Revelation 3:12, 19-21REV 3:12REV 3:19-21
"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches" (Rev. 3:22). This appeal goes to every assembly from Ephesus to Laodicea, and it is taken up individually. What then follows is found in every assembly addressed. Listen to the words spoken: "Him that overcometh." There is an overcomer in every assembly addressed-a select seven.
The first three follow consecutively; the next four run on concurrently from when they come in. When we come to the final two, they are no exception. There is a call to the overcomer in each. Would we expect this in Philadelphia?
Philadelphia means "brotherly love," but the outer circle is formed from the Center where the personal pronouns "I," "My" and "Him" occur nineteen times; it is not "Me," which comes later. Nothing is said of the circle except that there is an address to an overcomer in verse 12. We may wonder why there is an overcomer in such a circle of "brotherly love.”
Come now to Laodicea, where there is also an overcomer, and a call, for the word means "lukewarm," and the Lord is seen outside, not in the center. Nevertheless, here too there is an overcomer who responds to His call of love. Only through grace can there be a response to such a call, for we see His patient attitude in verse 19: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”
Laodicea is profession with the "door" closed, while professing to accept Him. The awakened soul opens the door to private communion with Him, for He knocks and calls, "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" (vs. 20). Notice this is personal; it is not a reference to the breaking of bread. But here we have the personal pronoun "Me" applying to the Lord, but not found with the others in the address to Philadelphia, only in a private setting. And the believer sups with the Person who gives impulse to the Philadelphian circle. Does this responder move out to Him? (See verse 21.) There is the supply of grace to do so, and the promise of an overcomers reward.
We can now draw on some Old Testament scriptures for the focus of our attention on the value of one person in the estimate of the Lord.
“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isa. 57:15).
“For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word" (Isa. 66:2).
He is far beyond us in the inscrutability of the majestic glory of His Deity, but comes so close to us in the lowliness of His humanity. "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). This is where He loves to be; He went to the cross that all this could be for His heart, and for our present and eternal gain. It is us the Lord wants, not primarily our service for Him, far be it to fall into ritualism. There are many scriptural illustrations: "Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?" (Luke 17:12-18). It was one in ten lepers that returned to worship and give glory to God. And he was a Samaritan.
Do we seek to shelter behind a facade of undetected pretention by saying, "We are in the right position"? Philadelphia is not ecclesiastical; it is spiritual, moral, personal, yet collective. If there is failure, there is loss to the Lord and to His brethren. But the Spirit draws attention to "the overcomer" in messages both to Philadelphia and Laodicea. Take account of what the Lord says, "I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." It is by the hand of the Lord, and in the power of the Spirit. And we remember He has the "key of David." He "openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth" (Rev. 3:7-8).
We have noticed that there is a "door" shut upon the Lord in Laodicea. This may be applied to sectarianism, for it shuts the door to the truth of the Lord in the midst, according to the Scriptures. To be neutral or indifferent about it is to declare a position of lukewarmness. Recall Revelation 3:19! Let us lift up a prayer, "Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust." There will always be an overcomer and a collective testimony right up to the rapture (Rev. 3:10).
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." We do well to again go to the Old Testament for a luminous illustration found in Habakkuk 3, where the prophet looks about and trembles. "Thy bow was made naked, the rods of discipline sworn according to Thy word. Selah" (vs. 9 JND). When everything threatens to fail, he looks up, and rejoices in "the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places" (vss. 18-19). What an example of spiritual alacrity, which takes us into the heavenlies (Eph. 1:3-6).
“His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob" (Psa. 87:1-2).
M. Priestley
The steps of a good man are ordered by Jehovah. This is a vast and precious blessing. A young Christian may, in confiding zeal, not see so much the value of this, but when one has seen the world, what a pathless wilderness it is; it is beyond all price that the Lord directs our steps!