And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis write These things saith he that has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
The fifth of the seven letters opens with no word of praise — only a verdict. He first names two things He holds. Then He tells Sardis that its reputation and His verdict are two different things.
Each title He claims bears on the state He is about to describe.
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.
One Spirit is in view here, not seven, and His power reaches beyond the church.
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.
To Ephesus the Lord held the stars in His right hand. Here the wording changes.
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.
Yet the same fact is meant to lift the church, not only rebuke it. Everything Sardis lacks is held by the One addressing it.
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.
The Lord addresses this letter to one figure. That figure stands for more than himself.
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.
What went wrong at Sardis was not scandal. That is what makes the verdict so searching.
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.
Onlookers hand out reputations, and they can only see so far.
Mere profession may make a name before people, who only look at the outside. It is not life before Christ, who reads the heart.
"I know your works" is not a passing remark. His verdict rests on full knowledge, and it reaches far past one city.
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.
No one escapes this word by saying they belong somewhere else.
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.
- Name. People hand out reputations from the outside. Nothing escapes the Lord's notice, and His verdict comes from the One who reads the heart. The two can contradict each other.
- Nothing. Sardis is the first church where He finds nothing to praise. The fault was not scandal. It was correct creeds and proper conduct with the life gone.
- Not held. The stars are still His, but no longer said to be in His right hand. In practice man had seized what belongs to Christ.
- Nothing lacking in Him. He presents Himself as holding the Spirit in full power — the very thing Sardis lacks. He meets and makes up all that His church lacks.
- Now. This word is not aimed only at some other church or century. Anyone can carry a name to live and be dead.
Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die, for I have not found thy works complete before my God.
Sardis had a name for being alive, and the Lord calls it dead. His remedy in this verse raises two questions: what is still alive in a dying church, and by what measure does God call works complete?
The Lord is not correcting weak watchfulness. He tells them to start watching at all.
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.
Watchfulness is not one act but a settled habit. It goes together with prayer.
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).
Something is still there. It is small, but the Lord tells them to build it up rather than write it off.
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.
Strengthening is more than attacking what is wrong. The work is to take hold of truth and let it shape you.
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.
Older versions translate this word "perfect"; the ESV says "complete." It is not the usual word for moral perfection.
"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 fault was not corruption. It lay in what drove the works.
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.
Decline in the church does not move the line God measures by.
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.
Commentators often read Sardis as a picture of the years after the Reformation. That age recovered justification by faith — God counting a person righteous through faith — but much was left untouched.
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.
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- Wake: The call is to become watchful. The drooping state is itself proof that watching had stopped.
- Guard: What remains is real but weak. The Church needs the trowel that builds up more than the sword that tears down.
- Complete: The word means filled up or finished. Their activity never reached its full measure before God.
- Motive: The fault was not corruption. It was character and motive — the works had too much of man in them.
- Standard: God never lowers His measure when a church declines. That is why a mere name for life is so dangerous.
Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and keep [it] and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come [upon thee] as a thief, and thou shalt not know at what hour I shall come upon thee.
Sardis had a name for being alive, but it was dead. The Lord's cure is not a new plan but a return — remember, keep, repent — and if the church will not wake up, He will come to it as He comes to the world.
The commentators work from an older wording here: "how you received and heard," and "hold fast" where the ESV has "keep it." One writer takes the three commands one at a time:
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 Lord names two things, not one — what they were given, and what they were taught:
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.
And both come from the Head of the church, not from its own system:
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.
The danger is sharpest right after a recovery of truth:
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."
Scripture keeps two things apart: the Lord's coming for His own, and the day of the Lord coming on the world.
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.
So the Lord turns them in two directions — back to the past, and on to His coming:
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.
The message went to a church, but it lands on each person:
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?
- Remember — the "how" points back to the earnestness of the first days, and shows up the deadness of the present.
- Received and heard — grace given and truth taught. Together they set the measure of responsibility by which the Lord judges.
- Hold fast — after a recovery of truth, the temptation is to rest in the form of it and let the truth slip.
- Repent — the call is to self-judgment for a low spiritual condition and a poor walk.
- Watch — a church that will not watch meets the Lord as the world does. The thief picture belongs to judgment, never to His coming for those who wait for Him.