Revelation 1:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Glory is fitting for Him, he says, who through love loosed us from the bonds of death. By the pouring forth of His Life-giving Blood and water, He washed us from sinful defilements.

He made us a royal priesthood, offering to the Father a living sacrifice, the rational service in place of irrational sacrifices.

Since the King of kings and heavenly Priest united us to His body by offering Himself for us, none of the saints is excluded from the spiritual service of the priesthood.

For all are members of the body of the eternal Priest.

Nothing good can be done without grace and peace of soul. The seven spirits signify the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. In the prophet Isaiah this Spirit, resting upon the rod from the root of Jesse, is also described sevenfold: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,” that is, upon the rod from the root of Jesse, “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and piety” (Isa 11:2). The number seven appears here as mysterious and highly significant. Although there were many churches in the world, John sent epistles to only seven of them, signifying in the sevenfold number the mystical destiny of the whole Church.

“He has made us kings and priests to His God and Father.” Being Himself the firstborn in all things and having received royal and priestly rights from God the Father, Jesus Christ communicates this authority and these rights to all who believe in Him. He makes them sons of God (Jn 1:12) and the first fruits of God’s creatures (Jas 1:18). Already in the Old Testament (Ex 19:6), God wished to make the chosen people a royal priesthood, or a kingdom of priests. This means the best and holiest people, who were to serve other nations as a priest serves other people. But what the people of Israel were appointed for was realized only in the New Covenant through the Redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ.

Supposedly spiritual Christians think they can base on these words their false teaching about the universal royal and priestly dignity of Christians. From this dignity, they claim, specially appointed kings and priests are supposedly unnecessary. It is true that every Christian is a priest insofar as he presents his body as a sacrifice to God and performs rational service before Him (Rom 12:1). It is also true that every Christian can be called a king insofar as he is established by the governing Spirit (Ps 50:14), rules over his passions, and wins victories over the snares of the devil. But both dignities of Christians have only a weak beginning in earthly life.

First, what does it mean that St. John addresses his prophetic word to the seven churches of Asia Minor? This does not shake the universal purpose of the Apocalypse for all Christians. But because St. John the Theologian had especially close and frequent relations with the above-mentioned churches, the Lord Himself commands him (Rev 1:11) to communicate first to these very churches the revelation of which he was deemed worthy. These churches are taken here as a part in place of the whole, that is, in place of the whole Church. In her totality, the Church could of course present the same picture as the seven churches under the Apostle of Christ’s immediate care. Nor should one forget that in Scripture the number seven is usually taken to express fullness in various respects.

"Priests," who offer effective prayer for you directly at the altar above the heavens. "Kings," who have power, through wonderworking help, to guide you well toward peace and salvation.

You fear that you will not find even one spiritual instructor near you at the proper time.

He gives you all spiritual instructors from all times of the whole universal Church. In them He makes accessible to you every spiritual knowledge and experience, and every gracious gift and power.

The Apostle addresses his greeting to the seven Churches of Asia Minor, not because he intended the Apocalypse only for these Churches. Rather, in the symbolic language of the Old Testament, the number seven denoted fullness and perfection. Thus the Apostle wished to say that he was sending his greeting to the whole Church, both present and future. He wishes the churches grace and peace from Jehovah, whose name he renders descriptively, and from the Holy Spirit, whom he depicts according to His actions as seven spirits standing before the throne of Jehovah. He also wishes this from Jesus Christ, as the great Confessor or Martyr, ό μάρτυς, in the exceptional sense, as the firstborn from the dead and as King over the kings of the earth.