What is the meaning of the two-edged sword coming out of Jesus' mouth in Revelation 1:16?

— “Out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword.” The execution of divine judgment by the simple force of His Word — judgment, too, which cannot be warded off — for the sword as two-edged is the force of the figure. We never read of our Lord personally putting His hand on His enemies. He speaks, and it is done. His personal word is the point here, as the written Word in Hebrews 4:12. 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). At the commencement of the millennial reign we witness one of the saddest sights on earth, the congregated nations of the west, etc., under their leaders in open defiance of the Lamb of God (Rev. 19:19-21). The sword of the Almighty Victor, the resistless energy of His Word, finds out His enemies, and the universal slaughter of the multitudinous hosts of Gentiles glorifies His righteousness “in taking vengeance” on those who refuse to own His sceptre.

— “His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.” Once the vile spittle of men rested on His patient face (Matt. 26:67), now divine glory, more brilliant far, more resplendent than the midday tropical sun, is here seen in the face of the Lord. “The sun in his strength,” on which no mortal eye can gaze, images forth the supreme glory of Jesus, Son of Man. We may remark that Christ is spoken of as the Light of the World (John 8. 12), as the Sun of Righteousness to Israel (Mal. 4:2), and as the Bright and Morning Star to the Church (Rev. 22:16). Hengstenberg draws a contrast between the glory of the sun and that of the stars (1 Cor. 15:41), applying the lesson to the transcendent glory of Christ (the sun), to that of His ministers (the stars). The stars are mere reflectors. They have no independent light of their own. In the matchless yet simple story of creation (Gen. 1) the distinguishing orbs for day and night are appointed their place in relation to this earth, and then it is added as a matter of small import, “the stars also” (v. 16). Would that every servant would lay it to heart. Is there not in this a lesson to every minister? We are but of trifling importance save as held in the right hand of Christ. It is the servant’s connection with the Lord which alone imparts dignity.

Official description follows in verse 16. "And he had in his right hand seven stars," the emblem of the angels, or representative rulers, of the seven churches. "A sharp two-edged sword," the word of judgment, not morally alone, but to death where needed, and this even against the apostles at the end, went out of His mouth; because in the Lord Jesus Christ to speak the word is at once to strike the blow. "He spake, and it was done." "His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." Supreme authority in government was His as man. Such He was officially. The churches angels were represented as "stars" only, as being of course subordinate to the Lord as instruments of heavenly light. Clearly then we have in the Lord sovereign authority, and universal in its range, as the stars are His administrative lights in the churches, which He maintains by His power. He judges by His word those who have it or refuse it.

364 Then, "out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword," i.e., the word in judgment. "And he had in his right hand seven stars" - subordinate authority. "His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength" - supreme sovereign authority and glory.

"And out of His mouth went a sharp two edged sword." The word of God is likened to a sharp two-edged sword, and though this refers to its power on the conscience, it is no less sharp in judgment also. "He that rejects me," said our Lord, "and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." (John 12:48.) He threatens the evil-doers in Pergamos to "fight against them with the sword of my mouth" (Rev. 2:16); and the followers of the beast are "slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth." (Rev. 19:21.) So Isaiah, foretelling His coming, says, He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall He slay the wicked." (Isa. 11:4.)

"And His countenance was as the sun shines in his strength." Nothing can more strikingly picture His power and glory than this figure of the noonday sun. As the greatest of God's visible works, it is the symbol of supreme authority, "the greater light" which He has created "to rule the day." This was the glory in which John and his companions beheld him when He "was transfigured before them, and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light." (Matt. 17:2.) The transfiguration was the testimony which God gave to chosen witnesses of "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:16); and in this book, where his coming "with clouds" is the great climax to which everything tends, we behold Him clothed in the same glory.

Sixth, "Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword." This is the Word of God that judges all things. So we find that in these messages to the seven churches, He speaks, His Word judges and His eye discerns everything, even through that which outwardly seems very good, as we shall see with Ephesus, where He could commend all the wonderful things, but that holy eye could see underneath it all the root of deterioration and departure, the leaving of the first and chief love, and judge it. Oh, that we would realize more that we have to do with the Word of God, this sharp two-edged sword and that we would use it more in self-judgment.

"Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword." Everything is judged by His infallible word, a sword with two edges that deals not only with outward conduct, but is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:12-13).

The two-edged sword, which goes forth from His mouth, is clearly the word employed in judgment. As His glance detects, so His word reaches and deals unsparingly with evil, and those who allow it. I suppose that "making war against them with the sword of my mouth" is to be understood as the word applied in judgment.

First of all, "His head and His hair are white as white wool, as snow," — the character plainly of the Ancient of days, but where the years which should teach man wisdom only furnish the symbol for One with whom what is human attainment is perfect and original. The wisdom that is His is dazzling with its purity. It is absolute righteousness and holiness, and nothing else; and these, which in His eyes are as a flame of fire, search out everything before them, and they are in His feet like white (-hot) brass glowing in a furnace, — judgment resulting from a nature incapable of change, unmistakable, ever against evil. His voice, too, that with which He gives sentence, is as the sound of many waters, as the sound of that ocean which reduces man so easily to his native littleness and impotence. With all this, He has in His right hand, firmly held, those seven stars which we are presently told are the angels of the seven assemblies; not the candlesticks, notice, but the stars: for the candlesticks are earthly profession, but the stars are heavenly reality. Where He finds this, all the strength of His right hand is there to uphold it. But immediately we return to the character of judgment in the sharp, two-edged sword which, when He comes in judgment, proceeds out of His mouth. Yet His Word is, as we know, like a sharp, two-edged sword, "piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." His countenance is radiant as the sun in its strength. The day has not yet come for earth, but here is the One who will bring in the day; and for faith already here is One in whose face all the glory of God is.

Now that is the word of God — living, operative. Ah, the dust may gather upon your Bibles and upon your hearts, but that is the living Word, and wherever it has an entrance it does its work, it shows its power. How wide-reaching that work is in conviction, which seems to be the main thought in this connection. How all the thoughts of the sinner's heart are laid bare by the word of God! All his armor wherein he trusted is taken away! The bow drawn at a venture pierces between the joints of the harness, and all the self-righteousness, all the indifference and the pride of man, must fall before this living, energetic Word. It is "sharper than any two-edged sword."

We read of our blessed Lord that "a sharp, two-edged sword proceeded out of His mouth" when John saw Him, as in the beginning of Revelation; and at the close again, when the "sharp sword" of the Spirit, which is the word of God, proceeds out of His month. A two-edged sword cuts in every direction, not merely those who are grossly and obviously immoral, nor only those who in the sight of men are sinners, but this sword cuts also those who in their pride and morality despise others, and think they have no need of God's mercy.

Returning now to Christ, John says: "And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." (vv. 15, 16.) In these few brief sentences the coming of Christ in judgment, the execution of God's vengeance, the establishment of His throne, the subjection of all kings and all nations to His sway, and His supreme exaltation in the earth, are all comprised. It is the complete fulfilment of the second Psalm. The sharp sword, as the reader already knows, is the word of God, according to which the nations will be judged, and with which they will be judicially smitten. "The rod of iron" expresses the absolute and inflexible character of His government, while the winepress, as the connection shows, as well as the vintage judgment of Rev. 14 speaks of the unsparing and unmitigated vengeance which will be poured out upon that awful day. It is through judgment, because of what man is, that the Lord will establish His kingdom and sovereignty over the whole earth, when He will be publicly and universally owned as "King of kings, and Lord of lords."