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.
But thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, because they are worthy.
Sardis had a name for being alive, but the Lord saw death there. Even so, He points to a few people who had kept their garments clean — so what stains a garment, and how can anyone be "worthy" to walk with Him?
Numbers and influence were on the popular side at Sardis. The few had no public standing at all — so what did they have?
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."
The Lord is counting persons here, not a crowd. Their stain is not gross corruption but something quieter: the world taken into the heart, and a life shaped to keep its company.
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.
The world outside is one source of stain. It is not the only one.
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.
Notice what the Lord does not promise here. He does not speak of two or three gathered to His name; He speaks of a person walking with Him.
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.
All believers will wear white. So what marks these people out? One writer finds the answer not in the robe but in the walk that goes with it.
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.
Where does this walk end, and what makes them worthy? One writer answers both, and traces the worthiness back to grace alone.
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.
- Few — the crowd had the reputation. These few had no office and no fame, yet the Lord knew each one by name.
- Undefiled — the stain of Sardis was not scandal. It was the world welcomed into the heart, and a life shaped to keep its company.
- Untainted twice over — clean of the world outside, and clean of the evil inside the circle of God's professing people.
- Walking — the promise is personal, not made to a group. Separation from the world now leads to walking with Christ Himself.
- Worthy — all the redeemed wear white. Walking with Him in it is His open approval of a life kept unspotted. The worthiness itself is grace's reckoning over a brand plucked from the fire.
He that overcomes, *he* shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, and will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
Sardis had a name for life, but the Lord judged it dead, and only a few there had kept their garments clean. To them, and to anyone who overcomes in such a place, He makes three promises: white clothing, a kept name, and a name confessed before His Father.
The three rewards match, point by point, what had gone wrong in the assembly.
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.
The white clothing answers to the walk that came before it.
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.
Revelation uses white robes more than once, and one of those places explains the picture.
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.
Commentators read the book of life here in different ways. Some take it as the record of profession, listing real and unreal names alike.
"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.
Others hold that no name in the book of life is ever removed, and read the promise as pure reassurance.
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.
Both readings meet at the same practical point: human registers and God's record are not the same list.
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."
The Lord's honour points back to how little the man's name counted among people.
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?
- Name — Sardis had a name to live and was dead. Every promise here is about a name that is real.
- Garments — a real name shows in a clean walk now. That walk becomes the white clothing worn later: "the robes they wear in glory are woven in the path that leads to glory."
- Register — men can erase a name from their own lists. Commentators differ on whether this book records profession or only the elect, but God's record stands.
- Confession — a name of little account among men is the name Christ announces before His Father and His angels.
- Reach — the promise is for "the one who conquers". It is open to any believer surrounded by dead religion, however few and unnoticed.
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
The letter to Sardis ends the way all seven letters end — not with a demand on the congregation, but with an appeal to whoever is willing to listen. In Sardis only "a few names" were left, and this closing line asks who there still has an ear open to God.
The message came from the risen Christ, yet the closing call names the Spirit as the one speaking. One writer traces both voices back to a single source:
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.
The Spirit's speaking did not stop with John. Hamilton Smith points to His ongoing work of making Christ known:
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.
Everyone has ears. The verse asks for something rarer, and the tone behind the call is longing, not scolding:
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?
A reference work traces the ear as a symbol from the law of the servant through to these seven letters:
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 letters this appeal comes before the promise to the overcomer. From the fourth letter onward — including Sardis — the order flips:
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.
Each letter goes to one assembly, but the listener must weigh what the Spirit says to all of them:
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.
That widens the mirror. No reader gets to file six of these letters under other people's problems:
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.
The appeal is to one person — he who has an ear — and it holds even when the numbers shrink to almost nothing:
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.
- One voice. What Christ says, the Spirit says; the Lord spoke to John, and the Spirit still takes the things of Christ and shows them to us.
- One ear. Everyone has ears. This call asks for the ear that heeds, like the servant who chose to hear one master only. It takes spiritual discernment to catch the meaning.
- One position. In Sardis the promise comes before the call, marking out a remnant; only those who overcome will hear the Lord's voice by His Spirit.
- One scope. The Spirit speaks to the churches, so every letter is your letter — no failure described in them is beyond us.
- One listener is enough. Where only "a few names" remain, individual faithfulness is still met with the personal welcome of Christ.