(5) The Epistle to the Church in Sardis, Ch. 3:1-6
The epistle to the church in Sardis is Christ's message to a dying church, a church which had a name as living and yet in a sense was dead:—“Establish the things that remain”. Christ is designated as “he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars”, i. e. he that hath the Holy Spirit, whom the seven Spirits represent in his sevenfold or multiple activity, and—as seems to be implied by connecting the seven Spirits with the seven stars or angels of the churches—imparts the Spirit to the churches, upon which their life so fully depends. This church receives only rebuke, but the rebuke given is for [pg 108] lack of spiritual life rather than for any special form of sin. It is declared to have no works fulfilled before God—“before my God”, a Johannean phrase—and is exhorted to “remember ... and repent”, for Christ “will come as a thief”;[350] but the “few names [or persons] in Sardis that did not defile their garments” are promised that they shall walk with Christ “in white”. The white garments here promised to the victors are emblems of the perfect purity and heavenly state of the glorified (cf. Bk. of Enoch, 90:31);[351] while to blot one's name out of the book of life,[352] a fate from which those who overcome are declared to be exempt, is to cease to have any part in the life eternal—a figure drawn from the custom of striking out the names of the dead from the list of citizens. Not only shall the name of him that overcometh be found in the register of the living, but it shall also be acknowledged before God and the angels. The command to “Watch” was a fitting exhortation for a city that was a well-nigh impregnable fortress, and yet had twice been seized by its enemies because of neglect within its walls.[353] The exhortation to “hear what the Spirit saith to the churches”, in the last four of the epistles, it will be seen, follows instead of precedes the promise to the victors. This does not, however, imply that a distinction is thereby intended between the churches, dividing them into two groups, the first consisting of three and the second of four, the former faithful and the latter faithless, a view held by some.[354] The difference is conceded to be chiefly one of “tone ... which it is easier to feel than to describe”,[355] and it must be said that for most minds it does not exist. The church in Philadelphia, among the last four, is a steadfast church, while the church at Pergamus, among the first three, is an impure church in the view of many careful interpreters; and Ephesus has evidently gone back, while Thyatira has gone forward. The city of Sardis, to which this letter was addressed, lay about thirty miles south-east of Thyatira, and was anciently one of the most [pg 109] famous cities of Asia; but even in John's time it was “a town of the past ... decayed from its former estate ... and it is now only a ruin, with a tiny village called Sart, while the town is Saliki, about five miles east”.[356]
(6) The Epistle to the Church in Philadelphia, Ch. 3:7-13
The epistle to the church in Philadelphia is Christ's message to a steadfast church, a church which had kept his word and had not denied his name:—“Hold fast ... that no one take thy crown”. Christ is set forth as “he that is holy, he that is true”, i. e. he who possesses these attributes which are recognized as divine; and “he that hath the key of David”, i. e. he who has full control in the kingdom of God, of which the kingdom of David was the enduring type (cf. Isa. 22:22), he who grants or withholds according to his will. These titles of Christ, it will be seen, are not taken from the introductory vision, like most of those in the seven epistles, but from the Old Testament, probably, as has been suggested, because of the number of Jewish Christians in the Philadelphian church. The “door opened” is one of opportunity for service afforded by the position of Philadelphia on the borders of Mysia, Lydia, and Phrygia.[357] Those “that say they are Jews and they are not”, are men untrue to their Judaism in rejecting the promised Messiah; for to John's mind it was evident that only such Jews as believe in Jesus could belong to the real people of God. “The hour of trial” (Gr. τοῦ πειρασμοῦ—of the trial), “that hour which is to come upon the whole world”, seems to be here equivalent to “the great tribulation” spoken of by our Lord (Matt. 24:21), and serves to introduce that element of shadow which ever hung in the background of Apocalyptic perspective. But the crisis at hand is not necessarily the end; the general tenor of the Revelation would rather show that it is only one of many crises that constantly progress toward the end.[358] The reward of overcoming is to be made “a pillar in the temple of God”, i. e. in the ναὸς or inner sanctuary of [pg 110] the heavenly temple where God dwells, not so much for support as for glory and for beauty, like the pillars of brass in Solomon's temple (I K. 7:15f.), though perhaps with the additional idea of permanence and strength (cf. II Esdra. 2.15).
The pillar was not only a prominent part of ancient temples, but was often sculptured in human shape[359]—a beautiful conception of man's relation to religion. Also the name of God, of the city of God, and of the Son of God, Christ's own new name known only to himself, are to be written upon the victors in token of absolute divine ownership—three, the sign of the spiritual, being perhaps also in mind in the use of three names. Philadelphia, which lay about twenty-eight miles southeast from Sardis, receives unmixed praise, and the city remains almost unchanged unto this day, though it has been transformed into the Mohammedan town of Ala-Sheker, “the reddish city”, a name derived from the speckled, red brown hills around. It is renowned as having had the most glorious history of all the cities of Asia Minor in the long struggle against the Turks;[360] and it is a remarkable fact that the churches of Philadelphia and Smyrna, the two which receive no censure in these epistles, both continue to exist unto the present time.
(7) The Epistle to the Church in Laodicea, Ch. 3:14-22
The epistle to the church in Laodicea is Christ's message to a self-deceived church, a church which had grown lukewarm and was neither cold nor hot:—“Be zealous ... and repent”. In this final letter Christ is called “the Amen [cf. Isa. 65:16, R. V. marg.], the faithful and true witness”,[361] as a sure guaranty of the fulfilment of the promises; and he is also declared to be “the beginning of the creation of God”, i. e. not, indeed, the first whom God created, for Christ is not a creature, but rather he is the primal source and causative agent in divine creation,[362] the One who began the creation of God, whether the material creation that waxeth old or the new creation that endureth [pg 111] forever. The church is openly rebuked for a tepid Christianity that is nauseous to Christ, a religion that is “neither cold nor hot”. Laodicea was a city of trade and enterprise, but John regarded the church as “devoid of initiative” in Christian work. The phrase “thou sayest I am rich ... and have need of nothing”, perhaps reflects the boast of the city which, proud of its wealth, had lately refused help from the liberality of the Emperor after being destroyed by an earthquake (A. D. 60); and the exhortation “I counsel thee to buy of me gold”, is perhaps a reference to the heavenly riches as far surpassing the earthly which the people of the city possessed. The “white garments”, the type of a pure life, may be here intended to be put in contrast with those produced from the glossy black wool of the sheep for which the place was noted; and the “eye-salve” to be contrasted with the noted eye-powder of the neighboring temple of Asklepios, as the restorer of spiritual vision.[363] Laodicea during the Roman period attained great prosperity, and was the meeting place of the Council of Laodicea in A. D. 361, but has long since been ruined and deserted. It lay some sixty miles southeast of Philadelphia, and east of Ephesus, in the valley of the Lycus, and was the leading bishopric of Phrygia throughout the Christian period.[364] In this closing epistle of the seven the climax of promise is reached in the assurance that “he that overcometh” shall sit with Christ in his Messiah throne (v. 21), i. e. shall share with him in the glory and rule of the church triumphant. This promise seems to take a forward glance to the vision of the next two chapters, especially to the view of the Lamb in the midst of the throne. A preparation is thus made for the sudden transition from the introduction and epistles to the chief visions of the book, after the closing words of this epistle have been written. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches,” is a final voice of admonition and warning to the church in Laodicea, to each of the seven churches in Asia, and then through them to the whole church throughout the world in all time, exhorting them to hear and obey the message given in each and all of the seven epistles.