Revelation 3:11

I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown.

I come quickly ... It is wrong to read this as if it said in the next few months or few years. Scholars love to give it that meaning; but it cannot be denied that, "Quickly may also mean suddenly, or unexpectedly."[52] Why was a word with such a double meaning used? Simply because a double meaning was required. The great persecutions would indeed come quite soon, within months after this Revelation was written; where as, the judgment would not occur for millenniums, a fact which the exact words of the sacred writers allowed for, even though they themselves might not have understood this. Indeed, it is not likely that they did fully understand it. See comment on this in my Commentary on 1Peter under 1 Peter 1:12. For identically this same reason, the Lord used the word "generation" (Matthew 24:34), having the double meaning of "those who are now alive," and of "the race of Israel." The first meaning applied to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the second applies to the Second Advent.

Hold fast ... is an admonition to continued fidelity. Some had already given up the struggle.

That no man take thy crown ... Regarding the crown of life, see under 1 Peter 2:10, above. The possibility of another's taking the crown of a Christian does not have reference, as Plummer thought, to another's receiving the crown the Christian forfeits, but to the fact that those who through deception, seduction or social duress may influence a Christian to forfeit his crown through sin. It is true, however, that if a Christian forfeits the crown, another will take the place he lost. "Jacob received Esau's crown; Matthias Judas's; and the Gentiles that of the Jews."[53]

[52] Edward A. McDowell, op. cit., p. 59.

[53] A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 112.