Revelation 18:4

Revelation 18:4. A new stage in the drama opens. Another voice out of heaven is heard, saying, Come forth out of her, my people, that ye may have no communion with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. The voice is that of an angel although, as coming out of heaven, we are to hear in it the voice of God or of Christ; and hence the use of the word ‘My' before ‘people.' It is a summons to God's people to depart out of Babylon, and there are many parallels both in the Old and in the New Testament, Genesis 19:15-22; Numbers 16:23-26; Isaiah 48:20; Isaiah 52:11; Jeremiah 51:6; Jeremiah 51:45; Matthew 24:16. Two reasons are assigned for this departure; first, that God's people may have no communion with the sins of Babylon, and secondly, that they may escape participation in her punishment. As to the former, it does not seem necessary to think that they were in danger of being betrayed into sin; were they not all sealed ones? But it was well for them to be delivered even from the very presence of sin, and from the judgments that follow it (comp. 2 Peter 2:7-9).