Laodicea: A Contrast, Not a Sequence, of Philadelphia
Christopher Wolston
Table of Contents
Laodicea: a Contrast, Not a Sequence, of Philadelphia, Part 1
All must admit the importance of the question that is agitating many minds, as to whether Philadelphia and Laodicea are concurrent or successive phases of Church history. If they both go down to the end, Christians may be in either one or the other of them. If, on the other hand, the one has merged in the other, all Christians are now in Laodicea.
Leaving aside the question as to whether Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, do not all go down to the end, as undoubtedly they do, and as has been hitherto taught and received, we will confine our inquiry to the last two churches.
A few moments' reflection will impress on the mind the gravity of such an inquiry, with the practical consequences, as to walk and testimony, that are involved in it. Upon the concurrent view, according as we recognize ourselves in either the one or the other of these churches, will be our responsibility to give heed to the special testimony respectively borne to them. Those who take Philadelphian ground must listen to what "He that is holy, he that is true" says to Philadelphia; while those who take Laodicean ground must listen to what "the Amen, the faithful and true witness" says to Laodicea.
Upon the succession view, Philadelphia being over and Laodicea alone in question, all must listen to what is said to Laodicea, at least, all will who have an ear to hear "what the Spirit saith unto the churches," and those who hold this view may rightly say that it is self-will and rebellion against Christ to hold to Philadelphian ground when He has left that ground, and is addressing Himself to Laodicea. Sad and humbling as it may be to give up Philadelphian ground, with all its comforting and encouraging words, and take that of Laodicea, with its solemn warnings and rebukes, it will be our wisdom and our blessing to do so. Better to humble ourselves before Him who, though outside, in grace stands knocking at the door, ready and willing to come in and have communion with any who, hearing His voice, will open the door to Him, than in hardness of heart to try and stand upon higher and better ground where He can have nothing to say to us.
All this sounds very pious and well, but is it really so? Is it true that "all is Laodicea now "? or is this view a delusion of the enemy, having for its aim the destruction of God's testimony on the earth by detaching believers from the Holy One and the True One, and, while taking from them the comforting hope of His coming and replacing it by the threatenings of judgment, plunge souls into uncertainty and confusion, putting them, at the same time, on a false ground, where self and self's doings take the place of Christ and God's sovereign grace? That we may make no mistake in so serious a matter, let us carefully look into what is involved in taking Laodicean ground, and then compare this with that of Philadelphia. In order to do this safely, we must get rid of all preconceived thoughts on the subject, and receive simply what is taught in God's word- "what the Spirit saith to the churches."
Assuming that Laodicea represents the last phase of the professing church, as the responsible witness for God on the earth, what we have to do is to learn what is said to it by Him "who walketh amidst the seven golden candlesticks." To do this effectively, we must note first the characters in which He presents Himself to this church, and the position in which He places Himself while addressing it.
With reference to the characters He assumes, what first strikes one is, that none of them are ecclesiastical, and none of them those in which John sees Him "in the midst of the seven candlesticks." None of them are judicial, but they are those that present the ways of God in blessing for man, and in the knowledge of which he finds his blessing. Nothing more touching than this, when all is heartless indifference to Himself: "These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." He speaks as being all these, specially at the moment when addressing this church.
As "the Amen," He is the One in whom all the promises of God are fulfilled and made good on man's behalf, "for all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen, unto the glory of God by us." (2 Cor. 1:20.) As "the faithful and true witness," He has revealed and brought down to man all that God is in grace and truth, as well as the One who, as man, has faithfully witnessed for God, and "he that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true." (John 3:23.) As "the beginning of the creation of God," He is the One in whom and under whom all things, as flowing from God in a new creation, have their commencement, and will have their display. He is this as risen from the dead, all in the new creation having its origin from Him, and being placed under Him as its Head in resurrection, so that "if any man be in Christ he is a new creation." (2 Cor. 5:17.)
It is of importance to observe here that Christ is all this as the One in whom God's glory, and all blessing for man, is secured and made good after man, and here specially the church, has failed to maintain God's glory and testimony in connection with the blessing in which he has been placed, and it is only as having Christ Himself that the church, after having failed as God's responsible witness on the earth, will have her part in that new creation, which will have its effectual display in Christ when He comes in glory.
This fact makes the position which Christ assumes, when addressing the church of Laodicea, of such solemn import. He is outside it- practically it is without Him and all the blessing contained in Him. He was merely lingering in grace at the door, no longer expecting the mass to hear or heed His words of warning and rebuke. He presses Himself closely on the conscience of the individual before He severs all connection between Himself and the professing church.
Having noted these two points, as to character and position, and keeping them in our minds, we will now attentively examine what He says to the angel of the church of Laodicea. "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot; so then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." The condition depicted here, and which brings unconditional judgment, is that of the hollow profession of Christ's name and service, without there being anything really from Him or for Him. Benevolence and service to man- works of this kind, there are plenty, done, too, in His name, and with the claim of being the church of God, but really without there being anything that is for God's glory.
Thus indifference to God's claims, honor, and truth, with no sense of Christ's love or attachment to Him, characterize the last phase of the professing church. It is what men boldly and significantly call "Broad church." Latitudinarianism of the worst kind, where what is held and taught is no matter so long as people are religious, moral, and respectable, and where ritualism, evangelicalism, and rationalism are peaceably combined together to form the church of Christ- not Jews or heathens, but Christians by profession. He abhors such a state. It is like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold; He will spue it out of His mouth as nauseous to Him- a thing not worth special judgment at His hand. Even the bold and blasphemous Thyatira was more tolerable to Him, He would judge her.
With this utter indifference to Christ and His claims, though with the empty profession of devotedness to Him and His service, there is much pretension and ostentatious parade of resources and competency in themselves that have not Him for their source. Therefore He says, "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear: and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."
Worldly possessions, human righteousness, and human wisdom and knowledge are possessed in abundance, with no sense of need of any kind, but nothing properly Christian, nothing of the new creation, nothing suited to God, nothing that will stand the test of divine judgment or last for eternity; hence He addresses them in terms that apply only to the unconverted and unsaved. "Wretched, miserable, and poor," they needed divine righteousness, that which can stand the fire of divine trial, that which Christ Himself is, "who was made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." For this, "gold tried in the fire," they must come to Him, and for it they might well exchange some of their boasted wealth, so as to be "rich towards God." He says, "buy of me," for the very first principle of the Gospel is unknown to them, and He takes them on their own ground, like the foolish virgins of Matt. 25, who go to "buy," and return to find the door of grace closed.
"Naked" in God's sight, whatever they were in their own, they required "white garments," and for these, too, they must come to Him, who alone could communicate to them a life which, in its expression of living and practical righteousness, flowing out of His being in them and known as a redeemer, should so clothe them that, manifested as those that "have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," "the shame of their nakedness should not appear."
"Blind," they stood in need of "eyesalve," that no mere human apothecary could supply them with, and from Himself alone could they get that "unction of the Holy One," the teaching of the Holy Ghost, which would give them divine intelligence, for as yet they saw nothing that was of God in a new creation, and required to be born again even to "see the kingdom of God," not to speak of entering in it and having part with Him there.
Such is the internal state of those who compose the church of Laodicea. In a word, they are Christless souls. Still He lingers over them in grace, while an already pronounced judgment waits its accomplishment. Most solemn moment in the church's earthly history! Mercy's last pause before all is over.
"As many as I love I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent," is affection's last appeal; touching yet stern in the earnestness with which it presses immediate repentance. How like Jehovah's last appeal and statement of ways with the Jews ere He gave them up to go down to Babylon! "I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking: but ye hearkened not unto me. I (Jer. 35:14.) How, too, it reminds one of the Lord's attitude towards Jerusalem ere its history closed in judgment! "And when he was come near he beheld the city, and wept over it." (Luke 19:41.) And should not we weep in our day over that which, still called by His name, is about to be overtaken by judgment. True, "they are enemies of the cross, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things," but shall not we, with the apostle, speak and think of them, "even weeping" and longing for their salvation?
Unheard by the church, Christ turns to the individual, and addresses each one singly, "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." If but one even would hear His voice, and would open the door to Him, He would go into that one, save him, and give him part in the heavenly kingdom, He was about to bring in. He would have communion with him in heavenly and eternal things, in contrast with the earthly and temporal things the mass around are enjoying and boasting of; but not as one that was already His and had heard His voice before. It is not here the voice of the Shepherd calling "His own sheep by name," however, until now, estranged in heart and ways. It is as a Savior He seeks admittance, and the up-till-then closed door has to be opened that He may go in, where as yet He has had no place. His call to repentance has to be heard, and, as it were, He proffers Himself "to be guest with man that is a sinner," and when within would surely say, "This day is salvation come to this house," but such an one is only just saved, at the last moment snatched out of the fire.
On every ground it is important to see that it is not here the door of some faithful one, amidst a church of unfaithful ones, that is opened to a Lord who seeks communion with one, who, truer than others, and loving Him more, longs for closer association with Himself and more enjoyment of His love. Such thoughts savor of one whose self-occupation and unbelief in his brethren (true and faithful servant of the Lord as he was), led him into isolation in days gone by; and whose self righteousness prompted him to say, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets, and I, even I, only am left." Little knew he of Jehovah's love and preserving grace in that day for a poor and feeble flock- an "election according to grace," who, if they lacked the faithfulness that could stand in open testimony against evil as he was doing, were as dear to Jehovah's heart as himself; and little knows such a one today of the love of Him who, "having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end," whose service for them, all feet-washing as it may be, will not cease till He has them all in glory with Himself. Nor is the "will sup with him, and he with me," anything special; it is merely grace in the manner of its presentation, just as in Luke 14:15, where the. Lord, in answer to the man's remark, "Blessed. is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God," replies "a certain man made a great supper, and bade many." It is plainly here the gospel. So again in Rev. 19:9, "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." The Lord in connection with the exercise of His grace to the Samaritan woman, says to His disciples, " I have meat to eat that ye know not of." (John 4:32.)
The promise in Laodicea to the overcomer, the one who hears His voice- is very bare. "To him that overcometh," He says, "will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am sit down with my Father on his throne." There is nothing special in this as the reward for preeminent faithfulness. It is what attaches to salvation, to being simply His, and is just the general ground given in Romans 8, that we must "suffer with him that we may be also glorified together;" the same as in 2 Tim. 3, "If we suffer with him, we shall reign with him." Now, this is not suffering for Christ through faithfulness, but suffering with Him, as all that are His do, and must do, simply because they are associated with Him by saving grace. It is "the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith," the proof of the possession of life in the Son of God, and which has its parallel in Christ's own victory. He tells His disciples, to comfort and cheer them, " I have overcome the world "- overcome everything in the world that Satan could bring to bear to separate between the soul and God. He is here our example; "as I have overcome," He says, though surely His grace alone can give strength for such a conflict. Wonderful the grace that first gives everything by which we can overcome, and then rewards the faithfulness His grace alone produces. It is thus the overcomer in Laodicea is rewarded. Not to be so rewarded were to be lost. C. W. (To be continued.)
Nature has circumstances between itself and God; faith has God between the heart and circumstances.
J. N. D.
Laodicea: a Contrast, Not a Sequence, of Philadelphia, Part 2
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. 3:7) 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 10:38)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 4:34.) 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 17:3), 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 5:20) 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 17:11) 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. 10:32,33.) 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. 3:9)
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.)
Laodicea: a Contrast, Not a Sequence, of Philadelphia, Part 3
But another thing, and a very special one, characterizes the Philadelphians to the eye of Christ: they have been, through grace, kept from "the error of the wicked," and have not given up "the promise of his coming;" therefore He says, "Because thou halt kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."
Christ, in whom "all the promises of God are yea, and Amen, to the glory of God by us," sits at the right hand of God in heaven, and there all true believers know Him- know Him as the One who, "when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Heb. 1:3.) But He sits there, too, according to the word spoken to Himself, in answer to His own faithfulness on earth, "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." (Psa. 110:1.)
In this way believers in Christ are connected with heaven, and with the hopes that attach to Him who is there; "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world," He says of them, adding, "and for their sakes I sanctify myself [sets Himself apart in heaven], that they also might be sanctified through the truth." (John 17:16,19.) Christ sits at the right hand of God awaiting the fulfillment of the promises made to Himself, when He shall come, put down all evil, and take His kingdom; for this all His people wait with Him; they keep, however feebly, and it may be unintelligently, the word of His patience. As of others, in the day of His rejection on earth amid Israel, He, as it were, says again, "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptation." To our eyes were they entitled to have this said of them, but He said it- His grace thus clothed them, and so now. They belong to heaven because they are His, as believing in Him during the day of His rejection, and they are associated with Him in the patience of hope that connects itself with His present position. In keeping with this, the apostle Paul prays that the Thessalonians, and thus all saints, might have their hearts directed "into the love of God, and into the patience of Christ." (2 Thess. 3:5.) So, too, John, associating himself with all believers, says, "I John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ." (Rev. 1:9.)
It is not the rapture, but His appearing that is here in question, and before this appearing, which all saints necessarily love, takes place, a time of terrible trial will come upon the whole world to try them that dwell on the earth; from this His own people, who are not dwellers on the earth, but pilgrims and strangers, having their citizenship in heaven, shall be kept- taken out of the world to be with Himself before it even begins. Nothing is said as to how far they are walking according to this hope, but they keep it, do not give it up, and His word of comfort and encouragement has reference to this fact, though doubtless the happy assurance of being kept from the hour of temptation will depend upon the degree in which the word of His patience fills the heart and forms the path; still it is pure grace that gives any a part in this hope- "the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." And it is important to remark here that, whatever the special comfort any faithful heart may have in this promise, this being kept out of the hour of temptation is in effect the rapture of the saints, and hence, necessarily includes all true believers, just as the dwellers upon the earth include all mere professors. There are but these two classes in view at the moment of which the Lord speaks, and "them that dwell upon the earth" are a class distinguished all through the book of Revelation as being under Satan's delusion, and the special subjects of judgment; no true saint is so described.
But while the coming of the Lord, however dimly apprehended, is the hope of every true believer, this hope needs to be roused into a living anticipation, and into active energy; so the Lord says, "Behold I come quickly: hold that fast which thou halt, that no man take thy crown." This is a word of mingled encouragement and warning that must not be overlooked or unheeded. All on the side of His grace is secure, but there is danger, and a danger of no ordinary character. A subtle and mighty foe has to be withstood and overcome, and to be worsted on this battle field- is to lose crown, and with it everything else. (Compare Rev. 2:10,11: "the crown of life," and "not hurt of the second death.") They are to hold fast that which they have- His word, His name, His coming; to give these up were to lose all that keeps the soul with God, and thus in blessing. The danger here is not failure in walk, or the yielding up of a true christian position; nor is it the passing from the Philadelphian state to that of Laodicea, but something far more serious- it is apostasy. To possess nothing that Christ can own, and to be warned and invited to receive at His hands what He can own, is one thing; but to already possess what He can own, and to be warned not to give it up is quite another. Now, although no true believer can be lost, he is yet responsibly in a position of danger, hence the warnings and ifs that run through scripture, and addressed to believers with reference to the blessings that they are in the possession of, so "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." (1 Cor. 10:12.)
The promise in Philadelphia to the overcomer- the one who holds fast what he has, is very full and complete; believing in and following Christ during the day of His rejection, and thus associated with Him in shame and loss in this world (compare Rom. 8:17), above all, despised by that which, covered with earthly glory and filled up with human riches, claimed, though falsely, to be His church and witness on earth, he is fully and openly associated with Christ in heavenly blessedness; shares with Him all the glory that He has acquired by His life of faithfulness to God on earth. He acquired it, but He gives it to His people. "The glory which thou hast given me I have given them," He tells His Father in John 17 So here, He says, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name."
The peculiar blessedness of all this is the complete association of the overcomer with Christ Himself in all He specially delights to call His own. "In the temple of my God"- the one weak, and disowned on earth by a false church, shall be a pillar of strength. That temple, too, shall be the dwelling, from whence shall never remove, the one that here had been a pilgrim and stranger for His name's sake. "The name of my God"- His Savior God, shall be written on him who, refusing man's salvation, was held by man to be outside God altogether. "The name of the city of my God"- the new and heavenly Jerusalem, shall be publicly stamped on him who, refusing man's church and authority (Babylon), was accounted to be without place or portion in God's kingdom, and to have no link with heaven. And he who had no name on earth at all that man would own, content to be simply a Christian, and boast no name but the name of Jesus, shall have "my new name"- that name of heavenly glory given Him by the Father, which prophets have not declared, and no one after the flesh can know. What more can love say to encourage? What more can grace bestow? Himself and all He has, as man, is the Philadelphian overcomer's portion and reward.
The brief and imperfect sketch we have given of the essential and characteristic features of Philadelphia and Laodicea cannot, we think, fail to establish our position, that the one is the contrast of the other, and, in the view we have taken of what this contrast really involves, the one cannot be the sequence of the other, in the sense of Philadelphia becoming Laodicea, nor do we think that Laodicea even collaterally develops out of Philadelphia.
Before closing our subject we would call attention to a few noteworthy facts as to these two churches. In both of them the angel and, those he represents all go together—no distinct class is distinguished; in Philadelphia there is no bad class; in Laodicea, no good class. Now, in the other churches the Lord distinguishes those whom He approves from those whom He disapproves. This is very marked in Thyatira, where He addresses "the rest" separately even from the angel. In Philadelphia all is approval and unqualified encouragement. In Laodicea all is unqualified disapproval, without one word of encouragement: He rebukes, threatens, calls to repentance, promising blessing on repentance, nothing more. We cannot but express our conviction that in Philadelphia all are viewed as converted, while in Laodicea all, at least ostensibly, are viewed as unconverted. That grace pleads with these latter up to the last moment, after judgment has been unconditionally pronounced, makes no real difficulty, and we quite believe that to Christ's eye, amongst the judged mass, there may be elect objects of His love who will hear His voice, and, by doing so, cease really to belong to Laodicea before He spues it out of His mouth.
The difficulty, where it exists, arises, we believe, out of making these two last churches, church positions instead of regarding them as two distinct states of soul in which all professing Christians come under the eye of Christ at the close. States that together really cover the whole ground of the church up to the end; here discriminated, put side by side and depicted characteristically. With this view it is a question of a true or a false profession, with the consequences that attach respectively to it, that Philadelphia and Laodicea represent. We have the analogy of this in the book of Malachi. C. W.