Turning, now, to the church of Philadelphia, we find that it has this in common with that of Laodicea, that none of the characters in which Christ presents Himself are ecclesiastical or judicial:- "These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that bath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth." (Rev. 3:77And 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 no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; (Revelation 3:7)) We have here what Christ is personally, and governmentally in His kingdom.
At the close of the Church's earthly history, when all, outwardly, is hollow profession, and neither truth or holiness, nor subjection to divine authority are to be found in the mass of those who bear the name of Christ and claim to be His church, He presents Himself in these characters for the individual faith and encouragement of His own. Personal attachment to Himself, and subjection to His authority are now everything, and the promises He makes are in connection with this individual faithfulness; and, by the bond of a personal tie, those really and livingly His would be associated together, not by an ecclesiastical position, but by the individual faith and devotedness that He takes knowledge of, and to which He addresses Himself.
The way in which Christ presents Himself to this church brings to light the striking analogy that exists between the position of true believers now at the close of the present dispensation, and that which He Himself occupied in the last days of Israel under the first covenant. Then, as now, all was high-sounding profession, without reality, and leading on to apostasy. He was then, as we get Him in the gospels, the Holy One and the True One; the One wholly devoted to God, and the One in whom all that is true was livingly made good before God and presented to the eye of man. Whatever His ministry of grace and goodness towards sinners, meeting, as He did, every form of human want and misery, the exercise of this grace never enfeebled or clouded for one moment His personal character in what He was for God; nor can divine grace, in a world of sin and sorrow, ever be divorced from the maintenance of personal holiness and truth in those by whom it is exercised and ministered. He was, and is still, the Holy One and the True One, because divine love must find a channel for itself in a world where all is sin and departure from God. It is thus Peter presents Him to the Gentiles in Acts 10, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him." (Acts 10:3838How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. (Acts 10:38))In this character and according to this power, at the beginning of His ministry, the devils recognized Him, "saying, Let us alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God." (Luke 4:3434Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God. (Luke 4:34).) Blessedly, here put together, are these two things- holiness for God, and delivering power for man.
This is the One that challenges the faith and confidence of His people in His address to the church of Philadelphia. The One who, on the one side, was all for God, and, on the other, all for man. He would have them in individual and personal association with Himself, not now so much according to a dispensation as given to Paul to administer, but in what is essential and divine as developed by John in his epistles. That is in eternal life, and in the character and ways in which that life had displayed itself in Him. It is not the church relationship of saints with Christ, and thus with one another, but the life of faith that connects itself with the Person of the Son of God, in whom all blessing is secured, and all dispensations will have their accomplishment. Those whom He addresses know Him as the Holy One and the True One, and thus have eternal life. "This is life eternal," He says elsewhere, "that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent " (John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)), and so John, in his epistle, "We know the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." (1 John 5:2020And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. (1 John 5:20)) They are " his own which are in the world," and of whom He can say, "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me;" (John 17:1111And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. (John 17:11)) as the objects of the Father's care and keeping they must have the character and ways suited to Himself. They, too, must be holy and true, and withal, they had been sent into the world as He had been sent into the world.
This is the true and real, though undeveloped, ground on which those addressed as the church of Philadelphia stand. The way Christ presents Himself here, and what He subsequently says to them implies this. They are the objects of His love, and those who are truly acting for Him during His absence, and hence those to whom He can rightly present Himself as, "He that hath the keys of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth; and shutteth and no man openeth." All authority for man's blessing is in His hand, and, as He Himself, in His time of service on earth, entered "in by the door" which the porter opened to Him, so that no power of man, high priest or scribe, could hinder His getting at the sheep and bringing them out into blessing, so now in the sphere under His immediate control, perhaps here more specially Christendom in contrast with the world at large and the commission given at the beginning (Mark 16), He says to every true servant, "Behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it."
It is to be remarked that it is in this connection He says, " I know thy works," and, although He says the same to the other churches, it is said here without any "but," and, it seems to me, with special significance, as if of works that were peculiarly according to His own heart, and which had His deepest interest and approval. They were works such as His own had been; "my works," as He calls them in His address to Thyatira; works of grace and mercy, little thought of by the mass around them, and that attracted no attention from the world, but works which He knew and valued. Those who did them had His approval, and with this they must be content. As it were He says, "I see you love souls and are seeking them for My name's sake; you understand the joy it gives My heart when one sinner repenteth; you know what I meant when I said to others long, long ago, when on earth where you now are, ‘I have meat to eat that ye know not of,' ‘My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and finish his work;' and His work was that I should seek and save the lost. This work is as near my heart as ever; two thousand years of rejection and indifference have not chilled my heart in its yearning love for sinners, and still ‘my Father worketh hitherto and I work.' Be not discouraged by all the ruin and opposition and apostasy around you, none shall close the open door I have set before you, 'for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and not denied my name.' "
The reasons He gives them why that door should be shut by no one are of touching and deep interest. It is the very least that could be said of them as Christians. To have said less would have been to disown them altogether. It is acknowledgment of a very negative character, and yet it secured them in the fullest blessing, and brought out from Him the most unqualified encouragement, and assurance of His love.
They had a "little strength "- not that of Peter, or of Paul, in whom He wrought mightily in earlier days, yet that which He could acknowledge, as flowing from Himself. What strength they had was of the character, however small its measure, of that enjoined by Paul on Timothy, "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." It was the strength that is made perfect in weakness- His strength and theirs, because they were His and trusted in Him. They were not high minded and were, at least, standing by faith, when the church as a whole had left this ground, and not continued in "the goodness of God."
They kept His word. The word of God as a revelation to man they held by. It was their sole ground and confidence. While others around were giving up that word, and putting in its place the traditions of man or the philosophies of the human mind, they kept it. Adherence to scripture characterized them.
They had not denied His name. There was not, as in earlier days, the bold confession of His name before a hostile world, and the carrying of His name and word among every nation under heaven, in a way that carried all before them, and turned men to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and wait for His Son from heaven. Those were the days of the church's triumph and pristine faithfulness, but now all was decline and apostasy in that which bore the name of Christ collectively before the world.
It is not saying much to tell them they have kept His word and not denied His name, yet it is everything at such a moment, and forms the ground upon which He could, and would acknowledge them, in fulfillment of His own word, "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him, will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 10:32,3332Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32‑33).) This is not the faithfulness that distinguishes some believers from others, but that which stands connected with life and salvation. They are the necessary and essential characteristics of every true believer. Not to keep His word, or to deny His name, were to be lost. He does not tell them they were doing everything in His name; or that they were gathered formally to His name. There is nothing here that contrasts some Christians with others, but simply that which constituted those thus characterized Christians. One who trusts in Christ, keeps His word, and does not deny His name is a true Christian, and all such are comprehended in the address to the church of Philadelphia. It is a state of soul and not a church position that is in question.
How sweet, then, the announcement, just before the Lord returns, that before every true believer in Jesus stands an open door for preaching the gospel to poor sinners that no man can shut. Oh that all may have the love and faith to take advantage of it, and may none seek to limit its application, or mystify its significance.
But, beside infidel deniers of His word and name, there are those who oppose, and seek to frustrate this blessed gospel of the grace of God; the proud and pretentious claimants to a hereditary God-given religion, and to apostolic succession. Such look down upon the humble believer in Christ, and despise the weak and unaccredited proclaimers of His grace; as to such He says, "Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them come, and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee." (Rev. 3:99Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and 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. (Revelation 3:9))
This has special reference to what is now happening in Protestantism, and refers to the last final invasion of the church by Galatianism, and the revival of the weak and beggarly elements of Judaism, under the name of high church, and ritualism, where sacramental grace and law keeping are taught for life and salvation. Such are "the synagogue of Satan." They assume Jewish privileges and position, with sacrificing priests, and freshly and continuously offered unbloody sacrifices, denying the true priesthood of all believers, and the once offered and completed sacrifice of Christ. They, as it were, "say they are Jews." It is a lie. They are not. They are the synagogue of Satan. Solemn and terrible fact. It is not the Jezebel character of Satanic working, plainly and boldly idolatrous, as in Thyatira, or Popery, though it will infallibly end in it, but that which precedes it, as in Smyrna, with this difference, that it was attended there with persecution and martyrdom, but here with subtlety and corruption, and to stand against this latter is a more difficult task than to endure the former.
The true knowledge of Christ, and faith in God's word, with the holding by and teaching the doctrines of grace thus characterize Philadelphians, as in contrast with those who deny revelation and Christ's name, and those who maintain ecclesiastical authority, and who, making everything of outward and visible order, are simply Satan's instruments for teaching false and damnable doctrines that keep souls far away from God in sin and unbelief. Systematized religion is the cover under which Satan spreads false doctrine, especially that which denies the gospel. It gains the applause and attention of the world, but eventually those who compose this masterpiece of Satan shall have to bow at the feet of those whom, in the days of their proud and pretentious power, they had despised and disowned, as even belonging to Christ, or at least to His church, and learn that those they had so despised, all outwardly weak as they appeared, had been the real objects of Christ's love. Meanwhile Christ's love and approbation take the place of everything else for all true believers, and with this blessed comfort they may well wait for public acknowledgment before the eyes of others. This, in its day, shall surely come, " when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe." C. W. (To be continued.)