And girt about the breast.—The support of the garment at the breast, instead of the neck, left the arms and shoulders uncovered, representing that the early Church was favored with the light of the true Gospel for a considerable time after our Lord and Head had completed His earthly ministry.
With a golden girdle.—Gold is a symbol of the Divine nature; the girdle a symbol of service. (Rev. 15:6.) Throughout the Age the Lord has been serving His Church. “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching; verily I say unto you that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.” “I am among you as he that serveth.”—Luke 12:37; 22:27.
1:14. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow.—“The head, with its white hair, is not to teach us that our Lord in glory has the form of a man, with white hairs, but merely suggestive and symbolic of knowledge, experience, wisdom.”—Z. '01-188; Matt. 17:2.
And His eyes were as a flame of fire.—“His eyes like a flame of fire tell us in symbol that our Master is all-seeing, omniscient; that He is not deceived by outward forms and ceremonies; but that He can, and does, read every thought and intent of the heart.”—Z. '16-344; Rev. 19:12.
1:15. And His feet like unto fine brass.—“The feet, described as like furnace-refined copper, seem to say that those who belong to the Body of Christ, and whom the Lord would use in His service, ‘the feet’ members of the Body, must, in their contact and dealings with the world, be refined, purified, clean—‘Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord's house.’ ”—Z. '01-188; Ezek. 1:7.
As if they burned in a furnace.—“In the end of the Age, the feet members of the Body of Christ will be illuminated by the Truth and will shine forth—not like the Head, but as polished brass. We have shining upon us with almost burning brightness the focused rays of Divine inspiration and revelation from the past 6,000 years. How it should consume in us all the dross of selfishness! How it should purify us! How humble it should make us!”—Z. '16-344.
And His voice as the sound of many waters.—“The many waters signify peoples, nations and languages, as elsewhere explained in this book. Thus our Lord, present with His Church, speaks to her and through her by many tongues, in many languages.”—Z. '01-188; Rev. 19:6.
1:16. And He had in His right hand.—“This One whom we thus know, thus recognize, as the Instructor and Caretaker of the candlesticks, we are also to recognize as having in His right hand—in His favor as well as His power—seven stars, the angels, the messengers, of the seven Churches. That they are in His right hand seems to teach us that these should be considered as in some special sense under the Master's guidance, protection and care in the interest of the Churches which they represented.”—Z. '16-345; Jer. 22:24.
Seven stars.—“Apparently the stars represent special ministers, or servants of the Church. In Revelation 12:1 the Church is pictured as a Woman crowned with twelve stars. These stars evidently represent the Twelve Apostles as the special lights of the Church. Similarly, in the picture before us, the seven stars which the Lord holds in His right hand seem to represent special light-bearers in the Church—in each of its seven phases, or stages, of development. It will be noticed that the messages to the various Churches are sent by these stars, messengers, angels, as though our Lord would have us understand that the appropriate message for each appropriate epoch in the Church's experience would be sent by the Lord through a particular star, or messenger, whom He would especially commission as His representative. Our Lord Himself is represented by the great light of the sun; and His special messengers in the Church throughout the entire period of the Gospel Age are consistently enough represented as stars.”—Z. '16-345; Rev. 1:20.
And out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword.—“No part of the description could more thoroughly convince us that the description of our Lord given here is symbolic. As a symbolic picture, it speaks to us of the Word of the Lord, the Sword of the Spirit, ‘sharper than any two-edged sword.’ (Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12.) It reminds us that our Lord's words are not one-sided, not directed merely against sin in one class, but that His Word is sharp, cutting in every direction; that sin is reproved by Him as much when found in His most earnest followers as when found elsewhere. It assures us that none need attempt to pluck out the mote from his brother's eye without first getting rid of the beam in his own eye; and that if we do not show mercy to those who are our debtors we must not expect mercy from Him who has purposed to extend His mercy toward us. How heart-searching is God's Word when we understand it—not merely as a compendium of rules and regulations, but when we catch the spirit of it! Then we come to see that its requirement is love out of a pure heart; first, to the Heavenly Father; secondly, to our Lord and Head; thirdly, to all His brethren; fourthly, to the world in general, groaning and travailing in pain, waiting for the blessings of the coming Day of Christ; and fifthly, toward our enemies also, sympathetically realizing that they are warped, twisted and blinded through the deceitfulness of sin and through the machinations of the great Adversary.—2 Cor. 4:4.”—Z. '16-345; Rev. 2:12, 16; 19:15, 21; Isa. 11:4.