Revelation 3:1

Revelation 3:1. First, as in each previous case, we have a description of Him from whom the message comes, He that hath the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars (cp. Revelation 1:4; Revelation 1:16). The description is different from that of chap Revelation 2:1, where the Lord is described as ‘holding fast the seven stars in His right hand.' There He holds them fast for their protection: here they are simply spoken of as His possession. He is their Lord, and they ought to worship Him. The fact that He has also the ‘seven Spirits of God,' or in other words, the Holy Spirit in His fulness, is on the one hand a proof of the doctrine of the Western Church on the relation of the Holy Spirit to our Lord, while on the other hand it also points to the true and spiritual nature of the service which He requires. They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. This last is precisely what the church at Sardis failed to do. To the world she seemed a star, but He who, as having the Spirit without measure, has the stars also, knew that she was not what she seemed to be.

That thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead. These words denote more than that Sardis was dead while she lived. She had a name, a prominent, famous name, a name of which the whole connection shows us that she boasted. The thought of this name was her ruin: ‘Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.' More than this; let a prosperous church, a church commanding the high places of the earth, a church no more persecuted, but at ease in the enjoyment of her privileges, the admiration of multitudes, an object of attention to the world, let such a church remember that the outward is not the inward, and that power and splendour of position have no value in the sight of Heaven compared with spirituality of heart and life.