Philadelphia

“AND TO the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it; for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God: and I will write upon him My new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Rev.3:7-13).

City of Names
Philadelphia was located about twenty-eight miles south-east of Sardis. The city was founded in 189 BC by Attalus Philadelphus, after whom it was named. It was the youngest of the seven cities. Some believe that it was so named also because of the love and loyalty existing between Philadelphus and his brother, the king of Lydia. The city was also known as Decapolis, because it was one of the ten cities of the plain. It was sometimes called Little Athens because of the magnificence of its public buildings. Its modern Turkish name is Ala Shehr, which means The City of God or The Exalted City. In A.D.17 it was destroyed by earthquake, along with Sardis and other cities in that locality. Most of the others recovered quickly from the disaster, but the aftershocks continued for a number of years in Philadelphia, which resulted in the people having to flee often. Tiberius Caesar helped Philadelphia to recover from the earthquake, and out of gratitude the city changed its name to Neo-Caesarea (New Caesar), and for a while it bore that name. Philadelphia has thus been given a number of new names.

Philadelphia guarded and commanded an important pass through the mountains. It was thus the keeper of the key to the door, or gateway, to the eastern highlands, with the power to open and close according to the will of the officials. Through this portal passed the mail and trade and commerce of the west to the wide regions of central and eastern Lydia. The introduction of Christ in His epistle therefore had a forceful meaning to the Philadelphians. He reminded them of other and more important doors, to which He alone holds the key, with the power and authority to open and shut.

Exceptional Company
This message reveals the best spiritual condition of any of the seven ecclesias. The letter is addressed to a small but exceptional company who had remained faithful in the midst of a large number who had failed. The message indicates a commendable change for the better from the Sardis condition of spiritual deadness. To the Philadelphians had come a renewal of life and love and zeal, a resurrection from spiritual death, a return to the first love of the early Ephesian ecclesia. Suffering Smyrna and tried Philadelphia are the only two of the seven that received no rebuke.

The Philadelphians
The Philadelphian condition of brotherly love must prevail in the remnant who are to meet Christ when he returns. Love for the Brother always leads to love for the other brethren. This is the love that was lost during the Ephesian period. Those who escaped from the dominion of Jezebel and the spiritual deadness of Sardis, began to remember how they had received and heard, and repented.

In all the other letters, our Lord uses symbols to describe himself that come from the vision John had of him, recorded in chapter one. In this letter, however, Jesus makes no reference to that vision. To the Philadelphians Christ introduces Himself as He that is holy and He that is true. He is morally perfect. His character is without flaw or blemish. He is the true one, the one behind all that really exists. The Holy One of Israel is speaking to His people. The Head of ecclesia lays claim to divinity, and every word He speaks is true and dependable. His divinity is also proved by the fact that He has the key of David because He is the Son of David, with the right to occupy his throne. Christ holds the key to the house of David. He has the authority to open and close the heavenly kingdom and decide who can and who cannot enter. All must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Citizenship is possible only through Him.

The declaration that Christ has possession of the key of David, with the authority to open and shut, is a quotation of a Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 22:22. “And the key of the house of David will I lay upon His shoulder; so He shall open, and none shall shut; and He shall shut, and none shall open” (See also Lk.1:32,33). A key is the means of locking and unlocking doors, and is therefore a symbol of power and authority. Since the year 605 BC when Israel’s last independent king, Jehoiakim, was dethroned by Nebuchadnezzar, the house and throne room of David have been closed and locked. The throne of David will remain vacant until He come whose right it is (Ezek.21:23-27). The Philadelphian message indicates that the time is near when Christ, the Son of David, is about to take His rightful place on the long-unoccupied throne. We are told that this will take place at His Second coming (Matt.25:31-34). The door of the tomb, the keys of death and the grave are in the keeping of Him who is “the resurrection, and the life” (Rev. 1:18).

A Faithful Remnant
Some believe that Philadelphia not only means brotherly love but also faithful remnant. The Philadelphians constitute the faithful remnant. The statement, For thou hast a little strength, has been difficult to explain. It seems that the open door was set before them because they had a little strength, the only spiritual strength left in the ecclesias.; Sardis was wholly dead and powerless. Now God had found a people with a little strength. They had responded to the appeal to “be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain.” They were doubtless also conscious of their weakness, and therefore qualified to do service for Christ. They were not over-confident, like the Sardians, or self-satisfied, like the Laodiceans. Their little strength led them to rely on the Word and power of God. Some take the position that the reference has to do with their small numbers and material weakness. The former seems the more probable explanation. The first qualification for service in the cause of Christ is recognition of our spiritual poverty.

The promise that those who claimed to be Jews but were rather of the synagogue of Satan would be made to worship at the feet of the true Israelites and to know that God had loved them, was an even better promise than a similar one made to Smyrna. In the Smyrnean letter an assurance was given that the enemies of Christ would not prevail against the remnant. But here the promise is that the remnant would prevail against the enemies who made hypocritical pretensions of being Gods chosen people.

The Jews bitterly persecuted those of their nation who became Christians, and treated them as the outcasts of Israel. They were put out of the synagogue and excluded from the temple and its services and even from the city of Jerusalem, which had long been the city of God. Now the true Messiah, who has the authority to open and close the door into the fold of the true Israel, admits genuine Christians as the only true Jews, and excludes their opponents. He promises the persecuted Christians an entrance into the New Jerusalem, which He calls the city of My God, and from which they will go no more out. All will someday acknowledge that the love of Christ is centred on those who are Israelites indeed, the faithful of all nations.

Verse 10 pictures a crisis: “Because in spite of suffering you have guarded My word, I in turn will guard you from the hour of trial which is soon coming upon the whole world, to put to the test the inhabitants of the earth” (A.D.70?). It may be that this is still future, which fact is proof that the Philadelphian condition will be revived and continue to the very end. It seems that aspects of the last four (all seven?) of the seven ecclesias continue in some respects till the coming of Christ. Just before the end the ecclesia must pass through the crucible so as to separate the dross from the gold. Before Christ returns there must be a clear distinction between the ecclesia and the world, and this is made possible by a great crisis.

The distinction between true and false professors of religion is not always apparent at the present time. Malachi 3:2,3 pictures Christ as a silversmith refining and testing His people. The fiery trials of the furnace burn out the dross till He can see in them the reflection of His own image. The word of My patience doubtless includes the whole gospel, which is the teaching which finds its central truth in the patience of Christ. True Christians will be kept from falling, because they have kept His word. In Deuteronomy 4:34 the plagues of Egypt are called temptations. Those who keep the Word of Christ's patience during the last crisis will be kept from the seven last plagues. The language indicates that pressure will be used to compel Gods faithful remnant to let go their hold on His truth.

I Come Quickly
The statement “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown” indicates that the Second coming of Christ is at hand. This is the keynote of the book, the speedy coming of the Lord is the ever-recurring theme of this book. The language seems to indicate that the severe test will not be of long duration. The patient endurance of the saints will soon be rewarded, and in the brief interval they must hold fast that which they had received, till deliverance comes. The crowns of victory depend on the keeping of the Word of Christ's patience to the very end. There is no reward for those who quit.

The warning does not mean that one person gains the crown that another loses, as in an athletic contest. Paul wrote: “Let no man beguile you of your reward” (Col.2:18). The Greek and Roman athletes who gained crowns, or wreaths, of victory made every effort to keep others from taking them away from them in subsequent contests. The Christian must maintain his spiritual experience or lose his eternal reward.

The language of the text seems to indicate a delay of the second coming beyond the expectation of the ecclesia. In the parable the ten virgins, who are expecting the coming of the Bridegroom, all slumbered and slept while the bridegroom tarried (Matt.25:1-5).

This is the divinely indicated reason for the delay in the return of Christ that makes the admonition of our text necessary. Only those who patiently hold fast through the tarrying time will be saved and crowned with wreaths of victory. According to Hebrews 10:35-37, the word of my patience seems to have to do with the attitude of the ecclesia during the delay of his return. It is because of this delay that many cast away their confidence and lose their reward. They do not live and walk by faith but say in their hearts, “My Lord delayeth His coming,” which leads them to smite their fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken (Matt.24:48-51).The message is not to give up and go along with worldly attitudes and worldly pursuits. We must not allow a desire for status, prestige, fame, a beautiful home and the other things the world lusts for, to become central in our thinking.

The Promised Reward
The overcomer is to be made a permanent pillar in the temple of God, on which is to be inscribed the new name representing the character of God. The new home of the Christian victor is the New Jerusalem. In the New Testament the chief men in the ecclesia are called pillars, and all Christians are called living stones. It is the pillars that keep in place and uphold the multitude of lesser stones of a temple. A pillar is symbolic of dignity, beauty, permanence, stability, and strength. In Solomon's temple were two brazen pillars thirty feet in height, called Jachin, meaning He shall establish, and Boaz, In it is strength. The promise to the overcomer is that he shall be one of the great and beautiful pillars.

Just as the pillar cannot be moved as long as the building stands, so the victorious in the closing crisis shall go no more out of the temple of God. His triumph is permanent. He shall never go out from it again. God’s faithful remnant reach the high lands of holiness, so that they go triumphantly through the final day of test and trial. They have not been defiled by the corruptions of the world. They are clothed in the glorious apparel of Christ's righteousness, and their names are enrolled among the faithful of all ages in the Lambs book of life. Augustine said: Who would not yearn for that city out of which no friend departs, and into which no enemy enters.

Philadelphia was a city of many new names. When the city was destroyed by the great earthquake of A.D. 17, Tiberius gave $600,000 to help rebuild. In appreciation the citizens changed the name of the city to Neo-Ceasarea in honour of the donor, but when the emperor became a cruel tyrant, the Philadelphians became ashamed of the new name. During the reign of Vespasian the name was again changed, to Flavia, in his honour, as he was the first of the Flavian family to rule. These changes of name doubtless called for great celebrations of dedication, when the whole city worshipped the emperor in whose honour the new name was given. Such occasions brought an hour of trial to every Christian in the city.

The victors are called pillars, on which the character of God is written. Important writings were engraved on the pillars of the ancient temples, especially the names of the emperors who built them and to whom they were dedicated. In Apostolic days, pillars were erected to rulers and generals with testimonies of their accomplishments chiselled upon them. This was also true of the triumphal arches dedicated to victorious generals. The emperor who erected a temple was usually given divine honours and worshipped as a god. This meant persecution for those, who like the three Hebrew worthies, refused to bow the knee.

A new name is necessary for those who develop a new character. This is a renewal of the promise of Revelation 2:17. When Jacobs character was changed the Lord changed his name, for the purpose of a name is to describe the character. The New Jerusalem is the capital city of the renewed kingdom, on whose throne will sit the Son of David. The conqueror will be a citizen of that kingdom forever. In that city the names of all its citizens are enrolled (Heb.2:22, 23). With the name of God and the name of the city of God written on the overcomer, the gates of hell shall not prevail to keep him from reaching the promised destination.