Revelation 3:7b He who is true,
Christ tells the church of Philadelphia that He is first holy, and then that He is true. Once our Lord simply stated that He is, “the way, the truth, and the life,” John 14:6. Homing in on this with greater focus, Jesus tells us, “I am…the truth.” Holiness and truth are interwoven, and the reason why is simplicity itself.
Revelation 3:7a “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy,
We have come to a pristine, spiritually vital church. Unlike Sardis, who was falling apart at the seams so to speak, Philadelphia was a spiritually active and powerful organism. God was clearly at work in them mightily. But we will get to that in due time.
Revelation 3:6 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’
Before merely skipping past verse 6 since we have covered it several times now, I would like to briefly relate God’s penchant for instructional repetition. God inspires the writers of Scripture to repeat something several times, and that for good reason. We easily forget, gloss over, or outright ignore something staring us plain in the face.
Revelation 3:5 “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Verse 5 cinches the truth revealed in the previous verse. Those who are worthy and walk with Christ in white are not made worthy by human effort, but by divine interposition. This is the crux of what John meant when he wrote, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right (authority) to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” John 1:12, 13.
