Verse 20
20. Behold The apparently broken connexion between this and the former verses of this address will be restored, if we consider the verse as a quotation from Solomon’s Song, Song of Solomon 5:2-6. The Church of Laodicea is represented by the sleepy bride at whose door the bridegroom knocks, but she is so remiss that she opens the door too late, for he is gone. She says, “It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my love; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.” The allusion shows to Laodicea the love between the Saviour and the Church, but the fearful danger of a deferred welcome to him.
I stand at the door, and knock There is a wonderful pathos in the picture. It is the supplicator Christ. It is night, and the darkness and damps are falling upon him. He is rejected by the sons of men almost the entire world round, and comes for admission at the door of one who professes to love him.
If any man Of the Laodicean Church immediately, of the whole world inferentially.
Open the door For, though Lord of all power, he will never force the door open. There is a solemn if which every man must decide for himself.
I will God’s will is to knock; and if man’s will is to open, then comes Christ’s will to come in.
Sup The evening dinner, as we may say; the principal meal of the day.
With him As his guest.
He with me As my guest; I being truly his host. And, continuing the reference to Solomon’s Song, this is the supper of Christ and his bride, the Church; the marriage supper of the Lamb, which is symbolically ever repeating itself here, but plenarily consummated at the resurrection of the just. Note 19.
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