I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
8. an open door ] Through which thou mayest enter into the Kingdom, into the house of David.
and no man can shut it ] Probably the false Jews mentioned in the next verse denied the title of the Christians in Philadelphia to the privileges of brotherhood whence we may suppose that they were mostly Gentiles. Christ answers, that He would grant what they refused.
for thou hast ] Rather, that thou hast, depending on “I know thy works,” the intermediate words being parenthetical.
thou hast a little strength ] Better, thou hast little strength and [yet] hast kept &c. The point is that his strength is not great, not that he has a little left in spite of the strain upon it.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I know thy works – See the notes on Rev 2:2.
Behold, I have set before thee an open door – Referring to his authority as stated in Rev 3:7. The open door here evidently refers to the enjoyment of some privilege or honor; and, so far as the language is concerned, it may refer to any one of the following things – either:
(1)The ability to do good – represented as the opening of the door. Compare Act 14:27; 1Co 16:9; 2Co 2:12; Col 4:3.
(2)The privilege of access to the heavenly palace; that is, that they had an abundant opportunity of securing their salvation, the door being never closed against them by day or by night. Compare Rev 21:25. Or.
(3)It may mean that they had before them an open way of egress from danger and persecution.
This latter Prof. Stuart supposes to be the true meaning; and argues this because it is immediately specified that those Jewish persecutors would be made to humble themselves, and that the church would but lightly experience the troubles which were coming upon the world around them. But the more natural interpretation of the phrase an open door is that it refers to access to a thing rather than egress from a thing; that we may come to what we desire to approach, rather than escape from what we dread. There is no objection, it seems to me, to the supposition that the language may be used here in the largest sense – as denoting that, in regard to the church at Philadelphia, there was no restraint. He had given them the most unlimited privileges. The temple of salvation was thrown open to them; the celestial city was accessible; the whole world was before them as a field of usefulness, and anywhere, and everywhere, they might do good, and at all times they might have access to the kingdom of God.
And no man can shut it – No one has the power of preventing this, for he who has control over all things concedes these privileges to you.
For then hast a little strength – This would imply that they had not great vigor, but still that, notwithstanding there were so many obstacles to their doing good, and so many temptations to evil, there still remained with them some degree of energy. They were not wholly dead; and as long as that was the case, the door was still open for them to do good. The words little strength may refer either to the smallness of the number – meaning that they were few; or it may refer to the spiritual life and energy of the church – meaning that, though feeble, their vital energy was not wholly gone. The more natural interpretation seems to be to refer it to the latter; and the sense is, that although they had not the highest degree of energy, or had not all that the Saviour desired they should have, they were not wholly dead. The Saviour saw among them the evidences of spiritual life; and in view of that he says he had set before them an open door, and there was abundant opportunity to employ all the energy and zeal which they had. It may be remarked that the same thing is true now; that wherever there is any vitality in a church, the Saviour will furnish ample opportunity that it may be employed in his service.
And hast not denied my name – When Christians were brought before pagan magistrates in times of persecution, they were required to renounce the name of Christ, and to disown him in a public manner. It is possible that, amidst the persecutions that raged in the early times, the members of the church at Philadelphia had been summoned to such a trial, and they had stood the trial firmly. It would seem from the following verse, that the efforts which had been made to induce them to renounce the name of Christ had been made by those who professed to be Jews, though they evinced the spirit of Satan. If so, then the attempt was probably to convince them that Jesus was not the Christ. This attempt would be made in all places where there were Jews.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. I have set before thee an open door] I have opened to thee a door to proclaim and diffuse my word; and, notwithstanding there are many adversaries to the spread of my Gospel, yet none of them shall be able to prevent it.
Thou hast a little strength] Very little political authority or influence; yet thou hast kept my word-hast kept the true doctrine; and hast not denied my name, by taking shelter in heathenism when Christianity was persecuted. The little strength may refer either to the smallness of the numbers, or to the littleness of their grace.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I know thy works: it is very probable, that our Lord, by these ministers works, understands the works proper to them in their function, their labour in preaching and propagating the gospel, which Christ did not only know and observe, but also approve of, and promiseth them a liberty to go on, and success in their labours, under the notion of
an open door: see 1Co 16:9; 2Co 2:12; Col 4:3.
And no man can shut it; so as it should not be in the power of adversaries to hinder his success.
For thou hast a little strength; both inward strength, and outward helps and advantages.
And hast kept my word; the doctrine of faith is by thee kept pure, as also my precepts for a holy life.
And hast not denied my name; and thou hast not been by any temptation prevailed upon to apostatize from the profession of the gospel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. I have setGreek,“given”: it is My gracious gift to thee.
open doorforevangelization; a door of spiritual usefulness. The opening of adoor by Him to the Philadelphian Church accords with the previousassignation to Him of “the key of David.”
andThe three oldestmanuscripts, A, B, C, and ORIGENread, “which no man can shut.”
for“because.”
a littleThis gives theidea that Christ says, He sets before Philadelphia an open doorbecause she has some little strength; whereas the sense ratheris, He does so because she has “but little strength”:being consciously weak herself, she is the fitter object for God’spower to rest on [so AQUINAS],that so the Lord Christ may have all the glory.
and hast keptandso, the littleness of thy strength becoming the source ofAlmighty power to thee, as leading thee to rest wholly on My greatpower, thou hast kept My word. GROTIUSmakes “little strength” to mean that she had a Church smallin numbers and external resources: “a little flock poor inworldly goods, and of small account in the eyes of men”[TRENCH]. So ALFORD.I prefer the view given above. The Greek verbs are in theaorist tense: “Thou didst keep . . . didst not deny My name”:alluding to some particular occasion when her faithfulness was put tothe test.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I know thy works,…. Good works, of faith, love, and patience; and which lay much in preaching, professing, and maintaining the pure Gospel, and in acts of charity to one another; and which were done to some degree of perfection, and with great sincerity; since this church is not complained of, that her works were not perfect before God, as the former church is:
behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it; or “which no man can shut”, as read the Alexandrian copy, and others, the Complutensian edition, the Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions. This “open door” may design an uncommon opportunity of preaching the Gospel; and a very great freedom of mind in the preachers of it, and great attention in the hearers, whose hearts will be opened to observe, receive, and embrace it; and a very large gathering in of souls to Christ, and his churches; much and frequent preaching of the word with great success, which it will not be in the power of any creature to stop or hinder: now will the abundance of the sea, the forces of the Gentiles flow in, and the nation of the Jews shall be born at once.
For thou hast a little strength; which is not to be understood of inward spiritual strength, for of this the church in this period will have a great deal, as well as of courage and fortitude of mind, but outward power and authority: some great men, and princes of the earth, will come into the churches of Christ, even kings will come to the brightness of her rising; for now will all those prophesies have their accomplishment, which respect the secular grandeur of the church, with regard to its numbers, power, and riches; see
Isa 49:18.
And hast kept my word; both the commands and ordinances of Christ in practice, and that in their primitive purity, as they were delivered by Christ and his apostles, particularly baptism and the Lord’s supper; which have been, one or other of them, or both, most sadly corrupted in all the periods of the churches hitherto, excepting the apostolical one, but will now be restored to their pristine purity and glory; and also the doctrines of the Gospel, which will be kept, not in memory only, but in the heart and life; they will be publicly and openly preached, professed, and defended:
and hast not denied my name: Christ himself, his doctrine respecting his person, office, and grace, neither in words, nor in works, but both ways confessed and owned it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I have set (). Perfect active indicative of , “I have given” (a gift of Christ, this open door). See Lu 12:51 for a like use of .
A door opened ( ). Perfect (triple reduplication) passive predicate participle of (verse 7) accusative feminine singular. The metaphor of the open door was a common one (John 10:7-9; Acts 14:27; 1Cor 16:9; 2Cor 2:12; Col 4:3; Rev 3:20; Rev 4:1). Probably it means here a good opportunity for missionary effort in spite of the Jewish hostility.
Which (—). Pleonastic vernacular and Hebrew repetition of the personal pronoun (it) after the relative (which). Direct reference to the statement in verse 7.
That (). This conjunction resumes the construction of (I know thy works) after the parenthesis (—, Behold–shut).
A little power ( ). Probably “little power,” little influence or weight in Philadelphia, the members probably from the lower classes (1Co 1:26f.).
And didst keep ( ). “And yet (adversative use of ) didst keep” (first aorist active indicative of ) my word in some crisis of trial. See Joh 17:6 for the phrase “keeping the word.”
Didst not deny ( ). First aorist middle indicative second person singular of . The issue was probably forced by the Jews (cf. 2:9), but they stood true.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
I have set [] . Lit., I have given. For a similar phrase see Luk 12:51.
An open door (quran ajnewgmenhn). Rev., more literally, a door opened. This is variously explained. Some refer it to the entrance into the joy of the Lord; others to the initiation into the meaning of scripture; others again to the opportunity for the mission – work of the Church. In this last sense the phrase is often used by Paul. See 1Co 16:9; 2Co 2:12; Col 4:3. Compare Act 14:27. 77 I have given is appropriate, since all opportunities of service are gifts of God. See on chapter Rev 2:7. For thou hast [ ] . Some texts make behold – shut parenthetical, and render oti that, defining thy works, etc. So Rev.
A little strength [ ] . This would mean, thou hast some power, though small. Many, however, omit the indefinite article in translating, and render thou hast little strength; i e., thou art poor in numbers and worldly resources. So Alford, Trench, and D?ieck. And [] . John’s single copula instead of a particle of logical connection. See on Joh 1:10; Joh 6:46; 1Jo 1:5; Joh 8:20.
Hast kept my word [ ] . Rev., rendering the aorist more strictly, didst keep. For the phrase, see Joh 17:6, 8.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “I know thy works,” (oida sou ta erga) “I know or perceive the works of you,” as a church or congregation. The Lord in the shadows always observes the work of his churches, Rev 2:9.
2) “Behold I have set before thee an open door,” (idou dedoka enopion sou thuran eneogmene) “Behold, I have opened a door before you all; set forth an opportunity, a challenge to service, to Christian testimony. Blessed are those who recognize and enter open doors of opportunity and service, 1Co 16:9; 2Co 2:12; Col 4:3.
3) “And no man can shut it,”(hen oudeis dunatai kleisai auten) “Which no one is able to shut,” or not anyone is able to shut it, Isa 22:22.
4) “For thou hast a little strength,” (hoti mikran echeis dunamin) “Because thou hast a little dynamics,” enabling power, which by exercise may be increased, 2Co 12:9.
5) “And hast kept my Word,” (kai eteresas mou ton logon) “and you (as a church) did keep or guard my Word; Jud 1:3. They had kept in mind and obeyed his Word; kept the faith, the system or body of truth, even as Paul 2Ti 4:7.
6) “And hast not denied my name,” (kai ouk erneso to onoma mou) “And you did not deny my name; whatever one does as a follower of Jesus, in word, or deed, must, be done in his name, Col 3:17. They had not denied his name, even in times of trial, as Peter had once done, Mat 26:72; Mat 26:74; Mat 10:32-33; Joh 14:21.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE WIDE OPEN DOOR
Rev 3:8
Preached to encourage the great building enterprises that were finished in 1924 and 1925.
THIS was Gods message to the ancient Church of ancient Philadelphia.
Gods messages never grow old! The truth for the First Church of Philadelphia, nineteen hundred years ago, is none the less true of and for the First Church of Minneapolis 1915. There are differences between the Orient and the Occident; great changes have been wrought in twenty centuries; but since human nature remains the same, the character and mission of Gods Church have altered in nothing.
The Church in Philadelphia was made up of an exceptional body of believers; they are the only company of the seven, to whom these Letters of the Revelation were written, that escaped criticism. It is not, on that account, to be imagined that they were perfect; but, rather, that they fared well by comparison. Exactly so is it with this body of believers in the public estimation; and for our further improvement, our greater progress, I have chosen to make this text the basis of a solemn and urgent appeal.
It involves The Gate of Opportunity, The Ground of Responsibility, and The Gospel of Acceptability.
THE GATE OF OPPORTUNITY
I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door.
In this text, He combines a compliment and a call. I know thy works was the Spirits compliment; Behold, I have set before thee an open door was the Divine call. And no man can shut it was the Divine assurance.
Let me, therefore, remind you of the three important facts suggested by these sentences.
It was a door of great opening! Philadelphia was but little more than a village as compared with Minneapolis; so the opportunity of that Church was meager as compared with the one before which the membership of this body stands. I know the larger cities of the United States reasonably well. It has been my privilege to preach the Gospel in practically every one of them. I have walked their streets; I have studied the location of their churches; I have meditated upon their religious problems, and I declare it my mature conviction that there is not a church on this continent that enjoys today an opportunity superior to that, opening now, before this body of believers. In fact, I know of no other city of its size where a solitary church comes as nearly being the sole arbiter of the religious destiny of the citys heart as does this one. The entire field to which seven great evangelical churches were giving themselves twenty years ago, when I came here, has been voluntarily surrendered to this one institution, and the eyes of all the city are upon us as we approach a task as Herculean as its opportunities are Titan.
What we do with this opportunity will, in my judgment, come more nearly determining the destiny of Minneapolis than the most far-seeing man among us has ever yet imagined. Truly did John J. Gray write of opportunity:
Master of human destinies am I!Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait.Cities and fields I walk: I penetrateDeserts and seas remote, and passing byHovel and mart and palace, soon or lateI knock unbidden once, at every gate.If sleeping, wake;if feasting, rise beforeI turn away. It is the hour of fate.And they who follow on reach every state Mortals desire, and conquer every foeSave death: but those who doubt or hesitate Condemned to failure, penury, and woeSeek me in vain and uselessly imploreI answer not, and I return no more.
If was set ajar of God!
Behold I have set before thee an open door.
There are no doors, but, at His touch, turn on their hinges. I believe that Stopford Brooke was right when he wrote: God dwells in the great movements of the world, in the great ideas which act in the human race. Find Him there in the interests of man. Find Him by sharing in those interests, by helping all who are striving for truth, for education, for progress, for liberty. Let me add to Stopford Brookes words and for sanctity!
In 1854 Charles Spurgeon, a young man in London, began to preach to a handful of people in an ordinary church building in the great metropolis of London. His simple, earnest, Gospel appeals shortly filled the small house: and others crowded to its doors and were eager to hear. This, Spurgeon accepted as an evidence of Divine favor. He believed that God was there; and he persuaded his people to quit the church temporarily and worship in Exeter Hall, a much larger place. Before three months had passed the Hall was filled and sometimes the very streets were blocked by the crowds attempting to hear him.
When one has passed into the door of Gods opening who can tell what fields will lie beyond? The next step they took was to hire Music Hall in Surry Gardens, just completed for Juliens Master Concerts. At its opening seven thousand people assembled to hear the Gospel at young Spurgeons lips. From Music Hall they moved later to Agricultural Hall, which seated twenty thousand. It was as easily filled as had been the little church where Spurgeons London ministry began. Commenting upon that fact, Arthur Pierson said: Power goes with the multitude! There is a mysterious attraction which draws us to go where we find a crowd. There, individuals are lost sight of in the mass. That makes for popularity! Many a man and woman dreads to enter an ordinary church feeling that all eyes are turned on the stranger; but you slip in with the multitude unobserved.
This, Pierson thinks, does not mean that there will not be room provided for regular attendants to have a regular place, but it does mean opportunity for the great unchurched crowd to gather under the least embarrassment and enjoy, unrestrained, the things of the Scripture and of the Spirit. Seventy years ago George Lorimer saw in Boston a kindred opening and dared attempt the first Tremont Temple. In that bold enterprise Lorimer proved himself at once Bostons best friend and Christs most courageous apostle.
Pere Hycinthe dared undertake the Amphitheater in Paris, a room that seated more than four thousand peopleas a preaching place; and he packed it.
But Paris in the day of Pere Hycinthe; London in the day of Spurgeon; Boston in the day of young Lorimerno one of these ever knew a door more certainly set ajar by the hand of God than you and I know today as we look upon the door of opportunity that opens before the face of the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis.
I am extremely glad for the further remark of this text, suggesting my third declaration.
No one man can close it!
Behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.
When Spurgeon began his work in London one man attempted it. He was an Englishman; he was a church official; he was constitutionally pompous; he was Britishly dictatorial; he had the prestige of age, and the reputation of prudence, and consciousness of power. One evening Mr. Spurgeon remarked, as he pled for the enlargement of the little church, By faith the walls of Jericho fell down; and by faith this wall at the back shall come down too. At the close of the sermon this dignitary walked up to him and said: Let us never hear of that again. To which the young preacher answeredLet it stand recorded forever to his honorWhat do you mean? You will hear no more about it when it is done, and therefore the sooner you set about it, the better. And that faith, combined with that courage, resulted in the speedy commencement of an enlarging work, which finally resulted in a tabernacle seating six thousand people, to which the people of London pressed for years to hear the Word of Life at the lips of the man who dared believe in God and in His Gospel.
I have often wondered if it ever occurs to the man who counts himself a conservative, and who honestly believes that it is his chief business to sit upon a safety valve and keep church people from running into danger to reckon up the results of an opposition to a plan that is Divine. Why do you suppose the inspired writer took pains to record the instance of the report of the spies at Kadesh Barnea? What did God mean when He caused it to be set down, never to be forgotten, that ten of those men declared the task to which Moses was leading the people, an impossible one; and reminded the people, in language, possibly true enough, of walled cities and giants there; and then took equal pains to record the words of those two supposedly injudicious, extravagant and aggressive soulsJoshua and CalebLet us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
Doubtless there are times when the aggressive, optimistic man is wrong; but history is replete with the illustrations of disaster in the wake of the dyspeptic and the discouraged.
One of the commonest crimes known to America, and in the popular judgment, one of the most terrible as well, is foeticide, or infanticide; but I would rather take the position of that poor, foolish, criminal mother who destroys the fruit of her womb before she has ever lived to see what beauty and strength might have one day clothed her child, than to take his position or hers who selfishly and ruthlessly throttles, in its infancy, the institution or movement begotten by the Holy Ghost.
And let me say in passing, that while no man is under the slightest obligation to aid in an enterprise or movement in which he does not believe, he cannot escape obligation to one in which he believes by simply passing by on the other side, and leaving it to struggle without his attention.
The priest and the Levite came under condemnation. The very fact that a child is coming to the birth lays, not only upon every member of the household, but even the community itself, the obligation to render to the mother all needful assistance; and what one of us could ever forgive himself if he declined to lend aid easily within our power, should mother or babe, or both, perish!
Beloved, let me say it this morning, with all the vehemence of my soul, I believe this is the hour of the birth-pangs of the greatest and best institution Minneapolis is ever to know in her history. And I pray God to help me play my part well!
THE GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY
Thou hast a little strength.
The possession of strength imposes responsibility. A Bible study on that subject would convince the most skeptical. When I turned to this Word in my concordance, I found it required columns to voice it. Solomon writes: The glory of young men is their strength. John, in his First Epistle (1Jn 2:14), says, I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong. On one occasion David breaks forth in a psalm recorded in Second Samuel and the twenty-second chapter, that equals any appearing in the Book of the Psalms itself. Remembering his victory against enemies, how they had fallen under his feet, he said: Thou hast girded me with strength to battle.
No one who has ever read Victor Hugos Les Miserable can forget how Jean Val Jean, the great soul, misjudged and hunted as a criminal, passing the road saw a wagoner with his cart mired so deeply that his team was stalled. Jean Val Jean knew his own strength, developed in the gallies; and, even at the risk of detection and reincarceration, he crawled under the wagon and used his great muscles to lift the load from the mud. He believed his strength to be the measure of his responsibility.
Dr. A. J. Gordon calls attention to a fact of Baptist polity never to be forgotten or over-looked in these words: My brethren, need I tell you that responsibility is the mother of activity, that necessity is the spring of prevailing prayer? Therefore I affirm that the greatest problem which we have to solve is that of putting the weight of spiritual obligation, which belongs to every church and every Christian, upon every church and every Christian. I believe that our Divinely appointed church polity was ordained for this very purpose, and if rightly carried out can effect it as no Presbyterian or Episcopal government can do. By a wonderful arrangement of natural law the atmosphere presses with a weight of fifteen pounds to the square inch on every human body. Unite a thousand people in one body and you do not relieve the pressure by a single ounce from any single individual. Would that the same law held good in regard to the weight of moral and spiritual responsibility. It does, from the Divine standpoint! The smaller the body the less the air pressure upon it; the larger the more. That is Gods Law! If we judged the size of some men by the way they discharge their responsibilities, we would need a magnifying glass every time we tried to find them.
To make a practical application of these suggestions, let me set in statistical form some things for our encouragement. The entire official force of this church, and perhaps each one of its more thoughtful members as well, believes that the Christian public of our city, and prospered individuals in other parts of the land, will give us aid in the great enterprise to which we are looking. Some have said; Unless that assistance be tremendous, the undertaking involves an impossibility.
But does it? I have been your pastor eighteen years. We began with 585 people; or, rather, we had that many left after a revision of the membership. In eighteen years we have practically trebled. Then we were giving $14,762.00 per annum. Last year we gave over eight times that amount. In these twenty years we have given to all causes practically three-fourths of a million dollars. If we kept the same ratio of growth in membership and finances, we could carry on our church work on the same plan of expense now existing, and lay aside nearly a million in the next fifteen years, provided, of course, that the per capita giving was not reduced. In other words, our numerical growth ought in that length of time to meet the financial increase of such a building as we plan.
Let us approach this from another side also. I believe there are few men among us but could double their subscriptions and still live, probably with equal comfort, and greater grace. If we did that, we could finance this in the next fifteen years, unaided and alone. This movement, then, does not call us to an impossibility. It is far more likely Gods method of setting before us our solemn obligation.
This text contains a further suggestion upon which we do well to reflect.
A little strength under God suffices for great things.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength
The Psalmist said, I will go in the strength of the Lord God. The Prophet Habakkuk (Hab 3:19), writes, The Lord God is my strength. But Paul, the Apostle, rose to the climax of confidence when he said, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
By such help, Moses, the meekest of men, took a nation oppressed and poor, mob-like in its makeup, discontented and divided by false leaders, vascillating and weak, and led them for forty years; solidified, trained, organized and educated them, and gave to the world the mightiest people it has ever seen or known since the morning stars sang together.
Looking to God for strength, David smote down Goliath, and defeated the army of the Philistines. Looking to God as the source of his help Jonathan with his armor-bearer, slew the hosts of the enemy. With God all things are possible. That is why it is written; All things are possible to him that believeth.
Perhaps the greatest lesson any Christian ever learns is to link his life with the power of God.
Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman tells us that one Monday morning he was sad and out of heart. It seemed to him that his entire life was a failure. He took up a newspaper and found the remark that everything in life depended whether a man worked for God or whether he let God work through him.
I saw in a moment that I had been working for God until I had worn the very flesh of my bones and was wearied to death, and I kneeled down and said, My God, I will no longer work for Thee, but here is my manhood. Pour Thyself through me to men. That altered his life and that increased his power. If God be for us, if God be with us, if God be in us, a little strength will suffice. With the worm He can thresh the mountain.
Satan himself cannot withstand such strength. Goliath could not withstand David, nor the armies of the Philistines Jonathan and his armor-bearer. It was that strength that shook the walls of Jericho and they tottered and fell.
Unquestionably Satan is more than a match for mortal man; and his strength so far surpasses ours, that woe to the man who meets him unaided. But when God is with us, the path clears; the devil himself retreats. Impossible is stricken from the dictionary!
The problem, then, of our future is not half so much the problem of our individual or our corporate strength, as it is the problem of our communion with God and of our consent to the Divine leadership.
THE GOSPEL OF ACCEPTABILITY
Thou * * hast kept My Word, and hast not denied My Name.
That is the only Gospel acceptable to God. The Gospel that retains the Word in conviction: the Gospel that translates the Gospel into character: the Gospel that exalts Christ as the only Saviour.
The Gospel that retains the Word in conviction. That is the only way to keep His Word. The man who retains the Bible, but has no conception of its truth, gives no consent to its authority, feels no obligation to its demands, is retaining the book, but not the Bible. R. F. Horton, the higher critic of the Old World, has written some admirable things, and when, to a body of theological students, he urged the study of the entire Scriptures, saying, No study of parts or aspects will do for study of the whole. We must be within hail of any voice sounding from the enchanted district. To bury oneself in one valley or to wander along a few green pastures will not suffice. I do not rest in the teaching of the man who sits all day on the Mount where the Lord preached His sermon, but never hears the reverberations from Sinai or the deep-toned answer from Calvary. I like well enough a visit to the Nile or to Euphrates and the best attention given to Abana and Pharpar, but not to neglect of the Jordan, the home stream that cleaves the Holy Land!
It is a great thought. A woman came to me a few days since and said: There is a Seventh Day Adventist coming to my house to talk with me about keeping Saturday. How would you talk to her? I said, I would decline to have her come.
She has equipped herself upon one point and she has become an expert in one subject. That is not Scripture study at all; that is only retaining the Word of God in controversy. There are thousands of things, things upon which you are better equipped than she. Discuss those points with her! You have your right. Why not? To retain a single subject or a single doctrine only is not Scripture study. God does not write, Thou hast retained My Word on the subject of church-government. It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The man who keeps Gods Word has an acceptable Gospel.
Then the keeping of the Word involves yet another thing.
It translates the Word into character. Ignorant of the Bible as the world is, it is very questionable if its sorest need is to know better the printed Bible. The Bible in experienceliving epistles, is the effective Bible, and if I did not believe that this greater institution toward which we are moving this morning would result in the Gospel of life and thought and conduct and character, I should never advocate it.
Truly, as A. C. Dixon says, Preaching the Gospel is one thing, and living the Gospel is another, and it is the man who lives the Gospel that feeds people with the Gospel. If you preach a sermon on missionary enterprise, or write a book, you may instruct some people, and they may see it their duty to become missionaries; but bring David Livingstone before them and say, Here is the man who is willing to leave his home and country that he might go into the heart of Africa, and expose himself to fever, and sickness, and death, in order to take the Gospel to the heathen; and that crowd will take in more missionary Gospel in three minutes, looking at David Livingstone, than they will in listening to you for hours or by reading a dozen books. It is the Gospel in flesh and blood that speaks.
I think no man of this congregation will ever charge me with having been disloyal to the Gospel of conviction: disloyal to the faith which was once delivered. crave the opportunity of preaching it to the thousands of my own citizens; but only because I desire to see it result in saints delivered to the Gospel.
As one has said Von Winkelried was a good preacher of patriotism, but when he threw himself on the bayonets of the enemy and sacrificed his life that he might break the enemys ranks and make a way for the conquest of his compatriots, he stirred more patriotism than all the addresses ever delivered by his most eloquent countrymen.
I am not asking to have a great museum built here in which to hide away even Gods sacred Book; but, rather, I am pleading for the erection of a House of Breada Bethlehem indeed, wherein men shall feed on the Book, in the interest of a fuller Christian life, and the exercise of a superior strength, and the consecration of all.
The text finishes with another sentence: And hast not denied My Name. The Gospel of acceptability then involves a third and last point
It exalts Christ as the worlds only Saviour.
There is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
There are those among us today who tell us it doesnt make much difference what opinion one entertains of Jesus. He may think He is a matchless man; he may think He was the mighty God: it matters not which, if only he make Him his example, and imitate Him in spirit indeed.
It is a doctrine of devils; it is a denial of the Christ that bought us. It is a covert, yet deadly, attack upon His Deity. My honored predecessor, Dr. Wayland Hoyt, said: Always our sorest need is a true thought of God. Nothing is so determining for life: nothing, therefore, is so important for us as a right notion of God.
The Philadelphia Church called the Name of Christ in worship. If the time should ever come when we cease to call that Name in the same spirit, and with the same intent, let Ichabod be written over the doors of this house; and let the remnant of Gods people, that remain, listen to hear the rustle of angels wings as they depart, and know that the Spirit of God Himself has also gone.
A friend of mine, preaching in London, said: In parliament you will find men trying to carry forward movements for the amelioration of mankind; and may God help them to do something for the betterment of their fellows. But even in the hearts of these men it is the deep cry for God they do not understand which they are trying to satisfy with philanthropic movements. Only Christ and Him crucified can satisfy!
What then, is the function of this church? And what will be its larger responsibility when its greater day shall come? The answer is not difficult. Its function is to preach Christ: its responsibility to live Him who said: And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(8) I know thy works: behold, I have set (better, given) before thee an open door (better, a door opened).A reference to the passages (Act. 14:27; 1Co. 16:8-9; 2Co. 2:12-13; Col. 4:3) in which a similar expression is used reminds us that the open door was not simply a way of escape from difficulties, but an opening for preaching the gospel, an opportunity of doing good, as well as an abundant entrance into the kingdom.
For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.The tenses used point back to some epoch in the history of this Church when some heavy trial or persecution arose, which tested the sincerity, fidelity, or Christian love of the faithful. The reward then of a little strength is a door opened (Dr. Vaughan).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Set before thee an open door Namely, of divine entrance into the heavenly Jerusalem.
No shut it No persecutions can exclude them from entering to their crown, Rev 3:11. Hast by my grace a little strength for entering the heavenly door. And in the use of that “gracious ability,” hast kept my word. Hast not, amid faithlessness and persecution, denied my name. The Christian name, perhaps; which, long since adopted at Antioch, has been well maintained in Philadelphia. We are obliged with Stuart, and against Hengstenberg, Alford, and others, to maintain the correctness of our translation, a little strength, making it a commendation, rather than, by omitting the article, to read, thou hast little strength, making it a depreciation. Christ gives them the reward of an open door because of three good points; namely: their spiritual energy, however little; their keeping his word; and their sustaining his name. The entire drift of the three clauses is the same, namely: rewardable traits for which the everlasting door shall be open to them. To find this meaning in the open door may be disappointing to those who desire to read into it a temporal and present benefit promised. But most certainly a true reading will find, that from this open door to the new Jerusalem of Rev 3:12 there is one straight line of thought, promising Philadelphia triumph, preservation, and abundant entrance, all solely at the second advent.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘I know your works – (behold I have set before you an opened door which none can shut) – that you have a little power, and have kept my word, and did not deny my name.’
The reference to the opened door clearly refers back in some way to the previous reference to the key and demonstrates that Jesus also controls the opportunities of witness and service (1Co 16:9; 2Co 2:12; Col 4:3) which He has opened up for them. It is clear that the works of the Philadelphians include faithful witness. They are not a powerful church, but they are faithful. They have held on to and obeyed the teaching of Jesus and, unlike Peter, they have been true to Him and have not denied His name. Nothing in fact is actually said against them, except perhaps their need to experience more of the power of the Spirit.
The opened door and the reference to He Who opens and none shuts parallels the time of Hezekiah when, as Israel perished, Judah witnessed a revival characterised by the reopening of the doors of the Temple when they had previously been ‘closed’ (2Ch 29:3). Compare also what is said about Eliakim, Hezekiah’s treasurer, who was the opener of doors for the people demonstrating a new attitude towards the people (see above on Rev 3:7). Thus the opened door includes the thought of revival. Hezekiah’s time was the time of the open door. But eventually that door closed through the failure of the people. A warning to us all.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rev 3:8. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, St. Paul uses this symbol to signify the free exercise and propagation of the gospel; Act 14:27. 1Co 16:9 but at the same time this shews, that the liberty here used, is in a more limited degree than when other symbols are employed; and therefore it is said here, that this angel has but a little strength. See Rev 4:1; Rev 19:11. Thus this expression coincides with the allegory, which was begun with the key of David. One Demetrius is named in the Apostolical Constitutions, as ordained by St. John bishop of Philadelphia; and in 3Jn 1:12 one of that name is commended; but whether it be the same person is doubtful. And hast kept my word signifies “hast endured persecution for my sake, and kept the faith manfully.” The word , in this book, has a peculiar reference to martyrdom. Vitringa and others give the following turn to this verse. “I know thy works, and, on that account, I, who have the keys of the kingdom of heaven, have taken care that a door for freely preaching the gospel should be opened before thee, and which I will take care that thy enemies shall not close upon thee, because thou hast but a little strength; notwithstanding which, thou hast kept my word,” &c. See ch. Rev 2:13.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rev 3:8 . With we are not to immediately combine the . . . as though the latter words [1426] contain an explicit statement of the ; [1427] for, in a formal respect, it is impracticable to regard the entire clause
as a parenthesis; and, as to the subject, the point expressed in the assumed parenthesis belongs already also in the idea of . But [1428] by the words , the Lord testifies chiefly, without any further determination, that every thing is known to him with which the church in its present life is engaged. [1429] To the church at Philadelphia this is a word of commendation and consolation. This results from the words of the Lord which immediately follow: , , . . ., in which the thought is expressed that the fidelity maintained by the church, notwithstanding its external helplessness, depends not only upon a gracious gift of the Lord, but also serves the purpose, and that, too, again through his government, that through the faithful church the Lord’s kingdom is increased. This sense depends chiefly upon the correct interpretation of the figurative expression . . . , . . . The door is opened, viz., either in order that the church itself may enter, [1430] or in order that by means of the church others may enter. [1431] According to the former idea, N. de Lyra, [1432] etc., explain: “a door is opened for understanding the Scriptures.” Arethas: (“entrance to fruition”). Bengel: “Entrance into the joy of thy Lord, and meanwhile into unhindered progress in all good.” Eichh.: “Entrance to me lies open to thee;” in the shallow sense: “I desire well for thee.” [1433] Zllig: “Entrance into the temple.” Hengstenb.: [1434] “Entrance to the house of David, or the kingdom of God.” According to another mode of representation, it is explained by Andr., Rib., Alcas., C. a Lap., Stern, Grot., Calov., Vitr., Wolf, Ew., De Wette, Ebrard, etc., who think of the favorable and successful opportunity for the missionary activity of the church. A decision in favor of this explanation, and that, too, in reference, not to heathen, [1435] but to Jews who are to be won by the fidelity of the believing church, is made by the connection with Rev 3:9 . A special intimation of the connection of , , and , lies even in the threefold . [1436] A declaration concerning the entrance of’ the church into heavenly joy, of which alone, according to the first mode of statement, we can think, could scarcely be made at the very beginning of the epistle. The statement correctly understood stands, consequently, in close connection with the designation of the Lord, Rev 3:7 , . ., . . ., and emphasizes a special point, corresponding to the further contents of the epistle, of the supreme power in reference to his kingdom, to be ascribed from Rev 3:7 , in unlimited universality, to the Lord; i.e., Christ expressly, and with visible results, attests his Davidic power of the keys in this, that he has opened a door before his faithful and steadfast church, through which a multitude of still unbelieving Jews are to enter. For the words , , . . ., Rev 3:9 , are in substance an exposition of , . . . , . . ., as they state the actual, but yet future, consequence of an opportunity already given ( , perf.). That Christ can say of himself and , depends upon the fact that it is he who has the key of David.
. To be distinguished from [1437] only in mode of contemplation, but not [1438] in substance. The Hebraic coloring of the formula [1439] corresponds well with the statement in this passage, and the style of the Apoc. in general.
The demonstrative , brought in after the relative , is also Hebraistic.
. Incorrectly, Vitr.: “Even though.” Rather is that which immediately precedes based upon on , . . . The “little strength,” viz., of the church, cannot be explained by the lack of miraculous gifts, [1440] but refers to the smallness. of the church, [1441] which must also be regarded in destitution when compared with the richer Jews. [1442] As now with the , the is combined, these two members of the sentence externally united by the mere show themselves to have a definite inner relation: “and (yet) hast kept,” etc [1443] Concerning the subject itself, cf. Rev 3:10 ; Rev 2:3 . The church, therefore, already had had opportunity, as the aor. forms and indicate, to confess the Lord’s name in opposition to unbelievers, apparently Jews and heathen. Therefore, because ( ) the church has done this, although of insignificant outward power, the Lord has given it an “open door,” the meaning of which is stated in Rev 3:9 . [See Note XXXVIII., p. 183.] Thus the idea is advanced, that the faithful, steadfast confession of the church, indicated especially in , is the cause whose effect and reward, through the Lord’s disposing ( , cf. , , Rev 3:9 ), is to be the conversion of a number of his enemies. Faithful confessing has itself opened the door, but of course only because the Lord had given believers power for testimony. Thus the clause , , . . ., stands upon the idea , and the whole (Rev 3:8 ) upon the designation of the Lord, Rev 3:7 .
[1426] Cf. the , Rev 3:1 .
[1427] Bengel. Cf. also Ewald, De Wette.
[1428] Cf. Ebrard.
[1429] Cf. Rev 3:1 ; Rev 2:2 .
[1430] Cf. Act 14:27 .
[1431] Cf. 1Co 16:9 ; 2Co 2:12 ; Col 4:3 .
[1432] Cf. Rev 3:7 .
[1433] Cf. also Heinr.
[1434] Bleek.
[1435] Cf. C. a Lap.
[1436] Cf. also Bengel.
[1437] Cf. 1Co 16:9 ; 2Co 2:12 ; Col 4:3 .
[1438] Vitr.
[1439]
[1440] N. de Lyra: “Because I have not given thee, like many other bishops of this time, the gift of miracles, I have recompensed thee with excellent knowledge of the Scriptures.”
[1441] Grot., Wetst., Eichh., De Wette, Ebrard,, etc.
[1442] Hengstenb.
[1443] De Wette, etc.
NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR
XXXVIII. Rev 3:8 .
Plumptre: “The words point to something in the past history of the church of Philadelphia and its ruler, the nature of which we can only infer from them and from their context. Some storm of persecution had burst upon him, probably at Smyrna, instigated by the Jews, or the Judaizing section of the church. They sought to shut the door which he had found open, and would have kept so. They were strong, and he was weak; numbers were against him, and one whose faith was less real and living might have yielded to the pressure. But he, though not winning, like Antipas, the martyr’s crown, had yet displayed the courage of the confessor. Like the faithful servant in the parable, he had thus been faithful in a very little (Mat 25:23 ); and therefore, as the promise that follows shows, he was to be ‘made ruler over many things.’ ”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2499
EPISTLE TO PHILADELPHIA
Rev 3:8-11. I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
IN this Church, as in that at Smyrna, the Lord saw nothing to condemn: and therefore, in the epistle written to them, there is not a word either of reproof or threatening. It is true, that the commendations bestowed on them are not so copious and energetic as those in which some others of the Churches were addressed: but it is no little praise to them, that nothing was found among them deserving of reproof. Such a mediocrity of character is by no means displeasing in the sight of God. For, granting that a mans piety is not so exalted in some respects as that of others, yet, if it is without that unhappy alloy which in many cases debases and degrades the profession of more distinguished Christians, it is more acceptable to God on the whole. We read of some who were as a cake not turned [Note: Hos 7:8.]; burnt up, as it were, on one side, while they are altogether doughy on the other. In contradistinction to such characters, they more approve themselves as sons of God, who are blameless and harmless, and without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation [Note: Php 2:15.].
The words which I have read contain the entire address of our Lord to the Church of Philadelphia; with the exception of the concluding promise to those who shall finally overcome in the Christian warfare; which promise forms the close of every epistle. That I may bring it before you in one entire view, and render it as useful as I can to ourselves, I will consider,
I.
The peculiar subjects here addressed to them
The subjects will all appear in their order, if we mark,
1.
The testimony borne
[Our blessed Lord had set before that Church an open door for the ministration of the Gospel and the enjoyment of its blessings; and, by his special providence, had taken care that no man should shut it. Great opposition, indeed, had been made to them, and the most violent persecution had raged against them: but they had kept the word of Christ, even the word of his patience; which is so called, because no man ever embraces it aright without having abundant occasion for patience, whilst he holds it fast, and endeavours to adorn it by a suitable conversation. The trials they had endured in consequence of adhering to that word had been exceeding heavy. Yet, notwithstanding they possessed but little strength, they had approved themselves faithful to their Lord, and could in no instance be prevailed upon to deny his name.
Now, this was an honourable testimony; and the more so, because their strength was small. If their talents were few, they endeavoured to employ them to the honour of their Lord: and they thereby performed towards him a good and acceptable service.]
2.
The promise given
[This was suited to the occasion. There were coming upon the Church trials far more severe than any they had yet endured. The persecution under the Emperor Trajan seems to be that which is here more particularly referred to: for that was of fourteen years duration, and destroyed many thousands of Christians throughout all the Roman Empire. God permitted these persecutions to arise, for the trying of his people, and the making of a visible distinction between those who were upright and those who were dissemblers with God. Now, to these persecutions the Church of Philadelphia would have been exposed in as great a degree as others, if God had not, in part, averted the storm: but He, in mercy to his faithful people, and as a recompence of their fidelity, screened them in some measure from the violence of the tempest, and, by the mighty working of his power, enabled them to sustain whatever portion of it was permitted to fall upon them: thus fulfilling to them that precious promise, God is faithful; who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it [Note: 1Co 10:13.].
But he further assured them, for their comfort, that those Judaizing teachers who boasted of their eminence as Christians, while they were in fact no Christians at all, but of the synagogue of Satan; that they, I say, who were their most inveterate enemies, should come and worship at their feet, and confess that these very persons whom they had persecuted were indeed the favourites of their God. Such cases had often occurred, in the history of the Lords people [Note: Gen 50:15-17. Est 8:17.]; and such should occur to them. In what way, and to what extent, this was fulfilled to them, we are not informed: but there can be no doubt, but that, in many instances, their piety was instrumental to the conviction of their enemies, and, in many instances too, to their conversion: so that what had been fulfilled in the Centurion at our Lords death [Note: Mat 27:54.], and in the Jailor at Philippi [Note: Act 16:33-34], was, to a very great extent, realized in them; agreeably to that prophetic declaration, The sons of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee, and all they that despised thee shall bow down themselves at the soles of thy feet: and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel [Note: Isa 60:14.].]
3.
The caution administered
[Blameless as they were, and hitherto victorious, yea, and protected by the special providence of their God, yet did they need to be stirred up to holy vigilance, and to persevering exertion in the divine life. Thus far they were entitled to a crown of life: but still they were on the field of battle, and must not indulge security or remissness, lest their crown should, after all, be lost. True, the time for their sufferings and their labours was but short, because their Lord was coming quickly, to terminate the one, and to reward the other. But still, till he should come, and dismiss them from their warfare, they must hold fast every principle they had received, and every practice they had maintained: for on their steadfastness, in fact, depended the final possession of their crown. If they turned back, it would be unto perdition [Note: Heb 10:39.]; and if they were again overcome by the world which they had vanquished, their last end would be worse than their beginning [Note: 2Pe 2:20.]. It was only by being faithful unto death, that they could finally secure the crown of life [Note: Rev 2:10.]]
Having thus brought into view the substance of our Lords address to this highly-favoured Church, and opened the subjects contained in it, I proceed to point out,
II.
The improvement which we should make of them, for our benefit at this time
Truly, in these subjects, we may find much,
1.
To encourage the weak
[Many are discouraged because they have but little strength. But what a mercy is it to possess any strength at all! The great mass of mankind are led captive by their spiritual enemies, yea, are led captive by the devil at his will. Surely, then, to have strength for the combat, even though it be but little, is a blessing for which we never can be sufficiently thankful. Be it so, our enemies live and are mighty: but still, He that dwelleth on high is mightier; and his strength, if only we trust in him, shall be made perfect in our weakness [Note: 2Co 12:19.]. It should seem that our God and Saviour takes peculiar care to impress on our minds a sense of our weakness, on purpose that we may be led the more simply and implicitly to trust in him. What is weaker than a sheep in the midst of devouring wolves and lions? yet, says our blessed Lord, Fear not, little flock; for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom [Note: Luk 12:32.]. We cannot conceive of any thing more disproportionate than the power of a worm to effect any extensive change upon a mountain: yet says God to his people, Fear not, thou worm Jacob: for thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff, fanning them with irresistible power, and scattering them as a whirlwind [Note: Isa 41:14-16.]. Who, then has any reason to despond or be discouraged on account of either the power of his enemies, or the smallness of his own strength? Only see what God enabled the Philadelphian Christians, notwithstanding their weakness, to effect; and the very least amongst you may find reason to glory rather in your infirmities, because, when you are weak, then are you really strong [Note: 2Co 12:9-10.]. Not but that we should desire to grow from babes to young men, and from young men to fathers; but in a sense of our extreme weakness we never can exceed. To our latest hour we must be strong only in the Lord, and in the power of his might: and, if we be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, then shall we be able to do all things through the strength that we derive from Him [Note: Php 4:13.], and shall be more than conquerors through Him that loveth us [Note: Rom 8:37.].]
2.
To establish the wavering
[Who is there that has not been tempted, on some occasions, to a dereliction of his duty? If the Christians of the Philadelphian Church, blameless as they were, and steadfast as they had been in such violent persecutions, yet needed that solemn admonition, Hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown, surely we, who have been so often drawn aside by the allurements of the world, and the corruptions of our hearts, and the devices of our great enemy, need to have it impressed deeply on our minds. Now, let me suppose one of you to be going into worldly company and worldly pleasures, or to be plunging yourselves unnecessarily into worldly cares; and to be at the same time, as must necessarily be the case, declining in spirituality of mind, and in heavenly zeal; what shall I say to you? What? O think what you have at stake, and are likely to losea crown! a kingdom! Again, if there be one of you that is yielding to the fear of man, or putting his light under a bushel for fear of its offending some friend, some patron, or some enemy; What shall I say to you also, but this? Think what you have at stakea crown! a kingdom! Who, in his senses, would risk the loss of this, for any thing that this world could give or take away? I pray you, contemplate the glory and felicity of heaven: yea, and take into the account, also, the sad alternativethe shame and misery of hell. Will you expose yourselves to the loss of the one, and the consequent endurance of the other, for any transient pleasure, or to avoid any momentary pain? O beg of God, I pray you, that you may not fall from your own steadfastness [Note: 2Pe 3:17.], and make shipwreck of your faith. What does Demas now think of his apostasy? And what will you think, in a little time, of all which appears now so fascinating to your minds? I charge you, brethren, before God, yield not to the tempter; but be steadfast, immoveable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord [Note: 1Co 15:58.].]
3.
To humble the self-confident
[What would those, of whom our Lord speaks in my text, who said they were Jews, the real people of the Lord, whilst they were not, but did lie, and were in reality of the synagogue of Satan; what, I say, would they have replied to the accusation in my text? Methinks, there would have been no bounds to their indignation. But it was true, notwithstanding. And it is true, also, of many at this day. A proud sceptic or infidel will call himself a Christian: but he lies. A conceited and contentious heretic, who has no zeal but for some notions of his own, with which he labours to divide the Church of Christ, may call himself a Christian: but he also lies. To come nearer home, the man who, like the Judaizing Christians, hates the simple doctrine of salvation by faith, and, from a pretended zeal for good works, blends the law with the Gospel as a joint ground of his hope, he, I say, will account himself a Christian of the highest caste and character: but he lies; for he is a perverter of the Gospel, and is, in reality, of the synagogue of Satan: and, if he were an angel from heaven, I must say of him, as St. Paul does, Let him be accursed [Note: Gal 1:7-9.]. Now, I am aware that this seems harsh: but what is to be done? It is not I who speak these things, but the Lord: and I dare not keep back his word. I must, at the peril of my own soul, declare his whole counsel. Whoever then thou art, that professest thyself a Christian, whilst thou art essentially defective either in the principles or tempers of Christianity, I must warn thee against thy delusions, and tell thee that thou deceivest thine own soul. O that God would humble thee, ere it be too late; and make thee to see, that none but the broken and contrite in heart can ever find favour in his sight! The poor believer, who trembles at his word, and looks to Christ alone for salvation, is the only person that is beloved of his God. Come then, and seek salvation in His way: seek it simply and entirely by faith in Christ: then shall you also find acceptance with God, and be made partakers of the felicity of his chosen. But, if ye will persist in your enmity to God, and his Christ, and his people, know, that ye shall have your portion with him of whose synagogue ye are: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. To the impenitent and unbelieving there remains nothing but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment, and fiery indignation to consume them [Note: Heb 10:26-27.]. the Lord avert from you that fate, for Christs sake!]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
Ver. 8. An open door ] A fair opportunity of doing thyself good; which those that go about to deprive thee of shall be sure to lose oleum et operam, their toil and tallow.
A little strength ] A little grace well improved may do great matters, and set heaven open to a soul. The vine is the weakest of trees, but the most fruitful. Philadelphia with her little strength is discommended for nothing, she made all best use of it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 3:8 . as in the case of Smyrna implying unqualified approval. The reward of this steadfastness (8 c , 10) is threefold: ( a ) security in their relation to God (8 b ), through the love of Christ for them (9); ( b ) ultimate triumph over their foes (9), and ( c ) deliverance in the final crisis (10). The open door, here as in Paul (for the ethnic use of the term on sepulchres cf. C. B. P. , ii. 395) is usually taken to denote facilities for preaching and advancing the faith among outsiders, in which case the sense would be that the extension of the gospel depends upon, as it forms a high reward of, open confession and a decided stand for Christ. But in view of a passage written by Ignatius to this very church ( ad Philad. 3, where Christ himself is termed , the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, ) and of Clem. Rom. xlviii. (where the gate of righteousness is described as open in Christ), the phrase is better connected with Christ himself, not with any good opening for Christian activity. He makes access to God through himself sure; despite trials and temptations (Rev 3:8-10 ) his church’s standing is guaranteed by his authority (as in Joh 10:7 ; Joh 10:9 , Christ ). here is the open heart of God for man; in Rev 3:20 , man’s open heart for God. Jesus, then, equipped with the O.T. attributes of divine authority, assures the church how futile are such excommunications as the Jews were levelling against them. The latter have nothing to do with the conditions of the kingdom. Faith in Jesus constitutes a relation to God which cannot either be impaired or rivalled. Only, the perseverance of the saints is needed; an assured position with God depends not merely on Christ’s will and power but on Christian loyalty as the coefficient of grace. The church at 2 Peter is not blamed for the slenderness of her equipment, which evidently is due to causes outside her control. She is praised for having made good use of the slight resources she possessed ( cf. Mar 14:8 ). Otherwise, though less well, a full stop might be placed after , and taken as the reason for the promise , just as in Rev 3:10 is followed by . , pleonastic use of pron. after relative, a Semitic idiom with Greek affinities (Vit. ii. 138, Thumb 128, Blass 50, 4) confined to Apoc. (exc. cit. fr. LXX, Act 15:17 ) in N.T. In Enoch (xxxviii. 2, and passim ) to deny the Lord of Spirits is the capital crime,’ as opposed to “believing in his name’.
[904]. Codex Porphyrianus (sc. ix.), at St. Petersburg, collated by Tischendorf. Its text is deficient for chap. Rev 2:13-16 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
behold. App-133.
set = given.
strength App-172.1; Rev 176:1.
hast kept = didst keep. Same word as “hold fast”, Rev 3:3.
word App-121.
hast not denied = didst not deny.
My name. In opposition to confessing (See Rev 2:13) the name of the beast, Rev 13:17; Rev 14:9, Rev 14:11, Rev 14:12.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I know: Rev 3:1, Rev 3:15, Rev 2:2
an open: Rev 3:7, 1Co 16:9, 2Co 2:12, Col 4:3
a little: Dan 11:34, 2Co 12:8-10, Phi 4:13
and hast kept: Rev 3:10, Rev 22:7, Joh 14:21-24, Joh 15:20, Joh 17:6, 2Ti 4:7
and hast not: Rev 2:13, Pro 30:9, Mat 26:70-72, Luk 12:9, Act 3:13, Act 3:14, 1Ti 5:8, 1Jo 2:22, 1Jo 2:23, Jud 1:4
Reciprocal: Jos 24:27 – deny Mat 18:18 – General Joh 10:3 – the porter Joh 10:14 – know Act 14:27 – opened 1Co 8:3 – is 1Ti 1:19 – Holding 2Ti 2:12 – if we deny 2Ti 2:19 – Let 2Pe 2:1 – denying 1Jo 5:18 – keepeth Rev 14:12 – the faith
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE CHURCHS HISTORY
I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name.
Rev 3:8
How would the angel of the Church of England have been bidden to write to us? Would he have written, as to Philadelphia, of an open door, and a little strength, the word kept, and the name confessed; or as to Sardis, I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead? All Church history is in those chapters of judgment; and how would our past and our present, how will our future bear that test?
I. The dark side of the story.The candid and humble Churchman knows well how dark a side there would have to be in his picture if he were to tell the faithful truth about the Church of England. He would, I think, be prone to think of his Church with penitence and humility before he would dare to think of it with pride. He may not be greatly perturbed by her legislative impotence, although it is a scandal without excuse that a great national Church should be without a voice and without a means of expressing its corporate will. He may not be greatly disturbed by our parochialism, that deadly form of local paralysis, or by our diocesanism, which is only the same paralysis on a larger scale; he may be tolerant of our anomalies, our repugnance to reform, our all too normal alliance with the forces of reaction and inertia. Yet he will surely ask with shame, Where are the evidences of that prophetic insight which our Church ought to possess and use, the clear vision of social and spiritual needs, the hatred of wrong and the purifying fire of zeal?
II. A great inheritance.And yet with all this, when the candid truth has been told about us as we are, we have a great inheritance, and that inheritance is neither dead nor impotent. When we are at work and alive, we have a gospel for the English people such as no other body can preach. Where you find a Church really living the characteristic life of our communion, knowing and loving its Bible and its Prayer Book, strong in intercession and united at the altar, there you have such a Christian power, so expressive of the best capacities of English religion, as no other body can afford. So much we may dare to say. And as we look backward to see how this inheritance has come to us, we can also see that we have been allotted a special and unique place in the Churchs story.
III. All religions bodies appeal to history.
(a) Be historical, says the Puritan; you can trace the degeneracy of the Church back to the earliest days of the second century. No sooner were the Apostles gone, and their generation passed away, than the Church began to make terms with the world. Institution after institution took shape which was not covered by the terms of the original covenant. The Church became secular, hierarchical, sacramental, mysterious; little by little corruption increased, and the medival Church, corrupt at the heart, is the logical outcome of that earliest Christianity which shifted from the anchorage of Apostolic custom. Be historical, therefore, and go back to the beginning. Cut away every form and institution which did not demonstrably exist in the Apostolic age; revert to the New Testament, and to that alone, and you will have a pure and a primitive Church once more.
(b) Be historical, says the Roman Catholic on the other side. The Church began with the commission to the fisherman; it has moved onward step by step, guided at all points, secured from error, guarded against vital corruption. It cannot need to look backward; whatever it adds to its creed must needs be only an explication of the original deposit, once for all committed to the saints. Trust the Church as it is, and submit, for it speaks with an infallible voice and lives with a life whose guarantees are wholly outside the order of nature.
Thus the appeal to history has issued on the one side in the subversion of the whole idea of the Church as a living society, and on the other side in that great disaster of forty years ago, the conciliar declaration of papal infallibility.
(c) But the Church of England has also its appeal to history. We do not reverence the past, neither are we its slaves. We believe in the teaching authority of the Church, but we are also conscious that in the New Testament there is a storehouse of principles by which the exercise of that authority can be and ought to be checked. We will not serve Geneva, because we are sure that our own life and order are both Catholic and Scriptural; neither will we serve Rome, for we know well that it is neither. And so to us, as to no other body, has been entrusted the treasure of such a Catholicism as can dare to protest when protest is needed, which can confront itself with the great dogmatic fathers of Christianity and know itself true to them, which can maintain and use the external beauty of worship without fearing any loss of spirituality; which can use, revere, and hold fast the sacraments without a touch of superstition. And in the ages to come, what need will there not be of such a positive, non-Roman, historical Catholicism as ours? Puritanism tends always to disintegrate; Ultramontanism is rotten at its foundations. Let us hold fast that which has been entrusted to us, for if we fail, who shall take the place that we are commissioned to fill?
IV. An open door.We have before us a great open door; God has given us a little strength. Shall we go forward where the way is open? Shall we still hold fast the Word and confess the Name? The answer lies with you, with Churchmen one by one. Christ dawned in Britain seventeen hundred years ago; but He dawns still day by day, on each of us who know Him. Shall we let the brightness of His dawning
die away,
And fade into the light of common day?
That is our peril and the peril of our Church. If we let slip the freshness, the romance, the inspiration of the gospel, one by one; if it becomes to us an ordinary thing, a routine, a negligible commonplace, then, each by himself, we shall be doing our best to close the open door. If our Church is to fulfil her vocation she must fulfil it first in us, one by one. Therefore, as we look back on the story of that which has been, let us pray for the grace of vision, of daily inspiration.
Rev. H. N. Bate.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Rev 3:8. The contents of the Epistle begin in the usual manner, and then proceed, the first sentence being parenthetical, Behold, I have given before thee an open door, and no one can shut it. The translation of the original thus offered cannot be said to be idiomatic; but, when the inspired author has employed unidiomatic Greek for the purpose of giving expression to a particular thought which appeared to him important, it seems to be the duty of a translator to follow his example, and to endeavour as best he may to find utterance for the same thought in his own language. This is the case here. There can be no doubt that the verb to give is a very important one in the writings of St. John, and not least so in these seven Epistles, in every one of which it has a place. In the words before us it is not used through any imperfect knowledge of the Greek tongue. It is deliberately chosen to bring out the fact that every advantage we possess, every privilege we enjoy, every victory we gain, is the gift of Him in whom we live. The Lord does not merely do certain things for His people: in the doing of them He bestows His gifts. Nay, not only so, His giving is part of a chain that binds together the lowest and the highest in His kingdom. The Father gives the Son; the Son gives Himself: in giving Himself, the Son gives us all things: whatever we receive is part of one line of giving.There is difficulty in determining the meaning of the opened door. We may at once set aside the idea that it is a door of access to the understanding of Scripture. Is it then, as generally viewed, a door of opportunity for carrying on the mission work of the Church,mission work which is then thought by some to have reference to the Gentiles, by others to the Jews? This idea is no doubt taken from such texts as 1Co 16:9; 2Co 2:12; Col 4:3; but the supposed analogy loses its force when we observe that no instance of it can be quoted from the writings of St. John. On the other hand, there can be no hesitation as to the meaning of the word door in chap. Rev 4:1, or in Joh 10:7; Joh 10:9. In these passages the door is something that leads the persons before whom it is opened into the happiness referred to in the context. Still further, it is unfavourable to the idea of missionary work here(1) That the thought of converting the world by the instrumentality of the Church is foreign to the Apocalypse; (2) That missionary results achieved in this world cannot be described in the language of Rev 3:9. Jews and heathens, when converted, neither worship before the Church nor pay such homage to her as is there implied; they worship before Christ; He is the object of their homage; (3) That the Church is conceived of here in her royal as well as in her priestly capacity. This appears from mention of the crown in Rev 3:11, and from the fact that the verb translated worship suggests the thought of homage to royalty; (4) Add what is said on the clause and he shall in no wise go any more out in Rev 3:12; (5) Lastly, notice the peculiar construction of the sentence, where the thrice, or rather the twice repeated behold (for the third behold is merely the taking up again of the second, as knowing in Joh 13:3 is the taking up again of the same word in Rev 3:1) leads to the inference that Rev 3:9 is simply a second picture, or fuller explanation of Rev 3:8. But Rev 3:9 certainly does not express any conversion of the Jews: and neither, therefore, is Rev 3:8 the expression of means taken for the conversion of either them or the Gentiles.
The opened door, then, is no other than that by which the faithful enter into the enjoyment of the heavenly glory, as well as that by which those spoken of in Rev 3:9 enter, so far at least as to see them, in order to pay them homage while they sit upon their throne.This door no one shall shut, that is, no one shall be able to prevent believers from entering on their reward. Their enemies may frown upon them, persecute them as they persecuted their Lord, but it will be in vain. The world shall be compelled to own them as it was compelled to own Him in part even here, and fully, however much to its shame, hereafter (comp. chap. Rev 1:7).The following words present in three particulars the works referred to in the first clause of the verse.(1) Thou hast a little power. The church at Philadelphia had not altogether failed.(2) Didst keep my word, that is, my word for utterance (comp. Joh 17:6; Joh 17:8). She had preserved the Word of the Lord as a precious heritage.(3) Didst not deny my name. She had stood firm when tempted to deny her Lord, openly confessing Him.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 8
An open door; opportunities for promoting the cause of Christ. The image is in continuation of the metaphor expressed in the latter part of the Revelation 3:7.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
3:8 {7} I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
(7) The note of praise is in this verse of promises, and Rev 3:9 to bring home again them that wander, in Rev 3:10 to preserve the godly and in Rev 3:11 to exhort.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. Commendation 3:8
The Philadelphia Christians had received an "open door" to opportunity for spiritual blessing, perhaps opportunity for evangelism (cf. 1Co 16:9; 2Co 2:12; Col 4:3). This opportunity would continue because they had a little "power" (spiritual power) though they were evidently few. Since there is no article before "little" in the Greek text, it is possible to understand their "little strength" (NIV) as a reference to their small influence, evidently because of their small number. They had faithfully obeyed God’s Word, and they had maintained a faithful testimony for the Lord in the past, presumably by word and by deed. They also enjoyed the prospect of an open door into the messianic kingdom because they had been faithful. This may be the primary reference in view. [Note: See Thomas, Revelation 1-7, pp. 277-78; and Beasley-Murray, p. 100.]