THE CHURCH ON THE FIELD OF HISTORY.
Rev. ii., iii.
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write; These things saith
He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, He that walketh in
the midst of the seven golden candlesticks: I know thy works, and
thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and
didst try them which call themselves apostles, and they are not, and
didst find them false; and thou hast patience and didst bear for My
name's sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have this against
thee, that thou didst leave thy first love. Remember therefore from
whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I
come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except
thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the
Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to
him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of
God. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things
saith the first and the last, which became dead, and lived again: I
know thy tribulation, and thy poverty (but thou art rich), and the
blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and they are not, but
are a synagogue of Satan. Fear not the things which thou art about
to suffer: behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison,
that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be
thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. He
that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. And to
the angel of the church in Pergamum write; These things saith He
that hath the sharp two-edged sword: I know where thou dwellest,
even where Satan's throne is: and thou holdest fast My name, and
didst not deny My faith, even in the days of Antipas My witness, My
faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwelleth. But
I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that
hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block
before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols
and to commit fornication. So hast thou also some that hold the
teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner. Repent therefore; or
else I come to thee quickly, and I will make war against them with
the sword of My mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will
I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and
upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he
that receiveth it. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write;
These things saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes like a flame of
fire, and his feet are like unto burnished brass: I know thy works,
and thy love and faith and ministry and patience, and that thy last
works are more than the first. But I have this against thee, that
thou sufferest thy wife Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess;
and she teacheth and seduceth My servants to commit fornication,
and to eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time that she
should repent; and she willeth not to repent of her fornication.
Behold, I do cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with
her into great tribulation, except they repent of her works. And I
will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know
that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give
unto each one of you according to your works. But to you I say, to
the rest that are in Thyatira, as many as have not this teaching,
which know not the deep things of Satan, as they say; I cast upon
you none other burden. Howbeit that which ye have, hold fast till
I come. And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works
unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: and as a
shepherd he shall tend them with a sceptre of iron, as the vessels of
the potter are they broken to shivers; as I also have received of My
Father: and I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. And to the angel
of the church in Sardis write; These things saith He that hath the
seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars: I know thy works, that
thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead. Be thou
watchful, and stablish the things that remain, which were ready to
die: for I have found no works of thine fulfilled before My God.
Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and
keep it, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come
as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
But thou hast a few names in Sardis which did not defile their
garments: and they shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy.
He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I
will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess
his name before My Father, and before His angels. He that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. And to the
angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith He that
is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that
openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth, and none openeth: I
know thy works (behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which
none can shut), that thou hast a little power, and didst keep My
word, and didst not deny My name. Behold, I give of the synagogue
of Satan, of them which say they are Jews, and they are not, but do
lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet,
and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou didst keep the
word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial,
that hour which is to come upon the whole inhabited earth, to try
them that dwell upon the earth. I come quickly: hold fast that
which thou hast, that no one take thy crown. He that overcometh, I
will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall come no
more forth: 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. He that hath
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. And to
the angel of the church in Laodicea write; These things saith the
Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of
God: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would
thou wert cold or hot. So because thou art lukewarm, and neither
hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of My mouth. Because thou
sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;
and knowest not that thou art the wretched one, and miserable and
poor and blind and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined
by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white garments, that thou
mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not
made manifest, and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest
see. As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore,
and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man
hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup
with him, and he with Me. He that overcometh, I will give to him
to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down
with My Father in His throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith to the churches (ii., iii.).
The fortunes of the Church are to be traced in the
Revelation of St. John; and the first thing
necessary therefore is that we shall learn what the
Church is. To accomplish this is the leading aim of
the second and third chapters of the book. An object
precisely similar appears to determine the arrangement
of the fourth Gospel. The Introduction or Prologue of
that Gospel is found in chap. i. 1-18; and there can
be no doubt that we meet there, in brief and compendious
form, the ideas afterwards illustrated and enforced
by its selection of incidents from the life of Jesus.
After the Prologue follows a section, extending from
chap. i. 19 to chap. ii. 11, in which it is obvious
that that struggle of Jesus with the world, together with
His victory over it, which it is the chief purpose of the
Evangelist to relate, has not yet begun. The question
thus arises, What is the aim of that section? and the
answer is, that it is to set forth the Redeemer with
whom the Gospel is to be occupied as He enters upon
the field of history. Thus also here. The first chapter
of Revelation is the Introduction or Prologue of the
book, containing the ideas to be afterwards illustrated
in the history of the Church. The struggle of the
Church with the world does not yet begin, nor will it
begin until we come to chap. vi. In the meantime
we are to see in chaps. ii. and iii. that Body of Christ
the struggle and victory of which are to engage our
thoughts.
These chapters consist of seven epistles addressed
to the churches of the seven cities of Asia named in
chap. i. 11, and now written to in the same order,
beginning with Ephesus and ending with Laodicea.
Each epistle contains much that is peculiar to it, but
we shall fail to understand the picture presented by
the two chapters as a whole if we look only at the
individual parts. General considerations, therefore,
regarding the seven epistles first demand our
notice.
Each epistle, it will be observed, is addressed to the
"angel" of the church named. The object of this
commentary, as explained in the prefatory note, renders
an examination of the meaning of the word "angel"
here used a point of subordinate importance. A few
remarks, however, can hardly be avoided. The favourite
interpretations of the term are two: that the "angels
of the churches" are either the guardian angels to
whom they were severally committed, or their bishops
or chief pastors. Both interpretations may be unhesitatingly
rejected. For as to the first, there is a total
absence of proof that it was either a Jewish or an early
Christian idea that each Christian community had its
guardian angel; and as to the second, if there was, as
there seems to have been, in the synagogues of the
Jews, an official known as the "angel" or "messenger,"
he occupied an altogether inferior position, and possessed
none of the authoritative control here ascribed
to the several "angels" mentioned. Besides this, both
interpretations are set aside by the single consideration
that, keeping in view what has been said of the
number seven in its relation to the number one, the
seven angels, like the seven churches, must be capable
of being regarded as a unity. But this cannot be the
case with seven guardian angels, for such a universal
guardianship can be predicated of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the great Head of the Church, alone. Nor can
seven bishops or chief pastors be reasonably resolved
into one universal bishop or the moderator of one
universal presbytery. The true idea seems to be that
the "angels" of the churches are a symbolical representation
in which the active, as distinguished from
the passive, life of the Church finds expression. To
St. John every person, every thing, has its angel. God
proclaims and executes His will by angels.[24] He
addresses even the Son by an angel.[25] The Son acts
and reveals His truth by an angel.[26] The waters have
an angel.[27] Fire has an angel.[28] The winds have an
angel.[29] The abyss has an angel.[30] On all these occasions
the "angel" is interposed when the persons or
things spoken of are represented as coming out of
themselves and as taking their part in intercourse
or in action. In like manner the "angels of the
churches" are the churches themselves, with this
mark of distinction only,—that, when they are thus
spoken of, they are viewed not merely as in possession
of inward vigour, but as exercising it towards things
without.
The interpretation now given is confirmed by the
fact that the "angels," as appears from the words of
chap. i. 20, "The seven stars are the angels of the
seven churches," are not different from the "stars," for
it is the province of the star, instead of hiding itself in
some secret chamber, to shine, and from its place in
the firmament to shed light upon the earth. The
uniformity of treatment, too, which must be claimed
for the number seven when used both with the churches
and the stars, is thus rendered possible; for if the
former may represent the universal Church in what
she is, the latter will represent the same Church in
what she does. Thus, then, in the seven "golden
candlesticks" and in the seven "stars" or "angels"
we have a double picture of the Church; and each of
the two figures employed points to a different aspect
of her being. It is possible also that the double
designation may have been chosen in conformity with
a rule, often observed in the Apocalypse, which leads
the writer to speak of the same thing, first under an
emblem taken from Judaism, and then under one from
the wider sphere of the great Gentile Church. The
"golden candlestick" burning in the secret of God's
Tabernacle gives the former, the "star" shining in
the firmament the latter.
Such then being the case, the seven epistles being
addressed to the seven churches, and not to any
individual in each, the following particulars with regard
to them ought to be kept in view:—
1. They are intended to set before us a picture of
the universal Church. At first sight indeed it may
seem as if they were only to be looked at individually
and separately. The different churches are addressed
by name. In what is said of each there is nothing
out of keeping with what we may easily suppose to
have been its condition at the time. There is as much
reason to believe that each epistle contains an actual
historical picture as there is to believe this in the
case of the epistles of St. Paul to Rome, or Corinth,
or Ephesus, or Philippi. Any other supposition would
convey a false idea of the principles upon which the
Apocalypse is framed, would destroy the reality of the
Apostle's writing, and would compel us to think that
his words must have been unintelligible to those for
whom, whatever their further application, they were
primarily designed. The question, however, is not
thus exhausted; for it is perfectly possible that both
certain churches and certain particulars in their state
may have been selected rather than others, because
they afforded the best typical representation of the
universal Church. Several reasons may satisfy us that
this was actually done.
(1) We have good ground for believing that, besides
these seven churches of Asia, there were other churches
in existence in the same district at the time when the
Apostle wrote. One of the early fathers speaks of
churches at Magnesia and Tralles. It is also possible
that there were churches at Colossæ and Hierapolis,
although these cities had suffered from an earthquake
shortly after the days of St. Paul. Yet St. John
addressed himself not to seven, but to "the seven
churches which are in Asia," as if there were no more
churches in the province.[31] More, however, there certainly
were; and he cannot therefore have intended to
address them all. He makes a selection, without saying
that he does so; and it is a natural supposition that his
selection is designed to represent the universal Church.
(2) Importance must be attached to the number seven.
Every reader of the book of Revelation is familiar with
the singular part played by that number in its structure,
and with the fact that (unless chap. xvii. 9 be an exception)
it never means that numeral alone. It is the
number of unity in diversity, of unity in that manifoldness
of operation which alone entitles it to the name of
unity. Such expressions, therefore, as the "seven
Spirits of God" or the "seven eyes of the Lamb," are
evidently symbolical. The same idea must be carried
through all the notices of the number, unless there be
something in the context clearly leading to a different
conclusion. Nothing of that kind exists here. Were
these two chapters indeed out of harmony with the
rest of the book, or had they little or no relation to it,
it might be urged that they were simply historical, and
that no deeper meaning was to be sought in them than
that lying on the surface. We have already seen,
however, that their connexion with the other chapters
is of the closest kind; and we cannot therefore avoid
bringing them under the scope of the same principles
of interpretation as are elsewhere applicable. Their
number—seven—must thus be regarded as typical of
unity, and the seven churches as representative of the
one universal Church.
(3) The nature of the call to the hearers of each
epistle to give heed to the words addressed to them
leads to the same conclusion. Had each epistle been
designed only for those to whom it was immediately
sent, that call would probably have been addressed to
them alone. Instead of this it is couched in the most
general form: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith to the churches.
(4) The character in which the Saviour speaks to
each of the seven churches is always taken from the
vision of the Son of man beheld by St. John in the
first chapter of his book. It is true that in the case of
one or two of the particulars mentioned this is not at
once apparent; but in that of by far the larger number
it is so clear that we are entitled to infer the existence
of some secret link of connexion in the mind of the
sacred writer even when it may not be distinctly perceptible
to us. The descriptions, too, of the epistles
are no doubt fuller and more elaborate than those of
the vision; but this circumstance is easily accounted
for when we remember that the seven different delineations
of our Lord contained in the second and third
chapters are in the first chapter combined in one.
Keeping these considerations in view, the main point is
incontestable that the germ of the epistolary description
is to be found in every case in the preliminary vision.
Thus to the first church—that of Ephesus—Jesus
introduces Himself as He that holdeth the seven stars in
His right hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks[32]; and the description is evidently
that of chap. i. 12, 13, 16, where the Seer beheld "seven
golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the candlesticks
one like unto a Son of man; and He had in His
right hand seven stars." To the second—the church
of Smyrna—Jesus introduces Himself with the words,
These things saith the first and the last, which became
dead, and lived again[33]; and the description is taken
from chap. i. 17, 18: "I am the first and the last, and
the Living One; and I became dead, and behold, I am
alive for evermore." To the third—the church of
Pergamum—the introduction is, These things saith He
that hath a sharp two-edged sword[34]; and the original
of the description is found in chap. i. 16: and out of
His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. To the
fourth—the church of Thyatira—the Saviour begins,
These things saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes
like a flame of fire, and His feet are like unto burnished
brass[35]; and we see the source whence the words are
drawn when we read in chap. i. 14, 15, "And His eyes
were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto burnished
brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace." Of the
latter part of the salutation to the fifth church—that
of Sardis—which runs, These things saith He that hath
the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars,[36] it is unnecessary
to speak; but the first part is more difficult
to trace. Comparing chap. v. 6 and chap. iv. 5, we
learn that the seven Spirits of God are the possession
of the Redeemer, and that they are symbolized by
seven lamps burning before the throne of God. Turning
now to chap. i., we find the Seer speaking in ver. 4
of "the seven Spirits which are before the throne,"
those very spirits which in chap. v. 6 he tells us that
the Redeemer "hath." This latter thought therefore he
is accustomed to associate with them; and though in
chap. i. 4 he does not expressly say that the seven
Spirits there referred to are the possession of Jesus,
this view of them is obviously a part of his general
conception of the matter. In chap. i. 4, therefore, the
source of the words addressed to Sardis is to be found.
To the sixth church—that of Philadelphia—it is said,
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He
that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and none
shall shut, and that shutteth, and none openeth[37]; and we
can have no difficulty in recognising the germ of the
extended description in chap. i. 14, 18, where we are
told that Jesus Christ, in token of His holiness, hath
"His head and His hair white as white wool, white
as snow," and that He hath "the keys of death and
of Hades." Lastly, we have the introductory address
to the seventh church—that of Laodicea—These things
saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning
of the creation of God[38]; and the origin of it is to be seen
in chap. i. 5, where we are told of "Jesus Christ, who
is the faithful Witness, and the first-born of the dead,
and the Ruler of the kings of the earth." Each salutation
of the seven epistles is thus part of the description
of the Son of man in the first chapter of the book; and it
is a legitimate inference that the contents of the epistles
are, like the salutations, only portions of one whole.
(5) Many expressions are to be met with in the
seven epistles which find their explanation only in
those later chapters of the book where a reference to
the Church universal cannot be denied. The tree of
life of the first epistle meets us again, more fully
spoken of, in the description of the new Jerusalem.[39]
The second death mentioned in the second epistle is
not explained till judgment upon the Church's enemies
is complete.[40] The writing upon believers of the new
name, promised in the third epistle, is almost unintelligible
until we behold the hundred and forty-four
thousand upon Mount Zion.[41] The authority over the
nations, and more especially the gift of the morning star,
referred to in the fourth epistle, cannot be comprehended
until we are introduced to the vision of the
thousand years and the last utterances of the glorified
Redeemer.[42] The white garments of the fifth epistle
can hardly be rightly understood until we see the white-robed
company standing before the throne and before
the Lamb.[43] The mention in the sixth epistle of the city
of My God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out
of heaven from My God, remains a mystery until we
actually witness her descent.[44] And, finally, the sitting in
Christ's throne of the seventh epistle is only elucidated
by the reign of the thousand years with Him.[45]
(6) It is worthy of notice that the descriptions of our
Lord given in the first and last epistles have a wider
application than to the churches of Ephesus and
Laodicea, to which they are immediately addressed,
thus making it evident that, while each of these epistles
has its own place in the series, it is at the same time
treated as the first or last member of a group which is
to be regarded as a whole.
To the church of Ephesus the Saviour describes
Himself as He that holdeth the seven stars in His right
hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden
candlesticks[46]; and the description has no more reference
to Ephesus than to any other of the churches named.
In like manner to the church of Laodicea He describes
Himself as the Amen, the Witness faithful and true, the
Beginning of the creation of God.[47] The first of these
appellations is no doubt derived from Isa. lxv. 16,
where we have twice repeated in the same verse the
formula "God Amen;" and the meaning of the name
as applied to Jesus is, not that all the Divine promises
shall be accomplished by Him, but that He is Himself
the fulfilment of every promise made by the Almighty
to His people. The second appellation reminds us of
John xviii. 37, where Jesus replies to Pilate's question
in the words, "To this end have I been born, and to
this end am I come into the world, that I should bear
witness unto the truth." His whole mission is summed
up by Him in the idea of "witnessing." He is the
perfect, the true, the real Witness to eternal truth in
its deepest sense, in its widest and most comprehensive
range. The third appellation, again, cannot be limited
to the thought of the mere material creation, as if
equivalent to the statement that by the Word were all
things made. It would thus fail to correspond with
the two appellations preceding it, which undoubtedly
apply to the work of redemption, while at the same
time the addition of the words "of God" would be
meaningless or perplexing. Let us add to this that
in chap. i. 5, immediately after Jesus has been called
the "faithful Witness," He is described as the "first-begotten
of the dead," and we shall not be able to
resist the conviction that the words before us refer
primarily to the new creation, the Christian Church,
that redeemed humanity which has its true life in
Christ. It may not indeed be necessary to exclude
the thought of the material universe; but, in so far
as it is alluded to, it is only as redeemed, in its
ideal condition of rest and glory, when the new
Jerusalem has come down out of heaven, and when the
Church's enemies have been cast into the lake of fire.[48]
The three appellations, it will be observed, have thus
a general rather than a special aspect; and the salutation
containing them is to be distinguished from the
salutations of the other epistles, all of which, with
the exception of the last, exhibit the closest possible
connexion with the contents of the epistles to which
they respectively belong. It is no mere fancy, therefore,
when we say that we have in this a proof that the first
and last epistles are not simply members of a continuous
series, the last of which may leave the first far
behind, but that they are binding terms which gather
up all the members of the series and group them into
one.
(7) It ought to be noticed that all the cities to which
the seven epistles are addressed were situated beyond
the boundaries of the Holy Land, and that the Christian
Church in each was certainly composed, at least in large
measure, of Gentile converts. These churches cannot
therefore represent the Jewish Church alone, but must
embody that wider idea of the Christian Church which
was brought in when the middle wall of partition
between Jews and Gentiles was broken down, and
when both were reconciled in one body by the Cross,
becoming one Church in the Son and in the Father.
Were we dealing with the Jewish-Christian Church,
we should unquestionably find it located in Jerusalem
or in some of the cities of Palestine. When we are
taken to heathen soil, and to churches known to have
been at least for the most part Gentile, it is a proof
that we have before us that great Gentile Church in
the very conception of which lies the thought of
universality.
(8) The view now taken is confirmed by the general
nature of the Apocalypse. That book is symbolical.
It begins with a symbolical representation in the first
chapter. Symbolism, by the admission of all, is
resumed in the fourth chapter, and is continued from
that point to the end. Now it is certainly possible
that between these two groups of symbols a passage
only strictly historical might be introduced. But if
there be reason on independent grounds to think that
here also we have facts used at least to a certain extent
to serve a higher than a simply historic thought, it
cannot fail to be allowed that the general unity of the
book is thus preserved, and that a completeness is lent
to it which we are entitled to expect, but which would
be otherwise wanting.
The seven churches then of chaps. ii. and iii. are
thus intended to represent the one universal Church.
The Seer selects such particular churches of Asia and
such special features of their condition as afford the
best illustration of that state of God's kingdom in the
world which is to be the great subject of his prophetic
words. He is to keep in view throughout all his revelation
certain aspects of the Church in herself and in
her relation to the world. But these aspects were not
merely in the bosom of the future. Still less are they an
ideal picture drawn from the resources of the writer's
own imagination. To his enlightened eye, looking
abroad over that part of the world in which his lot was
cast, they were also present, one in one church, another
in another. St. John therefore groups them together.
They are "the things which are," and they are types of
"the things which shall come to pass hereafter."[49]
The universalism of the Apocalypse is from the first
apparent.
2. A second characteristic of the epistles addressed
to the seven churches demands our notice, for these
epistles are clearly divisible into two portions, the first
consisting of the first three, the second of the other
four. Every inquirer admits the fact, the proof resting
upon the difference of place assigned in the two portions
to the call, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith to the churches. In the first three this call
comes in as a central part of the epistle, immediately
before the promise to him that overcometh[50]; in the last
four it closes the epistle.[51] There is a still more interesting
difference, though the Authorised English Version
conceals it from view. According to the best attested
readings of the original, the second and third epistles—those
to Smyrna and Pergamum—omit the words, found
in all the others, I know thy works. The circumstance
is at least remarkable, and it seems to admit of only
one explanation. In the mind of the writer the first
three epistles were so closely associated together—more
closely perhaps than even the seven or the last four—that
these words occurring in the first epistle were
thought by him to extend their influence over the
second and third, much in the same way as the description
of the exalted Lord in the same epistle sent its
voice forward, and that in the last epistle its voice backward,
through the rest. At all events, it is impossible
not to see that the first three epistles and likewise the
last four, to whatever extent they form parts of one
whole, constitute in each case a special unity. What,
we have now to ask, is the ground of the distinction?
In what light is the Church viewed in each of the two
portions spoken of?
There are two aspects of the Church which may be
said to pervade the whole Apocalypse: first, as she is
in herself, in her own true nature; and secondly, as
she is engaged in, and affected by, a struggle with the
world. The distinction between the two may be traced
in the grouping of which we speak. The first three
epistles lead us to the thought of the Church in the
former, the remaining four to the thought of her in the
latter, aspect. In the first three she is the pure bride
of Christ; in the last four she has yielded to the
influences of the world, and the faithful remnant within
her is separated from her professing but unfaithful
members.
The numbers into which the two portions of the
seven epistles are distributed illustrate this. Three
is the number of the Divine; four, as appears from
many passages of this book, is the number of the
world. The simple fact that we have a group of three
as distinguished from one of four epistles is sufficient
to lead to the impression that, in one way or another
the thought of the Divine is more closely associated
with the former, and the thought of the world with the
latter.
This impression is confirmed when we look at the
contents of the epistles. Let us take the first three,
and we shall find that in not one of them is a
contrast drawn between the whole Church and any
faithful remnant within her borders, that in not one
of them is the Church represented as yielding to
the influences of the world. No doubt she has evil
in her midst; and evil always springs from the world,
not from God. But she is not yet conscious of the
sin by which she is surrounded. She has not yet
begun to traffic with the world, to accommodate herself
to it, or to lust after what it bestows. The
great charge against the church in Ephesus is that
she has left her first love.[52] She has passed out
of the bright and joyous feelings which marked the
time of her espousals to the heavenly Bridegroom.
But from sin the Church as she actually exists in the
world can never be wholly free; and, so far in particular
as the Nicolaitans are concerned, she shares in
Ephesus the feelings of her Lord, and views them with
the hatred which they deserve. No reproach is directed
against the church in Smyrna. She is rather the
object of her Lord's perfect confidence; and He is only
preparing trial for her in correspondence with the
law by which He trains His people: "Every branch
that beareth fruit, He cleanseth it, that it may bear
more fruit."[53] Remarks of a similar kind apply to the
church in Pergamum. There is no charge against
the church there that she is allowing the world
to gain dominion over her. She has certainly persons
in her midst who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans,
but they are few in number; they are no more than
"some,"[54] and she lends them no countenance. On
the contrary, though dwelling in the place where Satan
has his throne, she has remained true to her Lord,
and has been purified in the fires of persecution then
raging even unto death. In none of the three cases
is the church perfect, but in none is she really
faithless to her trust. She is in danger; she needs
to be perfected by suffering[55]; by suffering she is
perfected: but she knows that he who will be the
friend of the world is the enemy of God, and the
enemies of God are her enemies.
When we turn to the second group of the seven
epistles, we at once breathe a different atmosphere; and
the contrast is rendered more striking by the fact that
in the first of the four we have the very sins spoken
of which have already twice crossed our path in the
epistles to Ephesus and to Pergamum. According to
the best critical reading of chap. ii. 20, the charge against
Thyatira is, "Thou sufferest" (Thou lettest alone; thou
toleratest) "thy wife Jezebel." Jezebel was a heathen
princess, the first heathen queen who had been married
by a king of the northern kingdom of Israel. She was
therefore peculiarly fitted to represent the influences of
the world; and the charge against Thyatira is thus
that, in the persons not of a few only, but of her united
membership, she tolerated the world, with its heathen
thoughts and practices. She knew it to be the world
that it was; but notwithstanding this she was content
to be at peace, or even to ally herself, with it. The
church in Sardis is not less blameable. There are a
few names in her that have not defiled their garments;
but the church as a whole has deeply sinned. She has
reproduced the Pharisaic type with which the Gospels
have made us acquainted, substituting the outward for
the inward in religion, and then yielding to the sins of
the flesh to which she has thus given the supremacy.
The church in Philadelphia, like that in Smyrna, is
not blamed, and it is well that there should be one
church even in the midst of the world of which this
can be said; yet even Philadelphia has only a little
power,[56] while the exhortation, Hold fast that which thou
hast,[57] appears to indicate that she has been losing
much. Lastly, no one can mistake the willing identification
of herself with the world on the part of the
church in Laodicea. She says that she is rich, that
she has gotten riches, that she has need of nothing.[58]
Her members are well-to-do and in easy circumstances,
and they have found so much comfort in their worldly
goods that they have become blind to the fact that man
needs something better and higher for his portion. In
all these four churches, in short, we have an entirely
different relation between the Church and the world
from that set before us in the first three. There is not
simply danger of decay within, and the need of trial
with the benefit resulting from it. There is actual
conflict with the world; sometimes, it may be, a victory
over it, at other times a yielding to its influences and
an adoption of its spirit. In the first three churches
all, or all with few exceptions, are on the side of Christ;
in the last four the "remnant" alone is true to Him.
Attention to the promises to him that overcometh in
the different epistles seems to confirm what has been
said. There is a marked contrast between the tone of
these promises as they are given in the two groups of
epistles; and even where a certain amount of similarity
exists, the promises in the second group will be
found to be fuller and richer than in the first. At
Ephesus, at Smyrna, and at Pergamum "he that overcometh"
is rewarded much, as one still in a simple
and childlike state would be. The first promise made
to him is that he shall eat of the tree of life, which is
in the Paradise of God[59]; the second, that he shall not
be hurt of the second death[60]; the third, that he shall eat
of the hidden manna, and be like the high-priest in the
innermost recesses of the sanctuary.[61] All is quiet.
The appeal of Him who promises is to the gentler susceptibilities
of the soul. The privileges and enjoyments
spoken of are adapted to the condition of those who
have not yet experienced the struggle of life.
When we turn to the second group of epistles there
is a different tone. We enter upon rewards conceived
in bolder and more manly figures. The first promise
now is, He that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works
unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations:
and as a shepherd he shall tend them with a sceptre of iron;
as the vessels of the potter are they broken to shivers.[62] This
is the reward of victory after well-fought fields. The
warrior thus crowned must have braved the strife and
won with difficulty. The second promise is not less
marked in its character. He that overcometh shall not
simply, as in the case of Smyrna, receive the reward of
not being "hurt of the second death;" he shall be
arrayed in white garments, and Jesus will confess his
name before His Father, and before His angels.[63] The
third promise is at least a large extension of that given
to Pergamum, for of him that now overcometh it is said,
I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he
shall come no more forth—that is, shall come no more
forth to a struggle with the world similar to that in
which he has been engaged—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.[64] Finally, the
fourth promise is the noblest of all: He that overcometh,
I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as
I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His
throne.[65] All the promises of the second group of epistles
are clearly distinguished in tone and spirit from those
of the first group. They presuppose a fiercer struggle,
a hotter conflict; and they are therefore full of a more
glorious reward.
Such seems to be the relation to one another of
the two groups into which the seven epistles naturally
divide themselves. In the first group the Church
has stood firm against the world. She is full of toil
and endurance; in her poverty she is rich; and the
troubles of the future she does not fear. She holds
fast the name of Christ, and openly confesses Him.
Seeds of evil are indeed within her, which will too
soon develop themselves; but she has the Divine life
within her in as much perfection as can be expected
amidst the infirmities of our present state. She walks
with God and hears His voice in her earthly paradise.
In the second group the evil seed sown by the enemy
has sprung up. The Church tolerates the sins that
are around her, makes her league with the world,
and yields to its influence. She rallies indeed at
times to her new and higher life, but she finally
submits to the world and is satisfied with its goods.
There are many faithful ones, it is true, in her midst.
As in the Jewish Church there was a "remnant
according to the election of grace," so in her there
are those who listen to the Saviour's voice and follow
Him. Yet they are the smaller portion of her members,
and they shall eventually come forth out of her.
It is the same sad story which has marked all the
previous dispensations of the Almighty with His
people, and which will continue to be repeated until
the Second Coming of the Lord. That story culminates
in this book of the Revelation of St. John, when the
bride, allying herself with the world, becomes a harlot,
and when the Seer hears "another voice out of heaven,
saying, Come forth, My people, out of her, that ye
have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive
not of her plagues."[66]
We have considered the epistles contained in these
chapters as a unity representative of the universal
Church in the two main aspects of her condition in the
world; but before leaving them it will be well to look
at them individually, and to mark the peculiar condition
of each Church addressed.
1. The first epistle is that to Ephesus, the central
or metropolitan city of the district to which all the
seven churches belonged, and with which the almost
unanimous voice of antiquity associates the later years
of the pastorate of St. John himself. Hence, in part
at least, as we have already seen, the general nature
of the salutation with which the glorified Lord presents
Himself to that church. He does not merely hold
its star in His right hand, nor does He merely walk
in the midst of it alone. He holdeth the seven stars in
His right hand. He walketh in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks. He is present in every part of His
Church on earth. To every part of it He says, "Lo,
I am with you alway, even unto the consummation of
the age."[67]
The church at Ephesus is faithful as a whole. I
know, is the language of her Lord to her, thy works,
and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear
evil men, and didst try them which call themselves apostles,
and they are not, and didst find them false; and thou hast
patience and didst bear for My name's sake, and hast
not grown weary. The tribute is a noble one. The
church is not only working, but toiling, in her Master's
service; she is firm amidst trial, whether from within
or from without; she views with abhorrence all
workers of iniquity; she tries, only in order to reject,
those pretended messengers of Christ who would have
preached another gospel than that the power of which
she knew. Amidst all the speciousness of their claims,
she had "found" them false. Then she turned again
to her steadfast endurance until it became a settled
principle in her life, and it could be said to her, with
the strong force of the word in the writings of St.
John, that she "had" it. The spirit of all this, too,
had been found in the "name" of Jesus, the revelation
of the love and grace of God given her in Him.
Finally, she had not grown weary. Seven marks of
faithfulness appear to be mentioned; and, if so, the
fourth—her judgment of false teachers—occupies the
central position. Nor does it seem fanciful to say this
when we notice that of all the seven points the fourth
is the only one returned to, and that in a more specific
form, at a later point in the epistle: But this thou hast,
that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also
hate. In other words, doctrinal faithfulness was the
peculiar distinction of the Ephesian church. She knew
that the revelation of God in Christ must be kept pure,
or toil would lose its spring, patience its encouragement,
shrinking from evil men its intensity, and perseverance
its support. Therefore she valued the doctrinal
truth which had been committed to her, and held fast
the "form of sound words" which she had received,
for the sake of the life to which it led.
Amidst all this the church at Ephesus was not wholly
what she ought to have been. I have this against thee,
had to be said to her, that thou didst leave thy first love;
and she needed words of exhortation and warning:
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and
repent, and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and
will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou
repent. The church had declined from the bright and
joyous feelings of her first condition. Might her very
zeal for the purity of Christian doctrine have had anything
to do with this? It is not impossible. Eager
defence of truth against error, notwithstanding its
importance, is apt to shift the centre of the soul's inner
life. The strifes of theologians and the cry "First
purity, then peace," translated into "Purity without
peace," have been in every age the scandal and the weakness
of the Church. Well might even David speak of
it as one of the most signal instances of God's goodness
to them that fear Him, "Thou shalt keep them secretly
in a pavilion from the strife of tongues;"[68] and never,
alas! have tongues been sharper or more contentious
than in the maintenance of the faith. There is something
without which even zeal for truth may be but
a scorching and devouring flame; and that is the "first
love," the love ever fresh and tender for Him who first
loved us, the love which teaches us to win and not to
alienate, to raise and not to crush, those who may only
be mistaken in their views, and are not determined
enemies of God.
Possessed of this spirit, we shall overcome; and the
first love will meet its first reward. To him that overcometh,
says the Lord, recalling the blessedness of
Eden, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the
Paradise of God.
2. The second epistle is that to Smyrna, a rich,
prosperous, and dissolute city, and largely inhabited
by Jews bitterly opposed to Christ and Christianity.
Here therefore persecution of those leading the pure
and holy life of the Gospel might be peculiarly expected,
as indeed it also peculiarly appeared. The church at
Smyrna thus becomes the type of a suffering church,
the representative of that condition of things foretold
in the words of Christ, and constantly fulfilled in
the history of His people, "A servant is not greater
than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they
will also persecute you."[69]
It will be observed that at Smyrna the church is
still faithful, and that against her no word of reproach
is uttered. Hence the aspect under which the
Redeemer presents Himself to that church is purely
animating and consolatory, the same as that which,
in the introductory vision in chap. i., followed the
action of the Lord when He laid His right hand upon
the Apostle, who had fallen to the ground as dead,
and when He said to him, "Fear not."[70] So now:
These things saith the first and the last, which became
dead, and lived again. Death and resurrection are
the two great divisions of the work of Christ on our
behalf, and the Gospel is summed up in them. Just
as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians when he would
remind them of the substance of his preaching in
their midst, "For I declared unto you first of all
that which also I received, how that Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was
buried, and that He hath been raised on the third
day according to the Scriptures,"[71] in like manner
here the same two facts include all the truth which
Smyrna held fast, and with which come the life that
conquers sin and the joy that triumphs over sorrow.
The state of the church is then described: I know
thy tribulation, and thy poverty (but thou art rich), and
the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and
they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Tribulation,
persecution, the blasphemy of men calling themselves
the only people of God and denying to Christians
any portion in His covenant, are alone alluded to,
though the church is at the same time cheered with
the remark that if she had no share in worldly wealth
and splendour, she was rich. "God had chosen them
that were poor as to the world to be rich in faith,
and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to them
that love Him."[72]
The church then was in the midst of suffering.
Was not that enough; and shall she not be told that
her sufferings were drawing to an end, that the night
of weeping was gone by, and that the morning of
joy was about to dawn? So we might think; but
God's thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His
ways as our ways, and we are like children bathing on
the shore,
Buried a wave beneath;
The second wave succeeds before
We have had time to breathe.
How often does it happen in the Christian's experience
that one burden is laid upon another, and
that one wave succeeds another, till he seems left
desolate and alone upon the earth. Yet even then he
has no assurance that his sufferings are at a close.
The consolation afforded to him is, not that there shall
be a short campaign, but only that, whether long or
short, he shall be more than conqueror through Him
that loved him. Thus our Lord does not now say to
His church at Smyrna, Fear none of those things that
thou art suffering, but Fear not the things which thou
art about to suffer: behold, the devil is about to cast some
of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have
tribulation ten days. It is hardly necessary to say to
any intelligent reader of the Apocalypse that the "ten
days" here spoken of are neither ten literal days, nor
ten years, nor ten successive persecutions of indefinite
length. In conformity with the symbolical use of
numbers in this book, "ten days" expresses no more
than a time which, though troubled, shall be definite
and short, a time which may be otherwise denoted
by the language of St. Peter when he says of believers
that "now for a little while they have been put to grief
in manifold temptations."[73] Encompassed by affliction,
therefore, those who are thus tried have only to be
faithful unto death, or to the last extremity of martyrdom.
He who died and lived again will bestow upon
them the crown of life, the crown of the kingdom,
incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. He that overcometh
shall not be hurt of the second death.
3. The third epistle is that to Pergamum, a city at
the time devoted to the worship of Æsculapius, the god
of medicine, and in particular largely engaged with
those parts of medical science which are occupied
with inquiries into the springs of life. That the
wickedness of the city was both greater and more
widespread than was common even in the dark days
of heathenism is borne witness to by the fact that the
first words addressed to it by Him that hath the sharp
two-edged sword were these: I know where thou dwellest,
even where Satan's throne is. The word "throne"
(not, as in the Authorised Version, "seat") is intentionally
selected by the Seer; and its use affords an
illustration of one of his principles of style, the remembrance
of which is not unfrequently of value in interpreting
his book. Everywhere it is his wont to see
over against the good its mocking counterpart of evil,
over against the light a corresponding darkness. Thus
because God occupies a throne Satan does the same;
and inasmuch as in Pergamum sin was marked by a
refinement of greater than ordinary depth, Satan might
be said to have his "throne" there. This circumstance,
combined with the promise to the Church
contained in the seventeenth verse, To him that overcometh,
to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I
will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new
name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth
it, may help us to understand the main thought of this
epistle as distinguished from the others. We have
seen reason to believe that there was some secret
mystery of evil in the city; and, contrasted with this,
we have now the promise of a secret mystery of life to
the faithful church. The Church then in the secret
of her Divine preservation is here before us. She
lives a life the springs of which no one sees, a life that
is hid with Christ in God.
It will be observed, accordingly, that, whatever may
be said against the condition of the city, nothing is
said against the church within it. There is no hint
that she has yielded to the influences of the world. She
has certainly evil-doers in her midst; but these, though
in her, are not of her: and the Christianity of the great
majority of her members remains sound and sweet.
Let us listen to the words of commendation: And
thou holdest fast My name, and didst not deny My faith,
even in the days of Antipas My witness, My faithful one,
who was killed among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I
have a few things against thee, because thou hast there
some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak
to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to
eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.
So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the
Nicolaitans in like manner. Repent therefore; or else I
come to thee quickly, and I will make war against them
with the sword of My mouth. Those who are described
in these words as "holding the teaching of Balaam"
and those who are here called "the Nicolaitans" are the
same, denoted in the first instance by a description
taken from the history of Balaam in the Old Testament,
and in the second by a word formed in Greek after the
fashion of Balaam's name in Hebrew. That the church
in her corporate capacity had not yielded to the sinfulness
referred to is manifest from this, that they who
had done so are described as "some," and that in the
threatening of the sixteenth verse it is not said, I will
war against "thee," but I will war against "them."
The sin therefore found in the bosom of the church
was not, as we shall find it to have been at Thyatira,
with her consent. She failed, not because she encouraged
it, but because she did not take more vigorous
steps for its extinction. She did not sufficiently realize
the fact that she was a part of the Body of Christ, and
that, if one member suffer, all the members suffer with
it. Believers in her community were too easily satisfied
with working out their own salvation, and thought too
little of presenting the whole church "as a pure virgin
to Christ."[74] Therefore it was that, even amidst much
faithfulness, they needed to repent, to feel more deeply
than they did that "a little leaven leaveneth the whole
lump,"[75] and that in the Church of the Lord Jesus we
are to a large extent responsible, not only for our own,
but for our neighbours', sins. By keeping up the
Christian tone of the whole Church the tone of each
member of the Church is heightened.
We thus reach the close of the first three epistles
"to the churches;" and we see that, while each is
accommodated to the particular circumstances of the
Christian community to which it is sent, the three
taken together present to us the three leading considerations
upon which, when we think of Christ's
Church in this world, we naturally dwell. First,
she is in the main true to her Divine Master, even
when compelled to confess that she has left her first
love. Secondly, she is exposed for her further
cleansing to many trials. Lastly, she is sustained
by the unseen influences of Divine love and grace.
She eats of the hidden manna. She has within her
breastplate a white, glistering stone, upon which is
inscribed the new name which no man knoweth
saving he that receiveth it. She dwells, like the high-priest
of old at the moment of his greatest dignity
and honour, in the secret place of the Most High.
She abides under the shadow of the Almighty. As
a child she has entered into the garden of the Lord;
and yet, in all the simplicity of her childhood, she
is both king and priest.
Such is the Church of Christ in Ephesus, Smyrna,
and Pergamum. Happy days of innocence and bliss!
We may well linger over them for a little. Too
soon will they pass away, and too soon will the
Church's conflict with the world and her yielding to it
begin.
4. With the fourth epistle we enter upon the second
group of epistles, where the Church is brought before
us less as she is in herself, than as she fails to
maintain her true position in the world, and as that
separation between a faithful remnant and the whole
body which meets us at every step of her history,
throughout both the Old Testament and the New,
begins to show itself. Now therefore there is a
change of tone.
The first of the four, the fourth in the series of
seven, is that to Thyatira; and to the church there
the Lord presents Himself in all the penetrating power
of those eyes that as a flame of fire search the inmost
recesses of the heart, and in all the resistless might
of those feet that are as "pillars of fire:"[76] These
things saith the Son of God, who hath His eyes like a
flame of fire, and His feet are like unto burnished brass.
The commendation of the church follows, what is
good being noted before defects are spoken of: I know
thy works, and thy love and faith and ministry and
patience, and that thy last works are more than the first.
The commendation is great. There was not only
grace, but growth in grace, not only work, but work in
Christ's cause abounding more and more. Yet there
was also failure. To understand this it is necessary, as
already noticed, to adopt the translation of the Revised
Version, founded on the more correct reading of the
later critical editions of the Greek. Even in that
version, too, the translation, given in the margin, of
one important expression has to be substituted for
that of the text. Keeping this in view, the Saviour
thus addresses Thyatira: But I have this against thee,
that thou sufferest (that thou toleratest, that thou
lettest alone) thy wife Jezebel, which calleth herself a
prophetess; and she teacheth and seduceth My servants to
commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.
And I gave her time that she should repent; and she
willeth not to repent of her fornication. Behold, I do
cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery
with her into great tribulation, except they repent of her
works. And I will kill her children with death; and all
the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth
the reins and hearts: and I will give unto each one of
you according to your works. In these words "Jezebel"
is clearly a symbolical name. It is impossible to think
that the "angel" of the church was the chief pastor,
and that the woman named Jezebel, spoken of as she
is, was his wife. We have before us the notorious
Jezebel of Old Testament history. Her story is so
familiar to every one that it is unnecessary to dwell on
it; and we need only further call attention to the fact
that the sentence in which her name is mentioned
is complete in itself. The sin of the church at
Thyatira was that she "suffered" her. In other words,
the church tolerated in her midst the evil of which
Ahab's wife was so striking a representative. She
knew the world to be what it was; but, instead of
making a determined effort to resist it, she yielded to
its influences. She repeated the sin of the Corinthian
Church: "It is actually reported that there is fornication
among you.... And ye are puffed up, and did not
rather mourn, that he that had done this deed might
be taken away from among you."[77] The world, in
short, was in the church, and was tolerated there.
Of the threatened punishment, the "bed" of tribulation
and sorrow instead of that of guilty pleasure, nothing
need be said. It is of more consequence to observe
the change in the manner of address which meets us
after that punishment has been described: But to
you I say, to the rest that are in Thyatira, as many as
have not this teaching, which know not the deep things
of Satan, as they say; I cast upon you none other burden.
Howbeit that which ye have, hold fast till I come. For
the first time in these epistles we meet with those
who are spoken of as "the rest," the remnant, who
are to be carefully distinguished from the great body
of the Church's professing members. The world has
penetrated into the Church; the Church has become
conformed to the world: and the hour is rapidly
approaching when the true disciples of Jesus will
no longer find within her the shelter which she has
hitherto afforded them, and when they will have to
"come forth out of her" in her degenerate condition.[78]
It is a striking feature of these apocalyptic visions,
which has been too much missed by commentators.
We shall meet it again and again as we proceed. In
the meantime it is enough to say that the moment
of withdrawal has not yet come. The faithful "rest,"
who had rejected the false teaching and shunned
the sinful life, are to continue where they were; and
the Lord will cast upon them none other burden. Well
for them that they had such a promise! Their
burden of suffering was heavy enough already. Hard
to contend with under any circumstances, suffering
rises nearer to the height of the sufferings of Christ
when the Christian is "wounded," not by open foes,
but "in the house of his friends." "It was not an
enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne
it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify
himself against me; then I would have hid myself
from him: but it was thou, a man mine equal, my
companion, and my familiar friend. We took sweet
counsel together; we walked in the house of God
with the throng."[79]
The trial was great; so also is the consolation: And
he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto
the end, to him will I give authority over the nations:
and as a shepherd he shall tend them with a sceptre of
iron, as the vessels of the potter are they broken to shivers;
as I also have received of My Father: and I will give him
the morning star. It was a heathen element that
clouded the sky of the church at Thyatira. That
element, nay the nations out of which it springs, shall
be crushed beneath the iron sceptre of the King who
shall "reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and
before His ancients gloriously."[80] The clouds shall
disappear; and Jesus, "the bright, the morning star,"[81]
having given Himself to His people, He and they together
shall shine with its clear but peaceful light when
it appears in the heavens, the harbinger of day.
5. The fifth epistle is that to Sardis, and in the
superscription He who sends it describes Himself as
One that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars.
Both expressions have already met us, the former in
chap. i. 4, the latter in chap. ii. 1. A different word
from that used in the address to Ephesus is indeed
used here to indicate the relation of the Lord to these
stars or angels of the churches. There the glorified
Lord "holdeth the seven stars in His right hand;"
here He "hath" them. Like every other change,
even of the slightest kind, in this book, the difference is
instructive. To "hold" them is to hold them fast for
their protection; to "have" them is to have them for
a possession, to have them not only outwardly and in
name, but inwardly and in reality, as His own. Thus
Christ "hath" the Holy Spirit, who in all His varied
or sevenfold influences is, as He proceedeth from the
Father and the Son, not only God's, but His. Thus
also Christ "hath" the seven stars or churches, here
spoken of in immediate connexion with the Spirit, and
therefore viewed chiefly in that spirituality of feeling
and of life which ought to be the great mark distinguishing
them from the world. It was the mark in
which Sardis failed. Let her take heed to Him with
whom she has to do.
I know, are the words addressed to her, thy works,
that thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead.
Be thou watchful, and stablish the things that remain,
which were ready to die: for I have found no works of
thine fulfilled before My God. Remember therefore how
thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and repent.
If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief,
and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
The world had been tolerated in Thyatira, the first of
the last four churches; in Sardis, the second, it is more
than tolerated. Sardis has substituted the outward
for the inward. She has been proud of her external
ordinances, and has thought more of them than of living
in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit. True piety has
declined; and, as a natural consequence, sins of the
flesh, alluded to in the immediately following words
of the epistle, have asserted their supremacy. More
even than this, Sardis had a name that she lived while
she was dead. She was renowned among men. The
world looked, and beheld with admiration what was to
it the splendour of her worship; it listened, and heard
with enthusiasm the music of her praise. And the
church was pleased that it should be so. Not in
humility, lowliness, and deeds of self-sacrificing love
did she seek her "name," but in what the world would
have been equally delighted with though the inspiring
soul of it all had been folly or sin. A stronghold had
been established by the world in Sardis.
Yet there also the Good Shepherd had His little
flock, and there again we meet them. But thou hast a
few names in Sardis which did not defile their garments.
These were to Sardis what "the rest" were to Thyatira.
They were the "gleanings left in Israel, as the shaking
of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the
uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches
of a fruitful tree."[82] They were the "new wine found
in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a
blessing is in it."[83] To them therefore great promises
are given: They shall walk with Me in white; for they
are worthy. He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in
white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out
of the book of life, and I will confess his name before My
Father, and before His angels. It is the glorified Lord
who, as the High-priest of His Church, "walketh" in
the midst of the golden candlesticks; and, as priests,
these shall walk with Him in a similar glory. Upon
earth they were despised, but beyond the earth they
shall be openly acknowledged and vindicated. They
shall be arrayed in those garments of glistering purity
which were with difficulty kept white in the world, but
which in the world to come Divine favour shall keep
free from every stain.
6. The sixth epistle is to Philadelphia; and the
remarkable circumstance connected with this church
is that, though spoken of as having but "a little
power," it is not seriously blamed. In this respect it
resembles the church at Smyrna in the first group of
these seven epistles. What has mainly to be noticed,
however, is that it is not simply, like that at Smyrna,
a suffering church. It has been engaged in an earnest
and hot struggle with the world, as the superscription,
the commendation, and the promises of the epistle
combine to testify.
The superscription is, These things saith He that is
holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He
that openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth, and
none openeth. The figure is taken from the Old Testament;
and both there and here the context shows us
that it is neither the key of knowledge, nor the key of
discipline, nor the key of the treasures of the kingdom
that is spoken of, but the key of power to open the
Lord's house as a sure refuge from all evil, and to
preserve safe for ever those who are admitted to it.
"I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,"
says the Almighty by His prophet, "and I will clothe
him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle,
and I will commit thy government into his hand: and
he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house
of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall
open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none
shall open."[84] Whoever be our adversaries, we know
that in the hollow of the Lord's hand we are safe.
The commendation of the epistle tells the same tale:
I know thy works (behold, I have set before thee a door
opened, which none can shut), that thou hast a little
power, and didst keep My word, and didst not deny My
name. The Church had "a little power," and she
had shown this in the struggle.
So also with the promises: Behold, I give of the
synagogue of Satan, of them which say they are Jews, and
they are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come
and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved
thee. Because thou didst keep the word of My patience,
I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour
which is to come upon the whole inhabited earth, to try
them that dwell upon the earth. I come quickly: hold
fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown. He
that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of
My God, and he shall no more come forth: 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. How fierce the struggle of Philadelphia had
been with the world we learn from these words, in
which the enemies of the Church—"Jews" they call
themselves, the people of God, but "they are not"—are
brought before us like vanquished nations at
her feet, as she sits in the heavenly places, paying
homage to her against whom they had so long, but
vainly, struggled. It is impossible not to see the
difference between this church and that at Smyrna.
No doubt there had been "blasphemy of them which
say they are Jews" in the latter case, but worse trials
were only spoken of as about to come. Here the trials
have come, and the church has risen triumphantly
above them. Therefore will the Lord admit her to
His heavenly mansions, and will make her a pillar in
His Father's house, whence she shall come forth no
more. He Himself "went forth" from His Father that
He might be the Captain of our salvation and might
die on our behalf. He returned to His Father, and
never again "comes forth" as He came in the days
of His flesh. Having died once, He dieth no more;
and they who have borne His cross shall wear, when
victors in His cause, His crown of victory.
7. The seventh epistle is to Laodicea, and here there
can be no doubt that we have the picture of a church
in which the power of the world carries almost all
before it. The church is addressed by Him who describes
Himself as the Amen, the faithful and true Witness,
the Beginning of the creation of God, upon which immediately
follows a charge as to her condition in which
there is no redeeming point. Only later do we see
that there is hope. I know thy works, that thou art
neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold,
I will spew thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest,
I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of
nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one,
and miserable and poor and blind and naked: I counsel
thee to buy of Me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest
become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe
thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made
manifest; and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, that thou
mayest see. As many as I love, I reprove and chasten:
be zealous therefore, and repent. To interpret the
boasting of the church given in these words as if
it referred to spiritual rather than material riches
is entirely to mistake the meaning. Worldly wealth
is in the writer's view. The members of the church
generally have aimed at riches, and have gotten them.
Possession of riches has also been followed by its usual
effects. The seen and the temporal have usurped in
their minds the place of the unseen and the eternal.
Perhaps they have even regarded their worldly prosperity
as a token of the Divine favour, and are
soothing themselves with the reflection that they have
made the best of both worlds, when they have really
sacrificed everything to one world, and that the lower
of the two. The last picture of the Church is the
saddest of all.
Yet is Laodicea not altogether without hope. Behold,
says He whose every word is truth, I stand at the door
and knock: if any man hear My voice and open the door, I
will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with
Me. Even in Laodicea there are some who, inasmuch
as they have fought the hardest battle, shall be
welcomed to the highest reward. He that overcometh,
I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne,
as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in
His throne. Beyond that neither hope nor imagination
can rise.
The epistles to the seven churches are over. They
present the Church to us as she appears on the field
of history. They set before us the leading characteristics
of her condition partly as she was in "Asia"
at the moment when the Apostle wrote, partly as
she shall be throughout all time and on the widest,
as well as the narrowest, scale. These characteristics
may be shortly summed up as—in the first group of
three, love to the Redeemer, yet love liable, and even
beginning, to grow cold; persecution and trials of
many kinds; preservation by the secret grace of God
and in the hidden life: in the second group of four,
yielding on the part of the majority to sins associated
with unchristian doctrine; formalism in religion; weakness
in the midst of trial, even though not accompanied
by faithlessness; and lukewarmness, springing
from a preference of the things of time to those of
eternity. To these characteristics, however, have to
be added, as more or less accompanying them, many
of the active graces of the Christian life: labour, and
patience, and faith, and charity, and works, whatever
makes the Christian Church a light in the world and
the object of her Lord's care and watchfulness. In
reading the seven epistles, we behold a lively picture
of the Church of Christ in her graces and in her
failings, in her strength and in her weakness, in her
joys and in her sorrows, in her falls under the influence
of temptation and in her returns to the path of duty.
The characteristics thus spoken of are not peculiar to
any particular age, but may mark her at one time less,
at another more, at one time individually, at another in
combination. Taken as a whole, they present her to
us in her Divine ideal marred by human blemishes; we
are prepared to acknowledge the necessity, the wisdom,
and the mercy of the trials that await her; and we
learn to anticipate with gladness her final and glorious
deliverance.
One brief concluding remark ought to be made.
The epistles now considered ought to be sufficient
in themselves to show that the Apocalypse is not a
series of visions intended only to illustrate one or two
ideas which had taken a strong hold of the Apostle's
mind, or one or two great principles of the Divine
government in general. St. John starts from the
realities around him as much as any writer of the New
Testament. It is true that he sees in them eternal
principles at work, and that he rises to the thought
of ideal good and of ideal evil; but he is not on that
account less true to fact, less impressed by fact. On
the contrary, his very depth of insight into the meaning
of the facts makes him what he is. He who would write
a philosophy of history is not less, but more, dependent
upon the facts of history than he to whom a fact is
valuable simply in its individual and isolated form. It
is the present therefore that stirs the writer of this
book, but stirs him the more because he beholds in
it principles and issues connected with Him who was,
and is, and is to come, the covenant-keeping God, the
Judge of men, the unchangeable I am.
Hence also the mistake sometimes made of thinking
that the purpose of unfolding the principles of the
Divine government could not be a sufficient motive to
St. John to write.[85] Every cruelty to the saints of God
which he witnessed, every cry of oppression which he
heard, supplied a motive. We may not feel these
things now, but the iron of them entered into the
soul of the disciple whom Jesus loved. We need
more prophets like him to make it ring in the ears
of selfish wealth and of ease indifferent to the ills
festering around it, "For the spoiling of the poor, for
the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the
Lord."[86]
