Revelation 3:3

Memory again the lever for repentance (as at Revelation 2:5); εἴληφας aoristic pf. (cf. Revelation 5:7, Burton 88) rather than pf. of existing result (Weiss, Bs.); πῶς = our colloquial “how” (practically equivalent to “that”). The melancholy feature about contemporary indifference at S. was that it had a fine beginning behind it: yet this very circumstance afforded hopeful ground for an appeal. καὶ τήρει (the primitive deposit of the faith) καὶ (to secure this steadfast adherence) μετανόησον (aor., sharp and decisive act of repentance). As Revelation 3:4 (compared with Revelation 3:2) implies, positive stains were visible in the local church no less than sins of mere omission. Sardis and Laodicea, which apparently were the only members of this group untroubled by outside persecution or inward error, were the least satisfactory of all the seven, ἐὰν οὖν μὴ γρηγορήσῃς, although the need is so desperate (cf. below on Revelation 16:15). The sudden and signal visitation of punishment threatened in the following words (for ὥραν in acc. cf. Moult, i. 63, Abbott's Diat. 2013) is left vaguely impressive. It may be that (as in Jude 1:4; Jude 1:18, and 2 Peter) local libertinism meant a slackening of belief in the second Advent.