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Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Revelation 3:3

Remember - Enter into a serious consideration of your state. How thou hast received - With what joy, zeal, and gladness ye heard the Gospel of Christ when first preached to you. Hold fast - Those good desires and heavenly influences which still remain. And repent - Be humbled before God, because ye have not been workers together with him, but have received much of his grace in vain. If therefore thou shalt not watch - If you do not consider your ways, watching against sin,... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Revelation 3:4

Thou hast a few names even in Sardis - A few persons, names being put for those who bore them. And as the members of the Church were all enrolled, or their names entered in a book, when admitted into the Church or when baptized, names are here put for the people themselves. See Revelation 3:5 . Have not defiled their garments - Their souls. The Hebrews considered holiness as the garb of the soul, and evil actions as stains or spots on this garb. So in Shabbath, fol. 152, 2: "A certain... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Revelation 3:5

I will not blot out his name - This may be an allusion to the custom of registering the names of those who were admitted into the Church in a book kept for that purpose, from which custom our baptismal registers in Churches are derived. These are properly books of life, as there those who were born unto God were registered; as in the latter those who were born in that parish were enrolled. Or there may be allusions to the white raiment worn by the priests, and the erasing of the name of any... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Revelation 3:6

He that hath an ear - The usual caution and counsel carefully to attend to the things spoken to the members of that Church, in which every reader is more or less interested. Epistle to the Church at Philadelphia read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Revelation 3:1

He that hath the seven Spirits of God (see notes on Revelation 1:4 , Revelation 1:16 , Revelation 1:20 ; but observe that this designation of Christ does not occur in the opening vision). In Revelation 5:6 the Lamb is seen "having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God." The seven Spirits being the Holy Spirit in his sevenfold activity, it is manifest (as Trench observes) that this passage is of importance in reference to the doctrine of the double... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Revelation 3:1-6

The epistle to the Church at Sardis. This Church is one of the two which receives unmixed reproof. Smyrna and Philadelphia receive no blame; Sardis and Laodicea receive no praise. Sardis lies almost due south of Thyatira, on the road to Philadelphia, between the river Hermus and Mount Tmolus. It had been in turn Lydian, Persian, Greek, and Roman, and, like its last Lydian king, Croesus, had been celebrated for its wealth. The auriferous stream Pactolus, in summer almost dry, flowed... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Revelation 3:1-6

Sardis; or, the dead Church. This epistle presents no exception to the general rule which we have pointed out regarding all the seven, viz. that our Lord Jesus Christ presents himself to each Church in that special aspect in which it was most appropriate for that Church to regard him. Here he is spoken of as "he that hath the seven Spirits of God"—a phrase used only in the Apocalypse, and yet, in its meaning, harmonious with all the rest of God's Word. This leads us at once to observe— ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Revelation 3:1-6

The epistle to the Church at Sardis. Were any one visiting the actual sites where the several Churches spoken of in these letters once stood, he would, ere he came to Sardis, have gone a long way round the circle on the circumference of which they all were. Beginning with Ephesus at the southern end, and proceeding northwards along the seashore, he next would come to Smyrna, then to Pergamos, then to Thyatira, and then, coming down the inland side of the rude circle we have imagined, he... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Revelation 3:1-6

(5) The epistle to the Church in Sardis: the decaying Church on the brink of ruin. The sad spectacle is presented here of a Church dying out. To the angel it is said, "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead." This is the judgment of him who hath "the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars." He holds the stars in his band, for safety in danger, for punishment in unfaithfulness. They cannot escape from him. The Lord of life is the Lord also of death and judgment. The... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Revelation 3:1-6

The words of Christ to the congregation at Sardis. "Sardis," says Dr. Eadie, "was a city of ancient Lydia. Its modern name is Sert Kalesi, and it lies about thirty miles south-cast of Thyatira, and two miles south of the river Hermus. It is, however, but a miserable village, inhabited chiefly by shepherds, though it is one of the stopping places of the Persian caravans. The original city was plundered by Cyrus, and afterwards desolated by an earthquake, the ruins of it being still... read more

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