Revelation 3:1-6, Sardis (Part 2)

REVELATION 3:4

4 ἀλλὰ ἔχεις ὀλίγα ὀνόματα ἐν Σάρδεσιν ἃ οὐκ ἐμόλυναν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν, καὶ περιπατήσουσιν μετ' ἐμοῦ ἐν λευκοῖς, ὅτι ἄξιοί εἰσιν.

4 However you have a few names [people] in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

ἀλλὰ ἔχεις ὀλίγα ὀνόματα ἐν Σάρδεσιν, However you have a few names [people] in Sardis. The ἀλλὰ snaps our attention to a contrast: There were some who were undefiled. The unusual expression "a few names" (ὀλίγα ὀνόματα) reminds us that God looks at us as individuals and calls us each by name (John 10:3).

ἃ οὐκ ἐμόλυναν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν, who have not defiled their clothes. The phrase ἐμόλυναν τὰ ἱμάτια "defiled the clothes" is the LXX expression from Genesis 37:31, when Joseph's brothers immolated Joseph's special coat in the blood

καὶ περιπατήσουσιν μετ' ἐμοῦ ἐν λευκοῖς, They will walk with me in white, περιπατήσουσιν future indicative 3 pl περιπατέω. Once again, "white" refers to the purity of the forgiven believer with the status of justified in the blood of Christ.

ὅτι ἄξιοί εἰσιν. for they are worthy. ἄξιος, "worthy," also means "deserving" and "straight." To be worthy means to be right in line with God's will, unbent, unmarred. But the "worthy" in Sardis are also ὀλίγα, "few."




REVELATION 3:5

5 ὁ νικῶν οὕτως περιβαλεῖται ἐν ἱματίοις λευκοῖς, καὶ οὐ μὴ ἐξαλείψω τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς βίβλου τῆς ζωῆς, καὶ ὁμολογήσω τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐνώπιον τοῦ πατρός μου καὶ ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ.

5 He who overcomes this way will be dressed in white. I will never wipe out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels.

ὁ νικῶν οὕτως περιβαλεῖται ἐν ἱματίοις λευκοῖς, He who overcomes this way will be dressed in white. Yet again we have a reference to "white" ἐν ἱματίοις λευκοῖς; and the one in white is the one who is περιβαλεῖται, fut mid ind περιβάλλω "dressed" that way -- it is something given to him by God. And this is the one who ὁ νικῶν, "who has overcome" or "who is victorious" (present participle, attributive). The victory is Christ. The victory is from and by and through Christ.

καὶ οὐ μὴ ἐξαλείψω τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς βίβλου τῆς ζωῆς, I will never wipe out his name from the book of life, οὐ μὴ with a future means "never ever," ἐξαλείψω fut. ind ἐξαλείϕω "wipe away, remove." Like a teacher writing "save" on a blackboard, the name written there will remain. More than that, our Master has thrown away his eraser. More than that, he has varnished over the name on the board: it cannot be erased.

The "book of life" (τῆς βίβλου τῆς ζωῆς) is mentioned in Psalm 69:28 as something God's enemies should be blotted from, and in Philippians 4:3 Paul says that Clement, Syzygus and others have their names written in it. Apart from these passages, there is no other reference to it outside of Revelation, but here we have it six more times: 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12; 20:15 and 21:27. In the Fathers, we also have 1 Clement 53:4 (cf. Exodus 32), Hermas' Vision 1,3,2 "if they repent...they will be inscribed in the books (pl.) of life with the saints" and also Similitude 2:9, "The who does these things will not be deserted by God, but will be inscribed in the books of the living." All of these recall Exodus 32, where Moses and God have this dialogue: "'But now, please forgive their sin-- but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.' The LORD replied to Moses, 'Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.'" (Exodus 32:32-33). The book of life or the book of the living is the place in God's heart where the names of all believers are known and recorded forever.

καὶ ὁμολογήσω τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐνώπιον τοῦ πατρός μου καὶ ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ. but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels. ὁμολογήσω is the future indicative of ὁμολογέω, "confess, declare; say plainly." Jesus will confess and clearly declare his saints, without missing any one, before God the Father and before the angels in heaven.




REVELATION 3:6

6 ὁ ἔχων οὖς ἀκουσάτω τί τὸ πνεῦμα λέγει ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις.

6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

This letter ends like most of the others with a call to hear, for those who have ears. Note that the message from Christ is not to be taken any differently than the word of God given by the Father directly to Moses or the inspired words of Christ--it is all the word of the Spirit of God, for there is no God except the One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Unlike the other churches in Revelation, there is no warning about mixing with the Nicolaitans, nor is there any warning about coming persecutions. It's been suggested that the people of Sardis had gotten too lazy with their faith -- too sleepy -- to really mix with a heresy or be bothersome enough with their evangelism or their stand for Jesus to be persecuted.

How many congregations today suffer from the sleeping sickness of Sardis? When we get too comfortable, we are in grave danger of slipping away into oblivion. When we give up on reaching out with the gospel and only want to be fed with it, then we're hoarding it! We need to wake up!

Certainly there come times when we need to pull back and examine how we're using God's gifts -- but then it's time to get back into the spiritual fight and get the gospel of Jesus Christ into every tribe, nation and language. Because Jesus has forgiven our sins -- even our spiritual sleepiness -- we rejoice and thank God, and we put our thanks into practice in our lives. That's what Paul was talking about when he said: "Put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light" (Romans 13:12) and "Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and no not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature" (Romans 13:14). We keep watchful, because the enemy is at the gate. We spread the word of God to other people, firstly out of love for Christ and concern for the lost, but also because more and more watchful eyes will make for a stronger camp. We can watch out for one another as well as ourselves. And we do it for Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.