Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Revelation 3:12

"He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and mine own new name." — Revelation 3:12 (ASV)

The promise to the overcomer is again twofold and related to the experience and memory of the inhabitants of the city. (1) Christ will make the overcomer a “pillar in the temple of my God.” As has already been noted, Philadelphia was constantly threatened with earthquakes. Often the only parts of a city left standing after a severe quake were the huge stone temple columns. Christ promises to set believers in his temple (the future kingdom?) in such a secure fashion that no disturbance can ever force them out. (2) A faithful municipal servant or a distinguished priest was sometimes honored by having a special pillar added to one of the temples and inscribed with his name. This may well be the sense of the second promise, “I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem,... and... my new name.” The inscribed name signifies identification and ownership. To those who have little influence because of being ostracized, Christ promises recognition in his kingdom worthy of the most noble hero of any society. Remembering in days past the changes of name that their city received (e.g., Neocaesarea; see comment on vv.7–13), the Philadelphians would be impressed that God himself (not the emperor) had chosen to identify himself with them and to ensure their citizenship in the New Jerusalem (cf. 21:2ff.; Ezekiel 48:35). Christ’s “new name” could be either the unknown name that he alone knows, or the new name of Christ given to the believer through redemption (cf. Isaiah 62:2; 65:15).