To Sardis and Philadelphia
Day 699, Saturday, July 11
Revelation 3:1-13
To the church in Sardis
Sardis is the first of these letters that does not start with words of commendation. John quickly gets to the heart of the complaint: “you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.”
This is more than just a matter of not judging the book by its cover. It is a reminder that God sees beyond the surface, and that gaining human approval is different from gaining God’s approval.
As a church it is tempting to look jealously at other churches that have overflowing parking lots and massive buildings. But shiny buildings and popular programs aren’t the things God measures by. He looks at the heart and at the fruit.
Sardis is warned, “But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.”
This is followed by the assurance that God will not condemn the faithful for the failings of the unfaithful. Those who have not fallen away still have their name in the book of life.
To the church in Philadelphia
The words to this church are positive. “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.”
In verse 8 we read words that are uncharacteristically gentle for Revelation: “I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”
There is a promise in verse 12, “The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God.” Revelation was written after the destruction of the temple and all of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, so the reader would have understood this as referring to a new temple yet to come. As in several other verses in the New Testament, the new temple will be built not with great stones, but with the faithfulness of God’s people.

Saturday meditation

Ecclesiastes 7:19-25
Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful than ten rulers in a city.
Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.
Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you—for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others.
All this I tested by wisdom and I said, “I am determined to be wise”—but this was beyond me. Whatever exists is far off and most profound—who can discover it? So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.

Prayer focus
Grant us strength to endure, and save us from the hour of trial.

-Rev. Mark Fleming