3:1
We now come to Sardis, and this church gets a very severe rebuke. Sardis was a wealthy commercial city. There was, of course, much pagan worship. There was also a large and wealthy Jewish community. It seems that the Christians here did not experience much, if anything, in terms of persecution.
The city seems to have had a reputation for complacency, probably because of its wealth. It thought it could take things easy. Twice in its history this had been its downfall. It had been captured by Cyrus in 549 BC, and by Antiochus in 218 BC. In both cases the invaders scaled the walls of the city at night, expecting to find guards on duty, but in fact finding none. In addition there had been a serious earthquake in 17 AD.
The seven spirits seems to be John’s unique way of referring to the Holy Spirit, and the seven stars refer to the seven angels. Jesus is in full control of the churches.
“I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead”. They may have thought well of themselves, others may even have thought well of them, but Christ did not! They were in fact dead.
3:2
“Wake up! Strengthen what remains”. How does a church get in this position? We need to be very wary of trying to please the world. This is a difference between having a good reputation because of our faithfulness to Christ and living this out in practical terms, and living to please the world, seeking to avoid offending it, even at the cost of offending Christ! In Luke 6:26 Jesus said woe to you when all speak well of you. However, all hope was not yet gone, they are urged to strengthen what remains. This is a matter of great urgency, for what remains is about to die. Their deeds are “unfinished” in God’s sight. It doesn’t matter what the world thinks, it is what God thinks that counts above all. Their works were incomplete. They may have had a veneer of Christianity, but they were not truly living for Christ. It is very easy for churches to fall into this trap.
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