Revelation 3:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He who conquers the devil will shine like the sun in the garment of his virtues, and his name will not be blotted out of the book of life. He will be confessed before the heavenly Father and His hosts. Like the victorious martyrs, "the righteous will shine like the sun," according to the Gospel (Mt 13:43; Dan 12:3).

The one who conquers the passions will be clothed in white garments in the age to come. For in the Gospel He declared that the saints will shine like the sun and the moon. Those who have been purified, He says, will be written in the book of the living for that blessed and unending life. "And I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels." He will confess them, since they are faithful servants and beneficent members of the household. For in the Gospel it is also said: "Everyone who confesses Me before men, him I also will confess before My Father who is in heaven" (Mt 10:32). When He speaks of the Father and His angels, He does not deny that the holy angels also belong to Him. Sometimes they are said to belong to the Father, and sometimes to Him. For it is written in Matthew: "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Mt 24:31).

He calls all to imitate those who have kept the silken baptismal garments unstained.

Only a few are able, in the hour of temptations, to confess the name of the Lord before men, because this is bound up with the shedding of one's own blood. But only blood that has been shed makes the garments of the soul white (cf. Rev 6:9-11).

"He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments." As in the present life a white robe is a symbol of purity and chastity, so in the life to come a white and radiant robe is a symbol of glory and blessedness. Such white clothing properly belongs to the conqueror of sin, who has been washed and purified by the blood of the Son of God. "I will not blot out his name from the book of life." This is a figurative Jewish conception of God's omniscience. God, as the supreme King of the world, has a book in which He records all men, their life, their deeds, and His judgments concerning them (Ps 68:29; Ps 138:16; Is 4:3; Dan 7:10; Mal 3:16; Ex 32:32-33; Lk 10:20; Phil 4:4).

What does the Lord command to be written to the angel of the Church of Sardis? Rev 3:1-6. More of rebuke than of consolation. The works of the Sardian Church are incomplete before God. What the Sardians received and heard when they were instructed by the Gospel preaching 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. Still, among them there are a few who have not defiled their garments. The victors over 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. "Yet you have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments" (Rev 3:4).

Yet even in this Church there are people who did not yield to the common disposition. Therefore here on earth they preserve those virtues, or white garments, that adorned the Lord during His earthly life. They are fully worthy to be followers of Christ. In heaven these people will also be counted worthy of special distinction, and their names will never be blotted out from the book of citizens of the heavenly city. The Lord will always acknowledge them as His own.

We also have in Scripture a mention of garments as an allegory of the hope of the flesh. For in the Revelation of John it is said: these are those who have not defiled their garments with women (Rev 14:4). This means virgins, and it also designates those who have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 19:12). Therefore they were in white garments, that is, in the purity of virginal flesh. In the Gospel, too, the wedding garments may be understood as the holiness of the flesh. Thus Isaiah, speaking of the fast the Lord chose, adds the thought of the reward of piety and says: then your timely light shall break forth, and your garments shall quickly spring up (Is 58:8). He did not wish us to think necessarily of silks or of a cloak, but of the flesh. He foretold the rising of the flesh, which will rise from the dead after death.