THERE are two Churches against which no word of reproach is spoken by the Lord — Smyrna, where we find persecution and poverty; and Philadelphia, which was marked by weakness but faithfulness to Christ.
A state of spiritual death, as we have just seen, characterized Sardis; and this state, as that of the last four more particularly, goes on till the end. The Lord does not present Himself in so much of a judicial character to the Church at Philadelphia as to some of the others, but rather in quite a new way and in a most personal manner. He is the Holy One and the True One. Holiness in His nature, as well as in separation from all the defilements around, ever distinguished our blessed Lord. Then, again, He was “the truth”: and all His ways were marked by truth. The Father’s word, which was the written or oral expression of the truth (“Thy word is truth”) governed His whole life, so that all His ways and actions manifested the truth it this world. The Church should be the reflex of Christ down here; she should maintain the light and truth of God, not only in doctrine but it practice, in the world. The Lord says, “I know thy works,” but adds nothing more about them except to say that He knows them; for this Church was not distinguished by any remarkable zeal or energy as some were. Nevertheless it is blessed to realize that He knows and estimates truly all that is really done for and to Himself; and He can say, “Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name.” The word “My” occurs eight times in the address to Philadelphia; it shows how closely Christ Himself is identified with those who are true to Him. It was, in fact, just what was perfectly exemplified in Him; for He perfectly manifested the Father’s word, and He ever faithfully witnessed to the Father’s name. If unholiness in practice or unsoundness in doctrine is allowed or sanctioned in any Assembly of Christians, it cannot be said that they keep Christ’s word and do not deny His name, for it is altogether incompatible with His title as the Holy and the True.
Speaking historically what answers to the Church state here described, is to be found, doubtless, in the remarkable revival of long-lost truth and light which took place at the early part of the last century. Now, one thing which was then brought out prominently was Christ Himself, what He is in Himself in all the various relationships in which He is seen in the Scripture, whether with Israel or with His Church. It was not so much abstract doctrines or truths, important as these are in their place, but the truth in its connection with Christ Himself. This is most important, because truth can only retain its vital power and freshness in the soul, and service and testimony can only be maintained in the measure in which Christ fills the heart.
It is a sure sign of weakness and failure in an Assembly to get occupied with itself instead of with Christ; and it is ever Satan’s aim to divert the eye from Him, either to ourselves or our Church position, or our service, or something else. However, there is much to encourage in what the Lord says to this Church: it is “He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth and no man openeth.” All power and all authority is in His hands, and He can use it, even on behalf of those who have but “little strength.” We need to practically realize this, that when He opens, none can shut. This is most encouraging, and, moreover, it casts us entirely on Him. But there is the solemn side also: when He shuts, none can open. And so He says, “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.” It was just what was true of Christ, “to Him the porter openeth”; God, by His Spirit, in His governmental ways, so overruled all that transpired in this world, that His purposes of grace might be worked out in the whole service, both in life and in death, of our blessed Lord. Here, the Lord holds open the door, and no power either of men or devils can shut it. It is most essential that we should learn wherein the true source of power lies, in an evil day. It is not in showy gifts or eloquence or display before the eyes of men; it is in that spirit of humble dependence and obedience, that conscious weakness which casts us over entirely upon Him as our resource. It is only as the eye is single, as Christ is the only and undivided object before the soul, as we learn our own weakness and His all-sufficiency in the secret of His presence, that we shall be enabled to keep an even course amidst the shoals and quicksand’s which the reasonings of the mind of man and Satan’s craft have cast along our way.
It is remarkable that we find in the address to this Church, reference is made to the working of the same evil principle of Judaism which we have already noticed in Smyrna. Just about the very same year as the Spirit of God was first bringing out in a most manifest way many precious truths long lost to the Church, Satan had his counter-movement in what is commonly known as Ritualism and the Oxford movement. The roots of this system of subjection to ordinances, sacraments, and the teachings of men must be sought at a very early period in the Church’s history. It is spoken of in the message to Smyrna as “the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.” It was again revived concurrently with the state described in Philadelphia, where we read of “them of the synagogue of Satan which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie.” These would be forced to acknowledge that the Lord did indeed love those feeble witnesses to whom, in grace, He had confided His truth, and who had kept His word and not denied His name.
Then He says, “Because thou hast kept the word of My patience.” What is meant by keeping the word of His patience? In chapter 1. we find “the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,” and in 2 Thessalonians 3. “the patience of Christ” (margin). Christ loves His people too much to leave them always here, and so He is coming to take them to Himself. He has not sat upon His own throne yet, but upon His Father’s throne; but He waits — waits patiently until that moment when, according to the Father’s will, He will arise and shout that quickening word which will transform these bodies of humiliation into the likeness of His body of glory. Now, it is as though He said, “I want you to be participating in My patience.” We know also that the long-suffering of our God is salvation; He is extending the day of grace to sinners. And in grace the Lord answers to this waiting attitude, for He says, “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world, to try them who dwell on the earth.” It is well known that this latter phrase — dwellers on earth — does not mean merely people who live in this world; it is often used in the Revelation to designate those whose interests, hopes, &c., are settled and rooted in this world, and who have no portion in heavenly things. For all such there is an hour of trial coming — what shape or form it may take we do not know, but it is coming. This is not the same as the “great tribulation” of which our Lord speaks (Matt. 24:2121For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21)), which is confined more especially to the land of Judea; it is over the “whole habitable world.” Those who kept the word of His patience would be kept from (literally “out of”) this hour of trial — and how? The whole context shows that it is by His taking them to Himself. They are seen as patiently waiting for a heavenly Christ; their interests and hopes are in heaven, instead of being rooted and settled on earth; and so He takes them to heaven before the judgment falls on the earth.
“Behold, I come quickly,” He says. Four times in the Revelation we find Him thus presented — it is personal — it is Christ who is coming, and that without delay. Meantime there is the solemn word of warning, needed or it would not be there, “hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” No mental power, no knowledge of truth even, or of the letter of Scripture, can enable us to “hold fast” in the face of all the craft and subtlety of Satan and the deceitfulness of the heart. Nothing but that true humble dependence and obedience, that feeding on the Word of God which characterized our Lord Himself, can preserve the soul in the face of all that is around, so well calculated either to seduce or to turn us aside from the attitude and the hopes proper to the Christian.
The promise to the overcomer here answers to the state of the Church. They had little strength, but they had faithfulness to Christ, and so He says, “I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God.” A pillar is the emblem of stability and strength — it is as much as to say, “If you have stood for Me, however feebly, in the face of opposition down here, I will make you an immovable pillar up there. If they had not denied His name here, He would write upon them” the name of My God.” Note here how He identifies His people with Himself; it is “My God.” If they were surrounded by those of the synagogue of Satan, false judaisers, He says, “I will write upon him... the name of the city of My God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God.”
In chapter 21. we have the description of “the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.” Her origin, her character, and all that distinguishes her is heavenly, in contrast with the false, professing worldly Church, the “synagogue of Satan,” which merges into “Babylon” later on. Here the overcomer is identified with that which is adorned with the glory and the presence of God, and which is essentially of a heavenly character. And then the Lord adds the word, “My new name.” He has various names linked with His personal and official place, but His title as Redeemer specially belongs to Him as the One who has passed through death into the glory from whence He came. It is this new and heavenly title with which He identifies the overcomer here.
F. G. B.