'Rev 3:1-6

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Letter to Sardis (Rev 3:1-6)

The church in Sardis had so much followed the ways of the society around it that it was Christian in name only. Spiritually it was dead (Rev 3:1).

The Lord of the church can give it new life through the Spirit (see Rev 3:1; cf. 1:4,20), but first the believers must wake up, change their ways, and determine to follow the teaching of the gospel they first believed. If not, swift judgment will fall upon them (Rev 3:2-3).

Some in the church had proved the genuineness of their faith by refusing to alter their beliefs or behaviour to suit the majority. They had ‘kept their clothes clean’. They will therefore join Christ in heaven in ‘clothes’ of greater purity; for he himself has cleansed them, made them his own and brought them into his heavenly Father’s presence (Rev 3:4-6).