Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 3

Sardis.—The modern Sart—now a mere village of paltry huts—was once the capital of the old Lydian monarchy and is associated with the names of Croesus, Cyrus, and Alexander. It was the great trading hub for dyed woollen fabrics, with the sheep of “many-flocked” Phrygia supplying the raw material. The art of dyeing is said to have been invented here, and many-coloured carpets or mats found in the homes of the wealthy were manufactured here.

The metal known as electrum, a kind of bronze, was a product of Sardis. In early times, gold dust was found in the sand of the Pactolus, the little stream that passed through the Agora of Sardis and washed the walls of the Temple of Cybele. It is said that gold and silver coins were first minted at Sardis, and that resident merchants first became a distinct class there. An earthquake devastated it in the reign of Tiberius, and a pestilence followed, but the city seems to have recovered its prosperity before the date of this epistle. The worship of Cybele was the prevailing one; its rites, like those of Dionysos and Aphrodite, encouraged impurity.

The writer is described in words similar to those in Revelation 1:4, as the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, but there is a difference. There, Christ was seen holding the stars in His right hand; here it is said He has the seven Spirits and also the seven stars. In this language, it is difficult to overlook the unhesitating way in which Christ is spoken of as owning or possessing the Holy Spirit, who alone can make the angels of His Church shine as stars. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9; Romans 8:11). His promise is, “I will send the Comforter unto you” (John 15:26), as He possesses all power in heaven and earth.

“He is able,” to use the language of Professor Plumptre, “to bring together the gifts of life, and the ministry for which those gifts are needed. If those who minister are without gifts; it is because they have not asked for them.” This the angel of the Sardian Church had not done; his faith and the faith of the Church around him had sunk into a superficial, though perhaps ostentatious, state. Here, then, lies the appropriateness of the description given of Christ as the source of life and light to His Church.

A name that thou livest.—It is only necessary to mention, and to dismiss, the fanciful conjecture that the name of the angel was Zosimos, or some parallel name, signifying life-bearing or living.

It is the reputation for piety possessed by the Church of Sardis that is referred to. Living with the credit of superior piety, it was easy to grow satisfied with this reputation, to forget to keep open the channels through which grace and life could flow, and to fail to realise that the adoption of habits of life higher than those around them, or those who lived before them, was no guarantee of real spiritual life.

For, as Mozley states, “the real virtues of one age become the spurious ones of the next... The belief of the Pharisees, the religious practice of the Pharisees, was an improvement upon the life of the sensual and idolatrous Jews whom the prophets denounced. But those who used both the doctrinal and moral improvements as the fulcrum of a selfish power and earthly rank were, after all, the same men as their fathers, only accommodated to a new age” (Mozley).

Self-satisfaction, which springs up when a certain reputation has been acquired, is the very road to self-deception. The remedy is progress—forgetting the things behind, so that moral and spiritual stagnation (from looking with complacency upon the past) does not set in, and spiritual death does not follow.

Be watchful.—Rather, become wakeful. It is not enough simply to rouse and sleepily grasp at their spiritual weapons, or even to stand armed just once; you must develop a wakeful habit. Strengthen the remaining things which were (when I roused you) about to die; for I have not found your (or, any of your) works perfect—completed or fulfilled, fully done in weight, count, and measure—before my God.

Remember therefore how (or, after what sort) you have received and heard (or, did hear—the tense changes).—Remembering that the words are addressed primarily to the angel himself, the change of tense may have been designed to point him back to some particular period of his life, such as the time when he was set apart to his ministerial work. The further expectation is to hold fast, or keep—that is, as an abiding habit.

It has been noticed that this counsel is identical with that given to Timothy to keep the good thing which had been committed to his charge (2 Timothy 1:14; compare also 2 Timothy 2:2). Repent is the closing word; combined with the exhortation to hold fast, it reminds us that formal tenacity of truth and a fruitless inactive regret are alike useless. There must be sorrow for the past, and a sorrow that shows itself in action—a repentance by which sin is forsaken. (Revelation 2:21.)

If therefore you will not watch.—Better, If you will not watch (or, have been awake), I will come (omit “on thee”) as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. The warning is an echo from the Gospels (Matthew 24:42–43; Luke 12:39–40). The coming of Christ to judge His Church would be in an hour unlooked for. What kind of hour He would so come was unknown; the sound of His approaching footsteps unheard. Shod with wool, according to the ancient proverb, stealthily as a thief, the Judge would be at the door. Yet they could not plead that they had been in darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:4).

The best manuscripts begin this verse with “But,” or “Nevertheless.” The case of the church in Sardis was bad, yet the loving eyes of the faithful witness would not ignore the good. There were a few who had not defiled their garments. These had not succumbed to the oppressive moral atmosphere around them. The words cannot, of course, be understood of absolute purity. Their praise is that, in the deathlike, self-complacent lethargy around, they had remained earnest in the pursuit of holiness and had not forgotten Him who could cleanse and revive .

They shall walk with me in white.—This white is not the white of the undefiled robe; it is the lustrous white of glory, as in the promise in the following verse .

He that overcometh.—The promise is repeated to all who overcome; all, not who have never fallen, or failed, but who conquer, will be clothed in glistening white garments. On this glistening appearance compare Dante’s words, “robed in hue of living flame,” and the description so frequent in the Pilgrim’s Progress—“the shining ones.”

Trench, who reminds us that this glistening white is found in the symbolism of pagan antiquity, says: “The glorified body, purified of all its dregs and impurities, whatever remained of those having been precipitated in death, and now transformed and transfigured into the likeness of Christ’s body (Philippians 3:21), this, with its robe, atmosphere, and effluence of lights, is itself, I believe, the white garments which Christ here promises to His redeemed.” Professor Lightfoot thinks (see his Epistle to Col. p. 22) that there may be a reference to the purple dyes for which Sardis, as well as Thyatira, was celebrated.

I will not blot out . . .—The negative is emphatic, “I will by no means blot out.” This figure of speech—a book and the blotting out—was ancient. (Psalms 69:21; Daniel 12:1; Philippians 4:3.) The name will not be erased from the roll or register of the citizens of heaven. A process of erasure is always going on, besides the process of entering.

When the soul has finally taken its choice for evil, when Christ is utterly denied on earth and trodden under foot, when the defilement of sin has become inveterate and indelible, then the pen is drawn through the guilty name, then the inverted style smears the wax over the unworthy characters; and when the owner of that name applies afterwards for admittance, the answer is, ‘I do not know you; depart from here, you willing worker and lover of iniquity’” (Dr. Vaughan).

But I will confess his name.—Another echo of Christ’s words on earth (Matthew 10:32–33; Luke 12:8–9).