Sardis was a very wealthy city, and because of this tended to be complacent. Cyrus the Persian (549 BC) and Antiochus (218 BC) had both conquered the city, helped by this complacency. The city had excellent natural defences so on both these occasions had not placed any guards, so had lost. It seems that the church was prone to this slackness as well, God warning them that though they had a reputation for being alive they were actually dead. It seems that the church was not subject to much in the way of persecution or opposition.
In this letter Jesus is attributed with holding the "seven spirits" and the seven stars. The "seven spirits" maybe the sevenfold spirit and may point to the Holy Spirit being the one who bears witness to Christ. Whatever the case, the point of emphasis is that it is Jesus who is in charge of the church. The opinion of others is worthless in the light of this. We need to be very wary of being flattered by the praise of others.
The warning from Jesus is dire. They are on the verge of death, but there is still time to do something if they shake themselves up and get on with it. Notice the nature of the words in these letters, how many of them are very serious warnings. If prophetic words are always "nice" it is a likely indicator that they are not truly prophetic.
They are to remember what they first heard. Clearly they had not really followed through on the gospel. They need to repent. Coming to Christ is not a vague commitment, but a dedication of our whole life.
However, there were some who had not soiled themselves. See again how serious the lack of proper commitment to Christ is treated. Those who overcome will be dressed in white and never have their names blotted out of the book of life. Again see the seriousness of all this. Note also that this is entirely consistent with Jesus' own teaching.
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