Revelation — Chapter 3

Authorship & Background

Map & Geography

• Sardis (v.1, v.4): City in Asia Minor; one of the seven churches in Revelation.
• Philadelphia (v.7): City in Asia Minor; one of the seven churches in Revelation.
• Jerusalem (v.12): Capital of Judah; the holy city where the Temple stood.

Places on this map

• JerusalemJerusalemA hill town about 2,500 feet up in the central spine of Judah, roughly 35 miles inland from the Mediterranean and 15 miles west of the Jordan. It sits on no trade route and has no river, which is why it mattered as a fortress and a sanctuary rather than as a market. Wikipedia
• SardisSart, TurkeyThe old Lydian capital on a spur of Mount Tmolus, thought unassailable and twice taken by night because nobody watched the cliff. Its letter tells it to wake up. Wikipedia
• Asia MinorTurkeyThe peninsula between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, a high dry plateau ringed by mountains with the Greek cities on its western coast. Roman Asia, the province Paul worked from Ephesus, was only its western end. Wikipedia
• PhiladelphiaAlasehir, TurkeyA frontier town on the road east from Sardis, in earthquake country, founded to spread Greek culture inland, which suits a letter about an open door. Wikipedia

Towns sit on their excavated or traditional site. Regions, rivers and seas are ringed rather than dotted, because for those a single point is only an anchor. Coastlines from Natural Earth.

Deep Dive

Setting: These are the last three of the seven letters the risen Jesus dictates to John on Patmos, probably about AD 95. The messenger's route now turns inland and south: Sardis, Philadelphia, then Laodicea in the Lycus valley. The pattern is the same as chapter 2. Christ is introduced from the vision of chapter 1. Then come "I know your works," praise or rebuke, a call to hear "what the Spirit says to the churches," and a promise "to the one who conquers." The range is striking. Sardis and Laodicea get almost no praise, and Philadelphia gets no rebuke at all.

On the readings: historicists often place Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea as the last three ages of church history, Laodicea being the lukewarm church just before the end. Preterist and idealist readers see seven kinds of church found in every century. Futurists treat them as real first-century letters. Some futurists also see the church ages, and many read the promise of v10 as a hint of the rapture. All the readings take the warnings and promises as meant for churches today.

To the Church in Sardis (vv1–6)

• "Him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars" (v1). The seven spirits are the Holy Spirit in his fullness (1:4). The stars are the churches' angels (1:20). A dead church needs the Spirit who gives life, held in Christ's hand.
• "You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead" (v1). Sardis had been the capital of the rich kingdom of Lydia under Croesus, a byword for wealth, and coins were probably first minted there. By John's day it lived on past glory. The church had caught the same disease: a name, but no life. The letter mentions no persecution and no false teachers. The church seems to have been too comfortable to be worth attacking.
• "Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die" (v2). "Wake up" is literally "become watchful." Sardis stood on a high, steep citadel thought to be unclimbable. It fell twice because no one was watching: to Cyrus of Persia about 546 BC, and to Antiochus III about 214 BC. Both times soldiers climbed the cliff unseen. The church should learn from its city's history.
• "I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God" (v2). "Complete" means fulfilled, brought to full measure. They started things and didn't finish them. The works looked fine to people, but not "in the sight of my God."
• "Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent" (v3). The cure isn't something new. It's going back to the gospel they first received (1 Cor 15:1–3). This is the same three-step pattern as Ephesus: remember, keep, repent.
• "I will come like a thief" (v3). This is Jesus' own picture (Matt 24:43), used by Paul (1 Thess 5:2) and again in Revelation 16:15. Here it is most likely a visit in judgment on this church. Many readers also hear the Second Coming in it. A thief comes when no one is watching, which is exactly how Sardis fell before.
• "A few names in Sardis… who have not soiled their garments… they will walk with me in white" (v4). Even in a dead church, Jesus knows faithful people by name. "Soiled" means stained or smeared. White robes in Revelation mean purity, victory and the washing of the Lamb's blood (7:14). Sardis was a centre of wool dyeing, and pagan worshippers were not supposed to approach their gods in dirty clothes.
• "I will never blot his name out of the book of life" (v5). The book of life is God's register of his people (Exod 32:32–33; Dan 12:1; Phil 4:3; Rev 20:15). Cities kept registers of citizens and struck out the names of criminals and the dead. Jesus phrases the promise as a strong double negative: "never." Christians disagree about the reverse: - Some think a believer's name could be removed by falling away, and that this is the warning side of the promise. - Others take it as pure assurance: Jesus says what he will never do, not what he sometimes does.

Either way, the text is meant to comfort the faithful few.

• "I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels" (v5). This echoes Jesus in the Gospels (Matt 10:32; Luke 12:8).
• Commentators: Henry sums up Sardis: "There was a form of godliness, but not the power, a name to live, but not a principle of life." He blames the decline on carelessness: they "had let down their watch." He adds, "God takes notice of the smallest number of those who abide with him; and the fewer they are the more precious in his sight." JFB notes that "be watchful" is literally "become waking," something they were not. He calls the "never" in v5 a strong double negative, "not by any means." Guzik ties the letter to the city's two falls from its citadel. He draws the lesson that people are often most at risk where they feel strongest. He takes the book-of-life warning seriously while stressing assurance for those who keep faith.

To the Church in Philadelphia (vv7–13)

• "The holy one, the true one, who has the key of David" (v7). "The Holy One" is God's title in Isaiah (Isa 40:25). "True" means genuine, the real thing as opposed to an imitation. The key comes from Isaiah 22:22. There, Eliakim was given the key of King David's house: what he opened no one could shut. Jesus holds that authority in full. He decides who enters the kingdom, whatever the synagogue down the road says (v9).
• Philadelphia's setting. The name means "brotherly love." It honoured King Attalus II, famous for his loyalty to his brother. The city sat on an important road east into Phrygia and was founded to spread Greek culture there. It lay in an earthquake zone, and after the great quake of AD 17 many residents lived outside the city in fear of falling buildings.
• "I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut" (v8). This most likely means a door of opportunity for the gospel (1 Cor 16:9; 2 Cor 2:12; Col 4:3), set right on the road to the east. It may also mean the door into the kingdom, opened by the one with David's key, even if the synagogue shut them out.
• "You have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name" (v8). This was a small, weak church, and Jesus doesn't scold it for being small. Faithfulness, not size, is what he praises. Like Smyrna, Philadelphia receives no rebuke.
• "I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you" (v9). Isaiah promised that the nations would bow before Israel (Isa 45:14; 49:23; 60:14). Here the promise is turned around. Opponents who called themselves the true Israel will recognise that these Gentile and Jewish believers are the ones Christ loves. As in Smyrna (2:9), this is about a specific hostile group, not Jewish people in general. The bowing is to acknowledge God's love for the church, not to worship believers (19:10).
• "I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world" (v10). This is one of the most debated verses in the book. "Keep" picks up "you have kept my word": because they kept, he will keep. The views: - Pre-tribulation futurists read "keep you from" (tērēsō ek) as removal before a future worldwide tribulation, and see a hint of the rapture. - Other futurists, and many historicists, read it as protection through the trial. They point out that Jesus uses the same phrase in John 17:15: "not that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one." - Preterists see a first-century trial on the Roman world. - Idealists see the recurring trials that test every generation.

All agree that Christ will guard his faithful people. "Those who dwell on the earth" is Revelation's regular phrase for unbelievers (6:10; 13:8).

• "I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown" (v11). The crown is the victor's wreath (2:10). Nobody can steal what is held fast, but it can be let go.
• "I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it" (v12). In a city where buildings fell in earthquakes and people fled into the fields, Jesus promises a permanent place. Pillars were also sometimes inscribed in honour of a city's leading men. The faithful will bear three names: - God's, as a mark of ownership; - the new Jerusalem's, as a mark of citizenship (21:2, 10); - Christ's new name, as a mark of belonging (19:12).

Philadelphia itself had taken new names twice, in honour of emperors who helped it rebuild. Jesus gives the name that will last.

• Commentators: Henry finds comfort for weak believers: "True grace, though weak, has the divine approbation". He says of the open door, "I have set it open, and kept it open, though there be many adversaries." He reads v10 as a season of testing in which Christ keeps his people: "After a day of patience we must expect an hour of temptation". JFB reads "keep from" the same way, as protection "not to exempt from temptation." He notes that the new Jerusalem is "new" in kind (kainē), not just recent. Guzik presents both the protection-through reading and the pre-tribulation rapture reading fairly. He leans toward the rapture view because "from" is not "through." All three, with the Tyndale notes, agree that the promise is Christ's protection of a faithful church.

To the Church in Laodicea (vv14–22)

• "The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation" (v14). "Amen" means "so be it, it is true." Isaiah 65:16 calls the Lord "the God of truth," which in Hebrew is literally "the God of Amen." Jesus is God's final "yes" (2 Cor 1:20). "Beginning" is archē, which can mean first in time, but also origin, source or ruler. Some groups, including Jehovah's Witnesses, have used this verse to argue that Jesus was the first thing created. The lexicon instead lists this verse under Christ as the uncreated source and active cause of creation, which fits John 1:3 and Colossians 1:15–18. The Laodiceans may have known Paul's letter to nearby Colossae, which says the same thing (Col 4:16).
• "You are neither cold nor hot… because you are lukewarm… I will spit you out of my mouth" (vv15–16). "Lukewarm" is chliaros, used only here in the New Testament. The local geography explains the picture: - Hierapolis, six miles north, had hot mineral springs good for healing. - Colossae, ten miles east, had cold, clear, refreshing water. - Laodicea had no good water of its own. Its water came by aqueduct and arrived tepid and full of minerals, the kind that makes a person retch.

So "hot" and "cold" are probably both good: healing and refreshing. The problem isn't that the Laodiceans are lukewarm in feeling. It's that they are useless. The older reading, that "cold" means open hostility and is better than half-heartedness, is still common and makes a real point. The local setting suggests the simpler meaning.

• "I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing" (v17). Laodicea was a banking centre. After an earthquake in AD 60, it turned down help from Rome and rebuilt with its own money, as the historian Tacitus records. The church sounds like its city. Jesus answers with five words: "wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked."
• "Buy from me gold refined by fire… white garments… salve to anoint your eyes" (v18). Each remedy answers one of the city's sources of pride: - its banks, with true riches (1 Pet 1:7); - its famous glossy black wool, with white robes to cover shame; - its medical school, known for a Phrygian eye powder, with sight only Christ can give.

"Buy" echoes Isaiah 55:1: "come, buy… without money." What Jesus sells is free, but only to those who admit they are poor.

• "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent" (v19). This is the most severe letter, and it contains a tender word. "Love" here is phileō, the warm love of friendship, which the lexicon confirms. The line comes from Proverbs 3:12 (Heb 12:6). "Be zealous" (zēleuō) and "hot" (zestos) both come from the Greek root for boiling, so Jesus calls the lukewarm to boil.
• "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him" (v20). In context, Jesus stands outside his own church, knocking. It is a heartbreaking picture. The appeal is to "anyone," one person at a time. Christians have long, and rightly, used the verse to invite unbelievers to Christ, but its first audience was a church. The meal (deipnon, the main evening meal) speaks of fellowship and looks ahead to the marriage supper of the Lamb (19:9). It echoes the lover knocking in Song of Songs 5:2.
• "I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne" (v21). The greatest promise of all seven letters is given to the worst church. Jesus conquered by the cross and sat down at the Father's right hand (Heb 1:3). Those who conquer share his rule (2:26–27; 20:4; 2 Tim 2:12). This verse also sets up chapters 4–5, where John sees that very throne and the Lamb who conquered.
• Commentators: Henry calls lukewarmness "the worst temper in the world" and reads v20 as Christ graciously coming "to the door of the heart of sinners." So he applies it to individuals, as evangelists do. JFB says "Self-sufficiency is the fatal danger of a lukewarm state," hears "gentle and loving irony" in v18, and sees hope in v21: "The highest place is within reach of the lowest". JFB also takes "cold" as icy indifference, and Guzik does too, contrary to the water-supply reading. Guzik applies the city's name, roughly "rule of the people," to a church run by popular opinion. He says firmly that "beginning" means ruler or source, not first created, which matches the lexicon. He also notes that "be zealous" shares its root with "hot." Guzik discusses the church-ages scheme and finds it helpful only loosely: every age has all seven kinds of church in it.

Pointing to Christ

Again, every letter begins with Jesus. He holds the Spirit and the stars. He is the Holy and True one with David's key. He is God's Amen and the source of creation. He sees through the reputation of Sardis, the weakness of Philadelphia and the self-satisfaction of Laodicea. To the faithful few he gives white robes; to the weak church, an open door no one can shut; to the proud church, refined gold and his own knock at the door. The letters end with the conqueror sitting on Christ's throne "as I also conquered." The next scene opens on that throne, and on the Lamb who conquered by being slain.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik covers each church with historical context, spiritual diagnosis, Christ's counsel, and promises to overcomers.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Revelation -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

Links open on the publisher's own site. Nothing here is reproduced on this page.

Reflection

• A Reputation Without Reality (v.1) — Sardis has a name for being alive but is spiritually dead. Is there a gap between how people see your faith and what's actually true underneath?
• An Open Door and Little Strength (v.8) — Philadelphia is commended not for power but for faithfulness with the opportunity Christ gave them. What door has God opened for you that you haven't fully walked through?
• The Danger of Lukewarmness (vv.15-17) — Laodicea is neither cold nor hot, and confident in a wealth that leaves it spiritually poor. Where might you be comfortable and self-sufficient in ways that have cooled your dependence on God?
• Christ Knocking at the Door (v.20) — To a self-satisfied church, Christ says He stands outside, knocking. Is there an area of your life where you've shut Him out through busyness or self-reliance?