The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 103

aee through a gltl88, darkly: but then face and Sardis,. they requ1red no ntraneoua to face : now I know in pa.rt: but then sha.ll assistance to enable them to regain their I know even WI alao I 11m kno1Yn" (1 Cor. former prosperity. This fa.et undoubtedly xiii. 12). Vez. 18..,....-Re that bath an ear, let him explains the temptations to which the Lao- hear what the Spirit saith unto the 0hurehes diceans were liable, and the reference in "(.- on eh. ii .. 7). Of the condition of the ver. 16 to those who were neither cold nor -Ohurch in Philadelphia. we know nothing hot, and tha.t in ver. 17 .to those who eoid from Holy Writ, except wha.t is oontained they .were rich and had need of nothing in the passage before llB. But its compa.ra- ti?e immunity from trouble a.nd destruction, (see on vers.16, 17). The Christian Church and its continued existence to the present there may have been founded by Epophras, day- (see (!n vers. 7-13; "Philadelphia."), through whom St. Paul probahJy learned render it probable that the meSBage of the of the existence of false doctrine there (CoL apostle was not without some effect. Tims ii. 4, 8 e.nd i. 8), for the Epistle to the Coloa- Gibbon writes: "In the loBS of Ephesus the Christians deplored the -fa.ll of the first Bians seems to be equally addressed to the angel, the extinction of the first candle- La.odiceans (Col. iv. 16). The importance etiek, of the Revelation ; the desolation is of this Church oontinued for some time, the ClODlplete; and the Temple of Diana. or the celebrated Council of Laodicea being held Ohurch of Mary will equally elude the there in A.D. 361, and a century later its 88Srch of the curious -traveller. The circ118 bishop ht,ld a prominent position (Labbe, iv. and three Bf.e.tely theatres of Laodicea a.re now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sordia p. 82, etc.), But its influence gradually .is reduced to a miserable village; the God waned, and the Turks. prt•l!Sed hardly upon of Mahomet, without a rive.I or a Son, is it; so tha.t at the present time it wtittle mvoked in the mosques of Thye.tira a.nd more than a heap of ruins, The warnings Pergomos, and the populousness of Smyrna. of.the Apostles SS. Paul and John, if is support.ed by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenions. Philadelphia alone heeded a.t all for a time, were forgotieu, has been saved by FPhecy or oomage" and he·r candlestick w1111 1·emond. ('Decline and Fe.JI,' c);64. Ver. 14.-And uto the augel. Those ex• Vars. H-22.-ThB episfu w the OhlJA'M positors who .understand "the angel" of a in Laodicea. Laodicea, on the Lycus, a Church .to sig11ify its chie,f officer, may with some plausibility a.rgue that at Laodicea it. tributary of the · MlllBnder, lay some fifty seems e.Jmost certain that this was. Arehip- miles to the south-east of Philadelphia. pus. In his Epistle to Philemon, a, wealthy The modem Turkish name, EskihiBJlar, convert of Cofossre, St. Paul send if.greeting to aigniftes "the old castle." It is situated on Arohippus (Phi!em. 2). If Archippus were the western Bide of the valley of the Lycus, the son of Philemon, he might very well have been Bishop of Laodicea at the time on the opposite slopes of which, some six or of St. John's message. l\IoreoverJ. the son eig~t miles distant, were Hierapolis and of a wealthy and infiinential 1Jhristian. Colossie, with which it is 11.Bsociated by St though likely to have been selected 115 Pa.ul (Col. iv. 13, 16). Named at first Dios- bishop in the neighbouring Church, may polis, after its tutelary deity, Zeus, it sub- hove lacked the zeal necessary for the sequently became Rhoas, and finally thorough performo.n~ of his worlc; and would thus incur the marked rebuke of St. received its name from Antiochus II., in Paul, "Say to Archippus, Take heed to the honour of hie wife, Laodice. There were ministry which thou host received in the aeveral other cities of the same name, from Lord, tilat thou fulfil it" (Col. iv. 17), which which it was distinguished by the addition appears immediately after tqe mention of of _the words, " on the Lycu.s." It was a. tile Laodicean . Church,. 'l'he Apostolical Constitutiona also assert that Archippus wealthy city, its trade consisting chiefly in was first Bishop of Laodicea. Of the 0hureh the preparation of woollen materials. It of the Laodicea.Iis write; or, of the Ghu,•ch wa.s advantageously situated, too, on the i11 Laodioea (T,is l-11 Arwl'imeli, i1t1<A1J<Tfos) high road lea.ding from Ephesus into the These things &a.ith the Amen. 'fhe word interior. Though, in common with the other " Amen " is here used as a proper name of . our Lord; and this is the only_ inst ,nee of cities of Asia Minor, visited by earthquakes, such an application. It signifies the '' 'l'rue it quickly recovered; and it was the proud One." U is a. word much USLd in St. John's bout of the La.odiccan.e that, unlike Ephes11.11 Gospel, where i1 appeBl'!I repeatetl at tha cir. ni. 1-22,] THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DMNE. ms commencement of many dll!OOunea, "Verlly, reliant Laodioeans are thus directed t.o pi- verily." Iii 18&. hv. 16 "the God of Amen" their trust in -him who is the Source of all (ICM) i.e rendered in the LXX. by AA11ll1v,b; things, rather than in th086 created tlrlngii in the Authorized Vlll'!lion by "truth" (0£ of wliich he is the Creator: - the use of the Englieh " very" BB an adjec- Ver. 15.-1 know thy works; and beoaUM tive-" the oef'1/ one," i.e. the real or true they ar&not what thoy should. be (vers. 16, one). The term ill peculiarly weU adapted 17), I give thee this admonition, which ia to our Lord {who is the Truth, John xiv. 6), nevertheless a warning and a token of my not only aa a general name or title, but love (ver. 19). That thou: art neither 0014 especially in connexion with this solemn nor hot: I wonld tho11 wert eold or hot. announcement to the Laodiceans. There The lukew1nmneE1B of which the Epistle was great need of the truth being openly complains was produced by a fl!llaciollS proclaimed by him who ia the Truth to sense of secnrity, begotten of ease and those who. though nominally Christians, prospmity. In truth those " secure," with- were ensnared by the deceitfuln&• of riche, out care, had become tl1e careless ones.: (l'lfatt. xiii. 22), and were deceiving them- Active opposition may well be a less deadly 110lves in the attempt to make the best of evil than careless ease. The pe~cntion of both worlds by their lukewarm Christianity. a St. Paul may be diverted into the zeal of It was the purpose of this epistle to draw an apostle; but how can any active good be aside the veil which was hiding the truth got from· that which is utterly stagnant from their eyes, and to bring them to a and without motive power? The man who. realization of that most difficult of all know- by wilful action, increases a disease, may ledge-a knowledge of eelf. The faithful repent of his deed, aud try to recover from and true Witness-an ampliBcation of "the the danger to which he has exposed himself; Amen." The epithet" faithful" asserts the but he who lives on in careless ignorance truthfulness of Christ's work as a Witnees; ?f tl1e exi~noo of the malady can never "true" (<U.">16w&1) signifies" real and com- improve himself until he haa !\woke to a plete." He is a faitliful Witness. because his full knowledge of his own state. Some witness ie true; and he is a t"'6 Witness understand "cold" t.o mean "untouched by because in him is the complete realization the power of grace," and "lukewarm" to of all the qualifications which constitute denote those who, having received the grace any one really and truly a witness. "Faith. of God, had not allowed it full scope in ful" ('l'UJTOs) has the passive meaning of bringing forth works meet for repentance "that which ill worthy of faith,'' not the (Matt. iii. 8). And just as there was active meaning of "he who believes some- more hope of the real convemon of the thing." Trench well points out that Uod "cold" publicans and harlots, who "went can only be Jaitkful in the former sense ; into heaven" (Matt. :s:xi. 31) before the man may be/allk/td in both senses. Christ 1!0lf-satisfied," lukewarm" Pharisees, so there was a Witness worthy of faith, since he is more hope of an unconverted sinner than possessed all the attributes of sucli a wit- of him who, having once been roueed to • ness. He (1) had seen what he attested; sense of God's will, ha1 relapsed into a state (2) was competent to relate and reproduce of self-satisfied indolence and carcl088ness. this information: {S) was willing to·do this 'fhe sentence is not a wish that the Laodi- faithfully aud truly. The Beginning of the ceans should beoome hot or cold; ifi ie a Ol'eati.on of God. There are two ways in regret that they had not been one or the which these words might be und8l'lltood: other. Our Lord is not wishing that anr (I) that in which "beginning" is taken in of them may beoome cold, but regretting a 1188Bive sense, and which would therefore that, when he comes to review their conduct IWi.ke Christ the first created thing of all and to pronounce judgment, many of them the things which God m-eated ; (2) the cannot even plead that they " knew not the active sense, by which Christ is described way of righteousness," but belong to thaj; as the Beginner, the Author, Moving Prin- worse class," which after they hacl .known ciple or Source of all the things which God it, turned from the holy commandment created. That the latter meaning is the delivered unto them (2 Pet. ii. 21; &ee also true one is plain from the whole terior of John ix. 41). ~oly Scripture. The Arians, attempting to Ver, 16..:_So then because thou art lute- d1Sprove the Divinity of our Lord, quoted - warm, and neither cold no.r hot, I will apue this passage, attributing to it the former thee out of my mouth. The distaste and sense. But "-Pxfi is often used aatively, and nausea produced by lukewarm foud, which may well be so used here-a view which is the stomach naturally rejects with loathing, confirmed by the abundant evidence of our are used as a figure in which to expr,•ss thD Lord's Divinity found elsewhere in the abhorrence of Christ for those who lacked Bible, and nowhere more plainly aesertod zeal in his service ( cf. Lev, xviii. 28 and xx. tnan in the writings of St. John. The eelf- 22, .. That the land spue not you out also"). ne: THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN TH1!I DIVTh"'E. [cn. m. 1-22.