Revelation 3:4 - Exposition

But thou hast a few names in Sardis. The "but" (Revised Version) must be added, and the "even" (Authorized Version) omitted, on conclusive evidence. "Names" is hero used in the sense of persons ( Acts 1:15 and Revelation 11:13 , where the Revised Version has "persons"); there is no reference to the totally different use of "to have a name" in Revelation 3:1 . Bode remarks, "He knoweth his own sheep by name, as he knew Moses by name, and writeth the names of his own in heaven." These few are like the few righteous in Sodom. Though they consent to abide in the Church, they do not leaven it, nor does their presence save it: "They shall deliver but their own souls by their righteousness" ( Ezekiel 14:14 , Ezekiel 14:16 , Ezekiel 14:18 , Ezekiel 14:20 ). The word for "defile" ( μολύνειν ) occurs only here, Revelation 14:4 , and 1 Corinthians 8:7 . Its radical meaning is "to besmear," and so "to befoul." That of μιαίνειν ( John 18:28 ; Titus 1:15 ; Hebrews 12:15 ; Jude 1:8 ) is rather "to stain," which is not necessarily "to befoul." That of κοινοῦν is "to make common or profane." In most eases all these three are rendered "defile" in our version. These few in Sardis have kept themselves "unspotted from the world" in which they live. Neither the corruption of heathendom nor the torpor of a moribund Church has infected them. Their contact with a dead body has imparted no life to the body and no defilement to them. There is no need to press the metaphor and give a special meaning to "garments"—whether their souls, or their bodies, or their consciences, or their baptismal robes. The metaphor is implied in "putting on the new man" ( Ephesians 4:24 ; Colossians 3:10 ), "putting on Christ" ( Romans 13:14 ; Galatians 3:27 ), where the word for "put on" is ἐνδύεσθαι , "to be clothed with." They shall walk with me. In accordance with Christ's high-priestly prayer ( John 17:24 ; comp. Roy. John 21:24 ). In white. This elliptical expression ( ἐν λευκοῖς ) for "in white robes" occurs in the New Testament only here and John 20:12 , and is another small link between the two books. The word "white" ( λευκός ), excepting in Matt, John 5:36 and John 4:35 , is in the New Testament always used of heavenly purity and brightness. Thus also Plato, χρώματα δὲ λευκὰ πρέποντ ἄν θεοῖς εἴν ; and Virgil of the souls in the other world, " Omnibus his hives cinguntur tempora vitta " (' AE neid,' 6.665). (See notes on Revelation 1:14 .) As we might expect, the word is specially frequent in Revelation. Of course, the white garments referred to here, verses 5, 18, and Revelation 4:4 , are quite different from the undefiled garments just mentioned. The one is the imperfect purity of struggling saints on earth, the other the perfect purity of glorified saints in heaven. The promise, therefore, is threefold.

And why? Because they are worthy . The merit is not theirs, but Christ's, in whose blood they have washed their robes ( Revelation 7:14 ; 1 John 2:2 ), and by whose grace they are preserved in holiness ( 1 John 1:7 ). It is because they have by God's help fulfilled the conditions which he has promised to accept, that they are worthy. The nearest approach to this declaration of worthiness on the part of God's saints seems to be Luke 20:35 (not Luke 21:36 ) and 2 Thessalonians 1:5 , 2 Thessalonians 1:11 . But in all these passages they are "accounted worthy" ( καταξιωθέντες ) rather than "worthy" ( ἄξιοι ). In Revelation 16:6 we have the opposite worthiness of those who have earned the "wages of sin" instead of the "gift of God" ( Romans 6:23 ). Such persons are literally worthy, and not merely accounted worthy.