PHILADELPHIA

^[p. 512] PHILADELPHIA

I have been interested, in studying the addresses to the seven churches in Asia (Revelation 2 and 3), by observing the features of a remnant character which are apparent in Philadelphia. By a remnant character I mean something which bears all the traits of the whole, without assuming to be the whole, hence in Philadelphia one can notice the way in which the true attitude of the assembly is represented before the Lord, so that what is said in regard to that assembly should be that which is properly characteristic of the church as Christ’s bride.

One can understand that it is grateful to the Lord that at the close of the church’s history on earth there should be a company of saints, who, recognising the church’s place and relation to Christ, seek without ecclesiastical pretension or assumption to stand morally in the truth of the assembly, and thus to answer to Christ’s mind.

To make the point clear it may be observed that Thyatira closes the connection of Christ with the church viewed as a whole on earth. It is strictly the last in the succession of the assemblies, and hence in the opening the Lord is brought in — as “Son of God” according to Psalm 2, and, in the promise to the overcomer, we are carried to the thought of authority over the nations. The kingdom is in view. The three remaining churches picture to us certain collateral moral states which are owned by the Lord, but no one of them stands in any outward or ecclesiastical sense for the church as a whole.

To Sardis, Christ is distant, and the state is such that He warns her that, except she repent, He will come on her, as on the world, as a thief in the night. Laodicea, with its pretension and self-sufficiency,

^[p. 513] presents a state which is nauseous to Christ, and she is about to be spued out of His mouth.

In Philadelphia the case is wholly different. Philadelphia is not marked, as is Laodicea, by any peculiar character or assumption, but by features which are properly characteristic of the bride, and it is in this that the remnant character is seen. It has the features of the original. “Thou ... hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name”. “Thou hast kept the word of my patience”.

All that is of Christ was cherished, this is the mark of the church in its true place. Christ’s word is the expression of Himself. He is absolutely that which He says. This is kept. His name is that which is set forth in Him, and this is not denied. His patience is the abnegation for the moment of His rights, and the word of this is kept. All this is proper to the church, showing how completely she is in concert with the One who is her absorbing object.

On the other hand Christ can say, “I have loved thee”, and “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”. Such words have their application not to any select company, however faithful, but are the expression of affection to the church which Christ loved and for which He gave Himself.

The more saints are consciously in the truth of the church, the less disposed will they be to assume exclusively the place of the church, but they will esteem it a great privilege to be holding to the truth of the church as morally representative of the church, and ever remembering that it is the Spirit and the bride that say, “Come!”