60 REVELATION 3 to correct. Neither was there any mention of opposition or persecution. Could it be that they had correct doctrine and form, but no obedience to the commands? Reflection: How do churches get a reputation for being “alive?” How could you have such a reputation yet be “dead?”
THE REBUKE …but you are dead. 3:1c Christ cut their self-pride short by declaring that they were actually “dead.” They had a façade of being alive, but nothing was genuine. Like the Pharisees (Matt 23:27-28) they were more interested in appearances than reality or like the surprised “Christians” in Mat 7:21-22 who supposedly could do miracles, healings and other marvels, but never even knew Christ personally. The unsaved in Sardis evidently saw the church as a respectable group of people who caused few problems, but they were neither dangerous to the status quo nor desirable as a unique religion. Reflection: How could people come into the church and not be saved? Are people who think they have to be good to get into heaven genuinely saved?
THE EXHORTATION
3:2-3
Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. 3 “Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent... 3:2a As a group or church they were exhorted to “wake up” and to “strengthen” what little of a genuine spiritual life that they shared, but even that was about to die. Sounds like the same problem in Rome as Paul wrote earlier in Romans 13:11, “Knowing the time, that now is high time to awake out of sleep…”. Historically, twice in its history, Sardis had been captured, and each time it was because the sentries had failed to warn the city of impending attacks. A similar expression is seen in churches that grow accustomed to their blessings, complacent about their individual personal ministries, proud of their formalism, or suffer gradual shifts in doctrine as the enemy infiltrates in the