Revelation 3:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Drive away the sleep of sloth, He says, and strengthen your members who are threatened with complete death because of their unbelief. For the worker is crowned not by a good intention, but by the completion of the deed.

He reproaches the idle, who do not confess God with the whole soul and do not keep the right faith in truth. They are Christians only in name. That is, they are called alive, but in deed they are dead.

Therefore they are exhorted to keep watch and be strengthened by the privations into which they have been cast. For this reason the Lord exhorts: "Remember what you have received and heard, and keep it, and repent."

He wishes the apostolic teaching to be remembered, and what each received from the beginning of his faith to be preserved. He also calls them to repentance for former sins.

It is precisely by the absence of vigilance that one can explain events such as those that occurred in Jerusalem in 638, in Constantinople in 1453, and in Russia in 1917.

"Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, which are ready to die." Having revealed the present condition of the Church of Sardis, the Son of God warns her of the future danger of losing the virtues that still remain to her. Preserve what remains. Repent, before everything good in you has died.

What does the Lord command to be written to the angel of the Church of Sardis? Rev 3:1-6. More reproach than consolation. The works of the Church of Sardis are imperfect before God. What the Sardians received and heard when they were instructed by the preaching of the Gospel has been forgotten, or is not being fulfilled in their life.

Therefore, if they do not repent, they may be subjected to sudden judgment and condemnation from God. Yet even among them there are a few who have not defiled their garments.

Those who overcome passions and temptations will be clothed in white garments. They will be written in the book of life, and their names will be confessed before the heavenly Father and before the angels.

In the Revelation of Saint John we see the seven angels of the seven Churches. One might think these are heavenly angels, guardians of the Churches. But when we hear that the Spirit of Christ rebukes some of them and threatens them, while the heavenly angels do not sin and are not subject to threats, we come to another understanding. Under the name of the angels of the Churches are meant the earthly guardians of the Churches, that is, the bishops. Thus the bishop is the angel of the Church. How much instruction there is in this thought for us, and even how much terror. To correspond to the name of angel, the bishop's mind must be enlightened, his heart pure, his thoughts and desires spiritual. His life must be far removed from the defilements of the flesh and the world.

To the Church of Sardis, in the city of Sardis in the province of Lydia, the Lord speaks as the One who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. By this designation He wishes to show that in Him is contained the fullness of spiritual life. From this fullness the deadened members of the Sardian Church can draw spiritual gifts, or even life itself. He is especially ready to bestow these spiritual riches upon the bishops, because they stand nearest to Him. These stars of the Church are in His hand. As for the state of the Sardian Church, outwardly it appears to live a proper Christian life. Yet if one looks within, it is clear that the soul has long since departed from this great body. Its outward propriety conceals inward emptiness.