Revelation 3:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

I say this concerning those predestined for the Kingdom of God, whose number is so fixed that no one is added to them and no one is taken away. I do not mean those who are many. For it can be said that they are called but not chosen, since they are not called according to His purpose. Indeed, the number of the elect is fixed, neither increasing nor decreasing. John the Baptist also points to this when he says: "Bear fruit worthy of repentance, and do not think to say within yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham" (Mt 3:8-9). As he shows, they must be cut off if they do not bear fruit, so that the number of those promised to Abraham may be fulfilled. Yet it is stated more clearly in Revelation: "Hold fast what you have, lest someone take your crown." For if another takes it only when the first loses it, then the number is fixed.

Confession does not free a man from the snares of the devil. Nor, while he is still in this world, does it always provide constant protection from the temptations, dangers, assaults, and blows of the age. Yet in earlier times we never saw afterward among confessors such deceits, disorders, and fornications as we now see in certain people. We grieve and suffer over this. Whoever a confessor may be, he is still not higher, better, or more pleasing to God than Solomon. As long as Solomon walked in the ways of the Lord, he possessed the grace received from God. But when he left the way of the Lord, he also lost the grace of the Lord.

He rightly says, "I am coming quickly," for in the Gospel it is also said that the Lord will come immediately after the tribulation of those days (Mt 24:29). Therefore He warns them to keep the treasure of faith from being plundered, lest they lose the crown of patience.

Patience is a spiritual virtue. By it we calmly endure all that is inflicted on us, without malice toward those who insult us, remembering the commandment of God. The Apostle Paul commands Christians to walk worthy of God, pleasing Him in all things. They are to bear fruit in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory, in all patience and longsuffering with joy (Col. 1:10-11).

To the Church of Philadelphia, in the province of Lydia, which had kept faithfulness to the Lord, He appears as the complete opposite of how the synagogue of Satan presented Him to believing Christians. That synagogue was the community of unbelieving Jews. The Jews blasphemed Him, but He appears as holy, as Jehovah was called in the Old Testament. The Jews mocked Christians because, according to them, Christians honored a false Messiah. But the Lord appears as the True One, who fulfilled all the prophecies concerning the Messiah. Finally, they ascribed to themselves alone the right to the kingdom of the Messiah. Yet the Lord appears with the key of David in His hands. Therefore it depends on Him whether a man is admitted to the throne of God or not.