And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
25. And the gates &c.] Isa 60:11. But the later prophet speaks of a further glory than the earlier: Isaiah recognises the succession of day and night, while St John sees that in that perpetual day the gates cannot need to be closed. In an earthly city they are not closed by day except in time of war; but even in perfect peace they are closed every night (cf. Neh 13:19); here the daylight is as perpetual as the peace.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day – It shall be constantly open, allowing free ingress and egress to all who reside there. The language is derived from Isa 60:11. See the notes on that place. Applied to the future state of the blessed, it would seem to mean, that while this will be their permanent abode, yet that the dwellers there will not be prisoners. The universe will be open to them. They will be permitted to go forth and visit every world, and survey the works of God in all parts of his dominions.
For there shall be no night there – It shall be all day; all unclouded splendor. When, therefore, it is said that the gates should not be shut by day, it means that they would never be shut. When it is said that there would be no night there, it is, undoubtedly, to be taken as meaning that there would be no literal darkness, and nothing of which night is the emblem: no calamity, no sorrow, no bereavement, no darkened windows on account of the loss of friends and kindred. Compare the notes on Rev 21:4.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rev 21:25
No night there.
The everlasting day
I. No natural night there. The large portion of our existence that sleep now consumes will be added to our peaceful, our blissful occupations.
II. No night of sin there.
III. No night of suffering there.
IV. No night of ignorance there.
V. No night of infirmities there.
VI. No night of mysterious providences there.
VII. No night of hindered prayers there.
VIII. No night of disappointed expectations there.
IX. No night of separation there.
X. No night of temptation there. (T. Nunns, M. A.)
No night there
In looking at the emblems employed in the Word of God, you cannot fail to be impressed with their simplicity as well as their beauty. Night is one of these.
1. It is the season of repose.
2. It is the time of evil–the season chosen for the performance of deeds of darkness and of sin.
3. And it is the time of fear. Yet notwithstanding all this I praise God for the night.
4. Night is suggestive of sorrow. This is the inevitable lot of the good on earth. But there shall be no night of sorrow there! No tears shall be shed, no hopes shall be frustrated, no disappointments felt, no friends removed, no graves opened. Night, as we have seen, is associated with deeds of darkness. And hence, when it is affirmed of the heavenly state that there shall be no night there, we are reminded of the perfect purity of our eternal home. Further, night is associated with weariness and fatigue. To affirm, therefore, of the heavenly world that there shall be no night there, is to declare that weariness and fatigue shall be unknown. One of the most difficult questions is that of the exact nature of the glorified body the redeemed will possess. And then, night is associated with obscurity. Its shades conceal much from our vision, and hence it has ever been regarded as an appropriate emblem of mental obscurity. Mystery surrounds us on every hand. Questions are continually arising to which we can return no complete answer. Now it is night with us. The unclouded day is yonder. (S. D. Hillman, B. A.)
No night there
I. The absence of night in the glorified church implies that there will be no sin there.
II. The absence of night implies there shall be no ignorance there
III. The absence of night implies there shall be no weariness there. Here Gods people are wearied with labours.
IV. The absence of night implies that there shall be no change there.
V. The absence of night implies that there shall be no death there. (B. W. Bucke, M. A.)
The happiness of heaven
I. The import of the representation by which this state is here distinguished.
1. Among the mansions of the blessed, there shall be no fatigue, no tendency to lassitude, and no reason for repose.
2. There shall be no hostile intrusion there; there is no reason for precaution.
3. There is no impurity and no sin.
4. But night is a season of privation; and when we are told of heaven as a state where no privation shall be, we are well reminded that no night shall be there. Do you speak of privation of society? In heaven you will have delightful and hallowed fellowship. Do you speak of privation of knowledge? In heaven, illumination will be poured upon our faculties to the utmost extent which those faculties can, by possibility, bear. Do you speak of privation of happiness? In heaven, perturbation and pain, and fear, and distress, will be removed for ever.
5. No more death–no more death to our persons: for this corruptible shall put on incorruption. No more death to our happiness; no more death to our attainments; no more death to our joy. All unchangeable, and all imperishable, and all for ever!
II. The conclusions which our contemplations of the heavenly state under this representation ought forcibly to impress upon our minds.
1. Our contemplations ought to induce preparation.
2. Our contemplations of the heavenly state ought to induce gratitude. You were the slave led captive by the devil at his will, and now have been brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God–a liberty which is to be consummated in the skies.
3. These contemplations of the heavenly state should induce desire. And truly there is nothing–if we are preparing for such scenes as those which have now been laid before you–there is nothing which should keep your desires from heaven. (J. Parsons.)
Heaven without night
1. We are wont to associate with night the idea of weariness. Sweet to the myriad toilers in the worlds vast workshop is the coming of the still evening hour, when the tasks of day are laid aside, and tired limbs and overwrought brains draw refreshment from slumber. So benign is this provision that Scripture has included it among the special acts of Divine goodness, in the beautiful saying, He giveth His beloved sleep. Now, as this arrangement is not found in heaven, the inference is obvious that the denizens of that bright realm do not require its operation, and are so constituted as to be inaccessible to fatigue from any intensity or duration of employment.
2. Night is the symbol of ignorance. How often do the Sacred Writers represent the intellectual and moral blindness of men under the figure of darkness! Thus Job, describing the errors and follies of the devotees of human wisdom, says, They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noonday as in the night. And the fearful ignorance of God and of truth, which overspread the world at the period of the Redeemers advent, is pourtrayed by the graphic declaration, Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. In this emblematic sense, a deep and cloudy night stretches over the sphere which we now inhabit. How imperfect are our faculties! How narrow the limits of our knowledge! How obscure and uncertain our researches! What barriers of gloom and mystery meet us on whatever side we attempt to push our investigations! But in heaven there will be no intellectual night. All the errors that now shade and darken our minds–all the obstacles which here impede and limit our acquisitions-shall there be for ever removed. The faculties of the soul which, amid the fogs and illusions of sense, are so restricted in their range, and so distorted in their vision, will, in that radiant world, expand into seraphic strength, and under the beams of eternal day receive a new impulse, and a right direction. The veil also, which now hangs over so many departments of Truth, will then be lifted, and we shall enter her inmost temple, and worship at her most secret shrine.
3. Night is the symbol of sin. The time which God has ordained for rest, man has appropriated to crime. All classes of the depraved and lawless look upon night as their chosen patron and protector. The way of the wicked is as darkness. Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. When, therefore, we read of heaven as being without night, the expression evidently implies that into those holy realms no impurity can ever be admitted. There shall in no ease enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they that are written in the Lambs book of life.
4. Night is the symbol of danger. The hours in which darkness broods over the earth are peculiar for their insecurity. It is then that the robber, the housebreaker, the incendiary, and the whole tribe of depredators on property and life, steal from their lurking places, and roam abroad on their work of mischief. And then it is that perils easily avoided by day deepen and multiply their terrors. The exclusion of night from heaven may, therefore, be interpreted as a pledge that, in that secure asylum, no adversary shall assail us, and no possibility of evil ever menace our peace. The seductions of the world, and the treachery of our own hearts, will not follow us there, nor can Satan cross the great gulf fixed between hell and heaven to vex us with his assaults.
5. Night is the symbol of want. Sleep is the sister of death. During its reign over us, we retire within ourselves; the senses close their portals, and the soul is shut in from all its wonted delights. Communion with man and with Nature has ceased. Perception is suspended. Reason is in abeyance. Gone are consciousness, memory, hope. And even should slumber be interrupted, what a dreary blank does the eye behold! Hidden is the rich land-scape–stream, and forest, and mountain–all the grand things and the lovely on which the daylight looks. Above us may glimmer the watching stars and the silvery moon, but they only awaken regret for the nobler luminary departed. So is it that night typifies want; and the fact that heaven knows no night is a most expressive sign that it also knows no privation. Want, in one or another of its forms, is inseparable from our earthly condition. Pilgrims in the desert, we must expect to sigh in vain for much that is essential to perfect felicity. But when we reach the land of Divine fulness above, every need will be supplied. Everything around us, every scene, every object, every employment, will be adapted to exclude disquietude, and to minister delight. Every faculty, every passion, will be absorbed in adoration, and overflowing with ecstasy. And He that sitteth on the throne will bring out His treasures to augment our bliss, showering down upon our spirits all the raptures which Almighty Goodness can bestow.
6. Night is the symbol of death. There are few analogies in the whole range of sacred imagery more suited to represent death than the season of night. And thus we find it very frequently employed by the inspired writers. The Psalmist, in speaking of the removal of his friends by death, says, Mine acquaintance hast Thou put into darkness. Job calls death the day of darkness, and the grave the bed of darkness, a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness. Our Divine Teacher has also given us a very striking description of death under the figure of night. I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh in which no man can work. To beings situated as we are, it is hardly possible to form an idea of a state of existence in which death is unknown. Yet this is true of heaven. There shall be no more death. Oh, what a soul-ravishing announcement is this! No more death! Then hope has dawned on the midnight of the tomb; the King of Terrors is despoiled of his power, and the all-conqueror is himself conquered! No more death to our persons–no more death to our attainments–no more death to our usefulness–no more death to our joys! All are changeless and perfect. God is our portion, holiness our vesture, happiness our allotment, eternity our home. Oh, what a boon is Immortality when it thus stamps its own endless duration on all that awaits us in the Better Land! (Dr. Ide.)
The vision of the truth
I. Now here is seen the value of Christian principle. The Man of Sorrows is on His march for the morning; for the principles of the passion place you on the track of the dawn.
II. These principles are powers of guidance in three important–nay, momentous–questions of conduct.
1. What is seriously necessary for any soul in order, in its mortal journey, to be useful and happy? The answer is–Not to live at random, but to have an object in life.
2. What is to be my view of the world? What is the attitude of the soul of the Christian towards the mass of mankind? The optimist views it all through the medium of a rose-coloured dream. All is going onward as merry as a marriage-bell. The only objection is–theories do not alter human suffering, and to this theory facts do not square. It is impossible here reasonably to deny the darkness. It is true it is blessed to remember there shall be no night there.
3. There is here a revelation of the future. The eternal city is in fact the working out of the twofold Divine benediction. It is the completion and beatified result of purified characters. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, and Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered. This is the glorious end of innocence and penitence. The breaking of the dawn! It is coming, there is a land of brightness after darkness; amid all sorrow hope will yet have its triumph: there shall be no night there!
III. Night here, however. Why? From the absence of the sun: from the accumulation of the clouds.
1. There is sin. Wills opposed to the will of changeless goodness: wills almost fixed in evil–eyes from which all vision of brightness seems gone: hearts which seem to keep no trace of pity. Ah me!–a ruined soul, or a soul on the road to ruin, how terrible! To be growing worse instead of better: to be losing foothold, not climbing boldly on. Soul of a sinner! Pause, think twice. It is hard to imagine deliverance: hard to believe at times that Gods grace, that fresh breezes from the heavenly courts, can disperse such clouds, but it is true. Look up, march eastward; repent, cry for help, take heart; though the path be rough it is the path of the Holy Passion. The city of the saints is the land of the sunlight. There shall be no night there.
2. There is sorrow. Ah! who has ever read, who can ever read, the mystery of tears? But there it is. There is a home where no sorrow enters–there dwelleth no evil, there is no night there.
3. There is death. However it be lightened by the faith of a Christian, what thinking mind can fail to acknowledge there is the solemnity of night about the grave? Well, the dawn of eternity shall break, and death itself shall die.
IV. There are many difficulties, many sorrows; yet are there not some alleviations? Life is never altogether darkness When it is illuminated by hope. Look upward, take courage, never allow the cowardice of permanent despondency, or the blasphemy of final despair. Trust God. Surely even here are streaks in the darkness. There are quiet hours of rest and blessing; such a converse with a dear friend; such a happy day of pleasure; such evidence that the sun is there, though veiled by the vapour; such approaches of the daylight; such streaks of the dawn. To repent, heartily, manfully, thoroughly, when you have sinned; to receive trial and sorrow with loving submission, and willingly to taste the sweet uses of adversity; to love goodness, truth, duty, God in Christ, and by the power, the moral power of love, to help and make men better–this, this, surely, whatever happens, is to plant your feet firmly on the track of the dawn.
V. What about the future? Well, John assures us that there lies before us something beyond all words happy, which he can only convey to us by speaking of it as a city. Remember that in that city you will find the result of your toil and the end of your journey. (Canon Knox Little.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 25. The gates of it shall not be shut at all] The Christian Church shall ever stand open to receive sinners of all sorts, degrees, and nations.
There shall be no night there.] No more idolatry, no intellectual darkness; the Scriptures shall be everywhere read, the pure word everywhere preached, and the Spirit of God shall shine and work in every heart.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: the reason of shutting a citys gates, is either to shut out enemies, or to keep in such as are within: there will be no need of shutting these gates on either of these accounts; there will be no enemies to fear, and those that are within this city will have no need nor desire to go out.
For there shall be no night there: we do not ordinarily shut our city gates by day, but there shall be nothing but day, no night in a natural or metaphorical sense.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
25. not be shut . . . bydaytherefore shall never be shut: for it shall alwaysbe day. Gates are usually shut by night: but in it shall be no night.There shall be continual free ingress into it, so as that all whichis blessed and glorious may continually be brought into it. So in themillennial type.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day,…. Which does not design the free communication between the living saints on the new earth, and the raised ones in the new heaven, as some have thought, for these shall be together, and make up one body; but rather the universal collection, and free admission of all the saints from all parts into this city; though it seems best to interpret it of the safety of the inhabitants, see Jer 49:31 who will have no enemy to fear, and therefore need never shut their gates; the beast and false prophet will have been taken, and cast into the lake of fire long ago; ungodly men will be destroyed in the general conflagration, and Satan will be bound in the bottomless pit during the thousand years:
for there shall be no night there; this is a reason given why it is before said the gates shall not be shut by day, since it is unusual to shut gates in the day, unless in time of war, because there will be no night in this city, and so no need of ever shutting the gates; the night time being the season for thieves and robbers, and for enemies to make their incursions, and to surprise: but here will be no night; either literally, times and seasons, as measured by the revolutions of the sun and moon, will be no more, they will not have the use they have; at least this city will stand in no need of them. The Jews say c, that the world to come will be , “all day”: or mystically and figuratively, there will be no night of spiritual darkness and desertion, of drowsiness, sleepiness, and inactivity, of error and heresy, or of calamity and distress of any kind; all which are sometimes signified by night in Scripture; see So 3:1
Isa 26:9.
c Bereshit Rabba, sect. 91. fol. 79. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Shall in no wise be shut ( ). Double negative with the first aorist passive subjunctive of .
By day (). Genitive of time. Mentioned alone without (by night), “for there shall be no night there” ( ). This looks like a continued picture of heaven.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1 ) “And the gates of it,” (kai hoi pulones autes) “And the gates of the city; The gates of the New Jerusalem where God the Father and the Lamb are the light and Temple of the Holy City, the gates of Pearl on which the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are inscribed, Rev 21:12; Rev 21:21-23.
2) “Shall not be shut at all by day,” (ou me kleisthosin hemeras) “May by no means be shut by day,” at the close of day, as in ancient walled cities. They shall not be closed by day or by night, for there shall be no thieves, no enemies to maraude or destroy, Isa 60:11. Demons, Satan, and evil men will not need to be shut out for they will have already been shut up in hell, the Lake of fire and brimstone, Rev 21:13-15.
3) “For there shall be no night there,” (nuks gar ouk estai ekei) “For the reason there shall not be (or exist) night at all there; no darkness, danger, or death shall be there for the Lord has become at this time the everlasting light, Isa 60:20; Rev 21:23; Rev 22:5; Zec 14:7.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(25, 26) And the gates of it . . .Better, And the gates (or, gate-towers) shall never be shut by day, for night shall not be there. The gates shall never be shut: all day they shall be open, and that day shall be for ever, for there shall be no night there. All that darkensthe sin that brings night on the soul; the sorrow that brings night on the heartshall be banished for ever. In peace by day, the city gates will be open; nor can there be night when God the Almighty is the Sun. (Comp. Isa. 60:11; Eze. 38:11.) Through its open gates they (i.e., men) will bring the glory and honour of the nations into her. As men find that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and that their strength is in Christ, without whom they can do nothing, so will their lives bring back to Him the lustre of all their achievements.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. The twelve pearl gates or doors, each three approachable from the four points of compass, shall never be shut. The twice twelve tribal nations shall ever find it day, and ever find open gates. The gates of gospel grace are ever open here on earth, the gates of the New Jerusalem shall ever be open to the dwellers of the heavenly earth.
For Reason for mentioning day only, there shall be no night. The divine glory never remits, never dims. No revolving of the orb renders the opposite hemisphere dark. No north pole caps the arctic with ice. No glaciers chill the air, no night-shade broods with malaria, or spreads her cover over crime. Here we may read into this description the beautiful passage, Rev 7:14-17. See our notes there.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
Ver. 25. For there shall be no night there ] And so no need to fear a sudden surprise by the enemy watching his opportunity. Their day above is , a nightless day, as a Father calls it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
. . . “for no night (when even in peace they would be shut, Neh 13:19 ) shall be there”.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
not . . . at all. App-105.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the gates: Isa 60:11
for: Rev 22:5, Isa 60:20, Zec 14:7
Reciprocal: Jos 2:5 – of shutting Eze 48:31 – General Rev 21:12 – twelve gates
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE NIGHT PASSED
There shall be no night there.
Rev 21:25
What does darkness stand for? Of what is it often spoken of as a type?
I. Darkness is the equivalent of uncertainty.Only when we see no more through a glass darkly, but face to face, only when the great enigma has been solved, shall we know even as we are known. And that is what St. John meant as he gazed upon the heavenly city, New Jerusalem, into which the kings of the earth had brought their honour and glory. There was no more uncertainty, no more of those trials of doubt and perplexity which beset us here. All was bright and radiant in the light which was no more attended by any shadow, because the shadows had every one been dispelled. There was no night there.
II. Darkness is suggestive of isolation.In the night the faces of our fellow-creatures are withdrawn for a while, and all familiar objects are hidden.
III. Darkness is suggestive of weariness.It is to recruit our weariness that gentle Night steals down and covers us with her mantle of forgetfulness and soothes all our powers to rest. But there will be no scope for this loving office of the night in that blessed home where weariness will be impossible, where work will be pure joy, because the glorified body, in which we hope to serve our God in ways which He will unfold to us there, will have left all weariness behind.
Rev. W. H. Savile.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Rev 21:25. The gates shall not be shut at all by day (or day by day). This also is based upon the practice of ancient cities closing their gates at the approach of night (Jos 2:5). John says there will not be any need for such a performance, for there shall be no night there. It is his way of emphasizing the absence of night, for there will be no enemy who could enter the city any way.
Rev 21:26. This is the same as verse 24.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verses 25-26.
In verses twenty-five and twenty-six the vision represented the gates of city as being always open: for there shall be no night there. The gates of the ancient cities were closed at night, and there was no admission to strangers without the city. But the gates of New Jerusalem should not be shut at all by day, therefore entrance to the city was always accessible. The vision was based on the destruction of the beasts of persecution which had been cast into the brimstone lake, and there were no eneHag 2:7 maining to threaten the citizenry of the city. In the period of persecution the church had been hindered in the propagation and the proclamation of the gospel, but the nRev 21:27 ribulation had ended. The figure was related to the motion of the globe in orbit; its diurnal revolution causes the daily and annual changes in the sun which produce the alternation of light and darkness. But spiritually there would be no such rotation, for the night of the tribulation had come to end; there was no longer the hindering power of the heathen persecutors in the spreading of the light of the gospel–the darkness had been dispelled and the day had dawned for the church. It can be seen again that the literal application of these figures of speech would demolish the beauty of the vision as well as its truth in the spiritual application of the symbols.
In the twenty-sixth verse the Seer saw the Gentile world entering into the church through its open gates under the world-wide commission: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations; and, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mat 28:19; Mar 16:15) And the stipulated terms upon which men of all nations should enter into the spiritual refuge of the city of the Lamb are included in the commands of the commission itself: He that believeth (the gospel) and is baptized shall be saved; and, Baptizing them in (into) the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Spirit).
The vision represented the inclusion of the nations among the blessed saved in the church. The glory and honor of the nations, of verse twenty-six, as in verse twenty-four, referred to the conversion and Christianization of the heathen world. ThRevelation 22 he vision representRev 22:1-5 esRev 22:1 would still be kings is yet another indication that it was not a vision of heaven. It meant that the heathen would find their way out of the darkness of paganism into the light of Christianity under the sway of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The New Jerusalem would co-exist with the nations as “all nations flow unto it”; and accept Him who came to fulfill “the desire of all nations” (Hag 2:7) for the glory of God. The kings of the earth contributed to His glory in the conversion of the people of their nations to the Christ of this apocalypse.
Joh 14:21:27
Rev 21:27. The evils named have been fully described previously, but I will cite the remarks at verse 8 about liars. Those whose names are in the book of life is explained at chapter 20:1Co 15:28 ents by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 27.
The pristine purity of the church of the Lamb was pictured in verse twenty-seven of the chapter: And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
These terms and phrases and words describe the whole category of the moral and spiritual corruption of heathendom. The first chapter of Romans is an inspired commentary on the depths of degradation into which Luk 8:1 tLuk 8:10 d Mar 1:15 enJoh 3:5 sJoh 18:36 esCol 1:13, said Paul, “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” But these impurities of heathenism could gain no admission or entrance into the realm of the Lamb’s Bride. The defiled could not enter, because the goRev 22:2 oved all moral defilement. The paganistic abominations could not enter, for the gospel separated from all heathen idolatry. The deceivGen 2:10 making a lie had seduced the inhabitants of the earth into emperor-worship could not enter, for the gospel destroyed the doctrines of antichrist. Wherefore, only theRev 22:2 are written in the Lamb’s book of life– whose names were entered into the registry of the New Jerusalem by “doing his commandments” could “enter in through the gates into the city.”
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 21:25. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day; for there shall be no night there. The design of the words is to set forth the perfect peace and security of the inhabitants of the heavenly city. How often had the gates of an ancient city to be closed, always by night, often by day! How often had measures of precaution to be taken against apprehended danger! Here there is no danger, no apprehension, no enemy to approach the gate, but happiness perfect and for ever undisturbed. The explanation of the last clause of the verse, beginning as it does with the word for, has afforded some cause of perplexity to interpreters. Yet the explanation generally given is satisfactory. In Isa 60:11 the prophet, speaking of the future city of God, had said, Thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night. St. John is referring to that passage, but he could not adopt it as it stood, and he would explain why he stopped short at the word day of the prophet He could not bring the thought of night into connection with the New Jerusalem, for there was no night there. There may have been something more in his thoughts. We know from Joh 13:30 the symbolical meaning which he attached to the word night It was night when Judas went out upon his errand of treachery and crime. The first clause of the verse contains the emblem of security and peace. The second assigns the reason why these shall continue undisturbed. There shall be no night there, no darkness either physical or moral, neither men nor deeds that shun the light.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
All of the Lamb’s enemies have been overthrown so there is no need to close the gates. The night hours have long been feared by good people because thieves and foreign armies have used its darkness to cover their evil deeds. In heaven, there will be no darkness nor evil deeds. Righteous people will bring God all the praise and honor they have received as his servants.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Verse 25
By day; meaning the whole day, of twenty-four hours.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
In John’s day cities closed their gates to keep enemies out, but there will be no enemies in the eternal state so the gates will remain open (cf. Isa 60:11). John said the city gates will never ever close (Gr. ou me kleisthosin). These kings, therefore, may enter whenever they wish. There will be no night in the New Jerusalem because God’s glory illuminates all.