Revelation 3:1

V. SARDIS. The Church of deadness, with a few spotless names, Revelation 3:1-6.

1. Sardis Thirty miles to the southeast from Thyatira, crossing the river Hermus, would bring our St. John, in his apostolic circuit, to the renowned city of Sardis. He would find it situated between the Hermus and the mountain range of Tmolus. Into the Hermus flows the small river Pactolus, from whose “golden sands” it was anciently reported that Croesus largely derived his riches. But Brewer remarks that the sands are sparkling with grains of mica, and suspects that what so glittered in ancient times was not “all gold.” Croesus, he thinks, drew his wealth from the rich alluvium of Hermus, rather than from the “fool’s gold” of the Pactolus.

The renown of Sardis was at its zenith under Croesus, who was king of all Lydia, by descent from an ancient line. From the record of his wealth we still utter the proverb, “rich as Croesus.” Celebrated, also, is the visit to his court of Solon, the Athenian philosopher and statesman. Of him Croesus asked whom he considered the happiest of men, expecting himself to be named. But Solon gave him answer, remembered by him on his dying day, that none could be pronounced truly happy until he had finished his course of life. Celebrated, too, is the ambiguity of the oracle by which he was deceived to his ruin. When he asked the god if he should fight Cyrus, he was told that if he crossed the river Halys in war he would destroy a great empire. He crossed, to find that the great empire to be destroyed was not that of Cyrus, but his own. Overcome by Cyrus, Lydia and all western Asia fell under the power of the Persians. For some centuries after, the richness of its soil retained its existence as a city, but at the present time it is a profound solitude. “Rarely,” says Svoboda, “can the site of any ancient city so impress the traveller with a sense of astonishment at its stupendous desolation, as does the aspect of Sardis at the present day. Once… its splendour gained for it the title of the Queen of Asia… Here, indeed, all must acknowledge that the prophecy of the Apocalypse has been fulfilled to the letter.” About seventy years after the publication of this Apocalypse, one of the brightest ornaments of the Christian Church was Melito, Bishop of Sardis. He was eminent for piety, learning, and talent; and his writings, some of which are still extant, are wonderful for the variety of subjects discussed by his active mind. They treated, among other things, upon faith, Easter, the first day of the week, the soul and body, the birth of Christ, the incarnation, and Satan. And it is here to be specially noted, that, severe as this letter to this Angel of Sardis is, Melito wrote a comment upon this Apocalypse, not now extant, but unquestionably accepting it as the work of our apostle John.

Hath the seven spirits of God The two ascriptions here claimed by the Lord are appropriated from John’s descriptions in Revelation 1:4-16. The Holy Spirit in its sevenfoldness in him dwells, and the sevenfold Churches, searched, judged, sanctified, or rejected by that Spirit, are in his hand. This is a most solemn awakening style and title with which the epistle to the dead Churches is preluded. And the sevenfoldness, both of the Spirit and the Churches, suggests that all Churches are here typically represented.

I know With all the intensity, omniscience, and purity of the Spirit.

I know thy works External and internal.

Hast a name The word name is thrice used in this epistle. Perhaps the last of the three (Revelation 3:5) explains the first two, the written name. The metaphor of Revelation 3:5 is drawn from the register-book of cities, in which every citizen’s name was written, and erased at his death or disfranchisement for crime. The Sardian angel, implying also his Church, had a recorded name among the Churches, and that implied life; and yet they were dead. Yet this dead did not mean the fulness of death, but deadness, lifelessness, which, was rapidly becoming death. This is implied in the next verse; for there were some things ready to die, and there was supposed life enough to strengthen and re-enliven them. And it is to this revival of life that the promise of not being blotted out, in Revelation 3:5, is given.