Revelation 3

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 2 thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are 3 ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 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 4 thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and 5 they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, 6 but 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 churches. 7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and 8 shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and 9 hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship 10 before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all 11 the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast 12 which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which 13 cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. 14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; these things saith the Amen, 15 the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that 16 thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art 17 lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that 18 thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with 19 eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous there- 20 fore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and 21 open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set 22 down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

CHRIST approaches the door of the heart, and says, when there is no ear to listen, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” In the hour of thought, in the depth of night, in the shadow of trial, in the agony of remorse, he makes the soul feel that it is alone with himself. Ker.—The thought of a Divine Person, our Lord and our God, knocking for admittance; coming to us divested of his terrors, and pleading with us as a suppliant; this is the meaning of everything which befalls us, this the object of every pang of remorse, of every chastisement for sin, of every disappointment of a heart’s wish, of every dispensation of an afflicting Providence, of every pain and sorrow, of every sickness and care, of every loss and woe, that Christ may make his knock heard; that the owner of the mansion may hear at last that calm patient ceaseless sound, and bestir himself to let the stranger in. V.

1. Sardis was the ancient seat of the Lydian kings, and memorable as the city of Crœsus. It was, like all the leading cities of Asia, magnificent, intellectual, and profligate. It perished in the general decay of Asia Minor. The crime imputed to the surely saw. T.—The dead thing that has a name to live is deadly; it deals in death; it assimilates all around to itself; it testifies powerfully against vital religion by the exhibition of a lifeless religion. If the light in you be darkness, how great that darkness! How mightily grew Sardis! how large the place it occupies in the ecclesiastical history of the last eighteen centuries! how baneful its influence upon the other Churches, so that they had almost to hide their diminished heads; and how largely is it represented at the present day upon the earth! Men know our name; Christ knows our works. G. B.

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

Ruins of Sardis.

Church of Sardis is inactivity in the preservation and diffusion of the faith. Its punishment is appropriate. It shall be taken by surprise. Croly.

He who hath the seven Spirits of God. The same expression occurs in the first chapter. When the Spirit of God is thus described in a sevenfold character, it is designed, no doubt, to express his diffusion (as we call it) through the universal Church, the manifold gifts and graces by which he pervades all the congregations of Christ’s people everywhere. And here we are reminded that wherever the Holy Spirit acts, he acts as the Spirit of Jesus; it is he who has the seven Spirits of God. V.

A name that thou livest. The fact that Sardis should have had this name and fame of life is very startling, and may summon each and all to an earnest heart-searching. There would be nothing nearly so startling if Sardis had been counted by the Churches round about as a Church fallen into lethargy and hastening to death. But there is no appearance of the kind. Sardis had a name that she lived, was well spoken of, regarded, we may well believe, as a model Church, can therefore have been by no means wanting in the outer manifestations of spiritual life; while yet all these shows of life did but conceal the realities of death; so he, before whose eyes of fire no falsehood can endure, too 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. The world could endure it, because it too was a world. T.

2. If watching were absent, work would become formal and dead. The labor of the hands, as we all feel, degenerates quickly into barren routine, if there be not a constant effort to keep the heart fresh. Duty can never live long separate from truth, Christian service from Christ. There must be oil in the lamp if it is to burn. It is watching unto prayer that brings in this divine life, that quickens the powers, and makes them rise up for new and higher work. The special danger of our age is that we may lose perception of the real soul and end of all our labor in the multiplied machinery that carries it on. Our very Christian activities will lead to decline and death if spiritual life is not growing within, in proportion to them, if we are not realizing more strongly our own individual spiritual wants, living more in the presence of eternity, and remembering that admonition which stands connected with

Christ—“Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.” Ker.—God wills that with all due regret for what we have lost, we do not forget what we still have. Let us concentrate all the elements of life which are scattered in the midst of us. Let us unite our efforts, our prayers. Let us ask life for the community, that life which we want, and which doubtless comes only by individuals to the community; but which is reflected from the community to individuals. Life in the Spirit, love in the Spirit, the Spirit himself, that is truth in truth itself; life in life, eternity in love, the Spirit, that is Jesus Christ within us. This we must conquer on our knees, this we must urgently beg, this energetically will. A. V.

3. “Prize now”—this is what the warning word of a gracious Lord would say—“that which thou didst once prize at so high a rate, which came to thee so evidently as a gift from God, accompanied with the Holy Ghost from heaven; and repent thee of all the coldness and heartlessness with which thou hast learned to regard it.” I will come on thee as a thief. The Lord takes up and repeats here his own words, twice spoken, with slight variations, in the days of his ministry on earth; words which must have profoundly impressed themselves on those who heard them, and on the early Church in general, as is evidenced from the frequent references to them in other parts of the New Testament. It is the stealthiness of Christ’s advent, and thus his coming upon the secure sinner when least he is looked for, which is the point of the comparison.

4. Here are many promises in one. The promise of life, for only the living walk, the dead are still; of liberty, for the free walk, and not the fast bound; of beauty, for the grace and dignity of long garments only appear to the full when the person wearing them is in motion. And all this has its corresponding truth in the kingdom of heaven. God’s saints and servants here in this world of grace, and no doubt also in that world of glory, are best seen and most to be admired when they are engaged in active services of love. And such they shall have. They shall walk with their Lord, shall be glorified together with him; his servants shall serve him. And why? “for they are worthy.” There are those who “are worthy” according to the rules which free grace has laid down, although there are none according to those which strict justice might have laid down; and God is “faithful” in that having set forth these conditions of grace he will observe and abide by them. T.—“They shall walk with him in white; they shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” It is true that there will be a great difference in many things. The Jerusalem above, golden and glorious, with the temple where they serve him day and night, shall be somesomething else than that where he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself. The goodly land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey, could have no glory at its best compared with the better country when that promise is fulfilled—“Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off.” Ker.

5. He that conquereth. Not he who has been without sin, not he who has never fallen. Not these; but they rather who have had a hard fight for it with self and sin, with world and flesh and devil, separately now, and now combined; who fell often, but ever rose again; were often defeated, but never vanquished; were often struck down, but only upon their knees; and, by the help of prayer and faith and patience, were made conquerors at last through the grace of him that loved them. These, having confessed Christ below, shall be confessed by him as his before his Father and before his angels. V.

But I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. Christ had spoken when on earth of confessing those who confessed him before his Father in heaven and before the angels. That “in heaven” is of course omitted now, for there is no longer any contrast between the Father in heaven and the Son on earth; but the two confessions, which were separated before, appear united now; and in general we may observe of this Epistle that, in great part, it is woven together of sayings which the Lord had already uttered once or oftener in the days during which he pitched his tent among men; he now setting his seal from heaven upon his words uttered on earth. T.

7. Philadelphia (brotherly love). A city of the province of Lydia, in Asia Minor, about seventy miles east of Smyrna. It contains a population of about 15,000, one twelfth of whom are nominal Christians. This church was highly commended, more than any of the seven, and while her sister cities have fallen into decay, she still survives with the remains of her Christian temples and worship. Gibbon says of her: “Among the Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect—a column in a scene of ruins.” A tall column still graces those ruins, so that this church appears like a symbolic realization of the 12th verse. Croly.

10. “Because thou has kept my word, therefore in return I will keep thee.” The promise does not imply that the Philadelphian church should be exempted from persecutions which should come on all other portions of the Church. It is a better promise than this; and one which, of course, they share with all who are faithful as they are—to be kept in temptation, not to be exempted from temptation.

11. Behold, I come quickly. This announcement of the speedy coming of the Lord, the ever-recurring key-note of this book, is sometimes used as a word of fear for those who are abusing the Master’s absence, careless and secure as those for whom no day of reckoning should ever arrive; but sometimes as a word of infinite comfort for those with difficulty and painfulness hold-

Church, him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God. V.

The name of the city of my God. He that hath the name of this city written upon him is hereby declared free of it. This heavenly city which hath the foundations, and for which Abraham looked, the “continuing city,” is but referred to here; the full and magnificent description of it is reserved as the fitting close of the book; and not of this book only, but of the whole Bible. It goes by many and glorious names in Scripture. “That great city, the holy Jerusalem,” John calls it, claiming for it this title of “holy,” which the earthly Jerusalem once possessed, but which it had forfeited for ever. “Jerusalem which is above,” Paul calls it, while elsewhere for it is “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”

Philadelphia.

ing their ground; he that should bring the long contest at once to an end; who should at once turn the scale, and for ever, in favor of righteousness and truth, is even at the door. Such a word of comfort is this announcement here: “Yet a little while, and thy patience shall have its full reward; only in the interval, and till I come, hold that fast which thou hast.” That which Philadelphia “had” we have just seen—zeal, patience, with little means accomplishing no little work. T.

12. Those whom the Lamb has redeemed are the fittest to worship him. While they speak of his power to save as none others can, and sing of his grace and love as none but they can sing of them, they are living proofs of the might of that power and the riches of that grace and love. The mere presence of a redeemed sinner in heaven is a nobler setting forth of Jehovah’s glory than any words could be, than all the songs of all the angels. “Him that overcometh,” says our Lord, “will I make a pillar,” a trophy, a monumental column, “in the temple of my God.” C. B.—It is a little striking, as a mere coincidence, that travelers describe, among the few ruins of Philadelphia at this day, four strong marble pillars standing in one spot, which once supported the dome of a church, and on the sides of these pillars inscriptions. It is added, One solitary pillar of high antiquity has been often noticed, as reminding beholders of the remarkable words in the Apocalyptic message to the Philadelphian

I can not leave this Epistle, so full of precious promises to a Church which, having little strength, had yet held fast the word of Christ’s patience, without citing a remarkable passage from Gibbon (Decline and Fall, c. lxiv.), in which he writes like one who almost believes that the threatenings and promises of God did fulfill themselves in history: “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 traveler. 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 fourscore 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.” T.

14. Laodicea, on the Lycus, was a city in Southern Phrygia, between Philadelphia and Colosse. In Roman times it was a foremost city among those of the second rank in Asia Minor. T.—All has perished now. He who removed the candlestick of Ephesus has rejected Laodicea out of his mouth. The fragments of aqueducts and theatres spread over a vast extent of country tell of the former magnificence of this city. Modern travelers speak of its present state as one of blank dreariness. “Nothing can exceed,” says one of these, “the desolation and melancholy appearance of the site of Laodicea; no picturesque features in the nature of the ground on which it stands relieve the dull uniformity of its undulating and barren hills; and with few exceptions, its gray and widely scattered ruins possess no architectural merit to attract the attention of the traveler. Yet it is impossible to view them without interest, when we consider what Laodicea once was, and how it is connected with the early history of Christianity.” It is indeed in that connection that its name still lives among us. V.

The state of things in the Seven Churches marks evidently a period considerably later than that of Paul’s Epistles addressed to the same parts. The germs of error apparent in those Epistles had expanded into definite sects (Rev. 2 : 6, 15); the first ardor of some churches had cooled (Rev. 2 : 4, 5; 3 : 2), while that of others had further kindled (2 : 19). The days of the martyrdom of Antipas, Christ’s servant, are referred to (2 : 13) as certainly not recent. Again, Laodicea is described (3 : 17) as wealthy and proud. Now that city was destroyed by an earthquake between the sixth and tenth years of Nero, and recovered by her own means, unassisted by the state. This would take some years to accomplish, and still more time would be required to bring

Ruins of Laodicea.

about such a state of careless ease as is here described. A.

Beginning of the creation of God. Not he whom God created the first, but he who was the fountain-source of all the creation of God, by whom God created all things (John 1 : 1-3; Col. 1 : 15, 18); even as elsewhere in this book Christ appears as the author of creation.

15,16. Best understood by regarding the “cold” here as one hitherto untouched by the powers 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. 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.

17. “And knowest not that thou art the wretched and the miserable one, and poor, and blind, and naked.” The Laodicean angel and Church were walking in a vain show and imagination of their own righteousness, their own advances in spiritual insight and knowledge. 18. There is a certain irony, but the irony of divine love, in the words. He who might have commanded, prefers rather to counsel. To the merchants and factors of this wealthy mercantile city he addresses himself in their own dialect. Christ here invites to dealings with himself. He has gold of so fine a standard that none will reject it. The wools of Laodicea, of a raven blackness, were famous throughout the world. He has raiment of dazzling white for as many as will receive it at his hands. There were ointments for which many of the Asiatic cities, perhaps Laodicea among the number, were famous; but he, as he will presently announce, has eyesalve more precious than them all. Would it not be wise to transact their chief business with him?

What things does the Lord name, which when the man has made his own, he shall be no longer “poor, and blind, and naked”? They are three. And first, as he is “poor”—“gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.” A comparison with 1 Pet. 1 : 7, teaches us that by this “goid” we must understand faith; for faith being a gift of God, must therefore be bought of Christ; and such faith as would stand the test, would endure in the furnace of affliction. Then should he be rich indeed. Secondly, as he is “naked,” “Buy of me,” says the Lord, “white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed. We should understand by this raiment not merely the righteousness of Christ imparted, but also that righteousness imputed; for both are needful, the one as needful as the other, if the shame of our nakedness is not to appear; it is the being “found in him” with all which this implies and involves. And then, lastly, “anoint thine eye with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” The eye for which this salve is needed is, of course, the spiritual eye, that eye of the conscience by which spiritual things are discerned and appreciated. The beginning of all true amendment is to see ourselves as we are, in our misery, our guilt, our shame; and the ability to do this is the first consequence of the anointing with that eyesalve which the Lord here invites this angel to purchase of him. The Spirit convinces of sin, and by this “eyesalve” we must understand the illuminating grace of the Holy Ghost, which at once shows to us God, and in God and in his light ourselves.

19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.** He, the great Master-builder, squares and polishes with many strokes of the chisel and the hammer the stones which shall find a place at last in the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem. In this “as many” lies the same emphasis as in the “every son” of Heb. 12 : 6. All whom He loves are included in the same discipline of correction, are made sooner or later to be able to say, “Thy loving correction shall make me great” (Ps. 18 : 35). Others may be let alone (Ps. 73 : 5, 12 ; Isa. 1 : 5); but not they. Not a few, if their prosperity lasts a little longer than that of others, fancy that they are to be exceptions to this rule. But it is never so. They can only be excepted from the discipline through being excepted from the sonship. T.

20. When we read the gracious words of the Saviour in the gospel, we might well think that divine condescension could go no further. There, he bids us to come to him, to pray for pardon and not faint, to knock at the door of mercy, to strive for entrance at the strait gate, promising us certain and full salvation, if we thus, with sincere earnestness, endeavor after eternal life; and, surely, they, who will not seek him, deserve to perish. But here, he takes the very means to win our love which he requires of us to win his. He comes nigh to us, stands knocking at our hearts, calling upon us to open the door and admit him, entreating leave to enter that he may have fellowship with us, and we with him. The last vestige of excuse is taken away, the last shadow of doubt should pass from our minds. We need no longer seek for him, he has found us. The question is no longer, Will he hear our prayer? but, Shall we hear his? Not, Will he open the door of heaven to us? but, Shall we keep our hearts closed against him? His readiness to save is assured; it is now for us to decide whether we will be saved or not. Bethune.—Christ indeed knocks, claims admittance as to his own; so lifts up his voice that it may be heard, in one sense must be heard; but he does not break open the door, or force an entrance by violence. There is a sense in which every man is lord of the house of his own heart; it is his fortress; he must open the gates of it, and unless he does so, Christ can not enter. And, as a necessary complement of this power to open, there belongs also to man the mournful prerogative and privilege of refusing to open: he may keep the door shut even to the end; he may thus continue to the last blindly at strife with his own blessedness; a miserable conqueror, who conquers to his own everlasting loss and defeat. T.

I will come in to him. His presence is promised, and with it the light, and comfort, and bliss, and glory of it. Of these the heart can not hold much, and the little it can hold it is not always in a frame to enjoy; but oh to have Christ in the heart, to have the King of glory making our unworthy souls his dwelling place, living, abiding, acting in them—whether he reveal his presence, or cloud at seasons the glory of it—who does not say, “This indeed is blessedness? I have my sorrows, but with Christ within me, I have still within me a fountain of amazing joy.” C. B.

21. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne.” A magnificent variation of Christ’s words spoken in the days of his flesh: “The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.” Wonderful indeed is this promise, which, being the last and the crowning, is also the highest and most glorious of all. Step by step they have advanced, till a height is reached than which no higher can be conceived. And more wonderful still, if we consider to whom this promise is here addressed. He whom Christ threatened just now to reject with loathing out of his mouth, is offered a place with him on his throne. But indeed so it is; the highest place is within reach of the lowest; the faintest spark of grace may be fanned into the mightiest flame of divine love. T.—What combatant would not be satisfied if he were promised the lowest place of honor among the conquerors? But nothing less than the highest of all, the place of honor, not on the foot-

stool, but in the center of the throne; in truth, only in such a loving heart as that of God could such a promise originate, and an eternity will be required by slow degrees to comprehend its import! Then open the door wide, so that nothing bars entrance within. And, “overcome!” The crown is a thousandfold worthy of the struggle, and he who holds it forth stands with us! Van O.