Revelation 22:14

These words come in the last chapter of Scripture, after John’s visions of the New Jerusalem, the river of the water of life and the tree of life, and after the angel has assured John that what he saw is true (Revelation 22:6–11). Then Jesus himself speaks. “Behold”, idoú, is a word that calls for attention, much like “Look!” in English, and it marks what follows as an announcement of great weight. “I come” uses érchomai, the ordinary verb for coming or going, and here it is his return. He has said the same words before, to the church at Philadelphia (Revelation 3:11) and a few verses earlier in this chapter (Revelation 22:7), and he says them once more in verse 20. The promise rings through the close of the book like a bell.

“My reward is with me” ties judgment to his coming itself. The reward is something he carries with him when he arrives. The word, misthós, means pay, hire, wages or reward, the just return for what has been done, whether good or bad. “To give every man according as his work shall be” reaches every person, and érgon is the word for deeds, actions and labours, the whole of what a life has done.

This is a truth Scripture tells from beginning to end. The psalmist says that God renders to every man according to his work (Psalm 62:12). Jesus taught that the Son of man will come in the glory of his Father and reward every man according to his works (Matthew 16:27). Paul writes that God will render to every man according to his deeds (Romans 2:6) and that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10).

John wrote while Christians were under heavy pressure from the Roman Empire, most likely in the reign of Domitian around AD 95, when refusing to worship the emperor could cost them their lives. A word that meant wages would have spoken plainly to them. Their Lord keeps account of what they endured for his name, and he will repay it. For us the promise means that faithful service and suffering for Christ count before him. For anyone who refuses him, it is a sober warning that a day of reckoning is coming.

Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Omega, Ō, is the last. John’s first readers spoke Greek and would have understood at once that the two letters together mean everything from start to finish. Jewish speech had a similar figure, “from Aleph to Tav”, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Jesus then says the same thing twice more in plainer words. “The beginning and the end” uses archḗ, beginning or origin, and telos, the end, goal or completion of a thing. “The first and the last” uses prōtos and eschatos. Three pairs say one truth three times. He was there before all things, he holds all of history, and he will be there at its close, bringing it to the end he has appointed.

“Blessed” is makários, which means blessed or happy, the word of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–12). It names the happiness of those God approves, whatever their outward circumstances, and this is one of the last beatitudes in the Bible. “Do” is poiéō, the common verb for making or doing, and entolḗ is a charge or command, what has been authoritatively commanded. The blessing rests on people whose lives are taken up with doing what God has said. Jesus put it this way: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). John writes that this is how we know that we know him (1 John 2:3–6), and Hebrews calls us to follow holiness, “without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).

Salvation is God’s gift, received by faith, and the works these verses speak of are the fruit of a life he has already saved. Paul says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). The reward Jesus brings in verse 12 is his just recompense for the faithfulness and obedience that flow from that salvation, and he gives it as the Lamb who was slain and redeemed us to God by his blood (Revelation 5:9–10). His people will reign with him for ever (Revelation 22:5), receiving the inheritance he bought for them.

Our right to the tree and the city rests on Christ, who was obedient to the Father unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8). He says, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9). He holds the key and opens what he opens (Revelation 3:7), and in him the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3). Grace and obedience therefore belong together. The obedience of verse 14 is the Spirit-given answer of people who have received the gift, and three verses later the water of life is offered freely.

“Without” is éxō, an adverb of place meaning out or outside, and here it means outside the walls of the New Jerusalem. John has already been told that nothing that defiles, and no one who works abomination or makes a lie, will enter the city (Revelation 21:27). God’s dwelling is holy, as he has always called his people to be: “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15–16, Leviticus 11:44–45).

Dogs. The word kýōn refers to people here. In Israel dogs were scavengers and counted unclean, and calling someone a dog named him as vile, impure and contemptible, a person outside the covenant people. Scripture links the word with prostitution in Deuteronomy 23:18, and Paul warns the church, “Beware of dogs” (Philippians 3:2).

Sorcerers. A phármakos practised magic, and the word is related to pharmakon, a drug or potion, because such practices often used potions for spells and divination. The law of Moses forbade sorcery (Exodus 22:18), and Paul lists witchcraft among the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19–21). Seeking hidden power apart from God is rebellion against his rule.

Whoremongers, murderers and idolaters. A pórnos is a person given to sexual immorality of any kind outside God’s design for marriage. A phoneús is a murderer, one who takes the life of a person made in God’s image. An eidōlolátrēs serves or worships an image, and more broadly anyone who gives to something else the devotion that belongs to God alone, which Scripture treats as unfaithfulness to him.

Whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. The list ends with a whole character. “Whosoever” is pâs, every one, “loveth” is philéō, to be fond of, and “maketh” is poiéō, the same verb as “do” in verse 14. The blessed do his commandments, and those outside make a lie. Pseûdos is a lie, falsehood or untruth, and in the New Testament it stands opposed to the truth of God. This describes someone who delights in falsehood and practises it. Jesus calls the devil the father of lies (John 8:44), and he calls himself “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Paul gives lists much like this one when he names those who shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9–10, Galatians 5:19–21, Ephesians 5:5). The verse describes people who hold on to these sins and refuse to turn from them. These are also the very sins Christ came to take away, as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Through faith and repentance he cleanses people who once fitted this list, and he brings them in through the door that is himself.

“I Jesus” is the only place in the book where he names himself with his earthly name, and he sets that name to everything John has written. He sent his angel “to testify”, martyréō, to bear witness, which is how the book began (Revelation 1:1). The witness is “in the churches”, ekklēsía, an assembly or congregation. These were first the seven churches of Asia (Revelation 1:4), facing persecution from Rome, false teaching from within and a cooling of love, and through them the message is for every congregation of his people. Since Jesus himself stands behind the whole book, we can trust all of it.

After Jesus has spoken, his people answer. “The Spirit” is the Holy Spirit, who convicts the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment and draws people to Christ (John 16:8). “The bride” is the church, the redeemed people of the Lamb, pictured as the holy city “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2), whom Christ loved and gave himself for (Ephesians 5:25–27). Their word is érchomai again, the same verb Jesus used in verse 12. Answering his “I come quickly”, they cry “Come”, the prayer the early church also spoke as “Maranatha”, “Our Lord, come”, and in verse 20 he answers them once more (Revelation 22:20). The same cry also goes out to the world, calling people to come to Christ, and the Spirit gives the church the power to make it.

Then the call widens. “Let him that heareth say, Come” asks every person who has heard and believed to repeat the invitation, so each believer becomes a messenger of it. “Let him that is athirst come” speaks to the one who feels his need. “Athirst” is dipsáō, from dípsos, thirst, a word used of the body’s thirst and of the soul’s. The first readers lived in dry country where water meant life, and the picture is of a deep longing for God that nothing in the world can satisfy. God has called the thirsty all through Scripture: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters” (Isaiah 55:1). Jesus stood and cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37–38), he promised the woman of Samaria living water (John 4:10–14), and he said, “he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). He also said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28).

These six verses hold the whole gospel in a small space. The King is coming, he will repay every work, and he is the eternal God. His people may live with him in his city, and the door to it stands open to anyone who is thirsty. Because his coming is certain, every day’s choices matter, and our labour in the Lord counts with him. We can live ready out of reverence and eager hope, and fear has no part in it.

His words also give us our part in the closing scene. With the Spirit and the bride we can pray “Come” for his return. As those who have heard, we can say “Come” to the people around us. And whenever we are thirsty ourselves, we can come again to him and drink freely, because the water is still his gift.