"Hold That Fast Which Thou Hast"

From: The Remembrancer: 1910

Revelation 3:11 • 6 min. read • grade level: 10

EV 3:11{As those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and who have before us the prize of our calling on high of God in Christ Jesus, we are but little concerned with the rapid flitting by of the times and seasons. If it has any voice for us, it is only to remind us that "the night is far spent, and the day is at hand;" and that it behooves us to have our "loins girded about and lights burning," in the prospect of the speedy return of our Lord.

One special aspect of our responsibility in view of this prospect is brought before us in the Scripture at the head of this paper: it is found in the message to Philadelphia. It is important to notice that overcoming in this church is different from that in the other six. In the five previous churches—with the exception perhaps of Smyrna—it is overcoming by separation, or preservation from the evil in their respective spheres of responsibility. In Laodicea it is getting out of one state into another in a word, by acquisition of what is lacking. But overcoming in Philadelphia is simply maintaining-maintaining that which is already possessed. Thus, " Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh "

(i. e. by holding fast) " will I make a pillar in the temple of my God," &c. The encouragement to hold fast, the reader will mark, is the Lord's coming. " Behold I come quickly, hold fast that which thou hast," &c.

Another thing is obvious. The need of the exhortation sprung and springs from the fact that there was a danger of losing the precious heritage which had been entrusted to them. Hence to retain the truth would involve conflict, as it has ever done all down the line of the history of the church until the present moment, and as it will increasingly do until the Lord comes.

Is not then the conviction forced upon us, and deepening daily, that the one important thing, the one incumbent responsibility at the present moment, is to "hold fast that which we have." Whilst those gathered to t he Lord's name have for the most part been preserved from the different, forms of rationalistic infidelity and of Romish superstitions now so prevalent around us—have we not a danger of a subtler kind confronting us? It is not open enemies we have to dread; every true soldier of the faith delights in warfare with such. Our foes are rather they of our own household—foes therefore in the garb of friends—those who stand by and permit the truth to be frittered away. It cannot indeed be denied that truths which, when first recovered and proclaimed, were used of God to rouse thousands of His people out of their slumbers, and which encouraged many to forsake all they held dear for the joy of fuller communion with the mind of the Lord, and for the still deeper joy of a more intimate knowledge of Himself, are now either loosely held—held in a way that involves no reproach, no cross —or being tacitly surrendered.

If this tendency increases, the question of Pilate may again be heard, " What is truth?" The truth is Christ, every part of it being but a ray of the glory that shines from His glorified face at the right hand of God. To hold fast that which we have therefore is to hold fast the truth of all that is in His person, in His work, in His union with His people, in His headship of the body, His Lordship, yea all the relationships into which He, in grace, has entered with His own in all the offices which He condescends to fill, and, in a word, in all His divine unfoldings in the precepts He has given to His people. Well then may He challenge us to hold that fast which we have, because it is in reality fidelity to Himself which is thus enjoined. Who of us is willing, by the grace of God, to respond to His appeal? To do so must, as previously stated, involve conflict. Take for example, the truest Philadelphian the church has ever seen—the apostle Paul. Was there ever a moment in his history after His conversion when he could rest from warfare, and from warfare for the truth with those who bore the name of Christ equally with himself? At Antioch he contended with Barnabas, who left him. At the same place he had to withstand Peter to the face (Gal. 2). What a temptation it must have been to a tender heart like that of Paul's to have yielded the point in charity for the sake of peace! If he had, what would have been the consequence? This we cannot tell: but it is certain that at that moment the maintenance of the truth of God depended entirely (humanly speaking) on the fidelity of Paul. He was the only one in the church at Antioch who held that fast which he had.

Not that controversy is here advocated, for, as usually understood, it is withering to the soul. No, what is pleaded for is a full ministration of Christ, and faithfulness in the defense of the whole truth of Christ. But even the holding and defending truth apart from Christ, is of no value, but rather an immense danger to the soul. Hence none but those who are walking in dependence upon, and communion with, a living Christ can hold that fast which they have, in the sense of this Scripture. No keenness of intellect, no argumentative power, will avail in this battle; nothing but the word of God held and wielded in the power of the Holy Ghost (cf. 2 Tim. 1:14¹⁴That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. (2 Timothy 1:14); 2 Cor. 10:3, 4³For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: ⁴(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) (2 Corinthians 10:3‑4)). On this account the exhortation is prefaced by the announcement, " Behold, I come quickly." The Lord would thus have His soldiers fight as momentarily expecting to see HIM face to face.

" Shall we of the way be weary,
When we see the Master's face?"

In like manner, who would tire in the conflict for Christ and His truth, when our hearts are cheered and warmed by the expectation of being caught away from the midst of the strife to meet the Lord in the air?