Revelation 3:11a Behold, I am coming quickly!
Behold is a word intended to arrest the reader’s attention. Pay attention, look here, observe this. What is the reader observing? The coming of our Lord in glory. “Behold (same arresting beginning), He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen,” Revelation 1:7.
Revelation 3:10b I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
The Lord commends Philadelphia for keeping His command to persevere, and tells them that in doing so, He will in turn keep them from the hour of trial that will come upon the whole earth. Now this sounds initially like a promise to only certain Christians. “If you do as I command, I will preserve you and not others.” But, as we will see, this promise is for all genuine believers which the church of Philadelphia is.
Revelation 3:10a “Because you have kept My command to persevere,
What does the Lord mean that Philadelphia kept His command to persevere? Did Jesus ever give a command for this church to persevere? If the Lord says so, the answer is yes. The question arises then, when did this command get issued?
Revelation 3:9 Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie–indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
It would seem that the Philadelphian church was contending with the same synagogue that persecuted Smyrna. The pair of churches have two things in common. First, the Lord has nothing negative or detracting to comment regarding their corporate worship and evangelization.
