Revelation 3:5

Thou hast a few names even in Sardis {3} which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in {4} white: for they are {d} worthy. (3) That is, who have with all religion guarded themselves from sin and moral corruption, even from the very show of evil; Jude 1:23. (4) Pure from all spot, and shining with glory. So it is to be understood always hereafter, as in Re 3:5. (d) They are suitable and proper, that is, because they are justified in Christ, as they have truly showed it: for he who acts righteously is righteous in the same way that a tree bears good fruit; Ro 8:18.

Revelation 3:5-6 . He that overcometh — That is finally victorious over his spiritual enemies; shall be clothed in white raiment — In the habit of victory, joy, and triumph; and I will not blot his name out of the book of life — Like that of the angel of the church at Sardis. See on Php 4:3 ; Daniel 12:1 . This passage plainly implies, that some names shall be blotted out from the book of life: that is, some who, in consequence of their adoption and regeneration, were entitled to and fitted for eternal life, shall, through falling from grace, lose these blessings, and come again under guilt, condemnation, and wrath. But I will confess his name — Who overcomes to the end, as one of my faithful servants and soldiers; before my Father — In the great day of decisive judgment: and as he was enrolled among my believing, loving, and obedient people, he shall continue for ever in their number. He that hath an ear, &c. — Let everyone that hears this be animated by so glorious a hope to exert his utmost efforts in this holy and honourable warfare.

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; he that overcometh in the spiritual fight, shall be honoured as a triumpher. And I will not blot out his name out of the book of life; that is, I will give him everlasting life: the phrase is an allusion to men who use to keep books, and in them the names of persons to whom they will show kindness. The book of life; applied to God, signifieth his eternal predestination, or purpose to bring some to heaven; out of which book, though none can be blotted out whose name is once wrote in, yet those whose names are in this book may be under some fears and apprehensions to the contrary. Christ assures them to the contrary, that they shall certainly be saved, but lets them know that this assurance depends upon their perseverance; of which also some make this phrase a promise. But I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels; in the day of judgment I will own them, and acknowledge them as mine before my Father and all the angels, Matthew 10:32 Luke 12:8 .

5 . the same shall be clothed ] Read, shall thus be clothed . Perhaps the sense is not so much “thus, as I have promised to the holy remnant in Sardis,” but “thus as I am now.” The colour of Christ’s priestly robe ( Revelation 1:13 ) was not stated (and see Pseudo-Barnabas, there quoted) but we are probably to understand that it was white, cf. Daniel 7:9 . I will not blot out his name ] See Exodus 32:32 sq. (which it seems hard to tone down into meaning no more than 1 Kings 19:4 : compare rather Romans 9:3 ), Psalm 69:29 (28) (which can more easily be taken in the milder sense), and Daniel 12:1 . The image seems to be, that everyone on professing himself Christ’s soldier and servant has his name entered in the Book of Life, as on an army list or census-roll of the kingdom. It remains there during the time of his probation or warfare, even if, while he has thus “a name that he liveth,” he is dead in sin: but if he die the second death it will be blotted out—if he overcome, it will remain for ever. See Revelation 20:12 ; Revelation 20:15 . I will confess ] A repetition of Matthew 10:32 .

Revelation V. - THE VICTOR’S LIFE-ROBE Revelation 3:5 . The brightest examples of earnest Christianity are generally found amidst widespread indifference. If a man does not yield to the prevailing tone, it is likely to quicken him into strong opposition. So it was in this Church of Sardis. It was dead. That was the summing up of its condition. It had a name to live, and the name only made the real deadness more complete. But there were exceptions: souls ablaze with Divine love, who in the midst of corruption had kept their robes clean, and whom Christ’s own voice declared to be worthy to walk with Him in white. That great eulogium, which immediately precedes our text, is referred to in the first of its triple promises; as is even more distinctly seen if we read our text as the Revised Version does: ‘He that overcometh, the same shall thus be clothed in white raiment’; the ‘thus ‘pointing back to the preceding words, and widening the promise to the faithful few in Sardis so as to extend to all victors in all Churches throughout all time. Now the remaining two clauses of our text also seem to be coloured by the preceding parts of this letter. We read in it, ‘Thou hast a name that thou livest’; and again, ‘Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.’ Our text catches up the word, and moulds its promises accordingly. One is more negative, the other more positive; both link on to a whole series of Scriptural representations.

Now all these declarations of the blessedness of the victors are, of course, intensely symbolical, and we can but partially translate them. I simply seek now to take them as they stand, and to try to grasp at least some part of the dim but certain hopes which they partly reveal and partly hide. There are, then, three things here. I. The victor’s robes. ‘He that overcometh, the same shall {thus} be clothed in white raiment.’ White, of course, is the festal colour. But it is more than that: it is the heavenly colour. In this book we read of white thrones, white horses, hairs ‘white as snow,’ white stones. But we are to notice that the word here employed does not merely mean a dead whiteness, which is the absence of colour, but a lustrous and glistering white, like that of snow smitten by sunshine, or like that which dazzled the eyes of the three on the Mount of Transfiguration, when they saw the robes of the glorified Christ ‘whitened as no fuller on earth could white them.’ So that we are to associate with this metaphor, not only the thoughts of purity, festal joy, victory, but likewise the thought of lustrous glory. Then the question arises, can we translate that metaphor of the robe into anything that will come closer to the fact? Now I may remind you that this figure runs through the whole of Scripture.