Albert Barnes Commentary Revelation 12:11

"And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death." — Revelation 12:11 (ASV)

And they overcame him. That is, he was foiled in his attempt in this way to destroy the church. The reference here, undoubtedly, is primarily to the martyr age and the martyr spirit. The meaning is that religion had not become extinguished by these accusations, as Satan hoped it would be, but lived and triumphed.

By their holy lives, by their faithful testimony, and by their patient sufferings, they showed that all these accusations were false and that the religion they professed was from God. In this way, they in fact gained a victory over their accuser.

Instead of being subdued themselves, Satan himself was vanquished, and the world was compelled to acknowledge that the persecuted religion had a heavenly origin.

No design was ever more ineffectual than that of crushing the church by persecution; no victory was ever more remarkable than that which was gained when it could be said that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church."

By the blood of the Lamb. This refers to the Lord Jesus—the Lamb of God (Revelation 5:6).

The blood of Christ was that through which they were redeemed, and it was by the efficacy of the atonement that they were enabled to achieve victory .

Christ himself achieved a victory over Satan by his death (Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:15), and it is through the victory he achieved in this way that we are now able to triumph over our great enemy.

"I ask them from where their victory came;
They, with united breath,
Ascribe their conquest to the Lamb,
Their triumph to his death."

And by the word of their testimony. This refers to the faithful testimony they bore to the truth.

That is, they adhered to the truth in their sufferings; they declared their belief in it, even in the pains of martyrdom. It was by this means they overcame the great enemy; that is, through this, belief in the gospel was established and maintained in the world.

The reference here is to the effects of persecution and to the efforts of Satan to drive religion from the world by persecution.

John says that the result, as he saw it in vision, was that the persecuted church bore a faithful testimony to the truth, and that the great enemy was overcome.

And they loved not their lives unto the death. They did not love their lives so much that they were unwilling to die as martyrs.

They did not shrink back when threatened with death but remained firm in their attachment to their Savior, leaving their dying testimony to the truth and power of religion.

It was by these means that Christianity was established in the world. John, in the scene before us, saw it so triumphant, and saw the angels and the redeemed in heaven celebrating the triumph.

The result of the attempts to destroy the Christian religion by persecution demonstrated that it was to triumph.

No more mighty power could be employed to crush it than was employed by the Roman emperors; and when it was seen that Christianity could survive those efforts to crush it, it was certain that it was destined to live forever.