Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 13:15

"And it was given [unto him] to give breath to it, [even] to the image to the breast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as should not worship the image of the beast should be killed." — Revelation 13:15 (ASV)

And he had power . . .—Better, And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the wild beast, that the image of the wild beast should both speak, and cause that as many as do not worship the image of the wild beast shall be slain. The image to the wild beast is an image also of the wild beast, and the image of the monster is endowed with apparent vitality. Wisdom can give a semblance of life to the most doomed cause; and most people read only with their eyes, and not at all with their thoughts. The image of the Roman emperor was, in ancient times, made an object of worship.

Christians suffered rather than prove disloyal to Christ by such an act of worship: like their spiritual ancestors, they refused to worship the image that the world-power had set up; they were willing to render to Caesar the things that were Caesar’s, but the homage that belonged to God they refused to anyone but their God.

These are merely types of those who have refused, though tempted by specious eloquence and sagacious subtlety, to offer homage to any mere world-power. For the golden image is always set up on the plains of this world: its glitter and its vitality survive the storm and the conflict of the ages. It speaks, and people hear and adore, for they walk by sight, not by faith.

And it needs no imperial or papal edict to doom to social death and failure those who refuse to shape their conduct by considerations of self-interest, and who are sure to be treated as fanatics because they follow right and conscience and Christ.