Revelation 3:4

This is the fifth of seven letters that the risen Christ sends through John to churches in Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey (Revelation 2–3). The seven churches are named together in Revelation 1:11, and the letters follow John’s vision of the glorified Christ in Revelation 1. Each letter opens with a description of Christ taken from that vision, then gives his verdict on the church’s works, his praise where he can give it, his rebuke, his call to act, and a promise to the one who overcomes. Sardis and Laodicea hear the hardest words of the seven. Smyrna and Philadelphia hear no rebuke at all, while Sardis hears its rebuke first, and its only praise is for the few names of verse 4.

“Write” is gráphō, the ordinary verb for writing, and John is to set down Christ’s words for “the angel of the church in Sardis”. The Greek angelos can mean a messenger, and Revelation 1:20 explains that “the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches”. The angel here is most likely the leading pastor of the church, the one who answers for its spiritual health, and Christ speaks to him and through him to them all.

Christ calls himself “he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars”. The seven Spirits of God (hepta pneumata tou theou) appear also in Revelation 1:4, 4:5 and 5:6. They picture the Holy Spirit in his fullness and in all his working, since seven in Revelation often stands for completeness. The seven stars are the leaders of the churches, whom Christ holds in his right hand as he walks among the golden candlesticks (Revelation 2:1). So the one who speaks to Sardis has the Spirit who gives life, and he has authority over every leader in his church. He sees exactly what Sardis is, and he alone can make it live again.

“I know thy works” opens the verdict. The verb is eídō, properly “to see”, and Christ speaks as one who has seen all that this church does. Sardis has “a name that thou livest”, a reputation for being alive and active, perhaps among the other churches or in the city. Then comes “and art dead”. The word nekrós comes from a word for a corpse and means lifeless, here in the spiritual sense. Faith, fruit and fellowship with God have died in Sardis, while its activity and its good name carry on.

This is the judgment the LORD gave Samuel: “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Jesus spoke in the same way to the scribes and Pharisees, who were like tombs painted white, fair outside and full of dead men’s bones within (Matthew 23:27–28). Programs, traditions and a good standing in the community can carry on for years after the life has gone out of a church, and Christ’s verdict rests on what he finds. Paul uses death as the picture of everyone outside Christ, “dead in trespasses and sins”, and he gives the remedy at once: God, rich in mercy, “hath quickened us together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:1–5).

Christ’s first command is “Be watchful”, grēgoreúō, to keep awake. The church has fallen asleep, and he calls it to become alert to its own condition and to its danger. Scripture gives this call to all believers: “Be sober, be vigilant” (1 Peter 5:8), and “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:13).

The second command is “strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die”. The verb stērízō means to set fast, establish or confirm. Something is still left in Sardis, perhaps a few faithful people, some true doctrine, or some real work of faith, and it is close to dying. Christ tells them to make it firm while there is time, and in that command we see his mercy, giving a dying church one more opportunity.

The reason follows, introduced by gár, “for”: “I have not found thy works perfect before God.” The word for perfect, plēróō, means to fill or make full, and so to complete. Christ is speaking of works left unfinished and half-hearted, short of what God called this church to do. Epaphras prayed that the Colossians would “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (Colossians 4:12), and that wholeness of service is what Sardis lacked. James teaches that faith without works is dead (James 2:17, 2:20), and Sardis had works without life. The God who begins a good work in his people is the one who completes it (Philippians 1:6), working in them “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

Verse 3 adds three commands. “Remember” is mnēmoneúō, to call something to mind, here so as to act on it. They are to remember “how thou hast received and heard”: how they took hold of the gospel (lambánō, “received”) and how they first heard it (akoúō, “heard”), with the conviction they had then. Christ calls Ephesus back in the same way: “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works” (Revelation 2:5).

“Hold fast” is tēréō, to keep, guard or preserve. They are to keep what they received, so that the decay goes no further. “Repent” is metanoéō, a change of mind that turns a person around in heart and life. For Sardis it meant turning from its deadness and apathy back to the living faith it began with.

“Thou hast a few names even in Sardis.” The word olígos means few or small in number, and ónoma, “names”, shows that Christ knows each of these believers by name inside a church he has called dead. The English word “name” runs through the whole letter: Sardis has a name for living, a few names are clean, and the overcomer’s name stays in the book of life.

They “have not defiled their garments”. The verb molýnō means to soil or stain, and himátion is clothing, an outer garment such as a cloak. Garments in Scripture often picture a person’s character and conduct, so these few have kept themselves from the sin, worldliness and false teaching that stained the rest. James calls pure religion keeping oneself “unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). In Zechariah’s vision the high priest Joshua stands in filthy garments, and the LORD has them taken away and clothes him afresh (Zechariah 3:3–5). In that day white clothing stood for purity, celebration, victory and honour, in Israel and among the Gentiles, and it was worn by priests, by those celebrating a triumph and by people of high rank. Soiled clothing brought shame, which made the clean garments of the few all the more striking.

The promise is “they shall walk with me in white”. The verb peripatéō means to walk about, and figuratively to live and conduct oneself. “With me” is metá emoû, and “in white” is en with leukós, the colour white. To walk with Christ is close and honoured fellowship with him, and the white clothing is the sign of his approval and of their share in his victory. The great multitude before the throne wears the same white robes (Revelation 7:9–14).

“He that overcometh” translates nikáō, to conquer or prevail, from the word for victory. Each of the seven letters makes a promise to the one who overcomes (Revelation 2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 2:26, 3:12, 3:21). In Sardis, overcoming means prevailing over the deadness, apathy and compromise around them by a faith that keeps going and leans on Christ. Believers overcome because he overcame first: “be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). At the cross he triumphed over principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15).

The first promise, “clothed in white raiment”, carries the white of verse 4 to every overcomer. Greeks and Romans dressed victors at the games and men celebrating a triumph in white, and a man standing for public office wore white, which is why our word “candidate” comes from the Latin candidus, white. The first hearers would take the white raiment as purity, honour and victory, set against the soiled garments of most of their church. In Revelation the angels are clothed in pure white linen (Revelation 15:6), and the bride of the Lamb is given fine linen, clean and white, which is “the righteousness of saints” (Revelation 19:8). Paul says that those baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27), and the white raiment is his righteousness given to them.

The letter closes with the words that close all seven (Revelation 2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 2:29, 3:13, 3:22). The repetition, once for each church, makes this refrain the key to them all, and “unto the churches” is plural. The letters went to real congregations in the Roman province of Asia late in the first century, and their warnings and promises reach every church and every believer until Christ comes, as he promises: “Behold, I come quickly” (Revelation 22:12, 22:20).

“Ear” is oûs, the organ of hearing, used here for a readiness to take in what God says. Jesus often said the same: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15, 13:9). To hear, akoúō, the verb of “received and heard” in verse 3, is to listen with understanding and to obey. Hearing mattered all the more when messages were spoken aloud, remembered and passed on. Hebrews gives the same warning: “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 3:7–8).

“What the Spirit saith” uses pneûma, which means breath or wind and also spirit, and here it is the Holy Spirit. The letter opened with “These things saith he”, the words of Christ, and it closes with what the Spirit says, because the Spirit speaks Christ’s words. Jesus promised that the Spirit would guide his disciples into all truth and would glorify him (John 16:13–14). Christ is the Word made flesh (John 1:14), and he opens ears as he opened the understanding of his disciples to the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). Through the Spirit he keeps speaking to his churches until the day every eye shall see him (Revelation 1:7).

The letter to Sardis shows us a Lord who sees past every reputation and who is merciful to a dying church. He tells it the truth about itself, and in the same breath he gives it something to do while there is still something to strengthen. He knows his faithful few by name, and he promises them his company.

The hope of the letter rests on who Christ is. He holds the seven Spirits of God, and it is by the Spirit that people are born again (John 3:5–8) and made alive with Christ when they were dead (Ephesians 2:4–5). He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), and in him believers are “alive unto God” (Romans 6:11), raised to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). Where the works of Sardis were left incomplete, his offering was complete: “by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). He is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). The one who calls a sleeping church to wake is the one who gives it life, clothes his people in white and confesses their names before his Father.