way amongst many Christian people to kill the life of Christ within us.
3. And so, let this vision draw us to our Master that we may get the life He can give from His own hands. Your Christianity can only be sustained by the repetition continually of that which kindled it at first. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
I know thy works.--
God knows the works of men
I. The Lord knows every mans ill courses. He knows what men are, and what they have been, and what they will be, as He knows all their thoughts, words, and works. He knows all their dispositions, their persons, their natures, their qualities, their affections, and ends and aims and motives, and estates; He knows how many are rotten though they profess never so much, how many are unsound though they be never so well esteemed in the Church; He knows in what estate every man stands (Job_11:11). The use of this is, first--Is it so that God knows all mens sinful courses? If men be dead-hearted, He knows it; if they be heartless in good duties, He knows it; though they would be loth that men should know what they are, and do keep it from them, yet they cannot daub it before God; He knows it. Then this may serve to confute them that say, God does not know sin. True, sin is an evil, yea the greatest evil of all evils; yet the knowledge of it is good. God knows who do abuse Him, and how people carry themselves towards all His commandments and worship; it is a part of His perfection to know it. Secondly, another use is to condemn the most sorts of men that do net consider of this truth; they little think that God sees all their doings. I fear there is hardly any among us that will seem to deny but that God can see all his ways; and yet we see it is too apparent by mens lives, that few men do believe this indeed. If we did charge this upon our souls, we could not live so loosely as we do. Thirdly, Is it so that God sees all mens sins? Then this is a terror to all that go on with a self-condemning heart (1Jn_3:20). If we have self-condemning heart, how much more shall we find a condemning God? Fourthly, this is comfort to good people; for if God see all mens sins, then He sees all mens goodness much rather. Again, what a comfort is this? If we desire to know our sins, God is able to show them unto us. Fifthly, Does God know all mens sins? Then this should make us afraid to do evil at any time, or in any place, yea in the secretest.
II. The knowledge that God knows all our works is the powerful means to all Gods elect, to do them good, and to quicken them and to make them take heed of all manner of sin.
1. Because the Lords knowing of our works is not only a mere knowing of them, but also a marking and a pondering them too.
2. Because when God sees all our sins, it is with a most holy and pure eye, and such an eye as cannot abide such an object before Him.
3. Because when God sees all our sins, He records them, He notes them in a book that He may never forget them.
4. Because when God sees our sins, it is even all one as if all the world should see them too; for let our sins be never so secret, yet, it God know it, it is worse than if all the world knew it; for all the world shall know it one day.
5. Our disposition is such that we cannot abide that our wickednesses should be seen of anybody that we know cannot abide them.
III. Now we come to the particulars. The first is in these words, Thou hast a name that thou livest. By name is meant a mere name, as we see by the clause following, and art dead; for when a man is dead, the name to live must needs be a mere name. First, a name in regard of themselves, they took themselves to be alive; as Paul had a name to live before his conversion, while yet he was Pharisee, he had then a name to live (Rom_7:9). Secondly, a name in regard to other godly Churches; others in the judgment of charity conceived they were alive; as the Scribes, and the Pharisees, our Saviour Christ told them, they had name to live (Mat_23:27), that is, ye seem to be alive, ye have a name to live, but indeed ye are dead. Thirdly, a name among poor, ignorant, and simple people that are led away with shows. Ye know that there be abundance of poor, simple people, that knew not what true religion is, nay, maybe hate it, but yet they are led away with the show of it. Fourthly, a name among the persecution of religion, and so they are persecuted too among them that live indeed; for mockers take them to be of the same number. Now the point of doctrine is this, that it is a horrible thing to rest in a mere name of being religious. The reasons are, first--this is to be farthest off from religion; because himself will not, and others cannot so effectually apply to him the means of recovery, he being in his own and others judgment a true convert. As a sick man who thinks himself well is of all others farthest from cure. Religion is a real thing, and therefore he that rests in having the name of it, is farthest off from it. Secondly, it is a very blasphemy to get the name for good people, when we are not good people indeed. The reason is this--religion hath an inward dependence upon God; it hath an internal relation unto God; it puts a man into a propriety with God that God is his God; it puts the very name of God upon a man. Now, if a man take the name without the thing, it must needs be a very blasphemy. Thirdly, it is a fiat lie, when a man hath the name of a good Christian, and hath not the thing signified by the name. Fourthly, it is an unreasonable thing. When a man hath not the thing, there is no reason that he should have the name. Fifthly, it is an impudent thing. When we have a name to live and to be wrought upon by the Word, what an impudent thing is it, if we do not look to it that we be so indeed. One would think we should blush to think what a name we have, and how little we make good our name between God and our own souls. Sixthly, it is an inexcusable thing. If we have a name to be alive, we are without excuse if we be not. First, because out of our own mouths God will judge us; we said we were His people, we took the name of His servants; why then He will say, Why had I not your service? Why would you do no more for Me? Secondly, ye can have no other excuse. Can you say you could not believe in My Name? Ye could not forego such and such lusts at My command? Why then would you go for My servants? Seventhly, it is an unprofitable thing: a naked name will do us no good. True faith alone does justify, not the name of it; true peace of conscience does comfort, not the name of it; true interest in God gives a man a cheerful access to God, not the name of it, Eighthly, it is not only unprofitable, but also it is hurtful. It is hurtful unto others. It is hurtful unto them that are without; for when they see how lazy such as go for professors be, how they have little else in them but talking and professing, and prating and hearing, this hardens the heart of them that are without, and makes them all think that religion is a matter of nothing. Again, they do a great deal of hurt unto comers on. Many a man that is smitten at the word, that begins amendment, and gives good hopes that he will come to something in the end, when he lights upon such Sardian saints, that are so in name, but there is no life at all in them, these put him back again. Again, they do a great deal of hurt unto the saints of God, sometimes by deceiving of their hearts and cooling of their zeal and fervour, or if they cannot do that, then they hate them, and prove very shy of them, and gird them behind their backs, and do them much mischief. Again, they do a great deal of hurt to themselves, for it had been better for them they had never had a name, than having a name not to be as the name does require. No; the Lord does not find fault with Sardis for having of a name that they lived, but that they had this name when as they were dead; if they had been alive, the name to be alive had been well. Then what use must we make of this point?
1. To show the misery of some of our Churches. They have only a name to live, though we might live well enough, for we have the doctrine of life, in many places, yet in regard of our conversations for the most part, we may say it is but only a name. For how does sin reign among us everywhere? Covetousness, profaneness, fulness of bread, lust, security, deadness of heart, formality--now where such sins do abound, there the power of godliness must needs be away. Generally our assemblies content themselves with an outward profession; if they go so far, they have but a name to live. Come we to the graces of Gods Holy Spirit, without the which a man is dead in trespasses and sins, etc., as faith, repentance, peace of conscience, and love, etc., where are any of these to be found?
2. Another use is of terror against us. Do we think that the Lord will endure this at our hands? He hath endured it too long, but He will not suffer it always. He hath a spiritual thunder-clap that He lets fly against this sin (Isa_32:5). That is, the Lord will unmask all such persons, He will pluck off all their names, and they shall have a name fit for their natures, and He will do this--First, in their own consciences. Secondly, in the judgment of others. If we rest in a name, the Lord will detect us at last before others; and then what a shame will this be? (W. Fenner, B. D.)
The state of all men known to Christ
I. Christ hath a perfect knowledge of every ones works.
1. In what extent we are to understand the works which Christ is said to know. Works here are not to be taken as distinguished from words and thoughts, but in the largest sense, as including both.
2. In what manner Christ knows mens works.
(1) The knowledge Christ has of the works of men is most clear. He does not take up with appearances, but sees through every disguise, and takes things as they really are.
(2) The knowledge Christ hath of the works of men is immediate, not by report from others, but from His own all-penetrating light and inspection.
(3) The knowledge Christ hath of the works of men is perfect and full. Perfect as to their number; none of them escape His notice or regard; perfect as to their nature and circumstances, and as to the springs and aims of those that do them. Works that we may have forgotten are known to Him and remembered by Him.
(4) The knowledge Christ has of the works of men is infallible and liable to no mistake. He cannot be deceived, and will not be mocked.
(5) The knowledge Christ has of the works of men is with approbation, or dislike, according as they are found to be good or bad.
II. Whoever he be that hath a name to live, and yet is dead, is known to Christ as what he really is.
1. What is implied in having a name to live? They that are really in a state of grace may be justly said to live, as such souls live to the best purpose; for to them to live is Christ. They are out of the reach of the sting of death, and so need not through fear of it pass their lives in bondage; they are near a blessed immortality, in which they are to live for ever. To be thus privileged is to be alive indeed. And such a name may be acquired--
(1) By a freedom from the grosser pollutions of the world.
(2) A name to live, as it implies an open and visible profession of subjection to Christ, a joining with His people in His worship and ordinances, and an holding on some time in such a course; so it may arise from these.
(3) A name to live may result from experiencing the common operations of the Spirit of God, which for a time may look hopeful and promising.
(4) These convictions and external reformations may be accompanied with excelling gifts, enlargedness in the duty of prayer, joy and delight in hearing and attending upon the supper of the Lord, frequency in acts of self-denial and mortification. There may be great head-knowledge and ability to discourse of hypocrisy itself with appearing abhorrence, and of sincerity with signs of love to it; and yet all these may be found in one unchanged at heart.
2. Such a name some professors of Christianity may have, who are all the while they bear it spiritually dead. If it be asked, With whom such may have a name to live? a negative answer is obvious: Not with Him who seeth not as man seeth.
But,
1. They may have a name to live with themselves: they may reckon themselves in a state of grace, when they are all the while in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity.
(1) In the security that reigns in their souls. They dread no danger, though the nearest to it, but cry, Peace, Peace, to themselves, when sudden destruction is coming upon them.
(2) Sinners show their good opinion of themselves in the hope they keep up of their safety with reference to their souls and eternity.
(3) They may have a superficial joy in spiritual things as the stony ground hearers had in receiving the word; and thus, with themselves they have a name to live.
2. They may have a name to live among others, and these the friends and followers of Christ.
3. The sadness of the case, to be dead, under a name to live, or of being alive.
Application:
1. Does Christ know every mans works? How strange is it that it should be brought into dispute, whether He be truly and properly God!
2. Does Christ know the works of every man? What ignorance or unbelief does it argue in such as sin securely, if they can but do it secretly!
3. What seriousness becomes us whenever we engage in any holy duty or religious worship, as all our works are known to Christ!
4. What reason have we to be humble in a review of our own works, as they are all known to Christ, and, as many of them are such as we have cause to fear, He at once observed and disapproved!
5. How fit is Christ to be the Judge of all men at the last day, who knows every mans work now!
6. How big with terror to hypocrites is this doctrine.
7. The hearts of those in whom there is no guile allowed, may take comfort in the thoughts that Christ knows their works and knows them to be the fruits of His Spirit and grace in them.
8. May one that has a name to live be spiritually dead? Hence learn that saving religion in an inward thing.
9. When Christ declares, I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead, with what solicitude should every one make the inquiry, Lord, is it I?
10. How inconsiderable a thing is it to be judged of man in this day! of man that looketh only on the outside. Our chief concern is with one infinitely greater: He that judges us is the Lord.
11. How terrible will the day of Christs coming be to the self-deceiving hypocrite, and how joyful to the humble saint. (D. Wilcox.)
Works
I. The work of the body.
II. The work of the mind.
III. The work of the character.
IV. The work of the spirit.
V. The work of suffering. (H. H. Gowen.)
That thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
On formality and hypocrisy in religion
I. What is necessary to give a man a name to live?
1. It is necessary that he abstain from vice, and the grosser pollutions of the world.
2. Besides this, there must be an external appearance of devotion. Mere negatives will not be sufficient.
II. When may a man be said have a name to live only? A statue may be so curiously painted and dressed as to be mistaken, at a distance, for a man; and a hypocrite may borrow so much of the appearance of Christian graces, as may enable him to pass for a genuine Christian.
1. He has nothing but a name who attends to the outward part of religion only.
2. He that has but a name to live, feels no satisfaction and joy in approaching to God.
3. He has a name to live only, who, notwithstanding all his religious exercises, is in no degree better.
4. He has a name to live only, whom difficulties or apprehended dangers cause to turn back, or who, as Solomon says, faints in the day of adversity.
III. The folly and danger of being satisfied with a name to live while you are dead.
1. Consider then, that while this is your character your services cannot be acceptable to God.
2. Consider again, that while you indulge this lifeless religion you will never attain to holiness.
3. Besides, it can never give true satisfaction. It may silence, but it cannot satisfy conscience.
4. With nothing but a name to live, we shall never obtain an admission into heaven. (S. Lavington.)
Some causes of spiritual death
1. One cause of spiritual death is self-satisfaction. A traveller lost on the prairie, with the snow falling fast and thick, with his blood coursing slowly, feels that sense of ease which the opium-eater knows. He lies down in the soft white drifts. They make an easy bed. His friends find him and try to arouse him. He would rather be left undisturbed. His self-satisfaction works his death. George III. was satisfied with his government of the American colonies; he therefore refused to remedy its abuses, and his satisfaction cost him these colonies. Upon all who are satisfied with their standing before God the chill of spiritual death has begun to rest. They can no more draw spiritual life from themselves, than one can feed his body by sucking blood from its veins. Therefore, satisfied with their relation to God, they do not strive to gain life from Him who is the source of the life spiritual, as He is of the life physical. Their self-satisfaction works the ruin of their souls.
2. But more frequently than by self-satisfaction is the spiritual life killed by the indulgence of some sin. Many a man has felt he could surrender his entire property to God; but when the temptation arose of making a hundred dollars by a trick of the trade, he has chosen to be dishonest. But the sin may not be one of commission. It may consist in the omission of some duty. It may consist in the refusal of some means of grace. It may consist in the preference of doing nothing to advance Gods cause. Such sins of omission deaden the spiritual life. But in general the sin consists in the choice of some other good than the good which the Christian life affords. (C. P. Thwing.)
The warning voice re-echoed from Sardis
The evidences of salvation are various, and may be viewed in various ways. On the present occasion--looking to the expression of the text, where the word rendered dead is literally a dead body, a corpse--I will endeavour to work out the marks of a living as opposed to a dead soul, from what we know to be marks of a living as opposed to a dead body.
I. One great characteristic of spiritual life, in the Bible, is the possession of spiritual sight. The first test, therefore, I would propose of spiritual life is a perception of spiritual truth. Place before the eye of the living body a scene of loveliness or of horror, and from the eye the heart is at once affected, at once feels the attraction or repulsion, and so feels as to act upon that feeling. Even so, place before the vision of the living soul a spiritual truth--the beauty of holiness, or the loathsomeness of sin--and at once does the heart so feel the truth as to act upon that feeling. Nay, verily, as spiritual facts are vastly beyond all corporeal facts in importance, so spiritual facts have vastly more effect upon the heart, when once the souls vision is tolerably clear: they speedily become its all in all.
II. The living soul has hearing as well as sight. There are many, who are listeners to religious sounds after a fashion, eager attendants on this or that preacher, ready hearkeners to certain kinds of religious conversation. But their hearing is an empty thing. It fills their head with notions and their tongue with words, and perchance their heart with a sort of excitement; but as to any solid effect on heart and practice, that is wanting. How different with the soul that really lives! This soul, conscious of Gods presence, trembles at His threatenings, bows in reverence to His commands, melts at the hearing of His love, and pants after His promises in the very fervency of desire. Its spiritual ear, as its spiritual eye, brings every impression home to the heart; there roots it a vital principle, sanctifying the inner man and prompting the outer practice.
III. The living soul possesses also the faculty of speech. Its very existence is prayer. Keenly alive to the greatness of its wants, and as alive to the willing fulness of the Lord, its desires are continually travelling upwards from these wants to that fulness, in the inward breathings of prayer, if not with its audible words.
IV. I will continue the analogy but one step further, and that is in growth. True, spiritual life, as it is a quickening, so is it an impulsive principle. As it gives action to the spiritual eye, ear, and tongue, so does it give growth to the whole inner man. Slow growth it may be; still grow the living soul must and will. It is a growth in knowledge; but that is not the sure test. It is a growth in holiness, and that is She test; the one clear, decisive test of the souls life (Mat_7:20). True Christian holiness is not the honesty of the worldling; nor the honour of the gentleman; nor the temperance of the philosopher; nor the kindness of the good-natured; nor yet is it the mechanical observance of the formalist, nor the bustling vehemence of the religionist. True Christian holiness is a hearty conformity to Gods whole will, acting in a loving obedience to all Gods commandments. It works in two great lines of feeling and operation--in a deep-rooted horror of sin, as Gods utter hate, and a perfect hungering and thirsting after righteousness, as Gods supreme delight, both springing from entire love to God as their one grand source and motive. Conclusion: What is the result of this inquiry for you? As mark after mark of spiritual life has been brought forward, have you been able to say, This mark I have; if not in the highest degree, still, God be thanked, most assuredly I have it? But are there any who can find no such marks in their soul? Then, whatever else you may have, you are destitute indeed. You may be very amiable in mens eyes. Death has sometimes its momentary beauty. A shadowy loveliness is seen to linger on the lifeless features. Yet the work of decay and destruction is just as busy beneath. You may be gifted with great talents and great energy; you may gain high distinction and honour in the world; but if your soul be not alive in Christ, what is all this but a fading garland on the head of a corpse? (John Gibson, B. D.)
A living Church
I. A church may be said to live while she is dead, when she has the name of Christian without the doctrines of the gospel.
1. The most important discovery in the Word of God is that of redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ from sin and death and misery. One of the most vital doctrines must therefore be what relates to the Person of the Redeemer.
2. The second doctrine upon which depends the life of the Church, is the Atonement or Sacrifice which Christ our Lord has offered for sin. The supreme deity of our Saviour demonstrates His power to save if He would.
3. The third doctrine upon which depends the life of the Church, is that which relates to the Holy Spirit and His influences.
4. In the sum of these doctrines we discover the fourth principle upon the influence of which the life of the Church depends, the doctrine of Free Grace. The practical reception of this doctrine in the Church lies at the foundation of a religion for sinners.
II. The Church may have a name to live, and be in reality dead, when orthodoxy in opinion is substituted for morality in practice. Iii. The church may have a name to live, while in reality dead, from haying an external morality without humility and piety. (H. Cooke, D. D.)
That a minister may be in fault that the people are dead
I say the minister may be in the fault; the point is very clear from this place. The Lord being to reprove the people here of Sardis, for their deadness in religion, He directs His reproof to their minister. The good or bad estate of a people dependeth much upon the minister. Commonly we see it fall out, as the Prophet Hosea said, Like people, like priest (Hos_4:9). Such as the builder is, such is the building; as is the husbandman, so is the husbandry. (Wm. Fenner, B. D.)
Moral death
By dead I mean five things.
1. Deadness of guilt; when a man is guilty of any offence, that is death by the law. Now when a man is not pardoned of God, he is dead, though he have never so many hopes and conceits of forgiveness.
2. Deadness of mind, when the mind is ignorant of God in regard of saving knowledge.
3. Deadness of heart, when the heart is not inclined towards God, then we say it is dead towards God and all goodness.
4. Deadness of conscience, when the conscience hath no force; it may be it finds fault with such and such ways, but it hath no power over the man to make him to leave them.
5. Deadness of affection; when the affections are clumsy, and will not stir towards God and all heavenly things. Should a man have all Christianity in him, and yet be dead and dull and without life, it is even all one as if he had just nothing. First, for conversion. Should a man seem to be converted, O what a changed man is this! He was a drunkard, and now he is sober. This is well. Ay, but if thou beest dead to the ways of God this is nothing towards heaven; except a new life be put into this man, to be alive in all these good ways; except he be quickened together with Christ. Secondly, faith. Should a man lean himself upon God, and upon Christ, should a man apply all the promises of the gospel to his soul; alas, what of this? If this man be dead still, without such a faith as produces life, it is little better than nothing. Thirdly, to be a member of the visible Church of God, to be a stone in Gods building, put in by baptism, kept in by profession of the Christian faith. This is a poor thing, if this man now be not lively stone. Fourthly, for hope. It may be thou hast hope that thou art a good Christian, thou hast a hope of the heavenly inheritance; now if thy hope be a dead hope, if it does not quicken thee up to trample on the world, to carry thee on through thick and thin, this is not a gracious hope. Fifthly, for repentance. Whatever thou hast to say for repentance, canst thou plead a thousand changes and reformations, yet if thou hast not gotten out of a dead temper, thou art yet under an impenitent heart. Again, to go over all duties of religion--they must be done with life; to do them with a dead heart, is as good as not to do them at all. Religion is a very irksome thing unto us, as long as we are dead.hearted. What is it that takes away the grievousness of it, but a lively heart? (Wm. Fenner, B. D.)
Death in the Church
I need scarcely remind you that all the seven epistles to the Churches are cast in one mould; each of them begins with setting forth some aspect of the ascended Christs power or glory or relation with His Churches, which aspect is generally drawn from the great vision in the first chapter. It is to this correspondence between the aspect in which our Lord is revealed here and the state of the Church of which the vision is given, that I venture to ask your attention. First of all, then, let us try to understand what sort of a Church it is that wants this vision. It was dead. One smiting word stands in the place of all characterisation; it had no persecutions like the faithful band at Smyrna. Why should it? It had not life enough to be obnoxious! What was there in such a Church as that to provide any antagonism? It exactly suited the worlds purpose, and was, in fact, only a bit of the world under another name. A dead Church is on the best possible terms with a dead world. When the frost binds the ground, weeds and flowers alike cease to be put forth. There is a worse condition than when many people are thinking earnestly about religion, and some of them are thinking wrongly. And so the Church at Sardis had no heretics because there was nobody in it that cared enough about the principles of Christianity to think earnestly about them. And it had no immoralities either--most respectable. And yet one Eye looked at it and said, Thou hast a name that thou livest, and are dead. About how many of our Churches and of the individual Christians who take up the profession of Christ and connect themselves with ecclesiastical arrangements with such light hearts, may the same be said! Life is the condition of union with Jesus Christ, and death is the grim alternative that waits upon separation from Him. That Church had lost the tenacity of its hold and the intimacy of its union with Jesus Christ. Now note further, as brought out in this letter, that such a condition is not final and irreversible. They were not so utterly dead as moribund, and so in another part of the letter we read about things which remain and are ready to die, and about works which were done but were not perfect or fulfilled. Ay! effects last after causes cease; institutions live when all the reality is out of them. Habit, use and wont, forms, ceremonies, keep up the appearance of vitality when the reality is almost gone. There are creatures of a low organisation where you can get muscular contractions after life is extinct; you will find gardens round many a deserted, roofless house in the country where the weeds have not killed all the roses, and a vagrant flower or two still remains to testify the culture that was. And so in thousands of our communities there is enough left of the living, lingering effect of the primitive impulse to keep up a ghastly mockery of life which would be far better if it knew itself to be what it is--dead! And that brings me to say again that such a condition may be absolutely concealed from every eye but the Eye that is as a flame of fire. A great many of our communities I am afraid are living on the past. John Wesley had a great name, but you cannot live because there was once John Wesley with you. Unconsciousness is the surest sign of spiritual decline. I suppose a man paralysed has no sense in his limbs, and might put his feet into a tub of scalding water and take the flesh off the bones and never know it. Frostbitten limbs are perfectly comfortable: it is the waking that is the pain. Like the hero of the Old Testament Book with his locks cropped, they go out as of old to exercise themselves, and they wist not that their strength has departed from them till they try a death-grapple with the Philistines, and then they find it out fast enough. What is it that has in the course of ages worn into indistinctness the sharp-cut granite features of the Sphynx that looks out over the Egyptian desert? The perpetual attrition of microscopic grains of sand blown against it by the vagrant winds! And so the multitudinous trivialities of life, coming in contact with the image of Jesus Christ in our hearts, will efface its fair features and leave but a dim outline.
II. Now, let me ask you to look at the vision which such a Church needs. He that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. It is a distinct reference to the personal spirit of God conceived of in the manifoldness of His operations rather than in the unity of His Personality. That spirit comes permeating, enlightening, illuminating, vivifying, discerning, and strengthening all of us if we yield ourselves to it. There is the antidote for a dead Church, a living spirit in the sevenfold perfectness of His operations. He is the spirit of consolation, of adoption, of supplication, of holiness and wisdom, of power and of love, and of sound mind, and into all our deadness there will come the life-breath which shall surely quicken it all. That which is unique in the history of Christianity as compared with all other religions, its power of self-recuperation, and when it is apparently nearest extinction, the marvellous way in which it flames up again because the Spirit of the Lord is poured forth. Other teachers--what can they do? They can impart a system, they can train a little group of dwindled imitators, who generally imitate their weaknesses, and think they are imitating their strength, but to give the spirit that animated the originator is exactly what none of them can do.
III. The words of my text suggest one of the ways in which this bestowment of the seven spirits is accomplished. One way by which that Spirit of God is shed abroad upon His moribund Church is by raising up men in it filled with the Spirit, and whose intense vitality communicates life to that which is almost dead. Let us all go back to Him for quickening. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Uselessness of mere profession
Many content themselves with the name of Christians; as if many a ship hath not been called Safeguard or Good-speed which yet hath fallen into the hands of pirates. (J. Trapp.)
A dead Church
A pastor of a Church in a western town went to his prayer-meeting on Thursday evening as usual, where the attendance was very small; but that evening no one came; even the sexton went away after lighting the church. After waiting half an hour for his members to put in their appearance, and finding that he was the sole worshipper, he went to the bell-cord and slowly tolled the bell, as the custom was when any one died in the town. The alarm was magnetic. All over the town the inquiry was made, Who is dead? A number of the members of the Church hastened there to ascertain who was the unfortunate one. Just then the minister, descending the steps, was interrogated by several of his flock, Who is dead? This Church is dead, was his response, and then and there he resigned the pastorate. (D. Tasker, D. D.)
Semblances of life
Nature presents us with many affecting illustrations of the semblance of life, where death is reigning; the flowers in your garden may for a time retain the form, when life is extinct; the ancient oak in the forest may stand for years erect, while life has long since passed away; the tiny shell on yonder beach may attract your notice, when its once little tenant can nowhere be found: so do we often think we find the form of godliness, when the power--the reality--the life are wanting. (C. Bowes.)
A name to live
I have seen a graft bound to the bleeding tree. It was inserted into its wounded side, that both might become one. Yet no incorporation followed. There was no living union. Spring came singing, and with her fingers opened all the buds; summer came, with her dewy nights and sunny days, and brought out all the flowers; brown autumn came to shake the trees and reap the fields, and with music and dances and mirth to hold harvest-home; but that unhappy branch bore no fruit, nor flower, nor even leaf. Held on by dead clay and rotting cords, it merely stuck to the living tree, a withered and unsightly thing. And so, alas! it is with many; having a name to live, they are dead. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
A show of life
God abhors and man despises the fair colours of a religious profession that stand out, as it were, above the surface of the nature, like the appliquee of the embroiderer, instead of being interwoven with the stuff so as to become a part of it. Mere outward decorum and religious decency are not what God requires, though they are too often, alas I what is presented to Him in lieu of the beauties of holiness. It is easy to assume the character of Gods people, to imitate their manners, to use their language, to conform to their habits. It is easier to paint a flower than to grow one. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
The semblance of life
How like to a Christian a man may be and yet possess no vital godliness! Walk through the British Museum, and you will see all the orders of animals standing in their various places, and exhibiting themselves with the utmost possible propriety. The rhinoceros demurely retains the position in which he was set at first, the eagle soars not through the window, the wolf howls not at night; every creature, whether bird, beast, or fish, remains in the particular glass case allotted to it; but we all know these are not the creatures, but only the outward semblances of them. So in the Churches of Christ, many professors are not living believers, but stuffed Christians. They possess all the externals of religion, and every outward morality that you could desire; they behave with great propriety, they keep their places, and there is no outward difference between them and the true believer, except upon the vital point, the life which no power on earth can possibly confer. There is this essential distinction, spiritual life is absent. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A life akin to death
I was reading in Humboldts Cosmos, the other day, a very remarkable thing. He tells us that he went with some Indians into a number of, huge caverns in South America, which were locked in perpetual darkness; but ill them certain fruit-eating bats were accustomed to go to dwell. They had brought there the seeds of different plants, and when Humboldt and his guides entered with their torches, there were trees and plants of every kind that had grown in the utter darkness. Just as you have seen a potato grow in your cellar, and send out its yellow sickly shoots, so the whole cavern was like a great forest or garden, full of these ghastly ghosts of plants. Oh, you may work in your Churches, and you may sow, and you may labour, but if the blessed light of Gods own truth does not come in, it will be a sickly vegetation akin to death. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Formalism and true Christianity
The other day I was at a railway station with a friend, and looking at a couple of engines. As we were talking the engine-driver came up, and I remarked, We have just been admiring the engines; very splendid ones they are. I should think they are just alike. The man looked at me significantly. Yes; they are much alike outside, but that one there has no fire burning, and it cannot even move itself; but this one here has the fire burning and the steam up, and I am just going to jump upon it, and you will see it run away with the whole train behind it. Well, I thought, there is just that difference between the for-realist and the true Christian. The formalist is, to all appearance, a splendid engine; but there is no fire and the steam is not up. The Christian may not be so powerful-looking or so showy, but then the fire is burning, and the steam is up; and while the one cannot help himself, the other will by his zeal affect a whole neighbourhood. (C. Garrett.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 1–6. The church in Sardis. The city of Sardis,…
1–6. The church in Sardis. The city of Sardis, once the capital of the great kingdom of Lydia and the home of Croesus, the rich king, lay in the interior nearly a hundred miles east of Smyrna and Ephesus. Though it had lost its former greatness it was still a considerable city in the first century. The church there was planted, no doubt, by some of the companions of Paul. The former city has now ceased to exist, and only extensive ruins remain to testify of its greatness. Like the church at Ephesus, which had lost its first love, the Sardian church which had “a name to live and was dead,” has had its lampstand removed for many centuries. Hath the seven Spirits of God. See notes on 1:4; also 1:6. The perfect number seven denotes fulness. He hath the fulness of the Spirit whom he sends into the earth to do his work. Thou hast a name, etc. Though nominally Christian and living the Christian life, they were really spiritually dead.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Rev_3:1. Sardis.—Modern, Sart; once the capital of the old…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Rev_3:1. Sardis.—Modern, Sart; once the capital of the old Lydian monarchy, now a village of paltry huts. Seven Spirits of God.—Most writers see in this the endowment of Christ with the Spirit, so as to be judge in His Church. But this idea involves unduly pressing the word “hath,” which more naturally suggests “hath in control” than “hath in possession.” Stuart understands our Lord presented here as having the seven presence-angels under His control, or at His disposal—having them as His attendants and the ministers of His will. In whatever sense “hath” is applied to the “seven Spirits” it is applied to the “seven stars.” Art dead.—Spiritually; a figure for being in a cold and lifeless state (Mat_8:22; Rom_6:13; Eph_2:1; Eph_2:5; Col_2:13).
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Rev_3:2 Watchful.—Wakeful; the opposite of the present drowsy condition of the Church. Lit. “become watching,” “become as one who watches.” Things which remain.—Implying that some things had died out, and that some things were dying out, through neglect and disuse. In getting back energy for flagging things, there might come also restoration of lost things. Perfect.—Or up to the standard, “fully done, in weight and tale and measure.”
Rev_3:3. Hold fast.—Compare the counsel to Timothy (2Ti_1:14; 2Ti_2:2). As a thief.—Unexpectedly, so as to find thee in a wholly unprepared state. (See Mat_24:43; Luk_12:39; 1Th_5:2; 1Th_5:4; 2Pe_3:10; Rev_16:15.)
Rev_3:4. Names.—This is thought to imply a Church roll. It may, however, only be a figure for “persons.” Defiled their garments.—“Clean white garments are very natural emblems of innocence. Hence, to be clothed with polluted garments, i.e. garments soiled and stained, is an emblem of a character which is soiled and polluted.” (See Zec_3:3, seqq.) Those are described whose outward lives had been free from impurity.
Rev_3:5. Be clothed.—Or shall clothe himself (περιβαλεῖται). Book of life. Roll, or register, of the citizens of heaven. Names are blotted out of city registers when death occurs, or when crime is committed, and forfeiture of privilege ensues. Confess his name.—See Mat_10:32; Luk_12:8.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rev_3:1-6
Death and Life and Peril of Life in a Christian Church.—There is scarcely more than a doubtful allusion, in this epistle, to the secular or religious conditions of the city of Sardis. That some of the members of the Church had not “defiled their garments” implies that there was some peculiar peril of moral defilement in their daily associations. There are ruins of a stately temple still remaining, which was dedicated to the mother-goddess Cybele; and her “worship, with its eunuch priesthood and its orgiastic rites, was one which tended, as much almost as that of Dionysos or Aphrodite, to sins of a foul and dark impurity.” The city was a very interesting one. It was famous for its purple dye, for its coinage, and for the manufacture of a compound metal, known as electrum. It was the ancient capital of the Lydian monarchy, and through its agora, or market-place, flowed the Pactolus, with its golden sands. But this epistle directs exclusive attention to the Christian Church in Sardis, and it is chosen as one of the seven Churches to receive direct messages from the Living Christ, because it was, in some way, a typical, or representative, Church; and in connection with it may be illustrated the universal Divine dealings with Churches that answer to this type. In what, then, is this Church a type of certain Christian Churches which may be found in every age? Its most marked peculiarity, the consequences of which the searching Spirit of Christ discovers and brings out to view, is, that the Church had been left for years in quietness and peace. It had not been touched by any of the persecutions that had afflicted sister Churches. The members lived as citizens in the esteem of their neighbours, not rousing opposition by any active resistance of the heathenism around, but, perhaps in an exaggerated and unworthy way, “following peace with all men.” The apparent consequence was a look of well-to-do-ness; a general prosperity; much orderliness of public service; fair charities; and conditions that seemed to indicate healthy Christian life. Sardis had the name and repute of a living Church. But there are peculiarly subtle influences always bearing upon individuals, and nations, and Churches, that go on a long time in undisturbed and prosperous quietness, with no changes to put virtue to the proof, and no warfare to put noble qualities to exercise. The supreme moral peril for a man is found in years of continued and unqualified worldly prosperity. The supreme test of a nation comes in prolonged periods of peace. And Churches that never know storm, or stress, or strain, are in grave danger of dropping down into listlessness and worldliness. The one thing that the individual, the nation, and the Church, lose in periods of unbroken outward material prosperity, is spiritual life, soul life. Bodily life, material life, social life, thrive well under such conditions, and they may come even to simulate, or stand instead of, spiritual life; but souls grow in times of conflict and trial. Pressure of distress, affliction, or evil, forces the soul into the activity in which alone it can thrive. Of some it is said in God’s Word, and in a very striking way, “Because they have no changes, therefore they forget God.” Life—soul life—cannot do with long-continued smoothness and ease. The law is an ever-working one, “Through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom.”
“The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the place where sorrow is unknown.”
The prophet Jeremiah illustrates the truth by a very suggestive figure: “Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed” (Jer_48:11). The Church in Sardis, then, is a type of those Churches that have known years of unbroken outward prosperity and peace. We always are disposed to make mistakes about such Churches, and to over-estimate their spiritual condition. The Living Christ, who “walketh among the candlesticks,” makes no mistakes. Let us see what He may be finding, to-day, to be the truth concerning such Churches, by what He found to be the actual, rather than the apparent, state of the Church in Sardis. In dealing with the previous Churches, we have seen that, in each case, the Living Christ is pictured as present in a precise relation to the conditions and needs of the Church. That is equally true in this case. We have to be assured that He is never deceived, or carried away by mere appearances. He goes in behind the show of things to the inward reality. He can searchingly search. He can deal with motives. He can test for signs of spiritual life. So He is figured, in relation to Sardis, as having the seven Spirits, or the perfect Spirit of God. He has the Divine eye, which the psalmist felt. “searched and knew him,” and which the Christian teacher spoke of as “discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart.” The Church in Sardis might be so satisfied with itself that it would find it hard to believe it could be as Christ declared it was. Let them know, then, that the Living One, who moved among them, saw secrets with absolute precision, for He had the seven Spirits of God. There can be no appeal from His searching inspection, and unhesitating decision. But that is not all the figure in which Christ is presented to this Church. He is also “He that hath the seven stars.” Now, the “stars” are the angels, or ministers, of the Churches; and this allusion to the Living Christ as having, or holding, the stars in His right hand, is evidently intended to suggest that He meant to subject the minister of this Church in Sardis to an unusually searching test. It was possible that he might be found as spiritually dead as were the average of the members of the Church. It might even be that his yielding to subtle, worldly influences had sealed the spiritual death of the Church. “His faith, as well as the faith of the Church, may have sunk into a superficial, though perhaps an unostentatious, state.” And if so, it was well that the Divine rebukes should seem, in a very direct way, to be pointed at him. In the inspection of this Church notice—
I. The Living Christ does not stop with mere signs of life.—There is almost an abruptness in the way in which they are mentioned, and brushed aside. “I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest.” “These things bring you men’s praise, and even men’s confidence, but I am not interested in them; I want to know what is behind them.” The show and the fame of Christian life is not always a genuine expression of spiritual life. Many a consumptive patient makes a brave show of life when he is just dropping into the grave. Other things besides spiritual life can secure the commonplace goodness of a man, and of a Church. A moral man may not be a Divinely quickened man. An apparently healthly Church may have really lost its vitality. The leaves of the tree do not fall at once when the fresh springs of sap are stopped in their flowing. Presently, if there be no sustaining life, the signs of life will surely fail. But when the Living Christ searched the Church in Sardis, and its minister, the evil, the spiritual death, was only in its beginnings. The tone of His address is more than usually severe. The conditions were subtle. The discovery of the insidious evil was physician’s work. The seeming flush of health really was but the hectic flush of disease. The very little, dull, but steady, pain and swelling, of which no notice was taken, was the sign of cancerous growth, and a living death. Signs of life in a Church! Services maintained; numbers increasing; propriety of conduct winning public respect; generous meeting of responsibilities; service of charity to the poor; kindly sympathies with one another in times of sorrow;—Christ, the Living Christ, passes them by, with a glance of approval; they are good as far as they go. He goes in behind them to test the vitality, the spiritual life, of which they should be the expression. And He may have to say, “I know thy works; thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead.” “In Sardis there had been no open scandals. It was still recognised by the other Churches as a living and true member of the great family of God—was even, it may be, winning their admiration for its seemingly energetic vitality. And yet the chill and the paralysis, which were the forerunners of the end, were slowly creeping in upon its life; death, not life, was already master of the position, the dominant characteristic of the Church as a whole, and perhaps of its spiritual ruler in particular” (Plumptre).
II. The Living Christ is anxious about flagging life.—Nothing can be done by agencies within the Church’s control for those in the fellowship who are quite spiritually dead. There is no hope for them, save in the awakening trump of some direct Divine dealing. But, while this may be the condition of a few, the Living Christ fixes attention on those whose vital force was but failing—who were but beginning to die. And the searching Eye noticed that it was on certain sides of Christian life that they had begun to die, as trees show signs of hastening death in particular branches. This, however, only made their spiritual condition the more perilous, because they might easily be satisfied with the things into which spiritual life still streamed, and might fail to see the significance of the death that was doing its work in other things. When we live, crediting ourselves with, and getting the credit of, superior piety, it is very easy to blind ourselves to the actual conditions of spiritual peril in which we are found. But there is hope in dealing with those whose spiritual life is only flagging. The Living Christ bids them “establish the things that remain” alive, but “are ready to die.” He tells them that He had not found their works perfect, they were not good, not alive, all round the tree, and the death in some of the branches would inevitably spread to all the other branches. And He solemnly warns them—with a most arousing warning—that when deadly disease stealthily creeps upon a man, and is left unchecked, it has a way of leaping upon him at last, and clutching him with one hopeless grip. They will find it even so with flagging, diseased, deteriorated, spiritual life. “If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” Plumptre says: “The angel of the Church is called to wake up from his slumbers, and then to strengthen in himself the energy, the zeal, the love, the hope, the faith, which were so nearly dying out. In doing this he could not fail to help the persons, also, in whom this flagging of all spiritual vigour had been most conspicuous, or, in the language of the epistle to the Hebrews, ‘to lift up the hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.’ ”
III. The Living Christ recognises those in the Church who are truly and healthily alive.—For such there always are, even in a spiritually decaying and dying Church. The Lord always has His “remnant.” In a prosperous Church they are often found among those who are poor in this world’s esteem. And almost always they are found among the severely afflicted ones—those who have the trials and persecutions in their own personal experiences, which the Church, as a Church, may so perilously lack. They are always the salt of the Church, the hope of the Church. And they are sure to gain the loving recognition of the Living Lord who “walks among the candlesticks.” But the description given of the sign of life in them which their Lord recognises is singular and suggestive. “Thou hast a few names in Sardis which did not defile their garments.” They walked the foul highways of immoral Sardis clean. But the suggestion is not one of merely careful, watchful walking—one of mere ordering of conduct and relationship. It reminds us of Christ Himself, who walked the earth in spotless white, though He touched the leper and ate with sinners. He had such vigorous life in Him that neither His soul nor His body could take stains. That is the idea of the undefiled few. They have such vigorous spiritual life that as they go to and fro among defiled men and things they take no stains; they throw off all infections; cleanness and health are guaranteed to them by vigorous life. And these shall “walk with Christ in white.” They shall come into such a near and sympathetic fellowship with Him as only they can know who are alive as He is alive. If it be true that death creeps on from a spot to a limb, and from a limb to a vital organ, we need not miss seeing the answering truth—that life is active to resist encroaching death. Every really living Christian in a Church is an active, energetic power. The undefiled few preserve, as does the salt; they work as does the leaven; they spread as does life; they fight evil and death, even as the White One Himself ever did, and does. The hope of every Sardis lies in her present, searching Lord, and in her “undefiled few.”
IV. The Living Christ encourages effort to recover life by giving gracious assurances and promises.—“To him that overcometh” the stealthy, insidious influence of this prolonged Church prosperity and peace, that braces himself to resist the evil, and nourishes his soul-life into healthy vigour and activity, these assurances come. “He shall be arrayed in white garments”—a fitting array for the white-souled, and for the servants of the White Christ. Their whiteness shall come out and clothe them, and so take the attention of men and be a powerful witness for Christ. Their “name shall not be blotted out of the book of life,” as the names of the dead citizens must be, and the names of the dying citizens are in peril of being. And the Living Christ shall find His personal pleasure in them. He shall speak about them to His Father and to the angels; glad in those who are quick, and strong, and healthy, in that Divine life they have through Him. “I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.” “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith” unto the Church in Sardis. Beware, lest any of you succumb to the oppressive moral atmosphere that is around the Churches of Christ in these days of national prosperity, wealth, worldliness, and peace. In that atmosphere, spiritual life finds it hard to thrive. It has this subtle influence upon us: it nourishes self-indulgent life, mental life, artistic life, and even a sort of philanthropic life; and Churches are so easily deceived with these things, and induced to call them spiritual life. And then the real spiritual life moves slowly in the veins of the Church, and then it becomes stagnant in places, and then it mortifies. He who hath the seven Spirits of God looks at the facts, not at the seeming, and behold, He must say this: “I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest, and art dead.” Dead in places, dying in other places—only a few parts really alive. What an alarming picture of a Christian Church! This is the arousing warning given to it: “Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and didst hear, and keep it and repent. If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” Resist the creeping lethargy, arouse yourselves, shake off the sleep of hastening death. Be among those who overcome and live, and, because alive, walk the earth with the Living, White Christ.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Rev_3:1. A Name to Live.—It is the reputation for piety possessed by the Church at Sardis which is referred to. Living with the credit of superior piety, it was easy to grow satisfied with the reputation, and to forget to keep open the channels through which grace and life could flow, and to fail to realise that the adoption of habits of life higher than those around them, or those who lived before them, was no guarantee of real spiritual life; for, as Mozley says, “the real virtues of one age become the spurious ones of the next.… The belief of the Pharisees, the religious practice of the Pharisees, was an improvement upon the life of the sensual and idolatrous Jews whom the prophets denounced. But those who used both the doctrinal and moral improvements as the fulcrum of a selfish power and earthly rank, were the same men, after all, as their fathers, only accommodated to a new age.” Self-satisfaction, which springs up when a certain reputation has been acquired, is the very road to self-deception. The remedy is progress, forgetting the things behind, lest, looking with complacency on the past, moral and spiritual stagnation should set in, and spiritual death should follow.—Bishop Boyd Carpenter.
Seven Spirits of God.—The Spirit is thought of, to use the later terminology of the Nicene creed, as the “Giver of life,” and of all its sevenfold gifts; the seven Spirits of chaps. Rev_1:4 and Rev_5:6 were but forms of that Divine life which He—one, yet manifold—imparted. He also “hath the seven stars,” which represent the guides and teachers of the Church; He is able, that is, to bring together the gifts of life, and the ministry, for which those gifts are needed. If each star shines with its peculiar radiancy, it is because it is under the power and influence of the sevenfold Spirit; if it has no life or light, and ceases to shine, there is the danger of its falling away from its place in that glorious band and becoming as one of the “wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude Rev_3:13).—Dean Plumptre.
True Church Life.—The Church to whom this statement was made was that of Sardis, and the remarkable thing is that this strong condemnation is pronounced while yet no flagrant vices are charged upon its members. They appear to have been sound in creed, respectable in conduct; yet, after all, they were dead.
I. There are certain things which secure for a Church a good name, which yet are no sure indications of spiritual life.—
1. Numbers may give a name to live while yet there may be death.
2. Wealth may give a name to live.
3. The absence of immoral conduct is no sure indication of life.
4. A sound creed is no indication of a Church’s life, because it may have been departed from, or a Church may put the creed in place of the Saviour, or its members may have gone soundly to sleep upon its sound creed.
II. A sure indication of life is the fruit.—“I know thy works.” The threefold test of a Church’s life is—
1. Works of faith.
2. Works of love.
3. The patience of hope. The patience of hope is the work of hope. “If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” This patience is not simply quiet waiting, it is also active perseverance. Hope is the mainspring of effort, and a hopeful Church will be a persevering Church, with no such word as weariness in its vocabulary.—W. M. Taylor, D.D.
Rev_3:4. The Undefiled Few.—To the Church in Sardis the message is one of almost unmingled reproof. Christ is represented as having the seven, or perfect, Spirits of God, therewith looking this Church through and through; going in behind the appearances of life, discerning the beginnings of spiritual death. Sardis was a tree fair to look upon, with leaf and flower; but the blight had stricken it—the blight of worldliness and self-indulgence. But that Eye, which is so quick to detect the evil, is yet more lovingly quick to discern the feeblest traces of good. “Even in Sardis” that Eye rested on an undefiled few, who were steadfast in heart, who were clinging to Him in trustful love, who were trying to walk the soiling streets of Sardis with unspotted garments. Such as they Christ will never pass over in forgetfulness; such true and earnest hearts need great comfortings; they shall have them, if need be, from the very lips of Jesus. To such He says, “They shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.”
I. The undefiled few.—
1. The figure used of unstained garments indicates those who have not brought disgrace upon their Christian professions by their outward life. This is, indeed, only one of the lowest forms of Christian virtue.
2. But more than this is meant. Sardis was famous, even among the degraded cities of that day, for the abandoned profligacy of its inhabitants. In comparison with those around them, their garments were undefiled.
3. There is yet a deeper reference here. The truly undefiled are they who keep up their integrity of heart, amidst all the faintings and fallings of their life.
II. Their present power.—In every branch of life, or phase of history, you find God has had a few who were leaders—leaders of thought, opinion, enterprise, active effort, and pure living. These are the salt, preserving the rest from corruption. Such was the service of the few in Sardis.
III. Their future glory.—This appears to embrace two things:
1. They who struggle after goodness now, shall find themselves settled in goodness then for ever.
2. Above all, these undefiled few shall have a communion with Christ of an extraordinary intimacy and preciousness. “They shall walk with Him in white.”
Walking in White.—White can hardly be called a colour. It is the soul of a thing shining through a simple and transparent medium. White shows the purity that a thing is. Illustrated by the white cactus. White is the emblem of innocence for children, and virtue for the redeemed. Illustrate priests in white. Church dressed as Bride—snow, wool, pure spring flowers. The text is in the book of Revelation. Can that book be won for Christian uses? The key to it is white, whiteness. Explain the prologue as a thesis worked out in the book. Compare the gospel of St. John, which has a similar beginning thesis. The first chapter is the vision of the Living, White Christ. He is with His Churches. He finds that they are all not-white. He is ever with them, to make them white. He uses the varied forms of earth-tribulation as His agents. As the process goes on through the ages, we get occasional glimpses of the heavenly, and there some sanctified wholly. The book closes with the vision of the Holy City for the holy ones, and the cry to Jesus to hasten the perfecting of His work.
I. We are not white.—St. John says, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” It is the fact concerning us all, that we “have not kept our garments unspotted from the world.” We could not bear the searching of the full sunshine, or the testing of the spring-time. The White One searches all who are satisfied with themselves—searches words, thoughts, affections, tone, relations. How severe His searchings are, is seen in His messages to the Seven Churches of Asia. Ephesus had left its first love, Smyrna needed tribulation. There were a few things against Pergamos. Thyatira was self-indulgent. Sardis had a name to live, but was dead. Philadelphia had but “a little” strength.” Laodicea was lukewarm. However self-satisfied we may be, revealing times are sure to come, which humble us in the dust. This is our severest testing. True whiteness will not take stains, any more than Christ took leprosy. The only thing that can be said of us is, we have not been among stains. Who of us is clean every whit?
II. Christ is white.—Let us say, was white, that we may feel His was a human whiteness; and that whiteness, kin to us, He has carried above. This is the impression left by the scene of the Transfiguration. This impressed the apostles. They speak of Him as “holy, harmless, undefiled.” He “did no sin.” This is the point of the vision seen by St. John. God could see no stains on Him, though He walked earth’s highway. Man has tried his utmost to find stains on Christ; and what, at the most, do they ever find? Destruction of the swine, egotism, whip of cords, cursing of fig-tree. Do not say He was white because He was God. He was white as man. Then there must be a secret in His human whiteness. It was His sanctified Will. The blood is the physical life. The Will is the moral life. The blood must be pure. The Will must be right. Our trouble is that our Will is not right, therefore stains come and stay.
III. Christ is working to make us white as He is.—He wants it. It is the aim of His infinite love. In our deep hearts we want it. Why do we so love white flowers? Have you lost the present, living, cleansing, saving Christ out of your life? Are you only resting in something He once did? Then you have not learned the lesson of the book of Revelation. Then you have not seen the supreme glory of Christ. He maketh white. He is making white. In two ways.
1. As sunshine make sails look white.
2. As washing makes white paper in the paper mills. The book of Revelation describes God’s tearers, and chemicals, and rollers.
(1) The great Son cannot bear to see any stains on His brothers. Therefore He refines, as silver is refined, seven times.
(2) The great Son wants His own purity for every brother. His is purity within. We are anxious about a covering robe. The robe of immortality lets the white (that we have become) shine through. This, then, is Christ’s present work in us—His sanctifying of tribulation. He is getting our Wills turned wholly to righteousness. Death-time is the final process in the cleansing of the Will. In recognition of this, we get white wreaths for the dead. Christ’s glory for the future is this: we shall be clean, as He is. He can work on to secure that end. He can make us suffer in securing that end. And we ought to respond to His working in us. Triumph for the sin-stained is the Christ-won, everlasting, white robe. What becomes of bodies or of garments that keep on getting stained, and never get washed? It suggests the future of all who are out of Christ.
Rev_3:5. Erasure of Names from, the Book of Life.—“A process of erasure is ever going on, besides the process of entering. When the soul has finally taken its choice for evil; when Christ is utterly denied on earth and trodden under foot; when the defilement of sins has become inveterate and indelible;—then the pen is drawn through the guilty name; then the inverted style (stylus) smears the wax over the unworthy characters; and when the owner of that name applies afterwards for admittance, the answer is, “I know thee not: depart hence, thou willing worker and lover of iniquity!”—Dr. Vaughan.
Christ’s Book of Life.—I. Christ has His Book of Life, a register and roll of all who shall inherit eternal life.—
1. The book of eternal election.
2. The book of remembrance of all those who have lived to God, and have kept up the life and power of godliness in evil times.
II. Christ will not blot the names of His chosen and faithful ones out of this Book of Life.
III. Christ will produce this Book of Life, and confess the names of the faithful who stand there before God and all the angels.—He will do this as their Judge, when the books shall be opened; he will do this as their Captain and Head, leading them with him triumphantly to heaven, presenting them to the Father.—Matthew Henry.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Rev_3:1. Sardis Famous for Toys.—“The games of children are pretty nearly the same the world over. Wilkinson has described some of the toys of the ancient Egyptians, found among the ruins and tombs of that remarkable land. Similar remains are found in various parts of Western Asia, the more graceful being the work of the Greek race, and of their nearest neighbours in the western part of the Peninsula. Sardis, the capital of Lydia, was celebrated of old for its manufacture of children’s toys, as Nuremberg is in Germany now. In that same region a great variety of articles in terra-cotta are found, exhibiting no little taste in the imitation of nature’s models. Miniature horses, cattle, dogs, fish, chickens, lions, and deer, an ass with its pack-saddle, dolls with arms and legs that could be moved by the pulling of a string, comic figures, or caricatures of hunch-backs, deformed negroes, satyrs, and idiots; also whistles, marbles, and many other things in a sufficiently good state of preservation, which compare well with similar products of our modern civilisation. The religion of Islam, indeed, forbids such representations now, yet it cannot prevent little girls playing with dolls, nor boys amusing themselves with mimic horses, sheep, and carts, nor both from eating the sugar birds, horses, and men of the candy-seller, himself a Muslim.”—Van Lennep.
A few mud huts, inhabited by Turkish herdsmen and a mill or two, contain all the present population of Sardis.
Rev_3:5. White the Royal Colour.—Most persons believe that purple was the colour of royal robes in our Lord’s day. So the author believed when, riding over the valley of Sharon, he saw a lily in bloom, and was satisfied that it must be a genuine facsimile of the New-Testament flower. On dismounting from our horse, we found its rich velvet corolla to be of a dark purple. “There,” we exclaimed, “is the lily that vied with Solomon in his glory.” But careful investigation has compelled us to give up our impression. We are satisfied that the royal colour of all the monarchs in our Lord’s day was white. The Persian mingled the blue with the white (Est_8:15; confirmed by Xenophon). Solomon’s royal attire, when visited by the Queen of Sheba, was white (Josephus, I. Rev_8:7; Ecc_9:8). The high priest, on the great day of atonement, wore a robe of white linen (Exo_28:2; Exo_28:40). Mordecai’s was blue and white, with a crown (Cyropedia, lib. viii. 23). Alexander entered Jerusalem robed in white. Our Lord, in coronation robes, appeared in white on Mount Tabor. The kings slain were so many that their robes made the battle-field “white as the snow in Salmon” (Psa_68:14). Herod’s robe was resplendent with silver tissue, woven through the linen (Act_12:21; Josephus). Angels who appear to Cornelius, and were seen at the sepulchre, were clothed in white, and the saints, advanced to thrones and crowns, wear white coronation robes as kings and priests unto God (Rev_1:6; Rev_3:5). “Shushan, the Persian word for lily, signifies white” (Gesenius). Pilate clothed our Lord in a purple robe (worn of Roman nobility). Herod clothed Him in a white robe (Greek, “gorgeous,” or “shining”), Luk_23:11.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Little Strength and his Victory: Children’s Sermon.
Rev 3:7
Little Strength and his Victory: Children’s Sermon.
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St. John, in writing to the Churches of Asia, is only able to send two letters of unmixed praise: one to Smyrna and the other to Philadelphia. These letters were addressed to the angel of the Churches—that, no doubt, was to the bishop or the head minister of the Church in each place—so that he might read it to the people.
I. "I have set before thee an open door." This, no doubt, meant to the people of the Church of Philadelphia that God had prepared the way for them to preach the Gospel to others who had not yet heard it. What does it mean to us? Surely it means that God has given us some work to do for Him, that He has opened a door of usefulness for us. There are many people who will gladly do great things, but who will not condescend to think of little ones. It may only be your portion for a little while to do little things for the Master. Do not be above doing little things for Jesus. Remember that nothing is really little if it is done for Him. You would not call a house properly furnished if it only had a few large things in it. You want something more than a bedstead, a dining-table, and a piano. Two or three great acts won’t furnish a Christian life, and make it look beautiful. Let us have the large pieces of furniture, but let us have something more. Many say, "I can do nothing, because I have so little strength, and my faith is so very weak." There are too many little-strength and weak-faith Christians, and very many of them have not the least right to be so. Do you want to know how you may become a little-strength and a weak-faith Christian, so that the Lord may get no glory out of your life, and that your face may ever say, "It is not beautiful to be a Christian; the Lord’s yoke is not easy: it is very hard; His burden is not light: it is very heavy"? Then I will tell you how to do it; it is so easy. Don’t use the little strength God has given you; that is all. The man laid up the talent in a napkin, and of course it gained nothing; but, worst of all, he had that taken from him. So, if you do not use your little strength, even the little you have will all go; it will be taken from you.
II. These people not only used their little strength, but they were also brave. They had not denied Christ’s name. Although persecuted for His name’s sake, they had not hidden their colours; they had not denied His name. There were those looking on who were of the synagogue of Satan, no doubt some of them their persecutors; but, through the patient endurance of the Christians of Philadelphia, they were won for God. To Smyrna God had promised that the synagogue of Satan should not prevail against them; that means that God would shield and protect His people from the power of their enemies: but we have a fuller promise here—they shall not only be kept from the power of their enemies, but they shall win some of them over to God’s side: "I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." They would show by their lives that God was with them, and that He loved them.
J. Stephens, Light for Little Lanterns, p. 173.
References: Rev 3:7-13.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. iii., p. 282. Rev 3:8-10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1814.
Rev 3:11
Divine Decrees. .
I. Not long before the fall and treachery of Judas, Christ pronounced a blessing, as it seemed, upon all the twelve Apostles, the traitor included. Who would not have thought from this promise, taken by itself and without reference to the eternal rule of God’s government which is always understood, even when not formally enunciated, that Judas was sure of eternal life? It is true our Saviour added, as if with an allusion to him, "Many that are first shall be last"; yet He said nothing to undeceive such as might refuse to consult and apply the fundamental law of His impartial providence. All His twelve Apostles seemed from the letter of His words to be predestined to life. Nevertheless, in a few months Matthias held the throne and crown of one of them. And there is nothing remarkable in the circumstance itself that our Lord should have made up their number to a full twelve after one had fallen; and perhaps there may be contained in it some symbolical allusion to the scope of His decrees which we cannot altogether enter into. He does not look at us as mere individuals, but as a body, as a certain, definite whole, of which the parts may alter in the process of disengaging them from this sinful world, with reference to some glorious and harmonious design upon us who are the immediate objects of His bounty and shall be the fruit of His love if we are faithful.
II. What solemn, overwhelming thoughts must have crowded on St. Matthias when he received the greeting of the eleven Apostles, and took his seat among them as their brother! His very election was a witness against himself if he did not fulfil it. And such surely will be ours in our degree. The Christian of every age is but the successor of the lost and of the dead. We are at present witnesses of the truth, and our very glory is our warning. Let us, then, as a Church and as individuals, one and all look to Him who alone can keep us from falling.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. ii., p. 117.
I. We all have stores of memory. I do not hold these too light a thing to put into my catalogue. It is no trifling possession to have passages of Scripture, of sacred poetry, of holy authors, laid up in the mind. It would be a serious loss if you were to let those memories melt away—as assuredly they will melt away without effort—for memory, and, I think, specially sacred memory, left to itself, is a very treacherous thing. You must bring those passages of the Bible, of poetry, of sacred authors, back frequently to your mind. Increase the power of a sacred memory by always adding something more to the stock; and never forget that it is one of the offices and prerogatives of the Holy Ghost to assist and to empower the memory in Divine things. Remind Him of it. "He shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
II. The acquisition of a flew truth or a clearer perception of any truth is a very real and very delightful possession. But, if you would "hold" a truth "fast," you must turn that truth to some practical account, for God is very jealous that His truth be not an idle thing, lying dormant in a man’s mind; and if He see any truth lying inactive in your mind, He will suffer it to be robbed. You must realise the truth you have; you must make that truth a centre round which you are always gathering another and another truth.
III. You have enjoyed lately more than you once did the things of God, the means of grace—say, a Christian friendship; say, your private religious duties; say, the ordinances of God’s house; say, the Holy Communion. That joy is a precious thing; it is a direct, blessed gift of God. Spiritual joy is not exempt from that general law which binds all joy. In itself it is evanescent. If you would keep your joy, you must study it.
IV. A soft, tender heart, feelings much drawn out in strong love to God or man, is a thing greatly to be prized. But, to maintain that blessed state of mental affection, it is necessary that you live very close to God.
V. An open door of usefulness is an exceeding boon when God gives it to man. Have you any open door of usefulness to benefit any fellow-creature? Occupy it thoroughly.
VI. Spend life in making your calling and election sure. Believe that it needs as much to go on with as ever it did to begin a religious life; and reverence exceedingly the work of God in you. (1) God keeps us, by His grace, in a state of grace by making us always fear lest we should fall from that grace. (2) The more you have of God’s grace, the more you will be assaulted on your way. (3) The only way to "hold fast" is to be "held fast."
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 101.
Healthy Conservatism.
I. The crown of our manhood is not made of that in which we are like to other creations, but of that in which we are superior to them. One of the most instructive and interesting of studies is that which involves a comparison of man’s ability with that of the lower creation. He is like the stone in that he is subject to gravitation, unlike it in that he has a temporary power to overcome the law of gravitation; he is like the tree and flower in that he cannot thrive physically without sunlight; he is like the bird in that he has power of song; like the horse in that he has strength and swiftness; like the bee and the ant in that he has architectural skill and power of society and government: and so we might go on with our "likes." But in none of these abilities does his manhood consist. The crown of his nature is not in having these instincts, endowments, not even in his being able to cultivate and develop them. The crown of man’s nature is his manhood, and his manhood is not his animalhood. Manliness is something else than that which boys in their teens take it to be.
II. The crown of our manhood is in the region we call religious, in no lower region of our nature. The facts of consciousness are as really facts as the facts of the body, as the facts of a material world beneath our feet and material worlds above our heads. "Hold fast" to these. "Hold fast" also to the results of the experiences of the past. Let the Church of God hold fast to its Sabbaths and its sacraments, to its means of grace, to its Bible records. The experiences of the past are too valuable to let go at the bidding of the frivolous and the trifling. "Hold fast" to them. The treasure-house has things new and old in it, but the new never destroys or contradicts the old; it is developed from it as a new springtime from an old winter. A healthy conservatism is as necessary as a healthy progress, and in every nature there ought to be both.
R. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 198.
References: Rev 3:11.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 164; R. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 198; H. P. Liddon, Ibid., vol. xxxii., p. 388; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 15.
Rev 3:12
The Pillar in God’s Temple.
I. "To him that overcometh," reads the promise; and the first thing that we want to understand is what the struggle is in which the victory is to be won. It is the Saviour Christ who speaks. His voice comes out of the mystery and glory of heaven to the Church in Philadelphia; and this book, in which His words are written, stands last in the New Testament. The Gospel story is all told; the work of incarnation and redemption is all done. Jesus has gone back to His Father, and now is speaking down to men and women on the earth who are engaged there in the special struggle for which He has prepared the conditions, and to which it has been the purpose of His life and death to summon them. Let us remember that. It is a special struggle; it is not the mere human fight with pain and difficulty which every living mortal meets; it is not the wrestling for place, for knowledge, for esteem, for any of the prizes which men covet. Nay; it is not absolutely the struggle after righteousness; it is not the pure desire and determination of a man’s own will; it is not to those that Christ looks down and sends His promise. He had called to a special struggle on the earth; He had bidden men struggle after goodness out of love, and gratitude, and loyalty to Him. If the motive everywhere and always is the greatest and most important part of every action, then there must always be a difference between men who are striving to do right, and not to do wrong, according to the love which sets them striving. If it is love of themselves, their struggle will be one thing; if it is love of abstract righteousness, it will be another; if it is love of Christ, it will be still another. It is to men and women in this struggle that Christ speaks, and promises them the appropriate reward which belongs to perseverance and success in that obedience of loyalty and love.
II. This, then, is the peculiar struggle in which Christ, out of heaven, gives His promise. And now the promise can be understood if we understand the struggle. The two belong together. "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out." The ideas of the pillar in a building, in a temple, are these two: incorporation and permanence. The pillar is part of the structure, and when it is once set in its place, it is to be there as long as the temple stands. How clear the picture stands before us. There is a great, bright, solemn temple, where men come to worship; its doors are ever open; its windows tempt the sky. There are many and many things which have to do with such a temple. The winds come wandering through its high arches. Perhaps the birds stray in and build their nests, and stray away again when the short summer is done. The children roam across its threshold, and play for a few moments on its shining floor. Banners and draperies are hung upon its walls a while, and then carried away. Poor men and women, with their burdens and distress, come in and say a moment’s prayer, and hurry out. Stately processions pass from door to door, making a brief disturbance in its quiet air. Generation after generation comes and goes, and is forgotten, each giving its place up to another; while still the temple stands, receiving and dismissing them in turn and outliving them all. All there are transitory; all there come into the temple, and then go out again. But a day comes when the great temple needs enlargement. The plan which it embodies must be made more perfect; it is to grow to a completer self. And then they bring up to the door a column of cut stone, hewn in the quarry for this very place, fitted and fit for this place, and no other; and, bringing it in with toil, they set it solidly down as part of the growing structure, part of the expanding plan. It blends with all the other stores; it loses while it keeps its individuality; it is useless except there where it is; and yet there where it is it has a use which is peculiarly its own, and different from every other stone’s. The walls are built around it; it shares the building’s charges. The reverence that men do to the sacred place falls upon it; the lights of sacred festivals shine on its face. It glows in the morning sunlight, and grows dim and solemn as the dusk gathers through the great expanse. Generations pass before it in their worship. They come and go, and the new generation follows them; and still the pillar stands. The day when it was hewn and set there is forgotten, as children never think when an old patriarch, whom they see standing among them, was born. It is part of the temple where the men so long dead set it so long ago. From the day that they set it there, "it goes no more out."
III. Can we not see perfectly the meaning of the figure? There are men and women everywhere who have something to do with God. They cannot help touching and being touched by Him, and His vast purposes, and the treatment which He is giving to the world; they cross and recross the pavement of His providence; they come to Him for what they want, and He gives it to them, and they carry it away; they ask Him for bread, and they carry it off into the chambers of their own selfishness and eat it; they ask Him for power, and then go off to the battle-fields or workshops of their own selfishness and use it; they are for ever going in and out of the presence of God; they sweep through His temple like the rushing wind, or they come in like the chance worshipper, and bend a moment’s knee before the altar. And then there are the other men who are struggling to escape from sin by the love of Christ. How different they are! The end of everything to them is to get to Christ, and put themselves in Him, and stay there. They do not so much want to get to Christ that they may get away from sin, as they want to get away from sin that they may get to Christ. God is to them not merely a great Helper of their plans: He is the sum of all their plans, the end of all their wishes, the Being to whom their souls say, not, "Lord, help me to do what I will," but "Lord, show me Thy will, that I may make it mine and serve myself in serving Thee." When such a soul as that comes to Christ, it is like the day when the marble column from the quarry was dragged up and set into the temple aisle. Such a soul becomes part of the great purpose of God; it can go no more out; it has no purpose or meaning outside of God; its life is hid there in the sacred aisles of God’s life. If God’s life grows dark, the dusk gathers around this pillar which is set in it; if God’s life brightens, the pillar burns and glows. Men who behold this soul think instantly of God. They cannot picture the pillar outside of the temple; they cannot picture the soul outside of the fear, the love, the communion, the obedience, of God.
Phillips Brooks, The Candle of the Lord, p. 60.
References: Rev 3:12.—J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House, vol. i., p. 312; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 144.
Rev 3:14
Consider the word with which the Lord’s prayer closes—the word "Amen." It is the signalem conscientiæ, the seal of our faith; it is the votem desiderii, the fervency of our longing; it is the stamp of our sincerity upon every prayer we use. In the Gospel of St. John, no less than twenty-five times our Lord Jesus Christ ushers in His deepest asseverations with "Amen, amen," translated in our version, "Verily, verily, I say unto you." What, then, is the meaning of this solemn and sacred word? It means truth; it means reality. Every time we use it, we should remember that God can never be the God who delights in fantasies and shams, but that He is the God of reality and of truth. And I want to bring before you the awfulness of truth—that is, of reality, of sincerity, of guileless simplicity, both as regards our conduct in the life that now is, and as regards the eternal life of man’s spirit.
I. First, as regards our earthly life. We may each of us spend our lives either in the world or in God. If we live in God, "if that life which we now live in the flesh is lived by faith in the Son of God," then we are living in the world of reality; if we are living for the world, if we are setting our affections on the things of the earth, we are living in the midst of fatal delusions and fading shadows. God is the Amen, the eternal reality. He has set His canon against pride, and lust, and hate, and lies. Obey Him or disobey Him at your pleasure and at your peril; believe in Him or disbelieve in Him at your pleasure and at your peril; but He is, and His law is, the sole truth of your life. He who makes the Church of God depend on mere outward form, he who bases its high claims on some unprovable theory which may be a fiction, he who confounds religion with the shibboleths of Churches or of parties or the idle, usurpatious encroachments of priests, builds upon the baseless and shifting sands of multitudes of views and practices now thrust almost by force on groaning congregations and on alienated people. The very best that can be said is that the earth hath bubbles as the water hath, and these are of them. The Church depends solely on the presence of Christ. Where Christ is, there the Church is; and where love and holiness are, there Christ is. Wherever we find the fruits of the Spirit, which are love and holiness, there the Spirit is; and where the Spirit is, there the Church is.
II. We must be true men, or we cannot be true Christians. Reason and conscience illumined by prayer—these are the torch-bearers of eternal truth. Seek truth, and you will find it, because God is the God of truth. If you desire heaven, you must, by the aid of Christ’s Spirit, win it, for heaven is a temper, and not a place: no priest can give it to you, no ritual can give it to you, no human ordinance can open for you by a millionth of an inch its golden doors; no, you must win it by faithful obedience to the eternal laws of God. Reality, sincerity, holiness; the elementary Christian graces, faith, hope, love; the primary Christian duties, soberness, temperance, chastity—these are the things and these are the tests of a true religion; apart from these all else is fringes and phylacteries.
F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii., p. 353.
Rev 3:14
The New Creation.
The Son of God is called by the title "the beginning of the creation of God," (1) because He was Himself the Creator of the world; (2) because He is the first cause or principle of its restoration.
I. We have here two great spiritual facts. The first is that the Word, who is by eternal generation of one substance with the Father, by the mystery of the Incarnation became of one substance with us. His union with us is a consubstantial union; His substance as man and our substance are one and the same.
II. The other great fact, issuing from the last, is that as by this substantial union and personal distinctness the Son lives by the Father, so we, distinct in person, but partaking of His substance, live by the Son. As the Son partakes of the Godhead of the Father, so we partake of the manhood of the Son; as He lives by the Father, we live by Him. The miraculous Agent in the Incarnation and in the holy sacraments is the same Third Person of the ever-blessed Three, uniting first the Divine nature to ours in the person of the Son, and now our fallen nature to Him as the beginning of the creation of God.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 176.
References: Rev 3:14.—J. B. Lightfoot, Church of England Pulpit, vol. v., p. 53; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 679; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 110. Rev 3:14-21.—Ibid., Sermons, vol. xx., No. 1185. Rev 3:14-22.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. iii., p. 433; J. W. Lance, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 172; G. Macdonald, Ibid., vol. xxxvi., p. 72.
Rev 3:15
Lukewarmness.
I. The first alarming symptom of lukewarmness is a growing inattention to the private duties of religion. And among these are private prayer, the study of the Bible, and self-examination. The lukewarm Christian begins by omitting his private devotions on the mornings of his busiest days, or on the nights when he is wearied and worn out in the service of the world. Next, he contrives to shorten his prayers, and leaves his Bible-readings for Sundays. Thus little by little lukewarmness takes possession of the soul, and brings forth its shrivelled and sickly fruit.
II. Another evidence of the encroachments of lukewarmness is carelessness in attending public worship. The single sin of neglecting public worship, if persisted in, will eat out of the soul every germ of its spiritual life.
III. A third symptom of lukewarmness, about which there can be no possible mistake, is an indifference concerning the benevolent enterprises of the day and scant offerings for their furtherance. The disease of lukewarmness is so very prevalent that its presence has ceased to create alarm, and people are sometimes found who have exalted this sin of lukewarmness to the rank of a virtue. They admire and praise the zealous man of business and zealous patriot, but when they speak of the zealous Christian the word suddenly changes its meaning, and it becomes little better than a sarcasm and a sneer. The philosopher’s good man is four-square; and cast him where you will, like a die, he always falls sure and steady. It is only such who can make the world better and happier, for they give it the advantage of precept and practice both.
J. N. Norton, Golden Truths; p. 113.
References: Rev 3:15.—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 88; F. O. Morris, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 148. Rev 3:15, Rev 3:16.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol, ii., p. 424.
Rev 3:15, Rev 3:19
I. Look at the loving rebuke of the faithful Witness: "Thou art neither cold nor hot." We are manifestly there in the region of emotion. The metaphor applies to feeling. We talk of warmth of feeling, ardour of affection, fervour of love, and the like; and the opposite, cold, expresses obviously the absence of any glow of a true, living emotion. So, then, the persons thus described are Christian people with very little, though a little, warmth of affection and glow of Christian love and consecration. (1) This defectiveness of Christian feeling is accompanied with a large amount of self-complacency. (2) This deficiency of warmth is worse than absolute zero. If you were cold, at absolute zero, there would be at least a possibility that when you were brought into contact with the warmth you might kindle. But you have been brought into contact with the warmth, and this is the effect.
II. Note some plain causes of this lukewarmness of spiritual life. (1) The cares of this world; the entire absorption of spirit in business. (2) The existence among us or around us of a certain widely diffused doubt as to the truths of Christianity is, illogically enough, a cause for diminished fervour on the part of the men that do not doubt them. That is foolish, and it is strange, but it is true. Beware of unreasonably yielding to the influence of prevailing unbelief. (3) Another cause is the increasing degree in which Christian men are occupied with secular things.
III. Note the loving call to Christian earnestness: "Be zealous therefore." The word "zealous" means literally boiling with heat. We must remember that zeal ought to be a consequence of knowledge, and that, seeing that we are reasonable creatures, intended to be guided by our understandings, it is an upsetting of the whole constitution of a man’s nature if his heart works independently of his head; and the only way in which we can safely and wholesomely increase our zeal is by increasing our grasp of the truths which feed it.
IV. Observe the merciful call to a new beginning: "Repent." There must be a lowly consciousness of sin, a clear vision of past shortcomings and abhorrence of these, and joined to these a resolute act of heart and mind beginning a new course, a change of purpose and of the current of our being.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth, April 8th, 1886.
Rev 3:17
Two Kinds of Sight.
I. It is the striking contrast in these words to which I would draw your attention, the wonderful difference between the real state and the fancied state, and more especially to one word which is the key to the whole: that sin is blind: blind in a world of beauty and light; blind in a region of pitfalls, and delusions, and death. But mark—for this is what makes it so fearful—it is the blindness of the madman, who feels sure that he sees better than the sane. There are two powers of sight, the one real and the other unreal, and if we judge with sinful eyes, we never see reality. The faculty is wanting, and we do not, cannot, know the want unless we believe humbly. No keenness of the natural, intellectual eye matters at all, as a telescope does not make a man a better judge of colours. We may boast and argue from the piercing powers of sight, which can at the distance of millions of miles discover hidden worlds. A telescope is mere intellectual knowledge, and the eyes of the mere intellectual man are set in this distant focus; and the power of seeing the glory and beauty of the earth on which he lives and things around him is not his, however much he boasts of his sight.
II. Sin is blindness, and this sight is a new power. The truth of God cannot be seen by any unholy eye; and to pass through life trusting to our own judgments is to trust to a telescope to distinguish colours, to a microscope to show us stars, to feet for flying, or any incongruous mixture of wrong powers and functions. Holy Scripture expressly tells us, what all experience confirms, that spiritual things are folly to the natural man, for the simple reason that he does not see them, and so scorns them, just as a clever savage might despise electricity. Sin is blind. The pure see God, and there is no truth which is not of God. No impure spirit ever sees truth.
E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons, vol. i., p. 5.
References: Rev 3:18.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 404. Rev 3:19.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 164; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 159.
Rev 3:20
Christ at the Door.
Consider, in the first place, the account which Christ gives of His dealings with men: He stands at the door and knocks; in the second place, the promise which He makes to such as yield to His solicitation: "I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with Me."
I. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." Then the heart is by nature closed against God. On no other supposition could it be needful that Christ should knock for admission. When we turn from considering men as members of society to considering them as creatures of God, then it is we may bring them all under one verdict and pronounce the corruption of our nature total and universal. Here it is that there is no difference, for the virtuous and the vicious are equally at enmity with God, equally void of love to God, equally indisposed to the service of God. When we try men by their love of God, by their willingness to submit to Him, by their desire to please Him, there is no difference whatsoever; all must be equally brought under the description, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." This truth it is which we derive from the words of our text; it is a truth that the heart of every one is naturally barred against God, so that although it may readily be opened at the touch of friendship or at the call of distress, yet does it obstinately exclude that Creator and Benefactor who alone can fill its mighty capacities. And if the Church thus shows the natural condition of the heart, it shows with equal accuracy by what kind of means Christ strives to gain the entrance which is wickedly denied. Observe, no sort of violence is used. There is nothing like forcing the door. Christ knocks, but when He has knocked, it still rests with man to determine whether he will obey the summons and let in the Guest.
II. Consider briefly the promise of the text. If men would deal candidly with others and with themselves, many would have to confess that they see little of what is pleasant in the account which Scripture gives of the joys and enjoyments of redeemed men in glory. They have no taste for adoring God and admiring Him in His perfections; and they cannot, therefore, be alive to the happiness of a state in which praising God will form the chief business, and knowing God the great delight. But if you have no relish for such happiness as heaven is to afford, this of itself should make you earnest in obeying Christ’s summons and throwing open the door, for I do not know a more startling truth, if we be yet indifferent and impenitent, than that heaven would be no heaven to us, even if we could get within its precincts. But to those who can feel the worth of the promise in the text we need not say that there is a communion of intercourse between Christ and the soul which, if not capable of being described to a stranger, is inestimably precious to those by whom it is experienced. It is no dream of the enthusiast, it is the statement of soberness and truth, that Jesus so manifests Himself to those who believe on His name, and communicates such a sense of His presence, that He may be said to come in to them, to sup with them, and they with Him.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 3249.
The Waiting Saviour.
The Lord Jesus is continually asking for admission into the hearts of all of us. He asks in various ways and at various times.
I. He comes to us sometimes and showers blessings on our heads. He heaps mercy upon mercy and privilege upon privilege; He gives us all that makes life joyous and bright; He gives us the tender love of family and friends; He gives us a bright, happy, peaceful home; He gives us prosperity in our worldly affairs; sometimes He knocks by sending us mercies and deliverances, and seeks thus to awaken our gratitude, and seeks thus to draw forth our love.
II. Or, again, sometimes He knocks by sending us afflictions. He lays His hand upon us; He sends sickness into our family; He sends us trouble and anxiety in our worldly affairs; He sends us disappointment and sorrow; He takes from us those who are nearest and dearest to us on earth; and then, when we are crushed and broken in heart, then, when we are full of sorrowful and desponding thoughts—then it is that Christ knocks.
III. Again, the Lord knocks by means of warnings. We have most of us had certain solemn warnings in the course of our lives. Once more, He knocks at sacred seasons and at sacred services. We never come to church, we never listen to a sermon, we never read a chapter of God’s word, but then Christ knocks at our hearts, then He calls to us, then He speaks to us. He bids us give up this and that sin; He bids us clear away those weeds, those rank, foul, hateful weeds, and open the door of our hearts, and give entrance to the Lord who died for us on Calvary.
IV. Lastly, consider why Christ knocks; consider what it is that He offers to do for us; consider why He desires to abide in our hearts. It is because He desires to make those hearts like Himself; it is because He desires to make them pure, and loving, and faithful, and true; it is because He desires to make them so completely one with Him that in all our thoughts, and words, and works we may reflect His glory, His purity, His love.
E. V. Hall, The Waiting Saviour, p. 13.
Welcoming Christ.
I. Note Christ’s love at the present time: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." (1) Our first impression of this adorable figure is of wonder that He should be there at all. He, the Son of God, who has suffered such unspeakable wrongs for us, comes again in a form most Divinely fair, and offers Himself as our Guest. He who contains within Himself infinite treasures of love, who comprehends all creatures within His arms, comes down to us and stands at our door, as if we alone out of His whole Church required Him with us. (2) Look on this image of patience. There He stands in the cool evening hour, having waited till the heat and business of the day be past. He chooses the time when the mind is most likely to be at leisure, and to be quick to hear. The cares of the day are over; it is the hour of relaxation. The very solitude of the chamber disposes the mind to serious thought. Silence has its quiet influence. The spirit of the evening scene is peace. His footprints are on the threshold, marking His last visit, and no one has heeded them. No welcome, it is feared, for Him again to-night, waiting patiently till all within be hushed and His voice be heard.
II. "If any man hear My voice, and open the door." This is the condition of His entering, the welcome which He asks of us. Two possible states of life are indicated: a man may be so deaf that he cannot hear, or he may hear and not heed.
III. "I will come in to him," etc. In the whole Bible there is not a touch of Divine love more tender and penetrating than this. (1) The intimacy of Christ’s love is here so great that the believer may shrink from it in fear. But this is not God’s intention. Wherever Jesus enters He takes men as they are. All He asks is a welcome; that is, their faith. (2) When He sits at meat with you see the perfect interchange and equal communion of your spirit with His: "I will sup with him, and he with Me." Whatever He gives He gives Himself; He is all in all to the faithful soul, and the soul is all in all to Him.
C. W. Furse, Sermons at Richmond, p. 164.
References: Rev 3:20.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. x., p. 137; T. J. Crawford, The Preaching of the Cross, p. 57; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 91; J. Vaughan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 307; R. Glover, Ibid., vol. xxxii., p. 342; G. Macdonald, Ibid., vol. xxxiv., p. 215; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 357.
Rev 3:21
The Close of the Year.
I. "He that overcometh." Then there is light shining in and struggling with the darkness—a conflict year-long and lifelong, which, though it has its defeats, may have its victories also, which, though its outward aspect is gloomy, may issue in glory, and honour, and immortality. Years bring us another lesson than the lesson of discouragement. Though much is taken away, much is also gained—gained by that very loss. The past has become for us full of rich and precious store: lessons of self-distrust; lessons of charitable thought; lessons of reliance on God. If we have lost bloom, we have gathered ripeness. The future has opened and widened before us. It is no longer the book of dark things, closed and put by till our play is over: the page lies open before us on the desk of life’s business; though much in it is hidden, much is revealed to our inner sight, which solemnises us, and stirs us to action. It is no longer the great unknown land talked of as a dream and a mystery, but we are plying our voyage thither, standing at watch, and holding the helm. Already we begin to see its tokens float past us, and to scent the gales which come from its fields. And the present—we have learned to distrust it and to question its testimony, have become wiser than to encumber by loading ourselves with its fading flowers; we search for pearls that shall endure.
II. "Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" Here, again, as years pass on we want more of Him, a firmer reliance on His work and His word, to stand among things visible and endure as seeing the invisible. If we would be gaining this victory, we must labour hard for knowledge and obedience, and every way for a greater realising of Christ. Our text is not only an implication of the possibility of victory: it is also a promise to the victor. The Author and Finisher of our faith Himself proclaims it, Himself offers to the conquerors a prize, and pledges for it His own word: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne."
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. v., p. 319.
Rev 3:21
The Christian Conqueror.
This is the last of seven honours set before the Christian conquerors in the epistles to the seven Churches; and the throne of which this blessing speaks is itself described in St. John’s next vision. We know what a throne it was which he saw unveil itself before him. We see at once that this throne means the centre of creation; that the glory of it is as of One invisible, and, except by His own will, unknowable; and that in that heart and centre of all things lives One who has suffered, One who has died, One who is and who ever has remained sinless: the Lamb that had been slain and dieth no more is in the midst of the throne. Perfect sympathy with pain, perfect deliverance from evil, are there in absolute life and light; and the Lamb, the Victor-Victim, speaks, and says, "He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame and sat down with My Father in His throne."
I. He that overcometh. When St. John wrote, people, like that faithful martyr Antipas, were overcoming by their own blood, and the whole Apocalypse shows a world about to be red with martyrdoms. Yet even then the word "overcoming" is used in these seven brief letters in connection with trials and difficulties which were not necessarily to end with them. That was only the supreme method of solving such problems of life as were otherwise insoluble. There were final conflicts in those days in which the forces of God and of the world were grappled together in the lives of men; the spirits of light and darkness incarnated themselves in men’s daily action in forms so violent that he who meant to give God the victory in his own life could often do it only by giving his own life over to the death. But if the extremity of the struggle is not now commonly suffered to work itself out to the same bitter end—with the knowledge of the onlooking world, it never could be suffered now—yet similar, and sometimes the same, problems have to be solved in men’s lives still, and still the Christian is called to overcome, and still he can often be victor only by being first a victim, as the Lamb was; and if he overcomes, his place is still henceforth the centre of all things. He sits with Him on the throne in true sympathy with the pain of this world, and also having himself a share in this world’s deliverance from pain and from all evil.
II. What, then, are these problems which once could only be solved by readiness to die for the right solution, and which still present themselves for solutions—for solutions on the rightness or wrongness of which almost all, if not all, about us depends? Such problems when St. John wrote were all the awful wickedness of the age; the conventional false worships which were then the cementing of the State and of all society; slavery; gladiator shows; one vast licentiousness of life. Men and women died freely in combating such things, for there was that within them which was a perpetual war with the spirit of these things. Among the problems outside us are such expenses of civilisation still: licentiousness of life; the classes that are sacrificed to it; the tender age of corruption; again, the miserable, unclean, indecent abodes which are all that civilised towns and villages offer, and grudge, to their myriads or their hundreds; again, our submissiveness to wealth, and our submissiveness to numbers, and our extreme difficulty in the way of simplicity of life or of speech, and now, even now, the ancient difficulty seeming to begin again of how to live, and talk, and think Christianly among unbelievers. One who does his own honest part in healing the world’s sorrow and lightening the world’s burdens, and is not ashamed to say he does it for Christ—he is the overcoming one who helps to solve the world’s greatest problems. That is the part which must be greater in the world to come than it can be now; for we shall not find ourselves able to do these things except in the spirit of Christ.
Archbishop Tait, Family Churchman, May 23rd, 1883.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Section 2. (Rev 3:1-22.)
Section 2. (Rev 3:1-22.)
Further division, with freedom from the teaching of the woman.
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We have already seen, then, a remnant more or less separated in Thyatira. We are now to find the history only that of a remnant. Thyatira is left to go on till the Lord comes, substantially unaltered; but now we have churches in which the woman and her teaching no longer appear. There is a clear break from this; and the very first church here, probably, in its name indicates its remnant character. Sardis has been thought, at least probably, to be from the Hebrew Sarid, which means "a remnant." This certainly agrees in the most distinct way with what we have here, and we shall find now in each of the three addresses a distinct intimation that they go on to the coming of the Lord. Thus in Sardis, characteristically dead indeed and not alive, the Lord threatens that He will come to them as to the world, part of which they really are: "If thou shalt not watch," He says, "I will come upon thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know at what hour I will come upon thee." "But," says the apostle to Christians (1Th 5:4), "ye are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." To Philadelphia there is a more decisive word, with which promise and warning are united: "I come quickly; hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown." While, finally, to lukewarm Laodicea the Lord says, with no hint any more of a possible repentance which shall avert it, "Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spew thee out of My mouth." Thus the series of addresses closes with the announcement of general disaster, although the Lord’s heart towards His people, and His promise to those who listen to His voice, are found all through. W. hat is the real application of all this we can only understand upon a fuller inquiry.
1. Sardis, as already said, means probably "a remnant;" but we must not imagine by this that it is therefore in any full way according to the Lord’s mind. We can remember, as to Israel, the story of the return of such a remnant out of Babylon; but how soon, nevertheless, did that bud of promise reveal the disappointment of the hopes that were wrapped up in it! And Israel’s history all through is but in too marked keeping with the history of the Church. Spite of the grace which has been shown her, that faith which is the principle by which alone she stands is, alas, but too little to be found in her: and thus the fuller her blessing, only the deeper her declension, the worse the corruption of the better thing. In Sardis we shall find that there is again being attempted that which is impossible, to unite in a true concord death with life. This, in fact, shows us, if we take these addresses as to be read in continuation, as they clearly are, that here, after all, the old unity is still in some sense maintained: that is, this unity of a barren profession with true faith. There has been no departure from this, and we can hardly fail to find the application to the story of those whom God delivered from the reign of the woman, in what we call "the time of the Reformation." Here the Lord speaks in character, as always in these addresses, and we see at once what is lacking, although His grace is ready to supply the need. He speaks as He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. Thus the fulness of the Spirit is His; but they need, alas, to be reminded of it. The stars, too, are in His hand: but we shall find that in fact they are put into the hand of another than Christ. "Cujus regio ejus religio" became the motto then; that is, "The place in which you live shows your religion." The Church goes with the nation: it is the church of the nation. That is not the rule of the woman any more. It is the rule of the man, but that man is not Christ. It is the official head, or perhaps heads, of the state. It is the principle of the state-church. If you have this, the character of Sardis results as an absolute necessity. You cannot make the state really the Church, however earnestly you attempt it. Preach the Word all over it; hold up the faith of Christ in the fullest way -to make men accept it is wholly beyond man’s power. Thus the principle of decadence is sure and manifest.
There is no imputation of false doctrine any more. There is no claim of infallibility, or of inspiration from God. On the other hand, there is, in a way more distinct than heretofore, "a name to live." Under Jezebel there is not this in the same way. With all her pretension, nevertheless the nature of Rome’s sacramental system is such as to leave uncertainty in result about all the profession, as they quote from Ecclesiastes, "No man knows whether he is worthy of favor or hatred." Be it so, then, that men are born again in baptism, and are sustained by the body of Christ in the sacrament of the Supper, though they have priestly absolution and the intercession of saints and angels, and of Mary, the gentle mother with her woman’s heart, more to be trusted than that of Christ Himself, and who holds the ladder of life by which her votaries ascend to heaven, -yet, after all, at the best there is a long purgation to be accomplished before heaven is reached, and distressing uncertainty. The Reformation, on the other hand, with its announcement of the scriptural truth of justification by faith, made it possible and right for every poor sinner turning to God to find his name in the book of life. How blessed a contrast this with all that the "infallible church" could do for those whom it took in hand to carry through to salvation! But all the more the certainty of this assurance on the part of those who had true faith in Christ, the more impossible, one would say, would it be to give such assurance broadcast among the members of a state-church -that is, the world with the name of Christ.
In fact, this could not be. There had to be a compromise in some way, an adoption of the sacramental system to a certain extent, with a large charitable hope to justify what was really but a giving of that which was holy to the dogs, the attributing of life to that which was dead -every one left very much to determine for himself where he was before God, while others were warned to pass no judgment, and the grace of God availing for the chief of sinners was taken really to make light of necessary saintship in the believer, and so to falsify the power of that which it was intended to honor. Where grace is really, the dominion of sin is broken, as the apostle has shown us, and it is only those who are led by the Spirit of God who can be rightly counted as the children of God. But a state-church in its very nature must attenuate all this to have any warrant for existence, and thus there must of necessity be a compromise, as in fact everywhere there was, and the retention thus far at least of the old Jewish system, the synagogue instead of the assembly of God. Only on the part of some, whose fanaticism the more effectually put its brand upon the truth they had, was there the attempt to find and manifest the Church of God. For the rest, the true Church remained in the old invisibility which had been decreed for it, and thus the truth really proclaimed was everywhere in saddest contrast with the lifeless profession. As the Lord recognizes here, there were those in Sardis who had not defiled their garments; but these were the exception, not the mass. They were a remnant, so to speak, among the Reformed remnant; and the protest against Rome’s errors allowed, nevertheless, in this way, one of Rome’s chief errors.
That protest was assuredly a necessity; but it was also deemed that there must for this reason be something that would give more stability to it than the testimony of a few scattered and hunted souls. The kings and the nations, alike trodden down under the hard heel of Rome, had plenty of reason for desiring to set up a bulwark against her; and where could they have one more effectual than the profession of a Reformed creed, and putting the power to maintain it into the hands of a civil magistrate? It was the Spirit of God that had raised up a testimony against the evil, but the Spirit of God could not be counted upon by the mass to maintain that testimony. Had not, in fact, the apostle enjoined upon Christians to be subject to the powers that be? Rome had for her followers decreed a large exemption from such a duty. The Church could everywhere, as it pleased, throw the mantle of its charity over those whom the state condemned. On the other hand, for Protestants, the State now was to interfere in that which belonged really to the Church. The creed must be maintained, and non-conformity to the creed be penal. Hence, persecution and laxity went hand in hand. The things of God were committed to hands that were unfit to touch them; and while the purer creed indeed commended itself to a larger circle than of those who had true faith in it, it was thus continually nullified and defiled by its nominal adherents.
We can understand at once, therefore, the Lord’s warning here to be watchful and strengthen the things that remained, which were about to die. But the truth can never be maintained by human power. The enforced creed may be, no doubt, a certain safeguard; yet while thus preserved it may actually die out amid the very people whose formula is to preserve it: for this may be but a relic of the dead past, and not a living reality. And this has been seen how often! For, "thou standest by faith" is true of the whole professing body and all that pertains to it, and nothing but faith can finally preserve even the profession of the truth itself. The work of faith was now, therefore, found lacking. "I have not found thy works perfect before My God," says the Lord. If such a condition as the presence of "ten righteous men" might have sufficed to save Sodom, so the actual faith found amongst the comparatively few may give a certain stability to that which without it could have no length of continuation at all; but the general tendency here must needs be downward; and all the churches of the Reformation have proved -whatever truth may have remained in their creed -that it does not involve the maintenance of the creed itself. Rationalism and infidelity are here the evils which threaten it; for if the truth is in the creed, yet infidelity is that which is in the mass of those who should be its supporters, but whose hearts link them with the unbelief, and not with the truth. But there is no power here but the power of the Spirit of God; and that is what has been so much forgotten even among true Christians.
The Lord recognizes in Sardis a work of His grace. He bids them remember how they had received and heard, and keep it and repent. Sad it would be to belittle the wonder of God’s grace which wrought in the Reformation, and surely accomplished so much -the effect of which remains with us today. It was that which was not of God which has proved the burden upon it -the hindrance not merely to progress, but even to continuance. The men whom God raised up in various countries of Europe at the time of the Reformation were dependent themselves upon no earthly power, nor even upon one another, as Zwingle did not even derive from Luther: and there was everywhere proof that the Spirit of God was working independently in many hearts. These so taught of Him would necessarily come together as led in the same path, and they did so. The trouble came when men with other motives proffered their help in what they could make in certain respects a common cause with these. It was the old Samaritan cry, "We seek your God as ye do" (Ezr 4:2), but which was not met as those with Zerubbabel met it then; and if then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building because of their aid rejected, still more now did the people of the land weaken the hands of the true people of God by the help which they accepted.
It is evil association which constantly corrupts the manners of the Lord’s people. Mixture is Satan’s constant device, and compromise necessarily grows out of mixture. We cannot walk together except we are agreed. People may say, and do say, "We agree so far; why can we not walk together at least in that in which we are so far together?" All right, if Christ and His will and Word be not left out of the agreement; but when the Church joins with the world, this must of necessity be left out. If orthodoxy be but hypocrisy, or self-deception at the best, what value is there in such orthodoxy before God? Alas, it is only the old leaning upon Egypt which we find so much of in the case of Israel; the end of which was only that they found it a broken reed, which even in the judgment of their enemies themselves was such that if a man lean on it "it will go into his hand and pierce it" (Isa 36:6). And yet how constantly we seek help of this kind still! We invoke or accept help which cuts us off from the help of God; and all such things are manifestly only a denial of Him who is the one sufficient security of His people, and the One to whom our obedience should admit of no compromise.
But here the Judaism which has come in manifests its power for evil; Israel’s national religion is pleaded in behalf of a world-church now, and after that faith is come -when God has taken it distinctly as the only principle upon which we stand -can yet go back to the legal schoolmaster. The nation in the flesh which God took up was in no wise the same thing as the Church indwelt by the Spirit of God; and when, by and by, God will be again among them as of old, it shall be under that new covenant when they are at last what they have never hitherto been, a nation "all holy;" where there will be no need for one to say to his neighbor, or to his brother, "Know the Lord," because all shall know Him, from the least even to the greatest. But alas, it is the promise of an arm of flesh which makes all these arguments so acceptable to us! Even if we have faith, we have so little faith to build upon God, to walk in absolute independence of all else, so as to be dependent upon Him alone -this is what costs; but how much another course costs! If we would keep a right balance, we must not forget to count up on both sides.
It is not the Reformation itself, so far as it was that, which the Lord judges here. Alas, it was when they ceased to be reformers, when they became conservatives with the caution of such, and had to build up systems to meet the exigencies of the times, then it was that another element came in which God is judging. And after all, how simple a thing to judge, one would think! If the world can be made the Church because we will have it so; if in the largest charity that can be required of us we can confound one of these with the other, then, of course, the national church-system will commend itself to us as having the broadest liberality that can be -fiercely denunciative as it may be of that which will now be the independent action of the Spirit of God, and therefore of the faith that cleaves to God.
The result is that the national church becomes but a dead weight, a burden upon its living members. The Spirit of God, if He works -as work He will -must needs work in testimony against the evil; and in every such working there will be more and more the disintegration of the body as a whole. The attitude of the Lord toward Sardis here must be that which the Spirit recognizes, and with which He is; and it is an attitude of rebuke and opposition. He thus treats it here as the world, and nothing but the world; a world to which His coming can be nothing but a dread, if realized at all. It is not to His own that the Lord comes as a thief -though people may have adapted this language so as to take off the rebuke of it; rebuke it manifestly is here; yet He owns what He can own. There are still a few names in Sardis (how He speaks as able to call each one by his name!) who have not defiled their garments. They are in the midst of that which would naturally defile them. The touch of death was defilement according to the law in Israel; and the touch of spiritual death, what must that be for those in constant association with it, as in the case before us? Yet, spite of all, Christ is no doubt a sufficiency for every one who seeks to Him; but the result is, if not an outward, yet an inward separation. The Lord owns this fully: "They shall walk with Me in white," He says, "for they are worthy." That does not in the least make light of the worldly mixture which, as we see here, characterizes the whole state of things, and of which the Lord speaks to those who have an ear to hear. But the ear may be strangely dulled, even when the heart is in measure right. We are, alas, so much under the power of the circumstances amid which we are! and a national religion has its necessary seduction, bringing together those akin in nature in the recognition of ties which God does recognize, although He puts them in no such place as they are put in here. Yet to break through them requires a spiritual energy which is found in but few, while yet there are many who, without having the spirit of reformers, are nevertheless in spirit separate from the surrounding evil. God does not give us up to our surroundings. But how few they are who are not more or less governed by them! Still He who could own a righteous Lot in Sodom owns such still; not that they do not suffer, not that their spiritual life is not of necessity overshadowed. How many questions for the conscience, how much exercise of heart, what a burden of sorrow, has to be borne in proportion as one seeks truly to be with God in such a condition of things! God’s way would be that they should walk free. Nevertheless, if He only owned those who were in every way according to His mind, how few could He own at all!
The promise to the overcomer here has a somewhat negative character. "I will not blot his name out of the book of life" is plainly negative; and how significant of the general condition! Out of the Lamb’s book of life how could a name be blotted? It surely could not, and the book of life therefore must here represent something in the hands of men -that "name to live" of which the Lord has spoken at the outset. How widely, in fact, is this assumed and justified by that false charity which would never wake men up to realize their condition, but leave them to drift on to a doom not the less certain because it is out of sight. The clothing in white garments is more positive, as is also the Lord’s confession of His own before His Father and before the angels. Yet in it all there does not seem to be that full emphasis of approval which we find in other addresses. There is not what we have had even in Pergamos of "the hidden manna" and the "white stone." The sense of the wilderness is not upon the soul in the same way, and with all the light that He has been giving there is not that freedom to go with Him which should be the response to it.* The truth is shut up in creeds and stiffened into formulas. The conscience cannot speak for God as it should, and the open Bible of which men make boast, and which indeed is in their hands, is, nevertheless, read too much within the limits imposed by that which is human recognition. The Spirit of God is too little free to interpret as He would, for individuality is lacking; and conscience and heart are nothing if they are not individual.
{*Yet the promise to clothe in white raiment, coupled with that already given the few who had not defiled their garments, -"they shall walk with Me in white," -is beautifully appropriate and definite. Undefiled garments here, maintained feebly but in faith, will mean not only white robes there, but association with Him whose grace alone enabled them to keep themselves unspotted from the world, even when it was in the professing Church. This is, indeed, a foreshadowing of the promise to the overcomer in Philadelphia, though not nearly so full. Have we not also in this remnant in Sardis that which, if true to the light given, later on finds fuller development in Philadelphia, just as we have seen Thyatira having a remnant which is morally linked with Sardis? -S.R.}
2. We pass on now to what should have the deepest interest for us, in that it is plainly the only address which is wholly one of commendation. It is not meant by this that there is no more need of overcoming even in Philadelphia. It is not meant that there is no need of exhortation. Nevertheless, it will be felt by any who simply read the words that are before us, that they show us a different state of things from anything elsewhere. Smyrna may be an exception to this, but yet in Smyrna there is that which we know God has always used to purify His people. There is an active persecution going on which calls men to reality, and of which we have nothing here; though it be always true, of course, that "he that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution;" but there is no crisis of it. There is not in the same way that which forces men to decide for or against Christ. What is here speaks more of a quiet movement of the Spirit, working amid such a lifeless condition as we have seen in Sardis, and recalling men to Christ Himself as the one supreme authority over the soul. It is notable here that Christ speaks of Himself more according to His personal character. He is "the Holy and the True" -words which search out necessarily, and are intended to search out, but which, nevertheless, in connection with the commendation which we find in general, show that there is in Philadelphia’s condition that which more answers to His thoughts. They are keeping His word, and not denying His name.
How emphatic that makes the manner of His address here! And the name "Philadelphia" clearly speaks after the same manner. Philadelphia is "brotherly love;" but the love of the brethren would naturally imply a recognition of the brethren, such as is not found in Sardis, for instance. Where the general condition is that of death, it is plain that the relationship of Christ’s people to one another cannot be recognized, except in the most partial manner. The true Church, it is said, is invisible. But how, then, can the living affections which are instinctive in Christ’s people as such, to one another, find any proper expression? Thus it should be plain that we have here implied an effort, at least, to distinguish the true Church from the false, to make the Church visible; and there is an activity which must be surely of this character, which the Lord recognizes in power as the One who has authority in the kingdom, the key of David, One "who openeth and no one can shut, and shutteth and no one can open." It is only by the context that we can read aright such words as we find here. "I have set before thee," says the Lord, "an opened door, which no one can shut." But for what purpose, then? Plainly, to act according to the character that all indicates -an opened door for saints that are seeking one another, to find and recognize one another. There is, in some manner, an end of the condition of things, of the mixture we have in Sardis; -within how large a sphere, of course, we have nothing to indicate.*
{*The expression "key of David" may find further suggestiveness from its connection in Isa 22:1-25, from which it is quoted. There Shebna, the treasurer in Hezekiah’s day, is to be set aside and replaced by Eliakim as ruler of the household. The meaning of Shebna is given as "youthfulness, vigor," and of Eliakim as "God is setting up." There was a good measure of outward activity and prosperity in Hezekiah’s day which might well be described by this youthful vigor, of merely human energy. While Hezekiah was a man of faith and diligent, yet there are evident indications that the state of the nation was anything but satisfactory in the sight of God. Shebna is to be displaced by one whom God sets up -fully answering to Christ who must supersede all fleshly energy. Thus Sardis would answer to Shebna, none of its works perfect before God, its vigor merely carnal while in Eliakim we see one who is "a nail in a sure place," who opens the door to the treasure-house of God, and orders all things in that house. Where His authority is recognized, how truly too does He open the door to His people to lead them out of Judaism, or of that which resembles it, into full and sweet fellowship one with another. -S.R.}
Philadelphia certainly has not superseded Sardis. We have, as is implied, (but what for the mass would seem an evil augury rather than good,) a division which is again taking place, a necessary line which is being drawn between the world and the Church, but which will therefore imply separation from the world-church. Thus there is a distinct movement, which the Lord encourages. For if division in Corinth could only be condemned, in Sardis, on the other hand, it would be only necessary obedience to the Lord’s words; and that is the obedience of which He speaks here "Thou hast a little power, and hast kept My word." There is an energy which is scarcely found even with the overcomers in Sardis. It is but a little power indeed. How small a power one would think would be necessary to make God’s people walk according to the Word which He has given them, in disregard of whatever name or authority might be pleaded against this! Yet, such as there is, He commends it. After a condition such as we have been looking at, it is refreshing to find that which undoubtedly speaks of a new spiritual activity, which the Lord owns, and with which He is.
It is also important to notice here that it is Christ’s word that they have kept. In Sardis there were things that had been received and heard, though they were dying out, and to which the Lord would recall them. But here it is not simply something that they have received. It is not something recovered to them out of the Word, but the Word; the Word restored to its rightful place of authority over the soul; the Word with no limitations or reserves; the Word not as defined by human creeds, but as it is in itself, with all the fulness of blessing that is in it, ready for the soul that craves it. This is really a central point in all the commendation here. In Christ’s word thus kept, His authority is owned, His sole authority. Nothing must come between the conscience and His word.
Thus, it should be plain, there is room for growth, for progress. A door open in this way, traditions, even reformed traditions, would sadly hinder. The Word is opening, and encouraging souls to take possession of the treasures that are to be found in it. None surely can look at his Bible as he has it today (not simply a Bible open in his hands, but open to him by the Spirit of God) without realizing how much room there is yet in it for fresh explorations; how much there is in Scripture that has never yet fulfilled its character as "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." Do we not need, as it would seem, some door to be opened yet into these many hitherto blank pages, every one of which should shine out with the light of God in them for our souls? For this, however, the first necessity is that we should be keepers of Christ’s word; that it should have its practical place with us, that we should crave it all, and not allow ourselves to be willingly ignorant of any of that which is God’s means of forming us in the mind of Christ, of giving communion. with Himself, of sanctification. Hopeless it may seem to think of this in large portions of those Jewish scriptures which seem to be merely records of the past, of what for us could have little, if any, significance. What has hindered our getting possession of what must needs be shut up in these apparently barren portions? We may answer, in the first place, it is because of our unbelief as to there being anything there; and it should be simple that this is but dishonor to Him whose Word it is, and which, as His Word, must be "spirit and life" in every part of it. If we will not believe that He has given it all for spiritual profit, it must remain probable that we shall find no profit in it. According to our faith or unbelief it will be to us.
Of course, none can deny that the way in which these things are given to us implies the need of labor, of exercise of faith in waiting on God in order to possess ourselves of them. In proportion as our energy is small, we shall think the labor too great to be compensated by the profit. Yet, assuredly, God has made no mistake. He has given us that which was in His heart to give, and He has given it in the way in which He intended to give it. No doubt there can be found a very large consent of those most trusted in these matters who will unite to assure us that we must not think to find gospel everywhere in these old records. Take the mass of commentators even, and is it not plain, not merely that they have no help for us as to whole pages of the inspired Word, but that they do not even dream of help being given? Here are matters, it is thought, for the antiquarian, matters for those curious in literary research, matters as to which it is possible for some to exhibit whatever they may have in the way of learning; but alas, with all this, how small a crumb of comfort for the soul! If we dare not go beyond our guides, if we can only drink of the water which has been kept in their reservoirs for us, if we have no access to the living streams themselves, if there is not with us the longing of heart which must nevertheless have access, whatever hindrances may seem to be in the way of it, then it is no wonder if an open door here should be thought of as nothing but delusion; and we must go on to believe that God has given what none can find food in, and much that must seem as only a trial of our patience, if we set ourselves once or twice a year, as a duty, to go through it.
We must have faith, then, in what the grace of God has given us, in order to be able to get on with it; but more, we must have faith also in the ability He gives to possess ourselves of it. Here, how many questions naturally assail us! When we think of the centuries during which the Church has been in possession of the completed Word, and think again how little of unity of interpretation there is at the present time, -divisions only increased, as one might think, by coming to it, -divisions for which Rome reproaches Protestants, so far with justice: but her remedy is to take Scripture out of our hands altogether, and to give us only just what and how she may deem fit, -certainly any amount of division is incomparably better than this. Nevertheless, the ruin of everything seems only to become continually more manifest. New heresies start; creeds multiply; Scripture, as is the common urging of unbelief, is appealed to for all, and Satan can boast of the success he has in making that which is the truth itself in some way the apology for error everywhere. But what are we to conclude as we think of it all? That after all there is indeed before us an open door to enter into and take possession of the word of God, to an extent only limited by our lack of faith in Him? Is it humility even to judge others in the way this seems to necessitate? And is it not presumption on our part to think that we may even possibly succeed where the generations have so much and so uniformly failed? Nevertheless, there abides for us one word of Christ which, if we keep it, will outweigh them all: "And when the Spirit of truth is come, He shall lead you into all truth." Is this a sufficient assurance? Is the failure His or ours? Are we given up to failure? To take any such position as these is only, in one way or another, to charge failure upon God Himself. No, rather the fault has been that we have trusted other guides more than this one sufficient One. We have given those whom God has given to us, in order to help us with the interpretation of His Word, a place of authority which belongs to nothing but to the Word itself. We have been the followers of men too much; and thus oftentimes the best meant attempts to preserve the truth to us have only resulted in hindrance and stagnation. If God has given a little revival, if He has recovered for us a few truths that we had lost, the way has been immediately to make that which we have the measure of everything; and this, enshrined in creeds and confessions, has been a sorer hindrance in the path of progress than we may be willing to allow that it could be.
Yet there is nothing wrong in a creed or a confession. If this embodies the present faith of those who put it forth, it may be, and should be, a help instead of a hindrance; but the moment it is made an authority for others, then it becomes prohibitory of progress, unless we can maintain that every detail of it is infallible. But we have rightly given up infallibility of the Church teaching; are we then to follow that which is confessedly fallible, as if it were infallible? We must hold consistently all through to this, that it is not the Church that teaches. God raises up teachers, in His mercy to all; but even here there is no infallibility in the teaching. The word for us is -nay, it always was, "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the rest judge." We are to take heed what we hear, as well as how we hear; and the healthful exercise which is implied in this we cannot afford to do without. Creeds are, after all, forms of the truth dictated by men; and our faith must not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. God has not given us a creed. He has given us His Word. The creed, if it be authoritative, by its very existence says that Scripture is not enough; God has not taken sufficient care of His people; His Word is not as clear as we can make it; at least, it requires a wisdom which all have not, a learning which cannot be expected of the mass, in order to interpret it to all. Thus the babes are disqualified by their simplicity -those very babes to whom the apostle John says, "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things, and need not that any one teach you." Was he right in saying this? Is that also Christ’s word, which we have to keep?
It is no wonder, then, if the enemy has made the creed the means of division really, instead of unity; oftentimes that which maintains error instead of truth. Let us have our creeds, but let them be our own, and not the creeds of other men. Let us get from Scripture all that Scripture can put us in possession of, and that will practically be our creed -what we hold in living faith, and neither more nor less than that. But if it be said there is nothing then to hinder the spread of whatever heresy, this is only once more to proclaim the incompetence of Scripture and of the Holy Spirit. It is strange and sorrowful how those who can insist so rightly upon the need of an open Bible, and that "the Bible only is the religion of Protestants," yet can, nevertheless, allow to any extent these additions to it, and proclaim the indecisiveness of that very Bible which is to be the religion of every one.
How important is this, then, that the Lord says to Philadelphia: "Thou hast kept My Word"! Not My Word as filtered through the thoughts of others; not My Word as certain trusted leaders represent it; not My Word in the measure that others may have learnt it; but only and all of that which the Spirit of God makes good to our souls. No doubt we shall be tested here, for God tests always the faith that He most approves and seeks to have from us. Can we trust Him, whatever others may say? Can we accept that as truth in which we have, perhaps, the mass of His people against us? If it be true that keeping the word of the Church is only practically unbelief, what more is keeping the word of a Church-creed or the word of any others, whosoever they may be, but which is not made good as Christ’s word to us? And let us notice here that we have no more right to shorten our creed to bring it within the bounds of those of others, than we have to accept that which is outside of what is ours, of what the Word and the Spirit of God have taught us.
How important it is here that there should be with us a readiness, nay, a desire, to receive all that is Christ’s word, and to follow it whatever the cost may be! How many, alas, look on to see what may be the cost of receiving such or such a thing, and for whom such questions avail to prevent all honest searching of the Word, all desire to go further in a way that threatens to cost too much to follow! Here the word of the apostle assures us that we must add virtue (that is, courage) to our faith, in order to be able to add to that virtue knowledge. We must not only have, as men say, thus the courage of our convictions, but we must have the courage to be open to conviction, which, in the unknown quantity that may be involved, may demand much more than the convictions we at present have. How many have stopped short in the pursuit of that which would have been the greatest blessing to them because of such a fancied lion in the way! If Christ is to say to us, Thou hast kept My Word," there must be no reserve, no making terms with Him who is our Lord and Master, and who has not delegated His authority to any teacher or set of teachers, any more than to the Church at large. We must keep here distinctly before us the need of thorough individuality. We cannot merge that aright even in a multitude of God’s people, and we need to remember what is implied in the prohibition of going with the multitude to do evil. We may do this when we have, nevertheless, no thought of doing evil, but simply go with the multitude. We shall certainly have often in this way to go beyond our faith, if not to go contrary to it; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Faith is as individual as possible. My faith is not yours, nor yours mine. Faith has to do with God, and with God alone; and in this sense all faith in men is out of place where God has spoken.
How much, then, is implied in even a little power to maintain such a path as this; to go on, however conscious of our weakness; to go on, and not to be stopped or turned back! And here, surely, the open door which Christ promises applies. All doors will open to the faith of the weakest one who still must at all costs be true to God; and it is well to notice here how thoroughly the Lord appeals to His people by the power of that which they have found in Himself -by the power of His claim over their souls. It is "My Word," "My name," "My patience," "My God," and "the city of My God," and "My new name." How conscious, in all this, Christ is of His power over the souls of those whom. He is addressing! It is the distinctive character, one may surely say, of Philadelphia to have turned from all other confidences, all other authority, just to Himself. It is a protest, as one may say, against the negative character of mere Protestantism, which can go, as we know full well, with infidelity itself, with the various grades of denial of His name.
It is a thing for us to mark that apparently those whom the Lord addresses here have been tried, or will be tried, in some way by this denial of Christ’s name. "Thou hast not denied" seems to suppose some temptation to denial, which may not, of course, have the utter grossness of what men are pleased to call "Unitarianism" now. Christ’s name covers all that He is. It is the doctrine concerning Him, the doctrine therefore of His work. His name is Jesus -"Jehovah, Saviour" -just as much Saviour as Jehovah; and thus He was called Jesus because He would "save His people from their sins." And notice, moreover, that His name may be denied in deed as well as in word. The deliberate association with those that deny Him is practically the denial itself; for if He is just what His name imports, then the owning Him thus must be imperative also. How can one own God while denying Him His place as that -while consenting, anywhere and for any purpose whatever, to leave Him out? It is this that is being done by the false liberality of the day, without an apparent thought of what is meant by it. When the churches of the orthodox can be opened to Jewish rabbis, and Christians applaud this as the true spirit of Christianity itself, how near are the masses coming to shameless denial! How important it is to realize that God only gathers men to that Name, and that every gathering which has not thus the truth of what He is as the central attraction, the hold-fast that unites all together, is not a Christian gathering!
There is another word now, in which we are reminded of what first came into view in the address to Smyrna: "The synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, and are not, but lie." In the view that we are taking of the addresses to the churches now, it may seem strange to find these again in such connection. Nor is it their blasphemy any more that is spoken of. The promise is now with regard to these: Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." We may be little competent indeed to say how this, which must certainly be future, is to be fulfilled. We have certainly seen a revival of such things in the midst of Protestantism in the present day, but it seems more to the purpose to remind ourselves that, if there be a return to obedience to Christ, to the acknowledging of His Word, and to the seeking of true fellowship in separation from the merely professing world, (thus a return to the principles of the Church such as we find them in the beginning,) it is natural that we should find in some shape also the revival of that old antagonism which met the apostles already in those early days. It may not take just the same form as of old. Satan is not beggared yet in his resources; and if God is giving in any sense fresh light, we may surely understand that it is as an angel of light that he will come in to antagonize it. We have to speak perhaps more doubtfully here than elsewhere, although, as already said, it is simply a promise to Philadelphia in connection with such as those who, in Smyrna, certainly represent the Judaizing element in antagonism to the grace of God and to that most wondrous revelation of it which He has given us in the Church, that they shall at length acknowledge her in the love that Christ has to her, and the place His love has given her.
The words that follow now show evidently that the truth of the Lord’s coming has, to some extent at least, revived. We know how long in the history of the Church there had ceased to be any real expectation of it. In the language of the parable, even the wise virgins slumbered; but now the time of waking up seems to be at least beginning. It is involved in the approbation here, "Thou hast kept the word of My patience."
The kingdom at present takes its character from that. It is, as in the first chapter of this book, "the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ;" the kingdom in which He reigns who sits upon the Father’s throne, waiting the appointed time until His enemies are made His footstool. The keeping the word of His patience implies that the truth of this is entered into. We have had promises before, of course, as to the overcomer in Thyatira; instructive as it is to find it there, surely, in the midnight times, in the dark ages, an anticipative cry raised, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh!" Nevertheless, it scarcely penetrated then the hearts and consciences of the saints. Now there is a positive commendation, the word of His patience is being kept; His people have learnt that the present time is but a waiting time, and have learnt more that longing of heart after Him. The promise in connection with it shows us also how near the end we have arrived: "Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee out of the hour of temptation which is about to come upon the whole habitable world, to try those that dwell upon the earth."
There can be no doubt to those who have listened in any wise to the voice of prophecy as to what this refers to. It is evidently that "time of trouble" such as never was, of which the Lord warns in His prophecy upon the mount of Olives. This and the parallel passage in Daniel (Dan 12:1) have, no doubt, special reference to Israel, as the context shows. But in the seventh chapter of this book we find a company from all the nations who are before the throne, and who are distinctly named as those that come "out of the great tribulation." Thus it affects much more than Israel, and certainly must come practically upon the whole habitable world. It is especially, as spoken of here, for the trial of "those that dwell upon the earth;" and this is a phrase which characterizes some whose profession has been, at least impliedly, one of not belonging to the earth. They are, as in Pergamos, dwelling "where Satan’s throne is;" and the whole character of the period following the removal of the Church to heaven is such as would necessarily make it specially apply to these. It is eminently an "hour of temptation," the time of the rise of the last and special antichrist, who sweeps away the masses of those who, when they had the truth, were without heart for it; whose pleasure was in mere unrighteousness (2Th 2:10-12). But the true Church is, as has been already shown, at that time with the Lord; and this throws light distinctly upon the promise here: "I will keep thee out of the hour of temptation which is about to come." Notice, not merely "out of the temptation," but out of the hour of it -out of the time in which the temptation is. To be kept out of the hour is a virtual promise of being taken to be with the Lord; and thus it follows here, "Behold, I come quickly." "Quickly" is the word now. Things are hastening on to that final catastrophe, and the Lord is just about to take His people to Himself, and this intensifies the urgency of the appeal, "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown."
Here is what shows us the special form of overcoming in connection with Philadelphia. At first sight one would naturally ask, What room for overcoming can there be where there is nothing but commendation on the Lord’s part for those He is addressing? For the overcoming is, throughout here, not that overcoming of the world merely which faith enables for, but the overcoming in connection with the evils that have come into the Church. This is plain in most of these addresses. Smyrna may seem to be an exception to this, for there, undoubtedly, there is outside persecution; but there also there is an evil within, as we have seen already, that which the Lord calls "the synagogue of Satan," the party of those who are bent upon degrading the Church to a Jewish level. There is not only the roar of the lion, but the snare also, and both have to be overcome; but in Philadelphia, while "the synagogue of Satan" is indeed noticed, yet, as already said, there is no blasphemy on its part, nothing but a promise, so far as we can see, that they shall own the Lord’s peculiar affection, which is at the same time His approbation, for the Philadelphian assembly. Thus there seems to be here no evil to overcome. Certainly there is no great power. Yet, with all the weakness, there is approbation all through. How, then, can there be overcoming? The answer is surely to be found in what we have just now. In this very exhortation to hold fast what they have, there is a necessary implication that there is the danger for them of not holding fast; and such words, we may be sure, are not in vain. The danger is not merely hypothetical, but something that the history of His people strongly emphasizes for us.
But who are the people, then? And what distinctly does Philadelphia mean? The only answer that can be given must necessarily be derived from the character ascribed to her here. Philadelphia includes all those who seek to be obedient to Christ’s word, in all that this implies, allowing no word of man to be added to or substituted for it. That which is added to it becomes, in fact, something thus far substituted for it: the two things are one. Philadelphia speaks of the refusal of everything of this sort, in order to keep that which can be certified as the word of Christ, and that alone; connected with which also is the necessary aim after pure communion, for a fellowship of brethren, a recognition of those that are truly Christ’s, and thus, in some sense at least, a separation from the mere worldly profession which we find so largely in Sardis.
It would not be the place here to seek to reproduce the history of such a movement, which indeed would be easy to show. It began not so long after the Reformation times, when the weight of the worldly establishments favored by it began to be felt by the more spiritual. Indeed, how was it possible that this should not be felt? The conflict with the grosser forms of evil, while it went on, no doubt prevented full realization of it. The times were such that even the world came to be for the moment, so to speak, absorbed in the religious questions. The peril of Rome had been brought home to every one’s door, and the hope of deliverance from her made the truth itself, which alone could deliver, a matter of encouraging attention on the part even of the mass. A sober estimate of things could hardly at the time be taken, but as this passed, and when the victory thus far was to a certain extent won, the eye that had been turned so much outside, as a matter of course, turned elsewhere, and the spiritual condition of the world-churches could not but press more and more heavily upon the godly in the midst of them.
If we are to take the character of things depicted in the address before us, we can have no doubt that there were various movements which could be characterized, at least more or less, as Philadelphian in character; and it is noticeable that in the beginning of these things certain truths tended to revive which had long been lost to view. With separation front the world-church, in the companies of believers thus brought together there was often recognized the liberty of ministry in these congregations. The unscriptural distinction of clergy from laity was refused, along with the exclusive right of preaching on the part of an ordained ministry; and with this there came the refusal of a liturgy and forms of worship distinctly as usurping the place of the Spirit as the true Leader of the people of God. Here and there the coming of the Lord became also a more practical reality.
But while we realize these things, the sorrowful lesson is continually forced upon us of how little man is competent to hold fast the best blessings that God has given him. It is just amid that which is best and most hopeful that we find what is necessarily thus the saddest failure, and the words of the Lord’s warning press upon us, "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown." Such movements have constantly begun as real and gracious revivals in the power of God, soon, alas, to decline in power and spirituality, even with the very growth in number of those affected by them. God, on the other hand, has come in again and again to give fresh light, and perfect the truth already in measure known. Certain of these, also have taken wider hold of the masses, while at the same time they have sadly changed their form as they have thus spread themselves amongst them: in widening they have lost depth. Through the broken barriers of the world-systems a false liberality has come in, which is but the imitation of that which is truly Christian, and which makes light of the very truth which is the sole means of true fellowship among any. One can only speak generally here of such matters as these, and the Spirit of God alone can give the right application, as He will to every heart sufficiently in earnest to apprehend. It is evident that there is encouragement which remains for us in the midst of that which would seem discouragement wholly. It is evident that we must not discredit with the failure the truth held by those who, nevertheless, have failed.
Amid all this the Lord’s claim for His people to manifest individually their obedience to Himself only rings out the more clearly and the more urgently. It is a special appeal to every individual as such: "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown." The crown will never be the portion of any company, even of the Lord’s people. The special reward-crown is the recompense of truth and individual fidelity to Christ.
And let us notice here, also, what it is that we are called to hold fast. Sardis may be naturally called to repent in view of what she had received, but in Philadelphia’s keeping the word of Christ there is found, not simply the abiding by what has been already received, the keeping a certain fixed and limited deposit of truth, but rather the listening to a living voice which leads on in necessary progress. If we will keep the word of Christ, if there is in us the heart to do this, then it will be found that we have a creed which is continually enlarging. The Word is becoming more and more to us a living voice that leads us on; and certainly there is no holding fast where there is no progress. A certain measure of truth held but not increased, tends inevitably to become less to the one who holds it. It becomes dulled by that sort of familiarity with it which demonstrates its nature by the very lack of desire for increase. Exercise about it is gone. We are established in it perhaps. We cannot, or think we cannot, be moved from it; but it no more calls up in us the energy that it once did, and thus the decline is already manifest: for as all error is connected together, so that one little point of it that we hold, followed out to its results, will blight all the truth that is in connection with it, so, on the other hand, all truth is so connected that every point in this way gained is a point of vantage, and gives us a view of that which is still beyond -a blessed, attractive view also, which leads us on to the attainment of what is not yet attained. It is still the apostle’s rule, "Forgetting that which is behind, and pressing on to that which is before;" for indeed, is not all truth, in one way or another, just the knowledge of Christ Himself? and can there be any right pressing on after Himself which does not take advantage of that which He has given, in order to make Himself known to us, and to give us fellowship with Himself?
Thus the word of Christ and growth in knowledge of it become an inevitable necessity. God has not erred in His knowledge of our need and in that which He has given us, but of which we have not yet possessed ourselves. How can we even imagine what there may be for us stored up in that which we have to confess we know not what it is? How can we measure the unknown? Alas, in our estimate of what is essential and what is non-essential, let us remember that if we apply this to the formation in us of the mind of Christ, we must not tell Him that what we know not is not essential to know -that we can afford to leave it out and find no loss by it. Let us be sure that if we would have for ourselves that commendation which the Lord gives to Philadelphia, there must be that quick ear for everything He utters, or would utter to us, which will enable Him thus to lead us on. We may be sure that he who is truly a keeper of the word of Christ shall, in proportion as he is so, find that Word becoming more clear; He will emphasize for us the encouragement of this word, "I have set before thee an open door, and no one can shut it."
The promise to the overcomer is most emphatic and beautiful. The one that has but a little strength is to be made a pillar in the temple of God -"My God," says Christ -and to go no more out, and to have upon him the name of His God and the name of the city, the new Jerusalem, and Christ’s new name. "A pillar in the temple of My God" may seem strange in view of what we have at the end of the book, when John tells us that he saw no temple in the city of God, "because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." There is no need of a shrine any more when God is so entirely enshrined in the hearts of all there, "all" and "in all." God is at home with His people, and His people are all sons; there is no need therefore of restrictions such as have been known in time past. But on the other hand here we have plainly what is symbolical of a place which God fills, and where He is the Object of unceasing worship. Upon earth "the Church of the living God" is responsibly "the pillar and ground of the truth." Alas, she has signally failed in that responsibility, but here to the overcomer there is more than recovery. We cannot but think of those two pillars in the temple of Solomon, the name of the one being Jachin, and the other Boaz, significant names, which show what alone can constitute a pillar anywhere -Jachin, "He establishes," and Boaz, "in Him is strength." If we indeed always remembered this! The strength is not in His creatures, but in Himself; and it is He who establishes the soul -not even truth known apart from Him. The Philadelphian overcomer will be even thus a witness to the strength which has been given him, and to the grace which has made him what he is. Out of this temple he shall no more go, for it is not local, but the presence of God continually realized by the saint in glory; where forgetfulness even for a moment will be wholly impossible. Then there is identification with the name of God, Christ’s God; that is, with God as displayed in Christ. On earth those who have the seal of God upon their foreheads are described as having the name of His Father written upon them. Thus they are proclaimed His, and He is seen in them; and this is the work of the Spirit to accomplish. Then there is identification with the city of God, the new Jerusalem, a heavenly, not an earthly habitation; the city in which is indeed the "foundation of peace," peace always abiding secure, never more to be assailed. The city upon earth was constantly in siege. The heavenly city is far above all possibility of this. Peace is based upon righteousness, and Christ is still and everywhere the true foundation of peace. Lastly, there is identification with Christ Himself, His new name written upon the overcomer, that name in which all His new relationships to the Church, His bride, His body, and the whole new creation, are told out.* He is not here Israel’s Messiah simply. He is the Father of Eternity, the Lord of endless glory.
{*Considering Philadelphia as representing -as it surely does -a remnant testimony to Christ’s truth in days of ruin and failure, how striking is the contrast between it in the eyes of the world and as rewarded in glory! What feebler, apparently, than the stand for truth -often a subject of scorn to the world: but it will be a pillar there. How significant the mention of the temple of God for those who refused the thought of any earthly sanctuary! They refused all names of man here; there they will have a triple name written by the Lord Himself -His God’s, His city’s, and His own new name. They confessed themselves strangers and pilgrims here; there the name of the heavenly city, with all that goes with it, will be inscribed upon them. And who can tell all that goes with that "new name" of our Lord I Himself? To know Him then as we do not, and cannot, know Him now -who can measure the blessedness held out to the overcomer? -S.R.}
3. The addresses close with that to Laodicea; a name which strikes one painfully at the first glance, and the significance of which is easily seen. Laodicea is composed of two words, which unitedly mean either "the manners," "the right," or "the judgment, of the people." These are all in near connection with one another, and may all have their place in the meaning of what is before us. "People’s rights"! Who does not know that this is the cry of the times? and no doubt not without much apparent justification for it, in a world full of oppression; a world in which "Might makes right" has been a constant motto, a principle really acted upon even where not acknowledged. How even the conscience itself goes with this plea of the downtrodden! Who can deny the awful abuse of power everywhere? And who cannot see that more and more, according to the democratic tendency of the times, the people are not merely pleading for but demanding a right to possess themselves of their rights? Who can wonder, either? Leave but God out (and that is, alas, what we find it in general so very easy to do), why should the many accept this overbearing dominancy of the few? Why should the mere casual circumstances which few have ordained for themselves or had anything to say as to bringing about, make all the difference of luxury or penury among those sprung of a common parentage, and creatures alike of Him who is "no respecter of persons"? The case may be fairly argued, but what avails mere argument about it? The question is as to the remedy; and does it not seem as if the remedy were really in the hands of those who are the many against the few? Why should not might again make right, as it has done all through the world’s history, and the people settle things with their own right hands?
But the question still remains, What sort of a settlement will be attained in this way? The masses have risen up before, and what has been accomplished? It was but a spasm of effort which exhausted itself as quickly, and things returned, as they ever seem to return, to their former condition; for these "people’s rights" -whose rights are they? And who is to determine them? Each for himself, or the many for the few? Can one think there will be in this case righteous principles? -any less wrong? Liberty, equality and fraternity have been written in deep red letters, as we know; and the awful horror of that brief moment in which they were so, scarcely fades with the time that has elapsed since then. Who is to determine the rights, and the extent of them? Who shall apportion to each his due in a way that shall give satisfaction, perhaps, even to any? The world is full of oppression and wrong. Granted. Let the conscience be rightly before God, and there is in each of us that which will point out the cause, and convince one of the inveteracy of the evil. Who can trust himself? And he that trusts himself most, will he be the person most trusted by others? No; it is sin that is at the bottom of the whole, however little, indeed, we may care to know it. It is easier, no doubt, to own it for others than for ourselves; but thus those who own it for us will always be in the majority, and shall not the majority decide?
Scripture has written out in full the condemnation, and our only hope lies, after all, in submitting to Scripture. We are sinners, and this is what has wrecked our fortunes; this is what has brought clouds and darkness over the face of God Himself, and often made His ways so little what we think to be worthy of Him. Alas, we are taking up our own cause simply, in judging thus; and we cannot be trusted in our own cause to give right judgment. Yet is not the world wrong? Scripture speaks, as we know, in the strongest way about this. The socialist and the anarchist can both appeal to the denunciations of Scripture, and have claimed even the Son of man Himself as one with them because of His denunciations of the wrong that is everywhere. Let them look more deeply, and they will find that they are at total issue with Him in regard to the remedy. Power was in His own hands. Did He use it? We know the cross is His emblem. That speaks, if we have learnt it aright, of His submission to the judgment upon Him for their sin, taking that sin Himself in His love to redeem them. But His remedy, then, is to bow, not indeed to man, but to God; or if to man, yet only as in obedience to God. Here is the way out, and the only way. We suffer for our sins. Be it so. Let us own them then, and let Him be the Judge, and let us accept that judgment. Let us not plead rights which, if we argue them out before Him, will prove so fatally against us. The end of all is in His hand; and happy is the one who has learnt to leave it there, and to leave it there in confidence.
But this plea of people’s rights is manifestly in connection, not merely with the politics of the time, but with the Church of God; and it has, alas, made these so much its own principles! With politics, as such, we would not expect to have much to do in these addresses to the churches; but if the world and the Church have come together so largely, as in truth they have, -when men can talk about a Christian world, and the powers of the earth have come to be practically the so-called "Christian powers," -then how is it possible to keep politics out of the Church? or to prevent the universal spirit of unrest entering into the most purely ecclesiastical questions? It is certain that today there is a democratic tendency in religion as in all else. The ministry of the Church has long been a systematically hired service, and here, as elsewhere, the masses are rising up, themselves to assert their rights against the pretentious claims of the hierarchy. The Church once ruled, but the Church rules no longer. Alas, it is true that when the Church ruled most absolutely, those were the dark ages for mankind. This rule of the Church did not indeed, as we know, mean a rule of the people, but of a class which had arrogated to itself the claim to be this, and had trodden down the people into the very dust. What wonder that the people should be now asserting themselves here also? Not, indeed, to insist upon Scriptural ruling in the things of God, but upon their own rights, as the masses against the few. Ministry, it is true, means service and not ruling; but if the service be, as by common consent it has so long been, alas, a service of hire, why should not the people claim their money’s worth and decide which suits them, the kind of thing they want to hear, and the men that they want to listen to? For what comes of this they cannot indeed plead Scripture, except that which they would not like to fulfil as a prediction, that "men shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn their ears from the truth and be turned to fables." Bring the Church and the world together, as it must surely be plain to any spiritual mind that they are largely so -practically, even where not in theory; what must be the outcome when the purse rules and the popular voice decides what they care to listen to?
But before we go further, let us look at the address to Laodicea, and see what the picture is that it presents to us. Here Christ, as always, speaks in suited character for that which He is addressing. He is here "The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God:" words that again are, on the one hand, a needed warning; on the other hand, a sweet encouragement to those who can accept the warning. He is the Amen, as the apostle says to the Corinthians: "All the promises of God in Him are yea," and therefore "through Him also is the amen, unto the glory of God through us" (2Co 1:20, R.V.); that is, as the revised reading has it, that in Christ there is the positive assurance of every promise of God, and that which awakens, therefore, in His people the amen, their affirmation of the assurance which they have found in Him. Here, therefore, He is Himself "the Amen." Christ is the answer from the hearts of His people as to the truth of every promise of God, and we may add surely, as to the Church, of every word that He has spoken; His Word abides; not a thing to be trifled with, to be twisted at men’s pleasure, and not to be set aside. Christ is thus Himself "the faithful and true Witness." How solemn and yet how cheering the reminder, when the witness of His people on earth has failed, to know that there is One who abides true to Himself, true to God, true to us therefore, in all possible interests -His witness, that which is to be listened to, however men may contradict! This, of course, is practically the affirmation of the truth of Scripture, of that which is His Word throughout, but in which, as we know, men are claiming to find a human element which soon comes to be something that is quite other than "faithful and true," and which is used to obscure His witness: for it is manifest that if we cannot fully trust the terms of that document in which all His own witness is recorded for us, then this of necessity must partake of such uncertainty as all the record has. It is of no use affirming that still Christ remains true when we cannot produce what we can positively say are His own true words. If there be not an absolutely faithful report, then we have practically lost the faithful Witness Himself.
The Lord’s last title here, "The beginning of the creation of God," speaks, of course, of new creation. The old, stained with sin, is no longer recognized as His. In fact, new creation was always that which was in His thoughts, which the fall, therefore, could never mar nor set aside -rather, was a means, under the controlling hand of God, of developing. Here Christ Himself is the true beginning of it. He is the One from whom it has its origin; and those who belong to it are created in Him, as the apostle expresses it in Ephesians (Eph 2:10); and He it is who abides -for the one renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him -"where there is neither Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all." "People’s rights" have no place here, clearly, but God’s grace only. At Laodicea He is therefore outside the door, though lingering yet in His grace, if possibly any one may at last give Him admittance.
Thus we see that in Laodicea they have got far away from all that is real with God, among the shadows of their own vain imaginations. But it is noticeable here that we have not the death-coldness of Sardis; they are simply lukewarm, neither cold nor hot. The solemn thing is that the Lord estimates this as a worse condition than absolute coldness; and we may see in this, no doubt, that the revival in Philadelphia has thus affected them. Even that which is dead, if it is under the influence of the heat, can be warmed up, but not to vital warmth; and this is the condition now. In fact, they are valuing themselves upon what they have attained; recovered truth has become in a certain sense their possession, and they value themselves accordingly upon it. In their own apprehension they are rich, and have been growing rich; nay, they have need of nothing. There is perfect self-complacency just at the time when the Lord is saying, "I am about to spew thee out of My mouth." These things, indeed, go perfectly together: the condition here is that of a professed spirituality, which, by its profession, betrays itself: for, even with regard to knowledge, "If a man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know;" and "if a man thinketh that he is anything when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." That is God’s estimate of man, which the truly spiritual has made his own. "We are the circumcision, who worship God by the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." But alas, how hard it is to be thoroughly convinced that all self-confidence is confidence in the flesh!
Thank God, we are rich enough in Christ to be able to contemplate our own poverty without dismay. Our riches are in Him, and here we can boast as much as we will -the more the better; but the one who in any other sense can say, "I am rich," may be sure that this is but the mere unconsciousness of one who is "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Yet a common pretension of the present day, and which is found in various forms, is a pretension to perfection, which necessarily ignores the standard of perfection which God has given us: for while it is true that "he that abideth in Christ ought himself also so to walk even as He walked," yet who could venture to say, with the full consciousness of the perfection that is set before him, that he has attained it? That faith from which all true and acceptable work is produced is a renunciation of self, in the very fact that it turns off to Another; and every whit of confidence in one’s self is just so much taken from that which is due to Him who alone can be the rightful confidence of the saint. It is true that there are fruits of the Spirit. We need not ignore that. Nay, it would be a wrong to the Spirit Himself to ignore it. Yet even so, it is not the work of the Spirit to make us contemplate this, nor can we be trusted to do so. It was through pride, as the apostle tells us (1Ti 3:6), that Satan fell from the height in which he was created, to the place of being the Satan that he is, the constant adversary of God and man. "Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom because of thy brightness" (Eze 28:17) are the words of God apparently as to this fallen being himself; but whether or not, the lesson is the same.
There is in all this self-occupation a fearful danger which Christians are painfully slow to realize. The subtle Pharisaism of a good self -justified as it is sought to be by the necessity of holiness and fruitfulness for God -will ensnare the saint for whom the gross forms of sin have no attraction; and with it all there will be constantly found a real depreciation of Christ, -to call it by no worse name, -in order that this self-satisfaction may be able to live in the dimmed glory of this Presence. Thus, not only have we the positive heresies of those who, with Irving, assert that the Lord had a fallen nature, which He had to conquer, as we have to conquer ours, but where this is not taught, yet that which the law discovered to the apostle (that the lust forbidden by it was sin) is denied, and the evil which, after all, is discovered within is imputed to Satan instead of to one’s self; and it is urged that Christ was similarly tempted of Satan. A Laodiceanism of this spirit is thus manifested in the place which it gives the really perfect One; and along with this naturally goes the assumption that those who thus no longer need the discipline of sickness and suffering have therefore title (through the work of Christ, no doubt), if they have faith, to claim exemption from it. Thus the plain Sadduceeism of infidelized Christianity stalks abroad in company with the highest pretension of Pharisaism.
"I counsel thee," says the Lord, "to buy of Me gold purified by fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white garments, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not be manifested; and eye-salve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see." The gold is that which seems everywhere to speak of divine glory. In the ark it covered the shittim wood, the symbol of the Lord’s humanity; and the golden cherubim are spoken of by the apostle as "the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat." Divine glory is the display of what God is in nature, and for us it is in the face of Him now revealed to us as the true image of God. It is in Him indeed that we find all riches for the Christian; for it is as we behold thus "the glory of the Lord we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory." The whole power of sanctification lies in this, and the white garments of which He goes on to speak here are evidently in close connection with this. They typify, as always in Revelation, the practical righteousness which we see in the nineteenth chapter, as that with which it is given the bride to be arrayed. But note, these white garments have to be washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14). The eye-salve is, of course, that which the Spirit furnishes, and the eyes thus anointed have one object alone, from which they would never be diverted, the light of a glory by which alone all other things are rightly seen. The Lord counsels these Laodiceans to buy these things. They are too rich and well-to-do to be asked to receive them freely. Nevertheless, the only purchase here is "without money and without price;" for if in fact to gain these things may cost us much, it is only the sacrifice of the rags of paper money, which was never of any real value, and which, when we see with the apostle, we count it loss, and therefore gain to lose.
This, then, is the character of Laodiceanism. It is a sign that the patience of the Lord is running out. Yet still He lingers, for His heart has not wandered, if that of His people has. "As many as I love," He says, "I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent." Still He expects no repentance of the mass. All is individual now. He is outside the door as a stranger, knocking; but if any one shall hear His voice and open the door, He will come in to him and will sup with him. Outside the door as a whole, yet it is evident that it is only the individual door that any one can open; while, as to the mass, it is already irrevocably said, "I am about to spew thee out of My mouth." Thus the threat which we find at the beginning, of the removal of the candlestick, is at last to be fulfilled. He has indeed had long patience, but there is here no true witness for Him which He can acknowledge. Thus the Church is to be set aside from its place as the responsible witness for Him upon the earth. Actually, the true saints are to be removed to heaven. This is for them but pure grace. It is the accomplishment of a promise which, the more fully the heart is His, is the more joyfully expected. But for the mass it is rejection, and only that. Nauseous in its lukewarmness to the Lord, He is going to spew it out of His mouth. Christianity proper is ended when the Lord gathers His people to Himself; yet the Christian profession, entirely empty though it may be then, may go on for a while yet; soon, however, to end in open apostasy. The history of it we shall have in the chapters that follow.
For the overcomer there is yet one final word. "To him," says the Lord, "will I give to sit with Me in My throne; as I also overcame, and have sat down with My Father on His throne." This is the announcement of the change which is coming about. On the Father’s throne, though the Lord reigns, yet it is His waiting time: "Sit Thou at My right hand until I make Thy foes Thy footstool" (Psa 110:1). That is the distinct announcement of the time during which the King of Israel, recognized as that, shall nevertheless not be in possession of His kingdom. The sitting upon the Father’s throne is a higher dignity, and the kingdom is a wider one. Manifestly, it is what is His by personal right alone, and which He cannot share even with others. Yet He has overcome to reach that place. Although His by natural right, yet He reaches it now as having accomplished a blessed work for God, which was verily a conflict. The strife between good and evil has been in His hand to work out to a conclusion, and He has virtually, though not yet actually, concluded it. He is upon the throne as having vindicated the right, as having glorified God in His ways and attributes, as having removed sin as a hindrance out of the way altogether; nay, as having made sin itself yield its tribute to the glory of the Eternal. Yet still He waits. He is to have a throne as Son of man, holding it in the nature in which He has wrought His triumph. He is to subject all things to God; to be thus "the Father of Eternity," according to the title by which Isaiah announces Him (Isa 9:6); and this, too, is something much wider than the possession of David’s throne would indicate. It is the throne of the Son of man, of One who has linked Himself with humanity, and who must therefore take up every question which affects man or the relation of God to man. But thus He has a human throne, and there He can have those whom in this way He can call "brethren," and who can be associated with Him upon this throne which now He is going to take. All this is the intimation of what is before us in what immediately follows now -"things that are" having come to an end, and a very different state of things ensuing, in which the Church is no more recognized upon earth, and the elders are upon their thrones around the throne of God.
Laodicea closes the history of the Church on earth, and closes it, evidently, not in triumph, according to the expectation of so many still, but in judgment of the mass at the hands of the Lord Himself. Laodicea -"people’s rights" -is no less, and even on that account, "people’s judgment" also. The Christian dispensation, with all the grace of which it speaks, nevertheless ends as the legal dispensation ended. "Cease ye from man" is the moral throughout, a terribly sad and humiliating one if we go no further; but if "he that glorieth" may no more glory in man, there remains still the unfailing Object to glory in: -he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." And yet here too, wonderful to say, we find a Man, and the Son of man, a Man who has not failed and will not fail; a Man in whom the early promise of creation has been more than fulfilled; a Man who, after all, eclipses the brightness of those heavens, whose glory might seem to make it strange indeed that God should visit him; -man, and even the Son of man, whom God path made a little lower than the angels, to crown Him with glory and honor; under whose feet not simply the beasts of the earth are put, but who is at the same time the Head of all creation, and the One in whom God Himself is manifest in the full glory of His Godhead.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain
Revelation
THE LORD OF THE SPIRITS AND THE STARS
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Rev 3:1.
The titles by which our Lord speaks of Himself in the letters to the seven churches are chosen to correspond with the spiritual condition of the community addressed. The correspondence can usually be observed without difficulty, and in this case is very obvious. The church in Sardis, to which Christ is presented under this aspect as the possessor of ‘the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars,’ had no heresies needing correction. It had not life enough to produce even such morbid secretions. Neither weeds nor flowers grow in winter. There may be a lower depth than the condition of things when people are all thinking, and some of them thinking wrongly, about Christian truth. Better the heresies of Ephesus and Thyatira than the acquiescent deadness of Sardis.
It had no immoralities. The gross corruptions of some in Pergamum had no parallel there. Philadelphia had none, for it kept close to its Lord, and Sardis is rebuked for none, because its evil was deeper and sadder. It was not flagrantly corrupt, it was only - dead.
Of course it had no persecutions. Faithful Smyrna had tribulation unto death, hanging like a thundercloud overhead, and Philadelphia, beloved of the Lord, was drawing near its hour of trial. But Sardis had not life enough to be obnoxious. Why should the world trouble itself about a dead church? It exactly answers the world’s purpose, and is really only a bit of the world under another name.
To such a church comes flaming in upon its stolid indifference this solemn and yet glad vision of the Lord of the ‘seven Spirits of God,’ and of ‘the seven stars.’
I. Let us think of the condition of the church which especially needs this vision.
It is all summed up in that judgment, pronounced by Him who ‘knows its works’: ‘Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.’ No works either good or bad are enumerated, though there were some, which He gathers together in one condemnation, as ‘not perfect before God.’
We are not to take that word ‘dead’ in the fullest sense of which it is capable, as we shall see presently. But let us remember how, when on earth, the Lord, whose deep words on that matter we owe mainly to John, taught that all men were either living, because they had been made alive by Him, or dead - how He said, ‘Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man, ye have no life in you,’ and how one of the main ideas of John’s whole teaching is, ‘He that hath the Son hath life.’ This remembrance will help us to give the words their true meaning. Death is the condition of those who are separated from Him, and not receiving from Him the better life into their spirits by communion and faith.
Into this condition the church in Sardis had fallen. People and bishop had lost their hold on Him. Their hearts beat with no vigorous love to Him, but only feebly throbbed with a pulsation which even His hand laid on their bosoms could scarcely detect. Their thoughts had no clear apprehension of Him or of His love. Their communion with Him had ceased. Their lives had no radiant beauty of self-sacrifice for Christ’s sake. Their Christianity was dying out.
But this death was not entire, as is seen from the fact that in the next verse ‘ready to die’ is the expression applied to some among them, or perhaps to some lingering works which still survived. They were at the point of death, moribund, with much of their spiritual life extinct, but here and there a spark among the ashes, which His eye saw, and His breath could fan into a flame. Some works still survived, though not ‘perfect,’ shrunken and sickly like the blanched shoots of a plant feebly growing in a dark cellar.
In some animals of low organization you may see muscular movements after life is extinct. So churches and individual Christians may keep on performing Christian work for a time after the true impulse that should produce it has ceased. A train will run for some distance after the steam has been shut off. Institutions last after the life is out of them, for use and wont keeps up a routine of action, though the true motive is dead, and men may go on for long, nominal adherents of a cause to which they are bound by no living conviction. How much of your Christian activity is the manifestation of life, and how much of it is the ghastly twitchings of a corpse under galvanism?
This death was unseen but by the flame-eyed Christ. These people in Sardis had ‘a name to live.’ They had a high reputation among the Asiatic churches for vigorous Christian character. And they themselves, no doubt, would be very much astonished at the sledgehammer blow of this judgment of their state. One can fancy them saying - ‘We dead! Do not we stand high among our brethren, have we not this and the other Christian work among us? Have we not prophesied in Thy name? ‘Yes, and the surest sign of spiritual death is unconsciousness. Paralysis is not felt. Mortification is painless. Frost-bitten limbs are insensitive. They only tingle when life is coming back to them. When a man says I am asleep, he is more than half awake.
One characteristic of their death is that they have forgotten what they were in better and happier times, and therefore need the exhortation, ‘Remember how thou hast received and didst hear.’ They have fallen so far that the height on which they once stood is out of their sight, and they are content to lie on the muddy flat at its base. No stings from conscious decline disturb them. They are too far gone for that. The same round of formal Christian service which marked their decline from their brethren hid it from themselves.
That is a solemn fact worth making very clear to ourselves, that the profoundest spiritual decline may be going on in us, and we be all unconscious of it. Samson wist not that his strength was departed from him,’ and in utter ignorance he tried to perform his old feats, only to find his weakness. So the life of our spirits may have ebbed away, and we know not how much blood we have lost until we try to raise ourselves and sink back fainting. Like some rare essence in a partially closed vessel, put away in some drawer, we go to take it out and find nothing but a faint odour, a rotten cork, and an empty phial. The sure way to lose the precious elixir of a Christian life is to shut it up in our hearts. No life is maintained without food, air, and exercise. We must live on the bread of God which came down from heaven, and breathe the breath of His life-giving Spirit, and use all our power for Him, or else, for all our name to live, and our shrunken, feeble imitations of the motions of life, the eyes which are as a flame of fire will see the sad reality, and the lips into which grace is poured will have to speak over us the one grim word - dead.
II. Notice now the thought of Christ presented to such a church. ‘He that hath the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars.’
The greater part of the attributes with which our Lord speaks of Himself in the beginnings of the seven letters to the churches are drawn from the features of the majestic vision of the Christ in the first chapter of this book. But nothing there corresponds to the first clause of this description, and so far this designation is singular. There are, however, three other places in the Apocalypse which throw much light on it, and to these we may turn for a moment. In the apostolic salutation at the beginning of the book {i. 4} John in yokes mercy and grace on the Asiatic churches from the Eternal Father, ‘and from the seven Spirits which are before the throne,’ and from Christ, the faithful witness. In the grand vision of heavenly realities {ch. iv.} the seer beholds burning before the throne seven lamps of fire, ‘which are the seven Spirits of God,’ and when, in the later portion of the same, he beholds the conquering Lamb, who looses the seals of the book of the world’s history, he sees Him having ‘seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth,’ an echo of old words of the same prophet who had been John’s precursor in the symbolic use of the ‘candlestick,’ as representing the Church, and who speaks of ‘the seven eyes of the Lord which run to and fro throughout the whole earth’ {Zec 4:10}.
Clearly in all these passages we have the same idea presented of the Holy Spirit of God in the completeness and manifoldness of its sevenfold energies, conceived of as possessed and bestowed by the Lamb of God, the Lord of all the churches. The use of the plural and the number seven is remarkable, but quite explicable, on the ground of the sacred number expressing perfection, and not inconsistent with personal unity, underlying the variety of manifestations. The personality of the Spirit is sufficiently set forth by that refrain in each epistle, ‘Let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.’ The divinity of the Spirit is plainly involved in the triple benediction at the beginning of the letter, and by the sacred place in which there the Spirit is invoked, midmost between the Father and the Son. The seven lamps before the throne speak of the flaming perfection of that Spirit of burning conceived of as immanent in the Divine nature. The seven eyes sent forth into all the earth speak of the perfectness of the energies of that same Spirit, conceived of as flashing and gleaming through all the world. And the great words of our text agree with that vision of these seven as being the eyes of the Lamb slain, in telling us that that fiery Spirit is poured out on men by the Lord, who had to die before He could cast fire on earth.
This is the thought which a dead or decaying church needs most. There is a Spirit which gives life, and Christ is the Lord of that Spirit. The whole fullness of the Divine energies is gathered in the Holy Spirit, and this is His chiefest work - to breathe into our deadness the breath of life. Many other blessed offices are His, and many other names belong to Him. He is ‘the Spirit of adoption,’ He is ‘the Spirit of Supplication,’ He is ‘the Spirit of Holiness,’ He is ‘the Spirit of Wisdom,’ He is ‘the Spirit of Power and of Love and of a sound mind,’ He is ‘the Spirit of Counsel and Might’; but highest of all is the name which expresses His mightiest work, the Spirit of Life.’ The flaming lamps tell of His flashing brightness; the seven eyes of His watchful Omniscience and other symbols witness the various sides of His gracious activity on men’s hearts. The anointing oil was consecrated from gold to express His work of causing men’s whole powers to move sweetly and without friction in the service of God, and of feeding the flame of devotion in the heart. The ‘water’ spoke of cleansing efficacy, as ‘fire’ of melting, transforming, purifying power. But the ‘rushing mighty wind,’ blowing where it listeth, unsustained, and free, visible only in its effects, and yet heard by every ear that is not deaf, sometimes soft and low, as the respiration of a sleeping child, sometimes loud and strong as the storm, is His best emblem. The very name ‘the Spirit’ emphasizes that aspect of His work in which He is conceived of as the source of life. This is the thought of His working which comes with most glad yet solemn meaning to Christian people who feel how low their life has sunk. This is the true antidote to the deadness, so real and common among all communions now, however it is skimmed over and hidden by a kind of film of activity.
Christ has this sevenfold Spirit. That means first that the same peaceful dove which floated down from the open heavens on His meek head, just raised from the baptismal stream, fills now and for ever His whole humanity with its perfect energies. ‘God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.’ How marvellous that there is a manhood to which the whole fullness of the Spirit of God can be imparted, an ‘earthen vessel,’ capacious enough to hold this ‘treasure’! How marvellous that there is a Son of man, who is likewise Son of God, and has the Spirit, not only for His own human perfecting, but to shed it forth on all who love Him! It is the slain Lamb, who has the seven Spirits of God. That is to say, it was impossible that the fullness of spiritual influence could be poured out quickening on men until Christ had died, and by His death He has become the dispenser to the world of the principle of life. In His hands is the gift. He is the Lord of the Spirit, ascended up to give to men according to the measure of their capacity, of that Spirit which He has received, until we all come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. How unlike the relation of other teachers to their disciples! Their spirit is the very thing they cannot give. They can impart teaching, they can give a method and principles, and a certain direction to the mind. They can train imitators. But they are like Elijah, knowing not if their spirit will rest on their successors, and sure that, if it do, it has not been their gift. The departing prophet had to say to the petition for an elder son’s legacy of his spirit, ‘Thou hast asked a hard thing,’ but Christ ascending let that gift fall from His uplifted hands of blessing, and the dove that abode on Him fluttered downwards from the hiding cloud, to rest on the Apostles’ heads, as they steadfastly gazed up into heaven. Therefore they went back to Jerusalem with joy, even before the fuller gift of Pentecost.
Pentecost was but a transitory sign of a perpetual gift. The rushing wind died into calm, and the flickering tongues of fire had faded before the spectators reached the place. Nor did the miracle of utterance last either. But whilst all that is past, the substance remains. The fire of Pentecost has not died down into chilly embers, nor have the ‘rivers of living water, promised by the lips of incarnate truth, been swallowed up in the sands or failed at their source. He is perpetually bestowing the Spirit of God upon His Church. We are only too apt to forget the present activity of our ascended Lord. We think of His mighty work as ‘finished’ on the Cross, and do not conceive clearly and strongly enough His continuous work which is being done, now and ever, on the throne. That work is not only His priestly intercession and representation of us in heaven, but is also His working on earth in the bestowal on all His followers of that Divine Spirit to be the life of their lives and the fountain of all their holiness, wisdom, strength, and joy. For ever is He near us, ready to quicken and to bless. He will breathe in silent ways grace and power into us, and when life if low, He will pour a fuller tide into our veins. He knows all our deadness and He can cure it all. He is Himself the life, and He is the Lord and giver of life, because the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth are the seven eyes of the slain Lamb.
One great channel through which spiritual life is imparted to a dying church is suggested by the other part of the description of our Lord here as having the seven stars.’ The ‘stars’ are the ‘angels of the churches,’ by whom we are probably to understand their bishops and pastors. If so, then we have a striking thought, symbolized by the juxtaposition. Christ, as it were, holds in the one hand the empty vessels, and in the other the brimming cup, from which He will pour out the supply for their emptiness.
The lesson taught us is, that in a dead church the teachers mostly partake of the deadness, and are responsible for it. But, further, we learn that Christ’s way of reviving a decaying and all but effete church is of tenest by filling single men full of His Spirit, and then sending them out to kindle a soul under the ribs of death. So Luther brought back life to the churches in his day. So the Wesleys brought about the great evangelical revival of last century. So let us pray that it may be again in our day when another century is drawing near its end, and the love of many has grown cold.
If we regard the ‘angels’ as being but ideal representatives of the churches themselves, then we may gather from the juxtaposition of the two clauses a lesson which is ever true. In Christ’s one hand is the perfect supply for all our need, wisdom for our blindness, might to clothe our weakness, righteousness for our sin, life to flood our drooping souls. In Christ’s other hand He holds us all, and surely He will not leave us empty while we are within His arm’s length of such fullness. Let us look to Him alone for all we need, and rejoice to know that we, held in His grasp, are near His heart, the homo of infinite love, and near His hand, the source of infinite supply of strength and grace.
III. Consider, now, the practical uses of these thoughts.
That vision should shame us into penitent consciousness of our own deadness. When we contrast the little life we possess with the abundance waiting to be given, like the poor scanty supply in some choked millstream compared with the full-flashing store in the brimming river, we may well be stricken with shame. So much offered and so little possessed; such fiery energy of love possible, and poor tepid feeling, actual! Such a mighty breath of God blowing all about us, and we lying as if enchanted and becalmed, with scarce wind enough to keep our idle sails from flapping. There in Jesus Christ is the measure of what we might possess and the pattern of what we should possess - does it not bow us in penitence, because of what we do possess?
But while ashamed and penitent, we should be kept by that vision from despondent thoughts, as if the future could never be different from the past. It is not good to think too much of our failure and emptiness, lest penitence darken into despair, and shame cut the sinews of our souls and unfit them for all brave endeavour. Let us think of Christ’s fullness and hope, as well as repent.
Let it stir us too to seek for the reason why we have not more of Christ’s life. What is the film which prevents the light from reaching our eyes? I remember once seeing by a roadside a stone trough for cattle to drink from empty, because the pipe from which it was fed was stopped by a great plug of ice. That is the reason why many of our hearts are so empty of Christ’s Spirit. We have plugged the channel with a mass of ice. Close communion with Jesus Christ is the only means of possessing His Spirit. With penitence let us go back to Him, and let us hold fast by His hand. If we listen to Him, trust Him, keep our minds and hearts attent on Him, He will breathe on us as of old, and as we hear Him say, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost,’ a diviner life will pass into our veins, and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ will make us free from the law of sin and death.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The Epistles to the Seven Churches (concluded)
The Epistles to the Seven Churches (concluded)
1-6. To the Church in Sardis Christ speaks as He who gives the spirit and looks for spiritual life. There is no praise for this Church. Its life is without spiritual reality (Rev_3:1). Yet, even now, awakening is within its power. But if it continue to sleep, Christ will come in sudden judgment (Rev_3:2.). A few individuals have remained faithful. To them, and to all such, Christ promises gladness and life, and that He will acknowledge them as His (Rev_3:3.).
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1. Sardis] about 35 m. S. of Thyatira. When there was a kingdom of Lydia, before 549 b.c., Sardis was its capital. It was still an important city at the time of the Apocalypse, but is now only a ruin. Spirits] cp. Rev_1:4; Rom_8:9.
Name] i.e. its Christianity was nominal.
2. Not found thy works perfect] RV 'found no works of thine fulfilled,' i.e. up to the proper standard.
3. Received] i.e. the gospel: cp. 1Th_2:13. Heard] RV didst hear'; Christ appeals to the memory of their conversion: cp. Gal_3:1. As a thief] cp. Rev_16:15; Mat_24:43.
4. Names] i.e. persons: cp. Act_1:15. Have not defiled] RV 'did not defile,' i.e. at some crisis of persecution, when most yielded: cp. Act_7:14. Walk] i.e. spend their life. White] the colour of victory: cp. Rev_3:5, Rev_3:18, Rev_6:11; Rev_7:9.
5. The same shall be clothed] RV 'shall thus be arrayed'; 'thus' = 'as I am': cp. Rev_1:13. Book of life] i.e. the number of Christ's people: cp. Rev_13:8; Rev_17:8; Rev_20:12, Rev_20:15; Exo_32:32; Luk_10:20; Php_4:3.
7-13. To the Church in Philadelphia Christ speaks as He by whom alone comes entrance into the Church, the spiritual house of God (Rev_3:7). The Church is praised for its faithfulness in persecution. Its own power is small, but Christ is with it, and He is giving it an opportunity for the conversion of some of those Jews who have aided the persecutors (Rev_3:8.). The Church shall be brought safely out of the coming trial (Rev_3:10). Christ will quickly come, therefore let the Church endure a little longer (Rev_3:11). Those who 'overcome' shall have an honourable place in the heavenly sanctuary and a joyful knowledge of Christ (Rev_3:12).
7. Philadelphia] 28 m. SE. from Sardis, a rather rich and powerful city. 'It had the most glorious history of all the cities of Asia Minor in the long struggles against the Turks' (Ramsay). It is still to a large extent Christian.
Key of David] a reference to Isa_22:22. As authority over the royal house was conferred upon Eliakim, so Christ has authority in the Church, above all earthly ministers, and it is really He who admits or excludes, who gives the 'open door' of Rev_3:8.: cp. Joh_10:9; Joh_14:6.
8. An open door] i.e. the Church shall win converts: cp. 1Co_16:9; 2Co_2:12; Col_4:3, perhaps from the persecuting Jews (cp. Rev_3:9), and perhaps also from the Phrygian land on the road to which Philadelphia lay. Hast not denied] RV 'didst not deny,' i.e. in a time of persecution.
9. I will make] RV 'I give.'
Synagogue] see on Rev_2:9. Evidently, here, Jews proud of their national privileges, and powerful in numbers and in wealth. No doubt they despised the Jewish Christians as traitors. Loved thee] cp. Isa_43:4.
10. The word, etc.] i.e. the message which sets forth 'patience,' i.e. steadfast endurance, as part of Christ's life and of the life of His people. Temptation] RV 'trial': a general persecution is foretold, but the Philadelphian Church will be so kept that, though they may suffer in outward matters, their life in Christ will be unharmed: cp. Luk_21:18. (RV).
12. A pillar] i.e. he shall have a permanent place in the 'temple,' i.e. the Church, here the glorified Church: cp. 1Ki_7:21; Gal_2:9; Eph_2:20. 1Pe_2:5. Temple] cp. 1Co_3:16.. Named, etc.] i.e. he shall receive the full knowledge and blessing of belonging to God, to the kingdom of Glory and to Christ: cp. Rev_2:17; Rev_19:12-16.
New name] Ramsay points out that about 17 a.d. Philadelphia had taken the name 'Neokaisareia,' that is, city of young Cæsar, and disused its own. No doubt at the same time a shrine of the young Cæsar, with priest and ritual, was established. Thus it wrote on itself the name of this imperial god, and called itself the city of the imperial god. With this St. John contrasts what Christ will do for His own. There will be a name written on the victorious Christian, which will be the name of God and the name of the 'Church,' and the new name of Christ: see on Rev_2:17.
14-22. To the Church in Laodicea Christ speaks as He through whom alone comes true life with its riches and blessings (Rev_3:14). The Church is blamed for luke warmness, self-satisfaction and worldliness (Rev_3:15.). Instead of trusting in itself let it turn to Christ for the true riches (Rev_3:18). He chastens the Church because He loves it. What it needs is zeal (Rev_3:19). Even in this proud Church Christ humbly knocks at the door of each heart, and is ready to enter with blessing (Rev_3:20). Those who share Christ's victory over the world shall share Christ's honour (Rev_3:21).
14. Laodicea] SE. of Philadelphia and E. of Ephesus. Its site is now utterly deserted. In 60 a.d. Laodicea was destroyed by an earthquake, but did not accept help from the emperor for the rebuilding, as many cities did. It was a great banking centre. It was also famous for the glossy black wool of its sheep, and did a large trade in the garments made from the wool: cp. Rev_3:17. An article called 'Phrygian powder,' used to cure weakness of the eyes, may be alluded to in Rev_3:18. A bishop of Laodicea was martyred 166 a.d.
14. Amen] i.e. Truth (cp. Isa_65:16; RM); He is the Reality behind all passing things; His life is the life which is life indeed; His promises are sure; He can be trusted utterly.
Witness] see on Rev_1:5. The beginning, etc.] i.e. He who is the source of all life: cp. Col_1:18.
15. Cp. Mat_21:31.
16. An allusion to the nauseating effect of lukewarm water.
17. Cp. Hos_12:8; Mat_23:12; Luk_1:52; Jam_2:1.
18. Buy] cp. Isa_55:1. Raiment] RV 'garments': cp. Isa_55:4. Mat_22:11. Anoint.. eyesalve] RV 'eyesalve to anoint thine eyes.' See] cp. Joh_9:40.
19. Cp. Pro_3:12; Heb_12:6.
20. Knock] cp. Son_5:2; Luk_12:36. Hear] cp. Joh_10:4, Joh_10:28. Come in] cp. Joh_14:23. Sup] The blessings which Christ gives, both here and hereafter, are often spoken of under the figure of a feast: cp. Rev_19:9; Mat_25:1; Luk_22:29. With him.. me] cp. Joh_15:4; Joh_17:21.
21. Cp. Joh_16:33; Joh_17:24.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain (See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
angel
(See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea
CHAPTER 3
Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea
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1. Sardis: The reformation period (Rev 3:1-6)
2. Philadelphia: The faithful remnant (Rev 3:7-13)
3. Laodicea: The indifferent and apostate Church (Rev 3:14-22)
Rev 3:1-6.
We have traced briefly the decline during the 1450-1500 years of Church history. The climax is reached in Thyatira, prophetically the Roman abomination and apostasy. In Sardis we see the progress of evil stayed. Roman Catholicism, as already mentioned, is a fixed and unchanging religious system. Rome will yet have for a brief season a startling revival and get back her place as the mistress of the nations. But in Sardis we see a reaction. Sardis means “those escaping.” It is the Reformation period, the movement which produced Protestantism. The Reformation itself was of God and the great men who were used were the most mighty instruments of the Holy Spirit. It was the greatest work, up to that time, since the days of the apostles. But out of it came the human systems which go by the name of Protestantism. The Reformation began well, but soon developed in the different Protestant systems into a dead, lifeless thing. They have a name to live but are dead. This is the verdict of our Lord upon the churches which sprung out of the reformation: “Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead.”
Rev 3:7-13.
Philadelphia means “brotherly love.” As Sardis came out of Thyatira, a protest against it, so Philadelphia comes out of Sardis and is a protest against the dead, lifeless, Spiritless condition prevailing in Protestantism. Out of the deadness of the state churches over and over again came forth companies of believers, energized by the Holy Spirit. Philadelphia has been variously applied to early Methodism, the evangelical movements, missionary efforts and to the revivals of the nineteenth century. But it is more than that, It is a complete return to the first principles. The message makes this clear. It is the one message (besides Smyrna) in which the Lord does not say, “I have against thee,” it is that which pleases Him and which He commends. It is a revival and turning back to the first love. The Lord Jesus Christ is once more as the all absorbing object before the heart; Philadelphia repudiates all that dishonors Him and owns alone that worthy, ineffable Name. It is a faithful remnant gathering around His Name as there was a faithful remnant in the closing days of the Old Testament (Mal 3:16-17). All human pretensions are rejected. The truth of the unity of all believers is owned and manifested in brotherly love towards all the saints. They walk in the path of separation, in self-judgment, in lowliness of mind; they have a little strength, which means weakness; they are a feeble few. Twice the Lord speaks of obedience to His Word. “Thou hast kept My Word”--”Thou has kept the Word of My patience.” And the Philadelphian does not deny His Name.
These are the two chief characteristics of this phase of Christianity during the closing days of the professing Church on earth: Obedience to His Word and faithfulness and devotion to His Name. The Word and the Name are denied in the last days. The apostasy of Christendom consists in the rejection of the written Word and the living Word. And turning their backs upon a dead profession, going on in confessed weakness are such paralyzed in their service? Far from it! The Lord promises to open the door for service which no man can shut. Every child of God may test this. True and continued service is the result of true and continued faithfulness to the Lord. Especially is this service to be blessed to those who hold to a perverted Judaism (Rev 3:9). And there is the great promise, which they believe and hope for, the coming of Himself to keep them out of the great tribulation (Rev 3:10). In Philadelphia there is a revival of prophetic truth, an earnest waiting for the coming of the Lord. Philadelphia is not a defined church-period, but rather a description of a loyal remnant called out by the Spirit of God and bearing the final testimony to the whole counsel of God by word and deed. If the reader desires to please the Lord, then study the details of the message to Philadelphia and walk accordingly.
Rev 3:14-22.
Laodicea means “The judging or rights of the people.” It is opposite of Nicolaitanism. The domineerers of the people still go on in Rome, but in Protestantism the people (the laity) arise and claim their rights and do the judging. This condition was also forseen by the Apostle Paul. “For the time will come when they (The laity) will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2Ti 4:3). We see in Laodicea the final religious and apostate conditions of Protestant Christendom and the complete rejection of the professing body. “I will spew thee out of my mouth.” He Himself is seen standing outside, which shows that He is rejected. But infinite grace! He knocks and is still willing to come in and bestow the riches of His grace.
The Philadelphian Christian, who is separated from the Laodicean state, whose heart is filled with the love of Christ can learn a lesson here. If our Lord stands outside and yet knocks and waits in patience, we too with Him outside of the camp where He is disowned, can try to gain admittance to the Laodicean hearts. Epaphras did this (Col 4:12-13). Laodicea consists in a proudly boasting spirit with total indifference to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His Name. It is a religiousness without any truth nor the power of the Holy Spirit. Lukewarmness expresses it all. “Lukewarmness, a perfect jumble of sacred and worldly matters. The word does not point chiefly to half heartedness. But as lukewarmness is produced by pouring of hot and cold water together in the same vessel, so in the Laodicean state, intense worldliness will be varnished over by plausible and humanitarian and religious pretences.”
Great reformation movements for the advancement of religion and the betterment of the world, the rejection of the gospel as the power of God unto salvation, are characteristic features of this final phase of Christendom. It will continue and wax worse and worse till His patience is exhausted. Then the true Church will be caught up with the departed saints to meet Him in the air, and Laodicea will be spewed out of His mouth. It is important to notice that Thyatira (Rome), Sardis (Protestantism) and the two phases of Protestantism represented by Philadelphia and Laodicea co-exist. They go on together. This is seen by the fact that in each our Lord speaks of His second coming (2:25; 3:3; 10-11, 16). The Lord takes His own to Himself. Rome and an apostate Protestant Christendom continue on earth during the period of judgment, preceding the visible coming of the Lord.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Pastoral Letters to the Congregations at Sardis, at Philadelphia,…
Pastoral Letters to the Congregations at Sardis, at Philadelphia, and at Laodicea.
The letter to the congregation at Sardis:
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v. 1. And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write: These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead.
v. 2. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die; for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
v. 3. Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
v. 4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy.
v. 5. He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
v. 6. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Here is a picture of spiritual decay and ruin which belongs to the saddest in the entire New Testament. The Lord again introduces Himself in His usual solemn manner: And to the angel of the congregation at Sardis write: These things says He that has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. See chap. 1:4-16:20. The pastor of this church had an unusually heavy responsibility resting upon him, and would have to render an account of the conditions in the parish entrusted to him with a very severe reckoning. The Lord places due emphasis upon the fact that the sevenfold Spirit of God is His, Isa 61:1-6, that the various gifts and spiritual blessings of the Spirit come upon the believers by virtue of the atoning work of Christ. The Lord also has the seven stars, the seven ministers of these congregations, in His hand. He is the Lord of His Church and of every single congregation; He protects and shields His ministers, but He also demands that they render an account to Him according to the strictest reckoning.
The first word of the Lord is one of sharp reprimand: I know thy works, for thou hast the name that thou livest, and thou art dead. Doings of life, of true spiritual power, the Lord expected from His congregation, and instead of that He found only evidences of death. Before men the congregation still had the name, the reputation, of being spiritually alive and active. Other Christians, impressed probably by the great number of those that professed Christianity in Sardis, considered it a wide-awake church. But the Lord saw and knew the actual state, and He sets it down in two words: Thou (art) dead. See Mat 23:27. Mark: It is not the size of the church nor the number of heads that makes a congregation, but the actual number of those that sincerely believe in Jesus Christ, and give evidence of this faith in their entire life.
The Lord, therefore, utters a powerful admonition: Wake up, and strengthen the rest that is on the point of dying. The Lord is addressing Himself to the few who have not entirely lapsed from their first vitality, but who are responsible for the state of the congregation along with the rest. They should throw off the sluggishness that had benumbed them; they should return to full wakefulness and vigilance; they should remember that dead formalism never made a live church. And the best way of showing that they had actually rubbed all the spiritual sleep out of their eyes consisted in their rallying and strengthening the rest, the other brethren that were on the point of Fielding to the spiritual coma which would certainly result in death. For this conduct they had every reason: For not have I found any works of thine perfect before My God. There was still a formal observance of Christian worship in Sardis, a definite time of worship, preaching, singing, praying, but all these doings lacked that element which would make them perfect in the sight of God. The living, powerful faith was no longer in evidence in their midst, and therefore truly good works were quite unknown.
The Lord backs up His first admonition with a second: Remember now how thou hast received and heard, and hold to that and repent. He reminds them of the days of their first love, when they were so eager to receive, to hear, the Gospel. See Gal 4:15. To that eagerness, to that zeal, to that love they should return with all speed; they should cling to it, turning away from their present sleepiness in true repentance. The Lord reinforces this call with a warning: if now thou wilt not wake up, I shall come upon thee like a thief, and thou wilt not know at what hour I shall come upon thee. Where repentance will not follow after such an impressive warning, there judgment will come upon those that lie in spiritual coma, in the sleep that is the precursor of spiritual death. Suddenly the Lord will come, like a thief, Mat 24:42-43. Terror will go before Him, striking the hearts of the unbelievers numb with fear; and His punishment will bring them everlasting destruction. See Psa 73:19-20.
Once more the Lord brings a charge against the congregation at Sardis, although in a somewhat mitigated form: Still, a few names thou hast in Sardis that have not polluted their garments, and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. Out of the great number of professed Christians only a few that were really worthy of the name, only a few that had not polluted themselves with sins, only a few that had not become the slaves of sin. But their names were precious in the sight of God; they were well known to Him, they were graven upon the palms of His hands, Isa 49:16. To these, therefore, the Lord wanted to give the white raiment of perfect innocence and holiness imputed to them by virtue of the atoning work of Christ. Thus clothed and adorned they should walk with Him in His Father’s kingdom, enjoying the bliss of eternity in His presence.
The Lord concludes with a stirring summons: He that conquers shall thus be clothed in white garments, and I shall not erase his name out of the Book of Life, and I shall confess his name before My Father and before His angels. Every Christian that conquers, that overcomes all the deceitful attacks of the devil, all the weakness and weariness of the flesh, will be given these great blessings as a reward of the grace of Christ. They will stand clothed in the garment of the perfect righteousness of the Savior, white and spotless, with all the stains of their sins washed away. Their names, which were entered in the Book of Life as a result of their having accepted Christ by faith, will not be erased. And at the time of the Judgment, when the wrath of God strikes the unbelievers, they will be beyond all condemnation, for their Savior will confess them as His own before the Father and before all the holy angels. See Mat 10:32; Mat 25:34. The importance of this fact is such as to engage the careful attention of all Christians: He that has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the congregations.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
This is the beginning of the Son of Man's message to the angel of the church in Sardis.
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Sardis
This is the name of a city in the western part of Asia that today is modern Turkey. See how you translated this in Revelation 1:11. (See: How to Translate Names)
the seven spirits
The number seven is a symbol of completeness and perfection. The "seven spirits" refers either to the Spirit of God or to seven spirits who serve God. See how you translated this in Revelation 1:4. (See: Symbolic Language)
the seven stars
These stars are symbols that represent the seven angels of the seven churches. See how you translated this in Revelation 1:16. (See: Symbolic Language)
alive ... dead
Obeying and honoring God is spoken of as being alive; disobeying and dishonoring him is spoken of as being dead. (See: Metaphor)
Wake up and strengthen what remains, but is about to die
The good deeds done by the believers in Sardis are spoken of as if they were alive but in danger of dying. AT: "Wake up and complete the work that remains, or what you have done will become worthless" or "Wake up. If you do not finish what you have started to do, your previous work will have been useless" (See: Metaphor)
Wake up
Being alert to danger is spoken of as waking up. AT: "Be alert" or "Be careful" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
angel
church
God
life
die
works
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 3:1-6 The letter to the church in Sardis warns…
3:1-6 The letter to the church in Sardis warns Christians who are reputed to be spiritually alive (when actually dead) that without genuine transformation they face God’s judgment.
3:1 Sardis, nearly 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Smyrna on the southeast highway from Pergamum and Thyatira, was home to a large colony of prosperous Jews, called “Sephardic” after the city’s ancient name. Its fortified acropolis gave its inhabitants an overconfident sense of security. • a reputation for being alive—but you are dead: Other churches may have believed that the Sardian Christians comprised a dynamic church, but their secularism revealed their lack of spiritual life.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.