Revelation 2–3

Here we are on broad ground. The characteristics are general. The first letter, the message to the angel of the church in Ephesus, looks at the state of the Christian testimony on the earth in its widest form. It does so, one may suppose, from the days of the apostle John himself. So the Lord presents Himself with the same breadth.

"The angel" is a title we meet again and again in the Scriptures. It has been widely, and we believe rightly, understood to mean a messenger or representative. In Acts 8:26 we read, "An angel of the Lord said to Philip." No one questions that this means the Lord's representative speaking in His name.

There is no real question that the Lord addresses the churches themselves. He says it plainly at the end of each letter: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Yet each time His words are, "To the angel of the church," and the whole address matches that. He puts the responsibility for everything that is wrong on the angel. It is he who tolerates the woman Jezebel. It is he whom the Lord threatens with the removal of his lampstand.

It is only in the case of Ephesus that we see the Lord holding the seven stars in His right hand, that is to say upholding them and communicating His power to them as instituted from the beginning. Without contact with Him, they would have no authority. And if He let them fall from His hand, they would have no more power than all the lesser powers of the world — other stars that we often see in the Revelation leaving their place to fall on the earth to devastate it, or to go out (Rev. 6:12; 8:10; 9:1).

The stars mean the angels, or mystical representatives, of the seven churches. They are responsible for teaching and for government, just as the stars give light and rule the course of time. The gift and authority for both belong to Christ. Man may make rules for the government of the Church, or for the ordination of teachers and pastors. But this really takes over Christ's authority, however unintended.

Here Christ is not presented as standing among the Assembly to lead the praises of His people. He is not among two or three to guide their prayers. He is not the one Shepherd uniting the sheep into one flock, nor the Head of the Church — His body. He is seen here in the solemn character of the Judge among those who profess to be Christians. He walks (Rev. 2:1) among the Assemblies, observing their condition and passing sentence — approval or blame.

He is the One who holds in His right hand of power the seven stars, those who are in the place of responsibility before Him for the assembly, and who now walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands to survey their condition, to test their state by His word, which is like a sharp two-edged sword, and to judge their character as His responsible light-bearers in the moral darkness of this world. We learn from this, first, that to take the place of rule or responsibility among the saints for Christ according to God is to call in all the sustaining power of Christ; and second, that in weighing the state of an assembly as a witness, the Lord judges by His own unfailing standard of holiness.

Take the first one. Ephesus means "desirable," the kind of word a Greek used of the girl he had chosen. Ephesus gives us a picture of the Church as it was in the beginning, when the Lord held the stars (His servants) in His hand, and controlled their ministry. He sent them here and there, just as He would... But human systems have largely changed all that.

The first expression, found also in the letters that follow, tells us that the Lord always sees the condition of His people. Their state and their activities are always before His eyes, and He examines them. This follows from the position He takes here as walking in the middle of the lampstands. It is good to remember this. There is often a temptation to close up questions, or even to cover up sin, in the assembly — to prevent discussion, or for the sake of peace. That is paying more attention to the faces of men than to Christ, who searches into everything with eyes like a flame of fire. "No creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." (Heb. 4:13.)

The Lord commends before He reproves. He loves to count up what grace — His own grace — has produced in the souls and ways of His people. In these letters we see the Church in its downward course, going from bad to worse. But the Lord is unchanged. He loves to commend His saints when and where He can... Always be ready to own gladly, and to say openly, how much you value all that is good and excellent — especially where evil may be present.

Then the Lord commends the "labour" that marked their works. There may be much service and yet little labour in the service. The word shows that their service called for energy and real toil. It cost these saints an expenditure of labour.

There was patience, and this is the first if not the greatest mark that Paul gives of his own apostleship. More than this, nothing breaks down more readily than patience, after it has stood many a trial. But here at Ephesus there was endurance... Again, where there is patience, there might be a tendency to pass over evil, or at least evil men. But it was not so here. They had borne things for His name's sake, but they could not bear evil persons.

In the days of Ephesus, believers could not bear those who were evil. In our day, discipline in the church is almost at an end. In many places anyone is welcome to share fully in all church privileges, especially if they have a good bank account. In the beginning it was very different. That little Ephesian assembly said, "We don't want growth at the expense of holiness."

The apostles were disappearing, and perhaps all had disappeared except John. It is easy to see why Satan would then try to supply men quite willing to claim to be their successors. The church in Ephesus tested these pretended apostles... When men made such a claim, the church stood together in testing them and refusing those who set themselves up to be what they were not.

Moreover, they had tested the claim of some to rank alongside the apostles. They tested it thoroughly, and the light of the signs which marked the Lord's apostles exposed every false claim... The word "tried" means tested, or put to the proof. "Hast found them liars." The groundless claim of these pretenders to apostolic office and authority was completely overthrown, and the men themselves branded as "liars," or, as Paul puts it, "false apostles."

The Lord is aware of their "labour" and their "endurance." But the springs of "love" and "hope" are missing here. Those two were the source of the labour and endurance of the Thessalonian saints (see 1 Thess. 1:3). The searching gaze of the Lord goes right down to the inner springs of the soul. Those springs give character and energy to every action. When an action is cut off from the spring that alone can give our work spiritual vigour and tone, He exposes it faithfully — in love, yet firmly.

As Paul had predicted, failure soon began; and at the time this book was written, first love had already cooled, and the seeds of serious evil, both in doctrine and in practice, were already sown. Still, for a time, evil teaching and practice were resisted, and there was much activity and zeal in labour. This is the state of things described in Ephesus.

The same expression appears in the letters that follow. It tells us that the Lord always sees the condition of His people. Their state and their activities are always before His eyes, and His eyes examine them. This follows from the position He takes here as walking among the lampstands. This is worth remembering. In the assembly there is often a temptation to shut down questions, or even to cover up sin, to prevent arguments or to keep the peace. That pays more attention to people's faces than to Christ, who searches into everything with eyes like a flame of fire.

Then they had patience — endurance. Many begin well, like the Galatians, but give way when unforeseen difficulties come. It is the mark of divine work that it endures. Human energy quickly spends itself; faith draws on a supply that never runs down. It was true faith that was at work in these Ephesian saints.

Not only had there been endurance, but it continued. They were still enduring when the apostle, "the Lord's secretary," wrote. They had also borne suffering for His Name. They had suffered much and been severely tried, but they carried it all gladly for the sake of the Name of Jesus Christ. Because of that same Name their sins had been forgiven (1 John 2:12).

The verse sketches the position of a soul standing in integrity for God while the current rushes past it. You may find the evil strong, but you have God and you can endure; you can look for the way out that God will provide. What is the position of the church of the living God now? Everything is tottering and shaking. Have you no heart for what is dear to God?

What, then, is the test of "first love"? Not "work" — activity in outward service; they had that at Ephesus. Not even "labour," for they had that too. No, nor "endurance" either — though that is a clearer sign than either of the others of divine power in the soul. Not zeal against evil. Not boldness to examine and refuse the highest claims. Not even suffering for Christ's name, and suffering it without growing weary. All this is good and acceptable to God, and the Ephesians had all of it. Yet the Lord says, "I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first."

They had not "grown weary." There was no thought of giving up the conflict with evil. They had not wearied of the contest, nor wearied in it. What a beautiful picture of devotedness to the interests of Christ! But what about the springs of these holy activities? They are not mentioned — not because they were entirely missing, or there could have been no praise at all... "remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 1:3). The Ephesian assembly showed work, labour, and endurance. But the "work" seems in part separated from "faith," its moral source. The "labour," too, seems not to have drawn its full strength from "love."

This uncovers the root of Church and individual failure: the heart has departed from Christ. The fine gold had become dim. The flower was fading… Love is the very heart of Christianity, its crown, and its distinguishing glory. When love is missing, the moral power of Church and individual life is gone. Things may look fine and promising on the outside. Only an all-seeing eye sees the lack within: coldness of heart to Christ… The loss of that first, pure love is a serious matter. We must not treat it as a mere "somewhat," as the Authorised Version does.

Ephesus had gone on well in staying consistent. But that forgetting of self, and thinking only of Christ, which are the first fruits of grace, were gone. As we find everywhere in the Scriptures, nothing can make up for a lack of heart for Christ… First love is that absorption of the heart with Christ. An overwhelming sense of His grace and love in redemption always produces it.

What is the test, then, of "first love"? Not "work" — activity in outward service; they had that at Ephesus. Not even "labour," for they had that too. No, nor "endurance," though that is a clearer sign of divine power in the soul than either. Not zeal against evil, nor courage to examine and refuse the highest claims. Not even suffering for Christ's name, and suffering without tiring. All this is good and acceptable to God, and the Ephesians had it all. Yet the Lord says, "I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first."

It is not that works will be lacking where there is love. The Lord Himself, in this message, links "first love" with "first works." There were indeed works at Ephesus that the Lord could approve. But they were not the first works that come out of first love.

What must Christ be jealous about but His love to the church, which was stronger than death? It is impossible for Him to forget His love to the church. So it is just as impossible for Him to rest content without her love returning to Him. Remember, only love can satisfy love… There may still be much outward fruit in "works, and labour, and patience." But whatever the toil and labour may be, the spring of it all is gone.

It is not, "lost your first love." I do not think that is a scriptural thought. It is, "left your first love." Something has come in, says that blessed lover in Revelation 2, that has eclipsed Me. All your affection for Me and interest in Me has gone. You can get on without Me now, but there was a time when you could not.

Any sin a Christian falls into is only the outward act. There were failures in secret before the outward wrong ever showed itself… Notice how significant this is: at the very start of the church's history, love to Christ was already declining. That is the root and starting-point of all failure and sin.

The only remedy is to go back to first things. "You have abandoned the love you had at first… Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first." There must be a return to the beginning, and in the beginning Christ was everything. His will came first. He alone was "honoured, loved, adored."

The first clause holds a principle of the first importance, one the Word affirms again and again. To discover the character of our failure, or how far we have backslidden or departed from the truth, we must always go back to the beginning. For example, we can only see the true state of the church today by comparing it — or rather contrasting it — with what it was when it was first founded at Pentecost.

The Lord never forgets His joy in the first love of His people. He never forgets Judah's first love. He remembers the Church's first love just as much, and He desires it — which is, in fact, what "Ephesus" really means. Remember the moral elevation you once occupied. To what depths you have fallen!

In the eyes of others the assembly at Ephesus might well look like a model assembly. In the sight of Christ it was fallen. The assembly must not only remember; it must repent. It is useless to grieve over the loss of early freshness if there is no repentance. What is repentance but owning our true condition before the Lord?

Recover "first love" and the "first works" will follow as a matter of course. To human eyes these may look just the same as the works mentioned in verse 2, but to His eyes they are very different. He judges everything by the motive behind it. The mainspring matters so much to Him that if first love is damaged for good, the ability to shine departs and the lampstand is removed.

With Ephesus, the only coming described is a providential coming: "or else I will come to you quickly, and will remove your lampstand out of its place." It is the same with Pergamum, where He fights with the sword of His mouth. But this is not His coming to receive the saints, nor to bring in His kingdom.

"Or else I will come to you." He does not say "quickly" here, though our text has it, as it does at the later stage of evil in verse 16. "And remove your lampstand out of its place." He is slow to carry out judgment. This is the warning of the final removal of the assembly from its place of lampstand responsibility. That sentence is only put into force in Laodicea.

This may seem harsh treatment for such an offence, but the Lord looks to the final consequences. A church that was once taken up with work may grow cold in its affections. For a while it may escape scandalous evil and corruption, but it has lost its security. If it does not repent, its fall is sure, though it may be delayed. Its lampstand will be removed. It will stop bearing the light entrusted to it. God will openly disown it as unfit for His use.

Removing the lamp as a light-bearer does not in any way weaken the eternal security of all who build on Christ — the Rock of Ages.

He cannot let anything remain in the world that fails to show the great love with which He loved the church. If He did, He would not be "the faithful and true witness." This tender, faithful reproach is the blessed proof that His love never grows cold, however much ours may fail.

Whatever the condition of this assembly, the Lord cannot hold back the expression of His love. He had given a solemn warning of coming judgment unless she repented. Even so, He returns to commendation. "Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." (v. 6.) So far there was communion with His mind. This is what draws out His approval. History suggests the Nicolaitans were a sect who turned the grace of God into loose living. They combined a profession of faith with ungodly lives. Ephesus hated their impurities, and so did Christ.

The absence of love has been mourned, but hatred, love's opposite, was rightly present. The Nicolaitans were not hated, for they shared in the general love of God (John 3:16). But their works were hated, and for this the angel is commended. They must have been works of a decidedly evil character to call out such a stern word of condemnation.

The name of some sect whose deeds and doctrines are condemned without being described. Rev. 2:6, 15. Many suggestions have been made about the teachings of the Nicolaitans, but nothing is known with certainty. Since both their 'doctrine' and their 'deeds' are mentioned, and Christ 'hated' both, it has been thought they were libertines.

Here, if we are left simply with the name, it is startling and instructive enough. Of course, to those who spoke the language, the meaning would be no hidden or obscure thing. It means "Conquering the people." The last part of the word ("Laos") is the Greek word for "the people." It gives us the common term "Laity." The Nicolaitans were just those who put down the laity — the mass of Christian people — so they could wrongly lord it over them.

Something comes before the state of Pergamos, and it is mentioned in the very first address. But there it is clearly incidental, and does not mark the state of things. In the first address, to the Ephesians, the Lord says, "Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate" (2:6). Here it is more than the "works" of the Nicolaitans. There are now not merely "works," but "doctrine." And the Church, instead of rejecting it, was going along with it. In the Ephesian days they hated the works of the Nicolaitans. But in Pergamos they "had" those who held the doctrine, and did not condemn them.

Love and hatred of evil will always be found together. The Psalmist says, "O you who love the LORD, hate evil!" (Ps. 97:10). A false kindness may ignore evil under the excuse of love. It may even treat evil doctrine as of little importance to the Lord. Genuine love will lead us to hate evil without ignoring the good. In our hatred of evil we may overlook much good; or, in trying to hold on to the good, we may compromise with evil.

Scripture nowhere recognizes a middle class of hearers. If such a class existed, the Spirit would surely address it. But everything here is intensely individual. "He who has an ear, let him hear" points out at once the overcomer and the need of overcoming, and the promise goes with this... There is to be an overcoming now in the Church of God itself, and so no going along with the crowd is possible. Each must be awake to his responsibility.

The Lord addresses the Church, and the Spirit applies in power the words of the Lord to the individual with the opened ear.

Then comes the general call: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." It does not say "to the church," but "to the churches." So the one who has an ear must weigh not only what the Spirit says to his own church, but what He says to all the others. The call is therefore general, and goes to all believers.

Here the notable change takes place. The call to hear begins to follow the promise, instead of coming before it. The reason is that a remnant is here formed... The Lord from then on puts the promise first, because it is useless to expect the church as a whole to receive it. In the three previous churches, as anyone may notice, the call to hear comes first. The Lord is still dealing with the general conscience of the church.

Overcoming here is overcoming the evil specified in the Assembly. What the Lord deplored in Ephesus was the loss of their first love. Anyone who regained that first love — by grace, and by the Spirit's power working in the opened ear and heart — would be an overcomer in the sense of this Scripture. He would have a right to the special promise given here.

Note carefully that the words "in the midst of" have no place in the true text here... It was doubtless a thought of Eden in the copyist's mind that put them in. In the paradise God made for man in Eden there were two trees: the tree of responsibility, which is the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life. But in the Paradise of God there is only one, and it fills the whole sphere. It is Christ. He endured the judgment of it on the cross and became our life. So all the history of our responsibility and our failures will be over for ever.

It is to the eye and ear of faith that the Lord brings out the promise of the tree of life in the paradise of God. He sees the church failing in fellowship with God, and so He sets before it the tree of life and the paradise of God. It is God's paradise — blessed security! There can be no falling away there. It was man's paradise first. Then failure came in. To keep man from taking the fruit of the tree of life, and eating, and living for ever, God drove him out. But now the promise to the one who overcomes is to eat of the tree of life freely, and in security, in the paradise of God.

2 Corinthians 12:2 and 4 identify Paradise with "the third heaven" — the immediate dwelling place of God. Revelation 2:7 speaks of it as "the Paradise OF GOD," where the tree of life is.

Smyrna means myrrh. Scripture often mentions it in connection with preparing the dead for burial. Myrrh had to be crushed to give out its fragrance. This pictures the time when pagan Rome crushed the church under its heel. Yet the church never gave God such sweet fragrance as in those two centuries of almost constant martyrdom.

In the letter to the angel of the church in Smyrna we meet a completely different state of things. This is a special case rather than the general one we have already seen. The church had fallen away from the purity of the apostles, and above all from its first love, and the Lord chose to afflict it. He let all kinds of trial come on His people by loosing the power of Satan, who worked through Gentile persecutors.

Isaiah has three passages that call Jehovah, the God of Israel, "the first and the last" (41:4, 44:6, 48:12). In the same way, Revelation three times calls the Lord Jesus "the first and the last" (1:17, 2:8, 22:13). I would say for myself that this is conclusive proof that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New.

Some are called to meet the power of Satan and to face a martyr's death. What could hold them up and encourage them more than knowing they are in the hands of a divine Person — the First and the Last? He existed before every opposing power. He will still be there when the last enemy lies under His feet. He is therefore above all.

He is the first, so no one can get ahead of Him and block Him. He is the last, so no one but He can have the final word in any matter. He also died and came to life, and this guarantees that He uses resurrection power for those who belong to Him. If the believers at Smyrna grasped Him this way, it must have given them great strength for the troubles coming on them.

If they are called to face a martyr's death, Christ Himself has led the way down that path, for He suffered death at the hands of men. He died and came to life: seemingly defeated and killed, yet coming out in victory over the last and greatest of enemies. Death could not defeat Him, so death will not defeat those who are His.

When Christ sees people laid flat, He does not begin with the badges of His office, which would dampen the heart and crush the spirit. He begins with Himself. "I am the first and the last, who died and came to life." I come to you as the One in whom you will find the answer to every trial you are in.

The assembly at Smyrna, like the one at Philadelphia, is free from blame. The word He speaks to the angel is one of comfort and encouragement, suited to their special circumstances. So it reveals the heart of the Lord for His own.

Besides tribulation, they were in poverty, and He who knows all things knew it all. But that is not the form in which He gives His comfort. He shows them that He knows their sorrows in detail. It was not enough for their hearts, or His, to say that He knew them only as a group. As with Israel in bondage (Exodus 3:7), "I know their sufferings" — so here it is His heart speaking to their hearts.

Nothing escapes the notice of Him whose eyes are like a flame of fire... Tribulation means the trials that come with persecution. That is its usual sense in the New Testament. The strong wind of persecution had set in once more on God's poor flock. The god of this world stirred it up, out of his hatred of Christ. We who live in a day when confessing Christ costs nothing... cannot easily understand the dangers surrounding the saints in the early centuries. Their neighbours and the state often treated them as enemies. Foes surrounded them like a pack of hungry wolves, trying to wipe them off the face of the earth.

He sees the tribulation they bore for His sake. He also sees their poverty in the world's eyes, which fitted so well with spiritual riches. The words here are commendation, not the kind we shall find addressed to Laodicea at the close. In Laodicea they too were rich — they had grown rich — but not with riches Christ could recognise. To Him, though they did not know it, they were the wretched and miserable, the poor and blind and naked. Here He sees the poverty they lived in at Smyrna. And He Himself reminds them how rich they still are.

There was a special honour in being this close to Him, and this like Him, who had nowhere to lay His head. I have learnt this: Jesus is in a particular way the partner of His poor servants.

Some falsely called themselves Jews. That is, they claimed a religious standing before God on earth, as the people He recognised in the world. So they assumed that wealth and possessions were owed to them. And they rejected those in poverty and trouble. So they slandered and abused — for that seems to be the force of "blasphemy" here — those who were true saints of God... They were not Jews, but they were a synagogue, a word that means "a bringing together" — a synagogue of Satan.

Their tribulation and poverty did not tempt them into tolerating evil. They rejected the false claim to the position of Jews, which is here called the synagogue of Satan. Judaism is a religion fitted for this world and for man in the flesh. So it put man under law, and had a worldly ritual and priesthood. This is exactly what Satan has brought into Christendom.

Smyrna means myrrh. It is often mentioned in Scripture in connection with embalming the dead. Myrrh had to be crushed before it gave out its fragrance. This pictures the time when pagan Rome crushed the church. Yet the church never gave God such sweet fragrance as in those two centuries of almost constant martyrdom.

"Fear not," or "nothing," is a word of preparation for yet further trials, and is clearly taken from Revelation 1:17. There it came to John as he lay fainting, and it carried complete and unqualified assurance to his soul. Here it reassures the Church as the gathering storm is about to burst upon it. Tribulation and poverty were bad enough, and hard to bear. But worse still was in store.

And He speaks to them as one who had known the depths of tribulation Himself. "These things says the First and the Last, who died and came to life." He had gone through the deepest sorrow, and through death itself — He had died for them, and was alive again. They had this blessed One to flee to in all their trials.

Whatever the malice and power of Satan, at the most, if permitted, he has only the power of death. Christ is First and Last, beyond as before death, God Himself; but more than that, He has met and gone through its power. The saints were not to fear. Satan would work, be allowed to sift, to imprison. Let the saints only be faithful to the extreme point of his power; all beyond that was beyond him, was Christ's.

The attack by corruption had failed, so the Lord permitted the devil to turn to violence. As the Lord says, "The devil is about to throw some of you into prison." The devil's violence may indeed be painful to God's people, but it is safer for them than his schemes.

It may seem to us that the world, or men of the world, have a victorious course ahead of them. It may seem that the power is all in their hands. But here we see the limit of suffering: "for ten days you will have tribulation." When faith grasps this, it can be still. It knows that God is greater; He is over all... The book of Job lifts the curtain off Satan's doings, and shows that Satan can only go as far as God allows him.

The 'ten days' of Rev. 2:10 may represent ten different persecutions, or refer to ten years' duration of persecution under Diocletian. In any case it gives the idea of limitation.

It is essential to see what this means. Faithfulness unto death is not faithfulness all through our natural lives. It is martyrdom for the sake of Christ and His word. It is a call to be faithful, even at the cost of life... What would create the temptation to unfaithfulness? The fear of death, or clinging to life in this world.

"I have died for you; now be faithful unto death for Me."

The Lord delights to acknowledge the faith of His saints. If they have shown that they did not love their life in this world even to death, it shall be as though they had gained it in the world to come. Life shall be a crown to them there, as the glorious reward of their not having cared for it here.

You are tried for My name's sake, He says, perhaps are going into death for Me, and I have been through death for you. You are standing on one side of the river, and I on the other. You have to come through the waters to get to Me. But the moment your head comes above the waters on this side, I will put a crown of life on it.

To overcome in Ephesus is to repent, to get back the first love they had lost, and to do the first works. Here it means being found faithful to death, being courageous for the Lord and His testimony in the face of all Satan's terrors. So a saint in Smyrna becomes an overcomer by keeping faithful, and by winning — only in the power of the Holy Spirit — over all fear and cowardice.

On one side the synagogue of Satan is raging. On the other side stands the pagan world. Both are determined to crush Christianity. Between the two stand the lowly people who confess Jesus of Nazareth, with patience and meekness as their only defence. What was the human prospect? Loss of character, of goods, and of life itself. To overcome in such terrible circumstances took strong faith and clear spiritual sight, as seeing Him who is invisible. Yet He is never nearer than when His saints seem forsaken. He is never more true and tender in sympathy than when He seems to have forgotten them.

This call appears seven times. In the letters to the first three churches it comes just before the promise to the overcomer. In the last four it closes each letter. The first group has the Church as a whole in view, and calls it to repent. In the second group the hopeless state of the Church is all too plain, so a remnant company stands apart from the mass.

He will in "no way," on no account — a very strong negative — be hurt by the "second death." That death is the lake of fire, the everlasting home and place of punishment for the devil and the wicked (Rev. 20:14; Rev. 21:8).

The second death is the lake of fire — it is punishment. They claim that it burns a person out in time, and that ceasing to exist is the second death. But Scripture says the punishment itself is the second death. Death never means ceasing to exist.

The torturer's rack or the flames of a martyr's death may hurt the body. But the second death cannot hurt the believer's soul. A martyr's death may separate soul from body. The second death will never separate the believer's soul from God.

Do not fear the first death; it is only a servant to usher you into the presence of God: the second death will not injure you. The Lord is like that tree of old, thrown into the bitter waters of Marah. He went into the bitterest waters of death, and so they have turned to sweetness and refreshment for us.

It is certainly true that no saint will be hurt by the second death, and yet this promise appears only in connection with the overcomer in Smyrna. These promises are true for all believers. Yet certain saints get a special reminder of the promises that suit their own circumstances, for their comfort and encouragement.

We know from Hebrews 4:12 that the two-edged sword is a figure of the Word of God. The Psalmist can speak of the Word as a lamp to his feet. Here it is not viewed as a light for the Christian's path, but as a sword to deal with all that is contrary to the light. The word viewed as the sword is always judicial.

What the sword is in the hands of man, so is the word that reveals God, searching out and cutting through all obstacles. The Lord applies this in power, and it decides every question that has to do with Him. There is always a great and beautiful connection between the way or title in which He presents Himself and the state of the church He is addressing. The word no longer had living energy to judge in the church. That is why the Lord Jesus takes care to prove that it had never lost its power in His hands.

In Smyrna Satan tried persecution, but it only stirred up a greater spirit of earnestness and devotion. In Pergamos he tried his tricks, and his worldly traps lulled the church into carelessness and indifference. What a change from the last letter! Smyrna was a people appointed to die. There the Lord makes Himself known as "the first and the last, who died and came to life." Here it is as the Judge carrying the sharp two-edged sword. In Smyrna He reveals Himself as having the power of life; here, as having the power of death.

Pergamos means "a marriage," implying that the Church virtually "married" the world though already promised to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2)... Many thought instead that Christianity had won a great victory by having the world recognise the Lord Jesus. They failed to see that this recognition was in word only and not in heart. Great numbers became "Christians" in a formal way while not knowing the reality of repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers and unbelievers were now mixed together. So the Lord speaks to Pergamos as the One who has the sword with two edges, who knows how to divide exactly between the Church and the world.

His word is a word of penetrating and decisive judgment. It is with this two-edged sword that He later strikes the nations (Rev. 19), so there can be no question as to its meaning. And while it is of course true that it is not His own at Pergamos who are struck with it, yet it is those whom He charges them with having in their midst (Rev. 2:16).

Pergamos, Elevation, is in a bad state. Once we are inside the little halo where this church and Christ stand, the first thing we see is the sharp sword with two edges coming from the mouth of Christ. He will never cease to be the first and the last, but, thank God, He will cease to be the One out of whose mouth goes the sharp sword.

Satan, we know, is the prince of this world, and his throne is where he rules. It is not in hell, as poets wrongly dream. His throne is where he reigns. It is not the place he will be sent to when his throne is crushed and his reigning time is over. Nor does he merely reign at Rome, or Pergamos. His throne is not local, it is the world. If the professing Church dwells in the place of Satan's throne, we may be sure of this. The Church has given up her pilgrim and stranger character and settled down in the world.

For "dwelling in the world" is another thing than being in it. We are in the world because we must be, and we are in no way responsible for that. But to be a dweller is a moral state: it is to be a citizen of the world.

Now notice in Pergamos how Satan changes his tactics. If he cannot succeed by persecution (which only made Smyrna brighter in testimony, as nearer to Christ), he will try seduction. If he cannot be a lion, he will be a serpent. Here she has settled down to dwell where Satan has his "throne." It answers to the time of the emperor Constantine, when the empire took up the profession of Christianity and became the church's patron. So instead of being persecuted and despised by the world, she gained the world's friendship and patronage — and that was her ruin. … The world which her Lord and Master had refused from Satan's hands had attracted and overcome her (Matthew 4). She should have walked in His lowly footsteps.

The name of Christ is generally the expression of the truth of what He is; but placed here alongside the faith, the meaning will be slightly different. It will probably mean holding fast the confession of the name of Christ. It means confessing Christ openly, though dwelling where Satan's throne was, and not denying the faith — that is, the truth concerning Christ. "Holding fast" is more positive than "not denying," so the first part of the commendation is stronger than the second.

They still maintained His name, and did not deny the faith which was given to the saints; but this was all. They held fast His personal glory, and did not deny what was revealed of Him because of flesh and blood. They believed of Him what eye had not seen — His Deity.

The name of this noble witness for Christ, who sealed his testimony with his blood, has come down to all ages. We know nothing certain about Antipas except his name. Yet there is much wrapped up in that phrase, which another translation gives as "My faithful witness, My faithful one." What Christ was to God, that Antipas was to Christ.

The faithfulness of Antipas led him to a martyr's death. He was a bright witness to Christ in Satan's world. So he was a shining example of what the whole Church should have been here. By contrast, he was a condemnation of the Church in its low condition. … It is as if the Lord said to the Church, "You live where Satan dwells, but My faithful witness died where Satan dwells."

Antipas means "against everybody." I would like to be an Antipas, if everyone else is giving up the truth, as was then the case about keeping separate from the world. Get hold of the Lord, and if everybody is against you, put your back against the rock and stand. Someone once said to Luther, "All the world is against you." His reply was, "God and I are a match for them."

Here the plural "things" points to more than one just cause of complaint. Those who held the teaching of Balaam were one class. Those who held the teaching of the Nicolaitans were another. The Pergamos assembly tolerated both.

The true reading of verse 15 is "likewise," instead of "which thing I hate," which was probably copied from Rev. 2:6. The sense is that there were some who held the Nicolaitan doctrine, as well as those who held that of Balaam.

The Lord commended Ephesus for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. But this is an advance in evil. After the "deeds" came a doctrine. It justified the deeds and taught on purpose the very things Christ hated. Satan moved with caution at Ephesus. At Pergamum the evil is let in and taught. There is nothing to show that the Nicolaitans were a sect that had separated from the flock… The Lord holds the assembly responsible for having them there. They had not separated as a sect, and the assembly had not put them away as evil persons.

The words used are very significant. It is not that the church has adopted the teaching. There are people inside who "hold" the doctrine. It seems they were allowed to hold it without being disturbed and without rebuke.

The doctrine of the Nicolaitans seems to be an evil from within, while that of Balaam came from without… It was a corruption of grace, turning grace into licence to sin… Grace has set us completely free through Him who died and rose again. What claim does it not have on our hearts?… Even when we are certain of our deliverance, if the joy of it fades a little, we begin to use the Lord's grace just to serve ourselves. This, carried on without conscience, is Nicolaitanism.

Nicolaitans is Greek; it is a compound. Nikao is a verb and means to have the upper hand, to domineer; laos means the people (our English "laity"). Nicolaitans means "the dominators of the people." A priestly class had grown up in the Church. It domineered over the rest of the people, the so-called laity… Ephesus rejected this evil, but Pergamos fully approves and tolerates it.

To be sound himself was not enough. He should have allowed no compromise with evil. He was sound in himself, yet he let evil spread among them. The Lord could not rest satisfied with that state of things… They had authority to act. If they had used it, they would have found they had the power as well. But since they failed to act, the Lord Himself must fight the corrupters with the sword of His mouth. What a place then the assembly occupies, and what responsibility rests on it!

To overcome here is not only to resist the teaching of these groups, and to resist it with success. It is also to listen to the call to repentance. The message comes to believers one by one, and each one is responsible to heed what is said. Even so, no believer can shake off responsibility for the state of the assembly… They must humble themselves before God, because these evils are tolerated, even if they are not accepted. They must mourn over the dishonour this brings on the Lord's name.

To be sound himself was not enough; he ought to have allowed no compromise with evil. Personal soundness, while allowing evil to be rife among them, was a state of things with which the Lord could not rest satisfied. So He must use the sharp two-edged sword out of His mouth (Rev. 1:16) against the evildoers, unless the angel repented. That same sword will one day judge the nations (Rev. 19:15). The effect of repentance would be the expulsion of the evil from among them.

The warning to repent goes to the church. The Lord wants to rouse her to self-judgment for having tolerated this evil teaching among her own people. He will give her the chance to share His own mind about the evil. Then she may have the privilege of caring for the honour of His name. It was so in Israel. When evil and corruption spread, the LORD always called on His people to sanctify His great name. At the same time He warned them: if they failed to do it, He would take the matter in hand Himself and sanctify His own name.

The Lord does not say, "I will fight against you with the sword of My mouth," but "against them" (v. 16). It is true that the sword of judgment may act by taking them away in death. That is what happened to the Corinthian saints. The Lord judged them here below so that they would not be condemned later with the world. Christian discipline does not mean putting away those who are not Christians from those who are. It aims at purging out Christians who walk wrongly, to keep the honour and holiness of the Lord among them. Mercy is the great motive of discipline, next to maintaining Christ's character in the church.

This is divine judgment carried out by the simple force of His Word. No one can ward that judgment off. The sword is two-edged, and that is the point of the picture. We never read of our Lord personally putting His hand on His enemies. He speaks, and it is done… The ungodly in the Church are the first to be threatened with judgment, which it is hopeless to escape unless they repent (Rev. 2:16).

If no self-judgment followed the call to repent, the Lord threatens speedy judgment: "I come to you quickly." The present tense shows how near the judgment is, and so does the word "quickly"… This coming does not mean the personal return of the Lord, or what people call the second Advent. It points to an immediate dealing with the assembly by the Lord, who would visit it in judgment. To the angel He says, "I come to you," but to the still more guilty, "I will make war with them." So the Lord distinguishes. There are degrees of sin and, in proportion, of punishment.

The angel was responsible to take steps to banish the evil, but he had not done it, so the Lord Himself would take it in hand. He calls first of all on the angel to repent. The Lord would allow a period of grace to give time for self-judgment. If the angel did not use it, the Lord Himself would come quickly. With the two-edged sword of the word of His mouth He would search through and through, and expose the state of those who were prominent in Pergamos. If we shut our eyes to what grieves the Spirit of God in ourselves or among the people of God, the Lord does not.

The fact of the church getting into the world at once isolated the faithful Christian... But if the word reached the one who had an ear to hear, it gave secret fellowship with Christ when the public position had become settled in what was false.

The manna means the Son of God become man to give life to our souls. He entered in humiliation into all our circumstances. The manna is the provision for the daily walk through the wilderness... But what then is the hidden manna? The manna for Israel was spread around the camp, and they were to gather it daily for their food... But this is not the hidden manna. A golden pot of manna was to be laid up before God. When the Israelites reached the land, they would have the memorial of what they had enjoyed in the wilderness. So the hidden manna is the remembrance of a suffering Christ down here. It is the memory of what Christ was in the wilderness — a man, humbled and suffering, who is God's eternal delight in heaven. The one who has overcome has been faithful in separation with Christ from the world. In eternity he will share God's own delight in a once humbled Christ.

There is a very clear relation between the promise and the evil in Pergamos. The temptation was to eat things sacrificed to idols. The Lord says, "I will feed you with that which alone can satisfy." In this way He would encourage His own to resist the seductions and pleasures of the world.

So the food of the wilderness remained, but remained only as a memorial, to be seen. But to the overcomer at Pergamos the promise is different. "I will give some of the hidden manna" — he shall share in it, not simply see it. Christ as enjoyed in the wilderness shall be enjoyed afresh in the glorious land we are going to.

The ancients made much use of a white stone in social life and legal customs. A white stone marked days of celebration; a black stone marked days of disaster. A host showed his appreciation of a special guest by a white stone with a name or message written on it. A white stone meant acquittal; a black stone condemnation in the courts of justice... It is the expression of the Lord's personal delight in each one of the conquering company. It is in no way a public reward... The new name on the stone, known only to the overcomer, means Christ, then known in a special and personal way by each one — a reward beyond all price.

There are public joys in heaven common to all, thousands upon thousands of voices in communion and praise... But He must have our individual affections as well as our shared ones. My own particular joy in Christ you can never know, nor can I ever taste yours... That name would have no meaning for anybody else but the one to whom it is given... We may have now in spirit this "white stone" from Christ. It is His secret expression of grace and love, which others cannot have for me... What a secret source of strength it is, even though all the world thinks me wrong.

To Thyatira the Lord presented Himself as the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and feet like fine brass. This is remarkable. In the vision of Revelation 1, John saw these features on One like the Son of Man. But we believe the church in Thyatira is a prophetic picture of the period that saw the Roman hierarchy rise to power. If so, how fitting this change of title is. Rome admits that He is the Son of God, yet lays all the emphasis on His being the Son of Mary, so much so that in the end Mary becomes the more prominent. But no — the Son of God is the One who has the eyes that penetrate and discern all things, and the feet that will crush all evil.

So it is no longer "He that has the sharp sword with two edges," but the "Son of God." He must assert His authority as a divine Being over the Church. He rises into a sphere where she dare not pretend to be. With Him alone are the "eyes as a flame of fire," the insight that is truly infallible and holy. And the "feet like fine brass" go with those eyes, bringing judgment no one can resist.

Up to now I have understood brass as judgment according to works, when connected with responsibility. The eyes as a flame of fire I have understood as the penetrating power of God's judgment (Rev. 2:18, 23). In the second of those verses God "searches mind and heart," and gives to each one according to their works.

Brass is a symbol of righteousness according to the claims of God upon man, as in the bronze altar. In the vision in Revelation the Lord has feet like fine brass, "burning as in a furnace." That is, righteous judgment according to responsibility.

The Church of Rome presumes to be the chaste bride of Christ. Against this self-asserting, pretentious bride the Lord has to assert His authority as the Son of God in judgment. He is "a son over His own house" (Heb. 3:6). As such He holds authority and stands ready to act in judgment against evil. The Church of the living God is the house of God on earth, and holiness fits His house (1 Timothy 3:15; Psalm 93:5). So the Lord will not tolerate evil in His house. He will judge it in His own time.

He gives liberty as well as life. "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36). These are the two great blessings that mark Jesus as the Son of God. Not that they have always or necessarily gone together. For a person might have spiritual life and yet be in painful bondage, as one sees too often.

In Thyatira there is still much faithfulness and zeal, but the mass is corrupt, and the call to hear is no longer addressed to the whole church, but only to the faithful. Moreover, in this and the following letters the Lord's coming is named, which seems to show that, historically, we have now reached a phase in the story of Christendom that will last until the end of the Church's time on earth.

As Son of man the apostle has seen Him in the vision that opens the book. As Son of man He will soon take a throne which He can share with men, His redeemed. Till then they are in the field of conflict, to overcome as He overcame. This is the clear answer to the dream of worldly authority that grips the false church in Thyatira. Rome would reign before Christ reigns.

The previous verse showed the Lord to Thyatira in a severe way. After that, it is surprising to read these wonderful words of praise. But it is always our Lord's way to praise first all that is good and worthy, before He deals with what is grievous and evil to His holy eyes.

He knew even in Thyatira things that were good; not only works but love, faith, service, patience. Moreover their last works were more than the first — they increased as time went on. Though things were very dark, as the following verses show, the eyes like a flame of fire saw the good, where perhaps we would have seen none. That is a helpful thought for us today. When things are really bad, we are too quick to condemn everything without exception.

Among the things the Lord praises in these faithful believers in Thyatira, love comes first. Love is the great mark of the divine nature, and of God who is love. All spiritual activity springs from it. In the more accurate translations, faith comes next. It is "faith which works through love" (Gal. 5:6), and it shows itself in service to God and man. Then there was patience, or endurance in the middle of much persecution.

The work of faith, the labour of love and the patience of hope in the Lord marked the faithful few at Thyatira. These things were missing at Ephesus. Ephesus was guilty of leaving her first love, so she had only work, labour and patience, without the spring that sets them going.

The angel at Ephesus had declined in love, while the angel at Thyatira had increased in works. The darker the night, the more devoted and eager the godly company were. Their "last works more than the first" were more in number, more pure, and higher in character, as the fruit of faith. This church is also praised for its love, faith, service, and endurance: four practical features of Christian life. We judge that "service" here covers ministry in its widest sense, both spiritual and material… Thyatira alone among the seven is praised for its "love" and "service."

Such high praise came in a day when the general state of the Christian world was very low. That only shows a truth: the worse the corruption of the crowd who merely profess Christ's name, the greater the energy and devotion of the faithful few. The greatest saints are found in the darkest day. Israel never had a darker day than when the wicked Jezebel ruled… Still, in that dark day, there were seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal.

This is very great praise, and it has puzzled some… Remember this: all through the Scriptures, whenever a whole body fails, the faithful remnant takes on the place of the whole before God… So it is in the church of God. On this principle the Lord can credit to Thyatira all the state and activity of the devoted saints inside her.

We know little of the hidden lives of those who walked humbly and in secret with their God, in the proud and overbearing days of Rome's tyranny. It is a comfort to see how fully Christ could value them, and how openly He will yet acknowledge them… Here is the record: they are not forgotten, those nameless ones, and those whose names were dishonoured. "Works and love and faith" — how they were tested! "And service" — in the face of what discouragement! "And your patience" — that long endurance!

The Authorised Version reads, "I have a few things against you." The Revised Version and others read, "I have against you." The Lord had a grave charge against the angel. Through its representatives, the Church was allowing an evil among them more serious than any that had appeared before. In other words, the papacy stands at the front of this address... It seems obvious that Thyatira pictures the general state of the Church in the Middle Ages.

The charge here is not only the personal guilt of the teacher, but the tolerating or allowing of what another does. "But I have against you that you permit the woman Jezebel." You may be clear of the evil doctrine yourself, and you may condemn it. That is important for every child of God. But it is not enough. These addresses show that the Lord calls for more. Where people teach, or even hold, what offends Christ, He demands that we "repent" of their presence among us. All are affected by tolerating the evil inside, whether it is actively taught or only quietly held.

The Lord said, "You permit that woman Jezebel … and she teaches." There is a twofold rebuke in these words, which the Authorised Version obscures. First, they tolerated a wicked person, in defiance of 1 Corinthians 5:13. Second, they let a woman teach, against what 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:12 forbid... The woman in Thyatira called herself a prophetess. That is, she claimed to teach by divine authority. But her teaching was vile, and meant to lead souls astray. We need not suppose that her name was really Jezebel; the name is used symbolically.

Balaam, named in the message to the angel of the Church in Pergamos, was a seducer from outside. He stands for the snare which the world became to the Church. Jezebel was a corrupter inside and represents the shameless alliance of the Church with idolatry and with the world.

To understand the meaning of the "woman Jezebel," we must recall Israel's history in the days of the real Jezebel. King Ahab married her, lost his own place and authority as king, and let this wicked woman rule. Under her rule the whole country was led into idolatry... In the same way, a false church system rises up and tries to rule Christendom. Like a prophetess, it claims to speak with divine authority and to pass on the mind of God. It takes the place of "teacher" and "leader" of God's people. For the Lord says, "You permit … that woman … to teach and to lead away My servants." So the teaching of this evil system sets three things aside. First, the Word of God, which gives the mind of God. Second, the Spirit of God as the Teacher. Third, Christ as the Head and Leader of His people.

The sin of fornication or adultery here is a picture of wicked dealing with the world. For a Christian or a church, such dealing is what marrying a Canaanite would have been for an Israelite. To eat food sacrificed to idols shows communion with what was directly linked to the power of Satan, for "what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God." And it is an easy thing to have fellowship with demons. Men think little of it, and even Christians fail to weigh how serious it is.

It is striking that the Lord Jesus shows people in Thyatira whom He called "My servants," despite everything against them. And so it has always been. There is every reason to believe that many God-fearing people never left the Roman Catholic system. They had a conscience about the word of God and a love for the Saviour. Yet it was plainer still that they were dulled by accepting a merely human unity and by the doings of Jezebel.

"I gave her time to repent," and she did not repent. So we see that God does not judge her all at once. He gives her time to repent. He is patient with her, but she does not repent. He was not dealing with the pagan world here. To them He preaches the gospel, so that He may win their souls to Christ. But this was a woman who called herself a prophetess in the church. She taught God's servants "to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols." God deals with her on the ground of what she claimed to be.

The Lord's patient grace still waits, even in the case of Jezebel. He says, "And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not"; or, more exactly, "And I gave her time to repent, and she wills not to repent of her sexual immorality." How long that time was in Thyatira we do not know. But in the historical church that this assembly stands for, what patience the Lord has shown! What constant calls to repentance, what warnings in one form or another — and all in vain. "She wills not to repent." This is not mere blindness and ignorance. It is her will acting against God.

Repentance was flatly refused, though the Lord had given plenty of space for it. "Fornication" (for that is the figure used) was both taught and practised. His long patience is the sure sign of two things. First, that what He was about to judge was completely evil — otherwise He comes quickly, in the jealous care of true love that counts on a true answer. Second, that when the judgment comes, it must be final and unsparing. … The sin of fornication or adultery here pictures that sinful dealing with the world. For a Christian or for the church, it is what marrying a Canaanite would have been for an Israelite.

The Lord gave space for repentance; but, He says, "She will not repent." To Ephesus He said that He would remove the lampstand unless there was repentance. Here He never mentions the lampstand. That shows He did not own the system Jezebel stands for as a light for Himself.

There is a third thing that we find only in the last letters: a church inside this great, wide Christendom. The system is never to repent. God "gave her time to repent" of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent — though people may get clear of it.

Seven times the Lord says, "Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." We are not told to hear what is said to one particular church, but to all of them. May we not say that the Spirit's first great call is to "repent"? Five times in these letters we hear the call to repentance. The Lord has exposed the evils in the professing church and among His people. So it is for us to own our failure and humble ourselves in the dust because of the low moral condition that lies at the root of all failure.

The Lord's patient grace still waits, even in Jezebel's case. He says, "And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not." A better rendering is: "And I gave her space to repent, and she wills not to repent of her fornication." How long that space lasted at Thyatira we do not know. But think of the historical church which that assembly pictures. What patience the Lord has shown! What constant calls to repentance, what warnings of one kind or another — and all in vain! "She wills not to repent of her fornication." It is not mere blindness and ignorance. It is her will acting against God.

"Behold, I cast her into a bed." The word "bed" stands in sharp contrast to the bed of the harlot with its forbidden pleasure. It will be a bed of affliction. Next come "those who commit adultery with her" — the first and only time the word "adultery" appears in Revelation. Those who have tampered with the evil, who have defiled themselves by association with Jezebel, are the group meant here — a growing crowd in our times, born of the false spirit of tolerating evil and ignoring it.

At Thyatira, Jezebel, as queen and prophetess, claims that authority rests in herself… She calls herself a prophetess as a cover for spreading her evil teachings. The Lord thinks so little of this authority that, in His anger, He "casts her into a bed", feeble and powerless, and what comes from her He kills with death.

There are two kinds of judgment here, for they were not all the children of Jezebel. In Scripture, committing adultery is a common picture of tampering with evil, especially idol worship, because it meant God's people giving themselves to someone other than Him… Some are not her children, but people who deal with her, who are content to keep company with the evil and share in it… Those who have committed adultery with her, who have tampered with this spirit of false prophecy, "I will cast into great tribulation, except they repent." But those who are her children, who got their Christian place and name through this false doctrine, will have full judgment.

There are varying degrees of guilt, but the main point to grasp is that God judges evil according to the measure of each one's responsible connection with it.

It is a principle with God always to give an opportunity for repentance before He carries out judgment. "I gave her space to repent." He has always acted this way from the beginning of time, and His Church and His people should act the same way. Even when speaking of the judgment He would bring on Jezebel, the Lord adds, "except they repent." Such is His patience and His longing to see His professed people recover from evil.

This vile system will come into "great tribulation." This looks on to the time told in greater detail in Revelation 17 — 18. Then the revived Roman Empire, as God's instrument, will destroy this system.

The verse does not say "the great tribulation" in so many words. Still, we would judge that what Jezebel represents will grow into the mystical Babylon of Revelation 17, and will be destroyed during the great tribulation period. The judgment, when it comes, will be final.

There are two kinds of judgment, for they were not all the children of Jezebel... Some commit adultery with her; they have tampered with this spirit of false prophecy. Of them He says, "I will cast into great tribulation, unless they repent." But her children have got their Christian place and name because of this false doctrine. They shall have full judgment: "I will kill her children with death." It is not tribulation only for them.

You can see how active Jezebel is, because she has "children." They were born and shaped by her evil teaching. So they presented themselves as the expression of her views and as her spokesmen.

True believers, even though linked with her, are not her children.

There is full judgment for those who have become devoted followers of Rome and keep this evil system going. There is spiritual death as well as physical death. There is also the second death, which is eternal separation from God (Ezek. 18:4; Rev. 20:12-15).

The kidneys, used symbolically for the inward thoughts and feelings. Ps. 7:9; Ps. 16:7; Ps. 26:2; Ps. 139:13; Prov. 23:16; Jer. 12:2; Jer. 17:10; Jer. 20:12; Lam. 3:13; Rev. 2:23.

When the Lord exposes the evil in the professing church and judges it, the practical effect is that the churches come to know that Christ searches the reins and hearts. Hidden evil comes to light, and Christ is acknowledged as the divine Searcher of the secret thoughts and hidden deeds of men. In Old Testament times this belonged to Jehovah alone (Jer. 17:10). The churches are to learn the lesson — or rather to know that Christ, the One they have to deal with, carries out this solemn work. He knows everything.

In Revelation 2 and 3, we see the Lord Jesus Christ walking among the churches with the eyes of fire — not in the world. He is there so that "all the churches may know that I am He who searches the reins and hearts." In His discipline He may be dealing with something in us that we know nothing about, but which He sees... It is a very solemn thing for us to despise the chastening of the Lord. He chastens us because we are loved, because we are His.

The closing words of verse 23 are an encouragement. The Lord will deal with the evil system, yet He will judge each soul individually. He will repay each one according to their works. The individual is not lost in the crowd. In the case of Thyatira this leads to the discovery of a remnant that is for God, as the following verses show.

Every professed believer is also accountable to God for his own works.

The Lord turns to "the rest," or the remnant, in Thyatira, "who do not hold this teaching." Here, for the first time, He formally recognises believers who are not counted in the public state of the assembly, yet who are not as openly separate as believers were in a later day… So the Lord speaks with great tenderness of those who were true to His name. He did not expect great things from them.

So the time had come when people who turned away from evil were counted mad. The people they refused to walk with accused them of knowing the "depths of Satan" — that is, of being led by him, as having fallen into one of his most subtle traps. And what brought on this terrible charge? Separation from evil, and a clear purpose to walk in the path of truth and holiness… But the Lord's verdict was enough for this "rest," as it has been for the true remnant in every age of the church. Anyone who cares for the honour of Christ must be satisfied with His approval.

Even in the darkest period of the Roman church's history, many dear saints of God have been inside it who knew nothing of the evil ways of the bishop of Rome and his council. The Lord Himself hints at this in His address to Thyatira… Here we find a believing remnant tied to a system marked by "the depths of Satan."

"Not knowing the depths of Satan" — that is, what they called by that name — I take to mean plain morality and separation from the world… They said that "the rest" did not know the depths of Satan, because these believers made people think that outward morality and holiness were needed in the church. So the true saints got the name of being led by Satan, and the instruments of Satan got the name of holding the word and Spirit of God.

How kind the Lord's word is to this feeble remnant! No other burden — only hold fast what they had. And what did they have? It is striking that we are told what they did not have: they "do not hold this teaching" and "have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan." This is faithfulness seen from its negative side. The Lord values even this.

Even in Thyatira there are those who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan. On them the Lord lays no other burden — that is, He leaves them where they are. Sincere, and not knowing the awful system they are in, they can walk before God with an honest heart.

In the message to this assembly we find a marked change, shown by three plain facts. First, the Lord addresses a remnant for the first time. Second, He brings in His coming for the first time. Third, He no longer looks for the hearing ear in the assembly as a whole, but in the one who overcomes. These facts prove beyond all question that in Thyatira all hope of restoring the whole body is given up.

He does not expect them to get back to the place the church fell from. He points them forward to His coming… So you must not expect Jezebel to be put right… No, your eye must rest on something else; and here the hope comes in.

In the address to this assembly we find a marked change, shown by three plain facts. First, a remnant is addressed for the first time. Second, the Lord's coming is brought in for the first time. Third, the hearing ear is no longer looked for in the assembly at large, but in the overcomer. These facts prove beyond all question that in Thyatira all hope of restoring the whole body is given up. But here the remnant is singled out and cheered — not with the hope of a converted world or a restored church, but with the bright and blessed hope of the Lord's coming.

Here, for the first time, the Lord clearly brings in His coming again. He tells them that this state of things goes on till He comes again. It is not so with the first three. With Ephesus, the only coming described is a providential coming... Here it is in Thyatira for the first time; and, what is more, He introduces it in the body of the letter before the promise... The plain meaning is that what He describes here goes on until He comes.

How compassionate the word to the feeble remnant! No other burden but to hold fast what they had. What had they? Notice what they did not have — they did not hold this teaching, and they had not learned the depths of Satan. This is faithfulness seen from its negative side. The Lord prizes even this, and in loving pity says, "I will put upon you no other burden." It is useless to try to regain what is lost. Hold fast what you have till I come. As if the Lord said, Only remember Me... His coming is now the only remedy. That does not mean we should rest quietly without bearing testimony, however feeble, against the evil. But there is no complete deliverance till He comes.

Upon such the Lord will lay no other burden — words that would imply they had heavy burdens to bear. Refusing the doctrine of Jezebel brought them into constant suffering and persecution.

Here He is putting a soul in the position of having received a deposit from Him. You have received this; now clutch it, hold it fast. My mind is not occupied with evil only — I noticed the good first — now hold it fast. What are you and I doing? Have we got the truth that has made us free?

They were not to look for any repentance or reform in this awful system. They were to hold fast to the truth they had until the Lord comes. Then they will have their reward. They refused to reign in the world while Christ is away. In the day of His glory they will rule in power over the nations.

The Lord brings in His coming as a hope, and as something to direct the mind to. "Only hold fast what you have until I come." This, I need not say, is an exhortation which applies to all times, to hold fast to what we have. Whatever we have, do not let it slip. Do not be a backslider. If you have the truth, hold it fast.

Two things make a person an overcomer in Thyatira. The first is holding fast what they had, despite the corruption of Jezebel, keeping their separation, and walking in the path of obedience to the word of God. The second is keeping Christ's works to the end. These are the works praised in verse 19: love, faith, service, patience, and works.

It is as if the Lord would leave no question about what it means to overcome this fearful system. In the gross darkness of a system that takes the Word of God from believers, the Lord does not seem to expect the overcomer to stand out for deep knowledge of His Word. But this at least He does look for: that they live in practical godliness, and so keep His works until the end.

"My works" is an unusual expression. It recalls Paul's words: "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus." In his daily walk the believer should be, as it were, a reproduction of Christ… There is a contrast, too, between the works of Christ and those of Jezebel. The Lord threatens judgment on those seduced by Jezebel unless they repent "of her works." He promises reward to those faithful to Christ if they keep "His works."

This promise of authority over the nations is large, grand and public. It goes beyond anything in the earlier promises to the overcomers in these messages. This is the very thing that was the goal of the corrupt Church in the Thyatiran period… What the corrupt Church seeks by her own power, Christ promises to the overcomer. That overcomer walks apart from evil and takes the place of reproach now.

What makes it all the more notable is that the rod of iron is promised to us, not the sword. We are given the dignity of reigning. We are not given the work of judgment pictured in the terrible symbols used of the Lord Himself.

There we read: "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage… You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Clearly the Lord refers to this scripture… He is really giving the overcomer His own power, the power He received from the Father. It means being joined with Him when He comes to deal in judgment with the nations of the earth.

Remember His temptation in the wilderness. The devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and said, "All this authority I will give you… if you worship me, it will all be yours." But He answered, "It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve." He overcame the tempter by staying faithful to Him whose will He had come to do. He refused everything from the hand of Satan and received only from the Father.

The apostle says the Church's time to rule has not come. It comes when all the saints reign together, and reign with Christ. So any claim to rule in the meantime is false by its very nature… And yet the word "rule" here shows the peculiar character of it… It is the rule of a Shepherd. The rod may be iron, a rod of unstoppable power, but in the Shepherd's hands it will always recognise that He is contending for the flock.

It is striking that the Father grants authority over the nations to Christ alone (Psalm 2). Yet the same unlimited authority and rule is promised to the conqueror who presses on until the end. The overcomers are to share the Son's public place and portion. The Father gives the nations, the peoples, and the earth to its farthest limits to His Son. The Lord uses those very words to give His overcoming people their public portion.

"Ask of Me," Jehovah says, and He has not asked; He is still sitting in patience... His long-suffering is now salvation. When that patience is over, delay would no longer be blessing or long-suffering, but weakness. Then He takes the ends of the earth for His possession with the rod of iron — not, as people imagine, with the gospel... The gospel has been going out for centuries and had no effect in converting the mass of mankind. When the Lord comes, this alliance of the nations against Him will be showing itself in full, just as the psalm describes. They will be saying more than ever, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us."

The rod is the sign of power — "the rod of your power" (Psalm 110:2). Here it is in the shepherd's hands, and the shepherd is the very picture of royalty according to God. Even the iron rod with which Christ will smite His enemies is still represented as in a shepherd's hands. In all these passages it truly reads, "He shall shepherd them with an iron rod." However hard the blow, love guides it. How dreadful for those whom everlasting love must strike in this way!

The saints' authority over the nations is as wide as Christ's own, and it lasts the full 1000 years. The overcomer shall rule, or shepherd, the angry and rebellious nations with an iron rod. Their will shall be broken, their pride humbled, their glory laid in the dust like brittle vessels crumbling to pieces.

This wicked Jezebel not only persecuted the true saints of the Lord, but sought universal supremacy — a world-wide dominion over souls. The Lord tells them in effect to have nothing to do with her, and He will give the true power when He takes it Himself. Let them stay in the place of patience, even though there is tribulation — and there must be, if they are content to endure for Christ's sake now.

It is as if the Lord would leave no question as to what it means to overcome this dreadful system. A system like this takes the Word of God away from believers. In that thick darkness, it seems the Lord does not expect the overcomer to have a deep knowledge of His Word. But this at least He does look for: a life marked by practical godliness, keeping His works until the end.

On the one hand there is the public display of association with Christ, when the nations are shattered like a potter's clay pot. On the other hand, we receive from Him the privilege of having Him before that day of glory breaks. Then He is compared to the star that comes before the dawn.

The sun is the companion of man. But the morning star does not, in this way, call man back to his work. It appears at an hour that is entirely its own, neither day nor night. Only the child of the early morning sees it — the one who is up before the sun — or the watchman who has gone through the night.

When Christ comes as the "Sun of righteousness" it will be the day when every eye will see Him. That is His appearing, but that is not the Star. No one sees the morning star when the sun is up. But those who are watching in the night see it; it belongs to them.

But in the bright and morning star we have the heavenly character of His coming. "And I will give him the morning star" — that is, I will give the Christian Myself in this way before the day. But Christ gives Himself to the overcomer before the day. If we are to appear with Him in glory, we must first be with Him; we follow Him out of heaven after being caught up.

Christ Himself is the morning star — Christ as the pledge of the day of His glory. The morning star is the herald of the coming day. When the watcher sees it he knows that the darkness of the night will soon pass away. So how does the overcomer have it? There is only one possible answer — in his heart. It is there he holds the precious gift. So he is stronger than all the power of the enemy around him, because his heart is flooded with the light of the day for which he waits. For him the darkness of the night has passed; he lives in the sunlight of the day.

In the same way, the heavenly hope of this remnant is to have "the morning star" in the future: the One who is coming. His brilliant light will shine for ever, but the star of Thyatira has gone out.

"I will give him the morning star." It is one thing to watch for the morning star, another thing to have it. I shall not have the morning star until I enter into the thoughts of God. His thoughts are these: that this Son of His love should have a bride, that all honour must be His, and that the Father's delight is in Him.

An overcomer, we judge, is one who lives surrounded by the corruptions described as existing in the church. By the energy of the Spirit he stays faithful to the Lord in holiness of walk and conduct. On the one hand there is complete separation from the evils allowed in the church. On the other hand there is the pressing on, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to keep "the works of Christ" — in fact, to give oneself to Him as the instrument of His will.

It was the darkest age of the church's decline. That is when the hope of the Lord's return first appeared, to cheer the heart of the overcomer.

Here the notable change takes place. The call to hear begins to follow the promise, instead of being before it. The reason is that a remnant is here formed. The public state of the church now calls for the change. From that point the Lord puts the promise first. He does so because it is useless to expect the church as a whole to receive it. The address is to the overcomer, who is therefore put before the call to hear. In the three previous churches, as anyone may notice, the call to hear comes first. There the Lord is still dealing with the general conscience of the church. Now He gives that up. Only a remnant overcome, and the promise is for them. From now on the Lord takes notice of these in His call. As for the others, it is all over with their faithfulness.

The call to hear the Spirit no longer goes out to the whole Church, as it did before. It now follows the word of cheer to the remnant and the promises to the overcomer. It is therefore spoken to the overcomers. Only they could be expected to have a hearing ear that truly hears and weighs what the Spirit had to say to the churches. The Lord treats the professing body of the Church as unable to repent. He gave her space to repent, and she refused. So the Spirit appeals to the separated remnant who overcome, to hear what He says in this message to Thyatira and to the other churches also.

Then comes the general exhortation: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." The verse does not say "to the church," but "to the churches." So the one who has an ear must weigh not only what the Spirit says to his own church, but what He says to all the others. The exhortation is therefore general. It speaks to all believers.

Take the last thing we have about the church of God, and what do you get there? Is it that you are to hear the church? No. It is just the opposite. It is, "hear what the Spirit says to the churches." How can I hear the Spirit judging the churches, and still listen to the churches as my authority and rule? It is all flying in the face of what God has taught us for these last days.

Paul's letters present the Spirit as living in the church and in the believers, the divine instrument of spiritual blessings. The book of Revelation does not. It sets Him outside the church, speaking to her and passing judgment on her moral state… Seven times the Spirit sends this solemn call to the hearing ear. The Lord Jesus made a similar call about the seven parables of the kingdom of heaven: "He who has ears, let him hear" (Matt. 13:9, 43)… In each message the call to hear goes with a promise to the overcomer. This call is made personally to an individual, not to the church… Yet each church also has the responsibility to listen, because the angel of the church stands for the whole church.

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." That call comes seven times. It points to a direct application of these addresses to the individual hearer. It applies as well to every company of professing believers on the earth at any given time.

With Sardis, again, both characters are mentioned. He has the "seven Spirits of God" — the perfection of spiritual discernment. So He is well able to look past the good reputation and the outward show, and to see spiritual death. He has "the seven stars," so He can keep even a few in Sardis alive.

The seven Spirits of God refer to the Holy Spirit of God, seen in His many perfections and in the ways He works. And this is not so much within the church as towards the world... It is the Spirit expressed in full quality and power, to carry out God's will on earth.

Christ also has the seven stars. They are His, though the words no longer say, as at Ephesus, that they are in His right hand. In practice man has seized them for himself.

All the stars belong to Him. He is the One Who meets and makes up for all that His church lacks. If Sardis, with all its failures, would only look at Him walking among the churches, it would find that every failure and weakness is provided for in Him and by Him. Then its light would shine more and more.

Wherever "angel" is not used of a heavenly being or a human messenger, it stands for the mystical representative of someone not actually seen... The angel represents the assembly. It stands above all for those Christ looks to for the state of His assembly in His sight — those who are near Him and in communion with Him, or who carry responsibility for the assembly through the working of His Spirit in them for His service.

There is none of the gross evil and corruption seen in Thyatira. But here, for the first time, the Lord finds nothing to praise... It was not shocking wickedness, but respectable death. The form was kept, the heart was gone. Christ was owned in word and ignored in deed. Creeds were correct, conduct was proper, life had gone.

Mere profession may make a name before people, who only look at the outside. It is not life before Christ, who reads the heart.

The works are general, and "knowing" them simply states that nothing escapes the Lord's notice, that He is aware of the whole condition of His people. Then, as the result of His examination — for He walks among the seven golden lampstands — He gives His verdict, His infallible verdict... And this state of things also represents Protestantism as it was after the days of Luther; and, remember, as it will be found until the coming of the Lord.

We must not think we can escape the edge of that word by saying we are not in Sardis. It applies to us one by one as well as together. It may be true of some of us that we have a name to live but are dead.

The words "be watchful" really mean become watchful. This shows that at the time they were not watching at all, for, as we have seen, it was a time of spiritual death. Because they had not watched, the things that remained were drooping and ready to die. These things had once been channels of energy, full of life. Now they were fading for lack of spiritual power. The forms of life were still there, but they were only forms. The life that first produced them had faded, if it had not gone altogether.

Since the whole condition was one of death, the Church's spiritual representatives had to rouse themselves. They were told to watch because of that state, and they were to stay watchful from then on. Watching and praying go together (Mark 13:33) in the light of the Lord's return. Praying and watching go together in keeping up the Christian conflict (Eph. 6:18).

The fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) was still there, though small in measure and weak in expression. Whatever life and grace remained, they were to build up, cherish and strengthen. Hold fast to whatever is of God, all the more as practical religion dies out in these Christian lands. The call was never more needed than now. The sword and the trowel are always in demand, but the wise and careful use of the trowel is what the Church badly needs.

Exposing and condemning what is wrong is of small value. Get the truth, buy it, don't sell it, be it. Get it, keep it, let it shape you, and show it. The Christian is called to that... But there are always smouldering embers of life in Protestantism that may be fanned into a flame, as in times of revival, here and there.

"I have not found your works perfect (pepleromena) before God." (Rev. 3:2) English readers should know that the word translated "perfect" here is not the same word used in the three passages we looked at earlier. It is usually translated "fulfilled" — "finished" — "accomplished." Its use about the works of the church of Sardis teaches us a solemn lesson that searches the heart. There was a name to live, but the works were not finished under the direct eye of God. Nothing is more dangerous to a Christian than to have "a name." It is a real snare of the devil.

The Lord had not found their works complete. Something was failing, something was missing. There was much of man in them. Christ had not found them complete before His God. The problem was not corruption or superstition. It lay in the character and the motive of the works. There was activity, but not the kind that matched Christ's own relationship with God on earth. They were not Christian enough.

God does not lower His standard because of the decline in the spiritual condition of the professing mass. The works He looks for are still measured by His perfect standard. The love was not perfect in Ephesus; the works were not perfect in Sardis.

The works of faith and of obedience were not complete — that is, they were not filled up. The public fight with Rome almost crowded out the soul's practical dealings with God. Personal godliness and Church life were at their lowest point... The Reformers put nearly all their effort into one great struggle: to win back for themselves, their children and the generations after them the truth of justification by faith. Even that truth is not set out in their writings in its full scriptural measure.

To remember "how" they had received and heard would bring back the earnest state of soul in which they first received the truth. It would also open their eyes to the deadness they had now sunk into... To "hold fast" would encourage them to cling to the great truths they were letting slip without realising it. To "repent" would involve self-judgment for their low spiritual condition and poor walk.

The call to "remember" here is in the light of what God had recovered for them... the gospel, the Word of God, and liberty of conscience. Judgment is always according to the measure of responsibility. That measure is greater or smaller depending on what God has given and where He has placed a person. They had both "received" and "heard"... The truths recovered and the gospel heard to the joy of thousands were fading from memory and conscience. So came the command to "keep" and "repent" — to keep what they had, and to repent of the poor use they had made of their blessings.

The Lord must judge the church not by a lifeless system, but by the resources it has in Christ the Head. He recalls the church to these two great points — grace received, truth heard.

After conflict, Christians come out into the light of truth. Then comes the danger of thinking they may now take a rest and go to sleep. They have the form of truth and think that is enough. This is the danger when the Spirit works a revival or recovery... But then comes the call to "remember" — remember what? "How you received and heard, and" — give up? — no, "hold fast, and repent."

When He comes, He raises the dead saints and changes the living ones. That is not "the day of the Lord," and Scripture never calls it that... Scripture never pictures the Lord coming like a thief by night except when judgment is clearly in view, as to Sardis (Rev. 3:3). In 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4 the Spirit brings in the comparison of the thief when He speaks of the day of the Lord coming upon the world. He does not use it of the saints, who wait for Christ and are not in darkness, so that the day should overtake them as a thief.

He calls them to remember the past. Have they declined in conduct from those early days when the truth was first received? Then He recalls them to watchfulness. Let them not only look back, but look on, for He is coming. Are they in a state suited for His coming? If not, His coming would mean judgment rather than blessing. In the day of Sardis the professing church had ceased to watch, and was falling fast into darkness and deadness. Having appealed to the world for its patronage and power, the professing church had become like the world, and is in danger of sharing the world's judgment.

Apply the Lord's words to Sardis to ourselves today. How searching is the call to remember how we have received and heard, and to hold fast and repent! How much precious ministry we have heard over the years! Do we prize and value the truth of God made known to us, and do we hold it fast? Or do we prefer earthly and temporal things above the revelation of Christ and His Word?

In Sardis the "few names" undefiled formed a company in whom the Lord could delight. In principle and in practice they were separate from the evil they grieved over. They walked apart from it. The weight of influence and numbers was with the popular side. The mass had a name in the world. The "few" were unknown, and had no official standing. But the Lord knew each one of them personally — He "calls His own sheep by name."

These "names" here mean people whom the Lord had counted up and knew each one by name. These are the ones "who have not soiled their garments." They had not gone on with the world, now that the professing church had defiled their garments. Sardis may not be charged with the seductions of Balaam or the corruptions of Jezebel. But her mind is set on earthly things, and she glories in her shame. ... What He speaks of here is the spirit of the world filling the heart as an accepted object, and the conformity to the world that follows, so that a person can walk with it.

Not defiling their garments means that they had been kept untainted by the evils around them. James speaks of keeping oneself unstained from the world (James 1:27). Here it would not only be from the world. It would also be from the corruption inside the circle of God's professing people.

The Lord says of such, "They will walk with Me in white." Separation from the world has its blessed outcome in a walk with Christ. Still, the walk is a personal one. The Lord does not say they will know the blessing of that word, "Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them." He says, "they will walk with Me." Whatever their church connections, their practical ways suit the Lord.

The promise is of white robes. Everyone else around me may be spotted, but I have a clean one. I have one on, because I have put on Christ. But what is this distinctive mark? Will not all be white? He says, "They will walk with Me in white." This is His perfect approval of them in the glory. It recognises them as keeping themselves unspotted now in the wilderness.

They had kept their integrity here; they would walk with Him there, in robes made white in the blood of the Lamb. That coming day will be a day of full reward, and of holy companionship with our ever blessed Lord. No thought of personal unworthiness, such as we feel now, will ever cast a shadow across the soul. For the Lord adds in His wonderful grace, "They are worthy." It is grace that reckons it so. Each one of this distinguished and honoured company is in himself worth no more than a "brand plucked out of the fire" — someone rescued from a judgment he deserved.

The overcomer stands in contrast to the assembly at each point. The assembly had become a worldly mass; he had kept himself unstained by the world. So the promise is that he will be clothed in white garments. The assembly had a name to live but was dead; the overcomer really was entitled to a place in "the book of life." So the promise is that his name will not be blotted out. Again, those at Sardis who merely professed faith had a form of godliness but denied its power. The overcomer had truly confessed Christ in the middle of the general apathy.

A few in Sardis had not defiled their garments. They had walked in practical separation from the evils around them. The Lord encourages them with the promise that their walk will have its fitting reward in a day to come. They will be clothed in white in the day of glory. The robes they wear in glory are woven in the path that leads to glory.

In Revelation 4 and Revelation 19 the elders and the Lamb's wife appear clothed in white garments. In Revelation 19 the Holy Spirit gives His own interpretation: "the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." That gives the clue to the white garments of our passage, since the promise points to a future heavenly condition. So the Lord promises that the fruit of overcoming will be shown and enjoyed in heaven.

"The book of life" here is not the same as that of Revelation 13:8. In Revelation 3:5 it is profession, which may or may not be real. The end would show. Some names would stand, others be erased. In chapter 13:8 every name recorded was that of a true believer, because those names were written from the foundation of the world, before human responsibility began. So chapter 3:5 gives the record of Christian profession; chapter 13:8 gives the record of reality.

Under law a name could be blotted out of God's book (Exodus 32:33). Sometimes a person has his name struck off a church register because of his faithfulness to God. But the book of life is a different matter. No name in this book will ever be blotted out, for only the elect are written there. Overcoming, by faith alone, would prove one to be elect of God. This promise is meant for the comfort and encouragement of faith.

How many names held in high honour by Sardis, and written in its registers, would turn out to be mere lifeless professors, while the few names of those who had not defiled their garments were thought little of by Sardis, and even struck off its lists. Even so — whatever men might do — the Lord says, "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life."

Does not this high honour imply that before men the overcomer's name had been of little account, if not laughed at? And does it not show how great the Lord's approval is of one who boldly confesses His name in the middle of a lifeless profession?

It is worth noting that the message, though spoken by "One like a son of man," is also "what the Spirit says." What the Lord says, the Spirit says. The Lord spoke to John from outside him, and the Spirit spoke through him from within, for he was "in the Spirit" at the time. It was all "the word of God." So the unity of the Divine Persons is clear.

It is the Lord's desire that we should listen to the Spirit and so profit by the Lord's words to each Church. Throughout the ages He takes the things of Christ and shows them to us.

This appeal to the individual ear shows the intense longing of the Lord over His saints. His eager desire is that His words of warning, reproof and exhortation might find a way into their hearts and produce a full response to His faithful love… All have ears that can hear, but who has an ear to hear and heed what the Lord has to say?

When a servant whose time of service had ended chose to stay with his master, saying, "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free," his master pierced his ear to the door post with an awl. From then on his ear belonged to his master: he was to hear that one master only… The Lord said "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" to His hearers, and to each of the seven churches in Asia… showing that the hearer needed spiritual discernment to catch the meaning of what was said.

In the first three churches the call to the hearing ear goes to the whole Church. But in Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea the Lord speaks to the overcomer first, which means there is a remnant of true believers that overcomes… This marks out the position of the remnant in these last four churches as separate from the general body of the church. The call to hear goes especially to the overcomers, for only they will hear the voice of the Lord by His Spirit.

It is not said "to the church," but "to the churches." So the one who has an ear must weigh not only what the Spirit says to his own church, but what He says to all the others. The exhortation is therefore general, and meant for all believers.

We are capable of every evil and corruption found in any phase, or any period, of the Church's history. Whatever time we live in, we do well to pay heed to what the Spirit says to every one of the churches.

In the church of Sardis the remnant is called "a few names"; in Laodicea there is an "if" as to one. But even if there is a single hearing ear, if there is one to open the door, that one is assured of the high privilege, the immense favour, of sharing a meal with Christ… When the shared witness of the church has sunk to its very lowest point, Christ rewards individual faithfulness with intimate fellowship with His own heart.

The Lord presents Himself to this assembly in a way that is quite different from His approach to all the other churches of Asia. To Ephesus He comes as the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. To Smyrna He speaks as "the first and the last, who died and came to life"... In these presentations what the Lord has stands out most. But in His presentation to Philadelphia what stands out is what He is in His own blessed Person — "the holy one, the true one." What He is in Himself is always greater and more precious than what He has.

Here, then, we have Christ in personal character — what He is in Himself. He is the holy, He is the true. Others may be holy and true in a limited degree, so saying that much hardly gives the force of the words "the holy, the true." He is both in His own Person, and always the embodiment of holiness and truth. In themselves these are divine attributes... People and things are called holy and true, but no created being has the essential moral glory of being The Holy One and The True One. As used in our text they are really divine titles.

This word is not always the true as opposed to the false. Very often it means the substantial as opposed to the shadowy outline. So in Hebrews 8:2 we have the "true tabernacle," which our great High Priest entered. That implies that the tabernacle in the wilderness was only an earthly copy of what had a most real existence in heaven. So too Christ is called "the true light" (John 1:9), though John the Baptist was also "a burning and shining lamp" (John 5:35).

Here is His own Person judging according to the truth. He reveals Himself in a way that works in practice. He insists on what is genuine. He no longer allows a mere acknowledgment of truth that is not carried out. He will have moral reality.

In these words and in those that follow the reference is to Isaiah 22:22. Shebna is removed from office and disgraced. Then the prophet announced the appointment of Eliakim to the administration of the royal authority. In depth and fullness the terms of the prophecy are Messianic. They go far beyond what happened in the days of Hezekiah. Isaiah's announcement and the words here are almost the same, and both imply administrative authority: Isaiah's in connection with royalty in Judah, and this one in connection with grace to the Church. The "key" as a symbol means undisputed right to enter and exercise all needful authority.

We also find Him arranging things in favour of the church. If He opens a door, no one can shut it. If He shuts a door, no one can open it. So there are two things. He is the holy and the true to those who trust in Him. And He also has, not the display of power here, but the key of power... Let all the power of man or Satan do their worst. If I am resting in Christ, who is perfectly true, and He has opened a door, neither man nor devil can shut it.

Holiness will not do without the truth, nor the truth without holiness. The absence of either is not of the Spirit of God.

The Lord presents Himself as having the key of David. So they ought not to look to the power of the world, nor to man; for if He had the key, that was the very thing they wanted. Human energy might be at work all around — Jezebel, false prophets, and the rest. But there was this blessed One, the Holy and the True. They were weak, so they needed Him all the more. They had so little strength that perhaps they could not even open the door; but He says He had opened it for them. He had brought them into a large place where there was no bondage or constraint... They valued Christ. They wanted to know more of Him, and He knew their heart.

We gather from this that wherever the condition described here is found, the Lord opens a door for His servants. It is a door for His testimony and service. He will keep it open, whatever hostile efforts men make to close it. It is not a door standing open, but one that the Lord has opened. It was so in the Lord's own service among Israel. To the outward eye He had only a little strength. He was crucified in weakness. He lived by every word that came out of the mouth of God. He did not deny His Father's name. Men were full of cunning, malice, and hostility, yet there was always an open door before Him. To Him the doorkeeper opened, and so it is now for all who have the moral marks given here. So we never need to be anxious about open doors for service. Our only concern should be to be in a fit state for His use. Then a door will always open, even though there are many adversaries.

First, the Lord says, "You have but little power." This church is not marked by any display of power that would attract the notice of the world. ... The world delights in a strong man; God delights to carry out His work through weak vessels... Their wisdom, then, is not to claim power they do not have, nor to covet gifts that have passed away. Instead they own their true condition — they have only a little strength. So they find the support of the Lord, the One who has all power, who holds the key, and whom no one can resist.

Yet the very expression "a little strength" assumes they had some strength. That is more than could be said of Sardis or Laodicea... Philadelphia has only a little strength. But it is enough to rise above the deadness of Sardis and the self-sufficiency of Laodicea. In doing so it had the Lord's approval.

Not simply the Word as a whole, however true that may be of the Philadelphians, but Christ's word... His word covers the whole circle of Christian truth... Further, "keeping" the word implies that it is treasured in the heart and obeyed in the life. The Lord does not say you have expounded or taught the word, though that may be true. He puts the emphasis on the great fact that His word is kept. Those with little strength may have little gift. But something far more valuable in the Lord's eyes can mark them — obedience to His word.

The Word and the Name go together... All the heresies that have come into the world have always had their root in the abuse of the name of Christ... The great assault of Satan is against the Person of Christ, and your safeguard is holding fast that name.

No one need look for great attainments, in themselves or in others, for Philadelphia is marked by "little strength." But there is the keeping of Christ's word and not denying His name. May these features mark each one of us. To be governed by these marks is to be Philadelphian in character. But to claim the name of Philadelphia is the sure road to the state of Laodicea. Any assumption on our part is fatal to true spiritual progress.

The synagogue of Satan, as already said, is the return to Jewish principles. It puts people under law. It restores the priestly ranks and ceremonies that suited an earthly religion like Judaism, but are out of place in a heavenly religion like Christianity. Paul condemns this pouring of new wine into old wineskins as destructive to the truth entrusted to him.

In their ignorance, these teachers give up the true Christian position. They claim to be the spiritual Israel. They take Jewish promises and Jewish hopes for themselves, and they would put the consciences of Christians under the bondage of Jewish law-keeping. So they are really doing Satan's work.

We noted before that Smyrna and Philadelphia are the only two of the seven churches the Lord does not rebuke. Now we notice that both had to face the same religious opposition. Those who are the synagogue of Satan, falsely claiming to be Jews, reappear. In Paul's day Satan was already dressing up as an angel of light. It is nothing new for him to wear religious clothes.

Judaism, set aside by God, is now one of Satan's best weapons and most subtle snares. Great Babylon has built her whole structure on this foundation. With the rituals, the priestly caste and the law-keeping of an earlier time, she has pushed out what belongs to Christianity: its simplicity and open speech, its equal priesthood and completed sacrifice, its free grace and full salvation.

The Lord can subdue such as far as He sees fit. He can expose their true character, for He says, "I will make them of the synagogue of Satan." Despite their religious display, He will show them up as nothing but a Satanic imitation of the Jewish system. On the other hand, the Lord will make them acknowledge what is according to Himself.

We have translated the Greek word proskuneo as "do homage." In Greek it covers every act of reverence, from a simple bow to someone higher up to the worship of God Himself. The reader can decide what kind of homage is meant by asking who receives it and who gives it.

In their religious pride and pretensions, they scorned and despised the Lord's devoted Assembly, but Christ here promises that He would display to their adversaries how much He loved them.

We see how readily He speaks as the One who loves when He finds devotion to Himself in the Philadelphian church (Rev. 3:9). The one sentence that stands out in His words to them is "I have loved you." Others are to know that soon. Philadelphia knew it when He spoke, and it was their choicest treasure.

But the Lord will compel the recognition of His own testimony. I do not say when, where, or how; but as surely as He lives, will the Lord vindicate the truth He has given, and the testimony He has raised up for His name.

Revelation 1:9 shows what "the word of My patience" means. John calls himself "your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ." The whole present time is the time of Christ's patience. He waits at the right hand of God until His enemies are made His footstool. He has taught His people this, and given the word that directs the path, spirit and conduct of the one who waits. They wait with Christ according to the word of His patience.

The Lord can say, "You have kept the word of My patience." His patience is the patient waiting for the moment when He will assert His rights and come out as King of kings and Lord of lords. In the meantime it involves the refusal to interfere in the course of this world. If we keep the word of His patience, we shall accept the place of a stranger with a rejected Christ, and refuse to claim our rights in this world.

The wording of the promise disposes of the theory some hold that the Church, or part of it, must pass through the coming Tribulation to purge itself of its unfaithfulness. No, the guarantee is, "I also will keep you out of the hour of trial" — not brought through it, or kept in it, but complete exemption from it. Lot and Noah were preserved through the tribulations of their own day. Abraham and Enoch were kept out of those same seasons of trial. It is these last two who picture the Church.

The language could not be stronger. It reads, "I will keep you out of the hour of temptation" — the Greek word ek means "out of." The trial is worldwide, so no one can escape by fleeing from one part of the earth to another. The only way to be kept out of the hour of trial is to be taken out of time altogether.

The question is whether Scripture is clear that both of these methods hold good. Some are to be exempted from the hour of trial coming on the whole world. Others are to be kept not out of it, but through it. I have no doubt that both are true, and that God's word teaches both plainly.

This expression appears often in the book of Revelation. It does not simply mean those who live in the world. Read the various passages where this unusual term appears, and it becomes clear that "the earth-dwellers" stand in contrast to those whose citizenship is in heaven. They claim to be Christians, yet they refuse the heavenly calling. Their earthly-mindedness and worldly ways prove that they really belong to this world.

These words clearly reach much farther than the church at Philadelphia as it then existed, or any other single church. The hour of temptation has not yet come, and Philadelphia and its church were forgotten ages ago. I do not deny that there was a partial fulfilment at Philadelphia. But I am sure there is a promise here for the last days, for those who have kept the word of the patience of Jesus.

He reminded them that a time was coming when evil would be on display everywhere, almost unchecked. But they would be kept out of it, because they were keeping the word of His patience. In this way He supported and comforted their hearts then and there. When that season of fiery trial came, they would already have found their eternal joy in His own presence.

"I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown" (verse 11). This is a precious word. The Lord spoke of coming like a thief even to Sardis. Sardis had taken the world as its mistress, and let the unclean govern in place of the Lord. Here He comes as one who has a crown to give. The Lord Himself coming to meet us is the jewel He has given us to keep.

We are not to suppose that anything else must take place before the Rapture. We are to look for Christ to come at any moment, certainly not for the tribulation.

"Hold fast what you have." The characteristic possessions of Philadelphia were Christ's WORD, Christ's NAME, Christ's PATIENCE, and Christ's COMING. They had to keep them. Death, desertion, and compromise may thin the company and reduce it to a small, feeble few. But all the more need to "hold fast," and on no account surrender one bit of the truth… It is not the start, but the end, that decides fitness to wear the crown. Let go the truth and you lose the crown.

In the five churches before this one — Smyrna may be the exception — overcoming means separation from the evil in each church's own sphere of responsibility, or being kept from it. In Laodicea it means getting out of one state into another; in a word, gaining what is lacking. But overcoming in Philadelphia is simply keeping — keeping what they already have.

The crown speaks of reward. Reward is an entirely different thing from eternal life. Eternal life is the free gift of God, and none who have it will ever lose it, or perish. But we may lose our crown, and be ashamed before Him at His coming.

All God's family are recognised as crowned like kings — "we will reign with Him" — so all have the marks of royalty alike. But there is something more: the wreath of victory. I may be an overcomer by faith in Christ, and yet be without a victor's wreath.

Do not trifle with it. Do not suppose that you hold it on a lease that never runs out, or that you have insurance to protect you from the traps Satan is setting for you… "Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown." The crown will be there, the crown is sure; but it does not follow that the same soul will have it. The people may change, but the crown will be given. For the Lord will set aside the proud and lift up the humble. He can gather those who seem far off — the very people who will be found faithful when He comes to receive us to Himself.

Slackness or giving up in the Christian race may in effect forfeit a crown of reward, with another overtaking us and passing us because we lack devotion to the Lord.

For many a crown has been lost, and many a crown will be lost, if the Lord delays. Yet the one who holds fast will find Christ's arms underneath him, Christ's hands upon his hands. He will not only keep, he will be kept. In the might of Christ's victory he will stand. The crown he is given he will cast before the Giver as a trophy of His own conquest, and the fruit of His grace.

The question may arise: if the Lord has nothing to condemn in Philadelphia, what is there to overcome? The overcomer is clearly one who overcomes every effort of the enemy. The enemy works to make him give up the truth that has been revived, and to move him from the place of separation that the truth demands. In a word, the overcomer is one who "holds fast."

His progress is not marked by distinguished achievements, but he struggles on. He holds fast with a tight and tightening grip on Christ's Word, Name, patience, and coming. Life itself may be surrendered, but not the things which make up the crown of his testimony.

He will be as much marked by power in the day of glory as he is by contentedly dependent weakness in God's present ways of grace. To be a pillar in the temple of My God is as truly a figure for the day of glory as the synagogue of Satan is a figure now. For literally there is no temple in the new Jerusalem. It is the one of little strength now made clearly strong in that day and in God's blessed presence.

We cannot help thinking of those two pillars in the temple of Solomon. One was named Jachin and the other Boaz. The names are meaningful, and they show what alone can make a pillar anywhere: Jachin means "He establishes," and Boaz means "in Him is strength." If only we always remembered this! The strength is not in His creatures, but in Himself.

"Never shall he go out of it" is His answer to the place they had been in here. The time of testimony goes on here today, along with the holy privilege of drawing near as priests. But then the idea of testimony in a scene of reproach will have ceased forever. He will go out no more at all. He will remain in the sunshine of eternal love, by the Son's eternal decree and for God's eternal pleasure.

There is the administration of the throne, and the city is where the throne is set. The city is the vessel of rule in that radiant scene, and all government will flow out from it. The Lord's word here promises the devoted heart a place of rank and honour, which shows how small the distinctions people chase so eagerly today really are.

"The name of my God" is the expression of all that God is as revealed in Christ and unfolded in His word. "The name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem" is the display of God's glory in the church in her glorified condition. "And my new name" is given, for here the overcomer had not denied the name of Christ.

To write one's name on a person is a figure implying appropriation or adoption.

"And My new name." How beautifully touching this is at the end of such a wonderful message, where He speaks of His God four times over. He had undertaken to do the will of His God, and God raised Him to the highest place because of that work. God had highly exalted Him, giving Him a name above every name. That name is new. It belongs to the new resurrection world, where all His renown shines out. He would not withhold even this from them, but writes upon them His new name.

Here a notable change takes place. The call to hear begins to follow the promise, instead of coming before it. The reason is that a remnant is now formed… The Lord from now on puts the promise first. It seems there is no longer any use in expecting the church as a whole to receive it. The address is to the overcomer, and so the overcomer comes before the call to hear. In the three earlier churches the call to hear comes first. There the Lord is still dealing with the general conscience of the church. That is given up now.

In the last four churches the call to hear comes after the words of cheer to the overcomers. From this we gather that none but overcomers hear the voice of the Spirit.

Notice: the Spirit does not say "to the Church," to the one Church being addressed, but "to the Churches." The hearing ear in every assembly was to heed what the Lord had to say to each assembly. So the Spirit's word to each single assembly is described as spoken "to the Churches." It was for the concern and exercise of heart of all, not just for the local assembly spoken to.

There may be nothing to condemn in this Church. Still, the Philadelphians must hear what the Spirit has to say to the other Churches as well as to themselves. If they are to have the mind of the Lord, they must heed the message of the Lord to each of the Churches. Listening to what the Spirit says in one assembly does not release anyone from the duty to hear and act on His ministry and administration in other assemblies.

The address closes with the appeal to the individual who has an ear to hear. "Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." The Lord addresses the Church. The Spirit then applies the Lord's words in power to the individual with the opened ear.

They are not told to "hear the church," as church officials say; nor are they told to name themselves after this assembly or that. They are to hear what the Spirit says to all the assemblies… A true soul in any of these assemblies can take in what the Spirit says to his own assembly. But the one who has an ear to hear is seen as able to take in what the Spirit says to all. He is in communion with God about the state of all the assemblies. He is not only living by the Spirit, but also walking by the Spirit; for the attentive ear and obedience go together.

One of the things that the little strength secures is to keep hearing the voice of the Spirit until the Lord comes. That is a great blessing… That voice was to them, and that voice is to us. Whatever else we may forget, may we remember the Lord's words: "I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have."

To Laodicea the Lord presents Himself in a threefold way. All the promises of God are amen in Him. That is, they are firm and carried through to completion in Him. But He Himself is also "the Amen." He takes it as a title. It reminds us of the way Jehovah speaks of Himself twice in Isaiah 65:16 as "the God of truth," or word for word, "the God of Amen." The Jehovah in whom everything is made sure is the Jesus of the New Testament. And it is striking that the word "truly," so often on His lips, is really the word Amen.

As the Amen, He is the One in whom God has taken up and confirmed all His promises. They reach in every direction: to bring about every good, to overthrow every wrong, and to glorify God forever in doing it. As the Faithful Witness, He was always loyal to the One who sent Him. He loved the Father and came to do the Father's will. Whatever it cost Him, He never turned aside from that will and never shrank back from carrying it out.

He alone is "the faithful and true witness." This is exactly what the church should have been, but was not. So He has to take that place Himself. It was so before, when He was here on earth in grace. Now He must take it up again in judicial power and glory. It is hard to imagine a sharper rebuke to people whose whole duty was to be faithful and true witnesses.

The church should have walked consistently apart from the world. In its own measure that walk would have confirmed the truth of the heavenly calling and borne witness to it. Sadly, the professing church has given up the heavenly calling. It has settled down on earth and become the world. Instead of confirming, it has become the denial of the truth of God.

He is the "beginning" of all things, always, in Himself. He is that, come what may... What the church lacks, He is in Himself — "the beginning of the creation of God," the beginning of all things. Christ is what answers to the original idea in God's mind before all things. The Greek word arche means the beginning in theory and the end in practice. The main thought in building a house is to have a roof; but in practice the roof is the last thing made. The word "principle" comes nearest to the sense, though it does not give the whole idea.

Christ is not, and I think could not be, called ktisma [a created thing], for this would take away from the Creator. He is called the firstborn of all creation and also the beginning of the creation of God.

He announces Himself with this: "The Beginning of the creation of God." The old creation, spoiled by sin, is passing away. Its history is almost finished. God pronounced its judgment long ago at the cross. In Christ risen from the dead everything begins that God owns as truly His. It was first and always in His thought, and the ruin of the old only made way for it.

Laodicean teaching has man as the beginning — if it does not go further back to the ape, or even to protoplasm. And its end is man, man made into a god. If Christ comes in at all, it is as an example, an encouragement and a helper to man in his climb up the road of progress.

The pointed sentence "I know" occurs seven times, addressed to the angel of each assembly. So seven times over, a divine attribute is affirmed of our Lord: omniscience, the knowledge of everything. To weak Philadelphia this is a truth full of strength: the Lord knows in full what man does not know. To Laodicea in its lukewarmness, with its show and boast and wealth, the thought of that all-seeing eye searching the depths of the heart must be unbearable.

The first and most terrible characteristic of the Laodiceans is indifference to Christ. As regards Christ they are neither "cold nor hot." They do not hate Christ, as the worldly unbeliever does. They do not love Him with the jealous love of the true Christian. They see no beauty in His Person; they put no value on His work. In the "church" of the Laodiceans, you may think what you like about the Person and work of Christ. You may hold what you like and say what you like. It is all a matter of indifference.

There is not the gross corruption of Thyatira, nor the hopeless deadness of Sardis. There is something even more offensive to Christ. They turn His name into a means of self-exaltation, instead of loving it. There is activity in the name of Christ, plenty of works, plenty of self-satisfaction — but heartless indifference to His Person.

Had it been cold — an active position taken up — or hot — showing some spiritual activity — then the Lord could have done something with it. But an undecided, neutral position towards Christ and the truth is so hateful that it must go at once.

We have had the cold state in Sardis: death is cold enough. We have had in Philadelphia the Lord reviving things — something we may call heat. Now the mixture of these two things produces the lukewarmness He speaks of. The heat has only enough effect to change the cold into lukewarm — nothing more. There has been the effect of the truth — the truth must always have effect, God's word never returns to Him empty.

We do not agree with those who say that Laodicea's lukewarm condition springs out of the Philadelphian state of the Church. We take it that the legalism of Thyatira, the moral numbness of Sardis, and the rejection of the truth and position of Philadelphia, along with other causes, combine to produce the Laodicean condition of that church — absolute indifference to Christ.

Lukewarmness characterises the last state of profession in the assembly. It is nauseous to Christ; He will spew it out of His mouth. It was not mere lack of power, it was lack of heart — the worst of all ills. This threat is peremptory, not conditional.

Being neutral in principle and practice, they were half-hearted towards Christ. Nothing breeds neutrality faster than a position that is outwardly right, if self-judgment is not kept up with godly sincerity. The more a person stands at the front of the battle, carrying the responsible testimony of God, and the more he puts His grace and truth into words for others, the greater the danger. If his walk does not match the light, sooner or later he lapses back into neutrality, or even into active hostility.

"I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot" (verse 15). This is broad indifference. Ignorance is not what does this deadly damage. The damage comes from a heart that stays indifferent to the truth after hearing all of it. Such a person does not want the truth. He feels the sacrifice, and the separation from the world, that must follow if he really obeys it. We ought to be patient wherever ignorance is unwilling. But indifference to truth is quite another thing. It is hateful in the Lord's sight.

Being neutral in principle and practice, they were half-hearted toward Christ. Nothing produces neutrality more easily than a position that is outwardly true, when self-judgment is not kept up with godly sincerity. Think of someone standing at the front of the battle, holding the responsible testimony of God. The more His grace and truth come out in his words to others, the more it matters whether he also walks according to the light. If he does not, sooner or later he slides back into neutrality, if not into active hostility.

Christ looks at the lukewarmness with utter disgust. Because "you are neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of My mouth." Moderation is the cry of men. They want everything in respectable measure — the form of religion without any power. Christ hates this. He would rather have them dead, cold — He would then know what to do with them — if not burning hot. The so-called happy medium gives Him no pleasure. Nothing keeps me from tasting grace like having a fine outside. If I only gain a place and a good reputation for myself, and God is not glorified, I have no taste of mercy in my own soul.

The Lord cannot put up with lukewarmness. What Laodicea did not have was heart for Christ. The great thing for you and me to have is affection for Christ. That is what He values above everything — affection for Himself. That was lacking, so came the blunt threat of being spat out of His mouth.

There is neither burning zeal for His word, nor outright rejection of Christ and the Bible. Instead there is a sickening, lukewarm condition that is repulsive to the Spirit of God. Lukewarm water is itself something that makes you vomit, and this is the picture the Lord uses here.

This is the last phase of the professing Christian body. It is just about to be spat out as something Christ finds unbearably sickening. To man's eye it may look very respectable; but to the heart of Christ its condition is deeply repulsive.

He does not say when He will do it; but the decree has gone out from His lips, and will never be recalled. It means that He will reject the assembly totally and for ever as His public witness, His responsible light-bearer in the world. That is its primary application. But every believer can learn from it, for instruction and warning: nothing, no state or condition, displeases Christ like lukewarmness or indifference.

He warns the church of what is coming on it — of positive judgment. But until that judgment falls, He goes on working in His own grace. Now He reaches people one by one, for the church is given up. "If anyone opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me"; he will have his portion at my table.

Philadelphia has not a word to say for itself. Laodicea has. In fact, in almost every respect these two churches stand out in sharp contrast. "You say." The Church was not only self-satisfied; here we also have its proud boast... The city could boast of its material wealth, and the Church boasted of its riches just as much. It had added to that wealth as well: "I have prospered." There is no doubt that the Church in Laodicea had influence, numbers, gifts, showy achievements, learning, and other attractive qualities. It was proud to have them. Sadly, these things came at the cost of spiritual life and of true, warm love for Christ, and gained that way they can only count as a curse.

There is plenty of knowledge if not of truth; for there is a great difference between the two. They are rich, and increased with goods. Where did they get them? They were never given in the grace of God, but borrowed or stolen. They were truths that others had got fresh from God's word. Here they use these truths to lift up man. So the truths never touch the conscience, and they leave Christ out... There is nothing new you can tell them: they know it already.

The Church was left here to witness for Christ. It has fallen so low that it not only stops witnessing for Christ; it starts witnessing to itself. The Church stops speaking of Christ and talks about the Church. The Assembly gets all the attention, and Christ counts for little. The Assembly seeks to attract to herself and not Christ. It takes the place of Christ by claiming to be the vessel of riches and grace. Christ is outside, and yet it can say, "I have need of nothing." ... In their own estimation the Laodiceans needed nothing; in the sight of the Lord they needed everything.

"You are the wretched one and the miserable one," besides being "poor, and blind, and naked." The definite article — the word "the" — adds a lot to the point and force of the Lord's judgment of Laodicea. "The wretched" and "the miserable," or "pitiable" — misery gathered into one place, and the one object of pity above all others. They were poor, having none of the true riches. They were blind to their own state and to the Lord's glory. They were naked, having no divine righteousness.

"You say, I am rich... and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched" — there we see the Pharisee, pleased with himself and blind to his real condition. There is no true feeling, no genuine self-judgment. Leaven not only puffs up; it also makes you numb.

To the outward eye, trouble and poverty marked them... The Lord, who sees everything, saw it very differently. His surprising verdict was, "but you are rich." That is the exact opposite of what He says later to Laodicea, which claimed to be rich and in His eyes was miserably poor... All through the church's history, times of poverty and trouble have gone together with spiritual riches, and times of wealth and ease with spiritual poverty. It is the same today.

Every man and woman on earth is dependent, not self-sufficient. Some have not discovered it, and others are too proud to own it... It is not easy to confess the truth. It cuts clean across our natural pride, and discovering it is bitter. But it is the way to blessing, and it is better to confess the unpleasant truth than to hug the pleasant lie.

Laodicea's three main features were their poverty, their nakedness, and their blindness. These are the very things the Lord, ever gracious, offers to meet here. He might have commanded, but no, He counsels, "buy from Me gold refined by fire." Your right to come and buy is your need and poverty.

He says, "I counsel you to buy from Me." These words show their need of Christ, and that there is no blessing apart from Christ. They must come to Christ for true riches. What grace! He invites not only sinners who have confessed their sin, but these self-occupied, self-satisfied people who only profess faith, to come to Himself.

The first great need of the Laodicean is to have a personal transaction with Christ. That is the thought behind buying. When Christ invites us to come and buy, it is "without money and without price." This reveals the secret of the Laodicean condition. They are indifferent to Christ and full of themselves, because they have never come to know Christ personally.

The first part of the payment is to own your need, your fall, your utter poverty. You must admit that the world and pride have dimmed and blurred your eye, till you mistake error for truth.

They had been boasting in their riches, of which gold is the symbol, but their imagined wealth had not yet faced the fire. When their "goods" went up in smoke, their proud claims would perish. Fire only refines true gold, while it burns up all the showy human things that glitter. They needed a righteousness that came from God.

The gold refined by fire speaks of the righteousness of God. That righteousness is available to every sinner through the death of Christ. The sinner who believes in Christ stands before God a justified man, as clear from sins and judgment as the risen Christ.

If the gold speaks of the righteous condition in which the believer appears before God, then the white garments speak of practical righteousness in the believer's life before men (Rev. 19:8). Being clothed in white means that before men we put on the beautiful character of Christ. We show something of His lowliness and meekness, His grace and gentleness, His patience and forbearance, His holiness and sanctification.

Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together so that the shame of their nakedness would not show. Yet how useless they found them when they had to stand before God. He gave them a garment that truly covered them. So this church at Laodicea was clothing itself with works and boasting of its success, while the Lord sees it as naked.

For all their boasted scholarship and learning, the great mass of those who profess Christianity completely lack spiritual discernment. That discernment belongs to the simplest believer in Christ through the Spirit. The Apostle John can say to young believers, "the anointing that you received from Him abides in you... His anointing teaches you about everything" (1 John 2:27).

Once again, in our day, the Lord appeals from His place outside to the spiritually blind among those who profess Christianity. He says, "Anoint your eyes with salve, so that you may see" (Revelation 3:18).

The Lord does not stop at speaking to the consciences of these lukewarm Laodiceans. He will also seek to reach the heart of any true believer still left in Laodicea. He says, "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent." The Church had long since left its first love. But the Lord never left His first love for the Church. No longer can He speak of their love, yet He can still speak of His love. It is not a love that is simply pleased with them. It is a love that has to act in rebuke.

The Laodiceans seem to have felt themselves safe from both rebuke and discipline. But if we are not touched by the Lord's rebuke, we will not truly know His love... Am I going to assume that the Lord's warning is not aimed at me?

Does this principle apply to people who claim faith but are not converted? We turn to Proverbs, and there we read, "My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of His reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom He loves, as a father the son in whom he delights." (Prov. 3:11-12.) Here the Lord is clearly speaking to someone in a known relationship, as the words "my son" show... The words "As many as I love" remove any doubt. "As many" marks out a distinct class. "As I love" marks out a special relationship to that class — the Lord's own people.

The Lord had just been speaking with unusual severity. The circumstances called for it... But Christians, then and now, were to know that the Lord's rebukes, and His still more severe discipline, were the fruit of love. They were not the unpredictable treatment a human parent might give. "So be zealous and repent." The Lord would rouse them out of the numbness and dullness they had sunk into.

The church as a whole is not called upon to repent. On it the sentence is not conditional, but absolute: "I will spit you out of my mouth." But grace is always open to each person. And the Lord never stops being faithful to His own people, however far they may have sunk into the coldness or carelessness of the religious profession around them. These saints were real, yet they had caught the lukewarmness that Christ found so sickening. They needed discipline to wake their consciences to the sad state they had fallen into.

The discipline falls on "as many as I love," so that it may stir them to zeal and repentance. A zealous person is someone stirred to warm desire — the very opposite of lukewarmness. Repentance is the opposite of the self-satisfaction which marks the haughty. The spirit of Laodicea is very strong in our day, so it is right for us to pay much attention to these solemn words of our Lord.

The Lord is dealing with His people. He keeps putting something before them to humble their thoughts about themselves. He does not tell them to do or try something new. He calls on them "to repent." He does not ask them to stretch their wings for some greater flight in the future. He asks them to see where they are and to confess their failure. But a shallow, self-satisfied heart finds this tiresome.

The Lord threatens to reject this church (v. 16). Before He carries that out, He takes a place outside: "Behold, I stand at the door." In this way He disowns the whole body of people who claim the name of Christ. The Lord both knocks and speaks. What a rich display of grace in the worst of circumstances! The Lord does not order them to buy (v. 18), and He does not force His way in. In the one case He advises; in the other He knocks.

These words show that the Lord has taken a place outside the church of Laodicea. That is a solemn thing. Its wretched moral state forced Him to take this position. On the other hand, it is just as true that Laodicea has shut its door on Christ. They have shut Him out and left Him outside.

They may close their door upon Him, but they cannot close His heart against them. If they thrust Him out in utter indifference, He will wait at their door with perfect patience. He does not knock once or twice and then leave. He can say, "I stand at the door and am knocking." He keeps knocking, and He will go on knocking until the day of grace runs out.

Here in Laodicea the Lord takes a place outside. The church in name only has in practice moved into the position Israel once held. So the Lord takes His stand outside, and He calls to individual souls who are inside: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice." He wants to gain their attention. He wants them to let Him in. He warns the church of what is coming on it — real judgment. But until He carries that judgment out, He still acts in His own blessed grace. That grace now reaches individuals, because He has given up the church.

Notice the order of the response. First comes hearing His voice — His call to repentance. Then comes opening the door. The bride heard His voice, but she had no energy to open the door until it was too late. So hearing His voice is not enough. Many believers hear it and still stay where they are, tied to evil company.

First, "I will come in to him" — not into Laodicea, whose doom is settled. He comes in to the person who, by grace, has opened the door… "I will eat with him." That is, "I will come down to where he is, and share fellowship with him in his things." How wonderful that He should come down so low! But He eats with the one who opened the door for a reason. He wants to lead that person up into the higher blessing of eating with Him, of sharing fellowship with Him in His things, of communion with Himself.

The letters to the first five churches hold no promise that comes true on earth. The letter to Philadelphia holds a promise that comes true as they are caught up from earth. But this last letter holds a promise to enjoy down here — the presence of Christ in close, blessed fellowship.

Here the Lord makes this most solemn and weighty appeal not to the sinner outside, but to the professing Church. Christ is not knocking at the door of the sinner's heart, true as that is too. He is knocking at the door of those inside the professing Church.

Is this how Christ offers Himself as a Saviour to the unconverted? If it is, there is nothing else like it in the Scriptures… To hold this view is also to assume that the unconverted have power of their own. Opening the door goes far beyond simply believing the gospel message.

The Lord's words to Laodicea distinguish them very plainly. These messages present Him as Son of Man. His own throne, therefore, is clearly what belongs to Him as Man, in contrast with the Father's throne, the divine one. It is plain at once that He promises His saints a seat with Him on the first throne, but no one could sit on the other unless He were Himself divine.

The Lord Jesus is not yet seated on His own throne. When He was on earth He had no throne. When He went to heaven, He sat down on His Father's throne... When this promise is fulfilled, He must have left His Father's throne and sat down on His own throne. It is a future thing.

Look at the history of the life of Christ. It was a life of testing and suffering until He reached the cross... Opposition and contempt brought out everything that was in Him. His path grew darker and darker down to the cross. He had to overcome Satan, and He promises others that the one who overcomes will sit with Him on His throne, just as He overcame and sat down with His Father on His throne.

Overcoming here means hearing the voice of Christ and opening the door to Him. This involves judging the condition of Laodicea and separating from it in heart and practice. Everyone who overcomes in this way will sit with Christ on His throne.

Most people have closed the door on Christ. The one who overcomes the indifference of Laodicea and opens the door to Him will enjoy more than secret fellowship with Christ in the day of His rejection. He will also share Christ's place in the open display of the day of His glory. Christ overcame a world that rejected the Father, and He has sat down on His Father's throne. The one who overcomes a world that has rejected Christ will sit down with Christ on His throne.

To sit with Christ on His throne is a distinction of power. As a reward it has a grand, glorious, majestic, dignified character. But it lacks the share of Christ's personal affection that Christ promises to the overcomer in Philadelphia.

Some have supposed that this shows an unusually rich kind of blessing. But this is a mistake. There is no special reward here, for it is the common portion of all believers. Still, here as in the other cases, the promise fits exactly... He had let Christ into his heart and known Him in secret fellowship down here. His reward is a place in Christ's own portion in the kingdom and glory up there. The Father received Christ the overcomer up to His own throne, the mark of the Father's approval and love. In the same way, Christ will receive the overcomer who let Him into his heart up to His own throne, the mark of Christ's approval and love.

We come now to the solemn close of these addresses, the Lord's last word to the churches. It is very striking that we come to that close here, just after that letter to Philadelphia, where we have seen a real return of heart to Christ and a true revival by His Word and Spirit.

The call is to hear the message of the Spirit to the Churches, not just the word to the particular assembly at Laodicea at that time. So it is clear that these messages have been recorded and preserved for the benefit of the whole Church at all times, even for ourselves today.

In these addresses we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit... But while the Spirit speaks to the churches, it is individuals who are called to hear. The Church as a whole is seen as a body deaf to the pleadings or warnings of the Spirit. So the churches are not called upon to hear, but individuals are: "He who has an ear to hear, let him hear." Recovery of the whole body is hopeless. That is why individual responsibility, always of first importance, is pressed harder and more constantly.

Such a message from the Lord "to the one who has an ear" carries unspeakably solemn power. It contradicts the twisted cry "hear the church." It calls on every faithful soul to "hear what the Spirit says to the churches." The church never was a standard of truth — only God's word is... Christ is the truth, and the Spirit is the power that works inwardly and brings it home. But when decay and false teaching set in, the outward professing church ceased to be even a reliable witness.

The call to hear begins to follow the promise, instead of coming before it. The reason is that a remnant is now formed... The Lord from then on puts the promise first, and this apparently because there is no use any longer in expecting the church as a whole to receive it. In the three previous churches the call to hear is first, because the Lord is still dealing with the general conscience of the church. That is given up now.

It is "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." An ear to hear. It is the very lowest qualification. It is not, Can you work? — can you do anything? Israel in the wilderness had no ear, and was overthrown; so will you be also if you have none. God says: Has my word any entrance into your hearts? Have you got blessing from anything I have ever said to you? Here is my challenge to you: "He who has an ear, let him hear."

The address closes with the deeply important call to the one who has an ear, to listen to what the Spirit has to say to the churches. All may not be Laodicean in the full sense, but all are in danger of the Laodicean spirit, and so comes the warning to hear the Spirit's voice. The one who hears will judge every tendency to indifference to Christ, to self-importance and to self-sufficiency. He will take his place apart from what is so soon to be spit out of Christ's mouth. He will make room for Christ to eat with Him in the day of His rejection, while waiting to reign with Him in the day of His glory.