"Thou hast kept My Word" is
the first matter of distinct commendation as to Philadelphia which we can lay
hold of as showing what is in the Lord’s mind as to them; and I do not
ignore in this that the people thus commended are, first of all,
Philadelphians. All the more striking on this account is what He commends in
them. It is of great import and worthy of fullest emphasis that, while it is to
a company of people who are characterized by "love of brethren" He is speaking,
His praise is not that "thou hast loved the brethren." This does not even form
part of it. His thoughts seem elsewhere : the commendation is, "Thou hast kept
my Word, and not denied my Name." Again, "thou hast kept the word of my
patience." Yet in the promise to the overcomer He does not omit what has
reference to the name they bear: for on the "pillar", which he who has here but
"a little strength" finally becomes, is inscribed not only "the name of my
God," and "my new name," but also "the name of the city of my God, the new
Jerusalem." This is the home of the "brethren," and has, I believe, distinct
reference to "Philadelphian" character. Yet, I repeat, in His commendation of
them, He says nothing of this. Is it not right to ask ourselves the reason of
what is at first sight so strange?
Now the title under which the Lord
addresses them fully accounts for it. They are Philadelphians whom he is
addressing: it is thus plain that if people have not this character He has
nothing here to say to them. It is to those He is speaking, whose hearts would
seek, if it were possible, the recovery of this "Church," which should have
been like "a city set on a hill," or "a light upon a candlestick," but has
dropped, alas, into the invisibility which men ascribe to it, as if it were the
necessary and normal state. Yes, it is to these that the Lord is speaking; and
the first words He utters remind these, the seekers of Church visibility, of
His own essential holiness and truth: "These things saith He that is holy, He
that is true." How much need will they have to remember this!
Think of the
Church that is scattered, and which we would so desire to see restored: what
are we to do for its restoration? Shall we proclaim to them all, that it is the
will of God that His people should be together? Shall we spread the Lord’s
table, free from all sectarian names and terms of communion, and fling wide
open our doors, and invite all that truly love the Lord to come together? For
in fact the "one loaf" upon the Table does bear witness that we are "one bread,
one body"; and there is no other body that faith can own, but the "body of
Christ." Why should we not then do this? I answer: "Tell them by all means that
the Lord has welcome for all His own : that is right; but tell them it is the
‘Holy and True’ who welcomes, and that He cannot give up His nature."
How has the true Church become the invisible Church? Has it been without sin on
her part? is it her misfortune, and not her fault? Take the guidance of these
seven epistles in the book of Revelation, and trace the descent from the loss
of first love in Ephesus to the sufferance of the woman Jezebel in Thyatira,
and on through dead Sardis to the present time: can we just ignore the past,
and simply, as if nothing had happened, begin again? What would it be but mere
hardness of heart to say so?
Suppose your invitation of "all Christians"
accepted, and that in the place in which you give out your notice, you are able
really to assemble all the members of Christ at the table of the Lord ; - bring
them together with their jarring views, their various states of soul, their
entanglements with the world, their evil associations: - how far, do you
suppose, would the Lord’s table answer to the character implied in its
being the table of the Lord? How far would He be indeed owned and honoured in
your thus coming together? With the causes of all the scattering not searched
out and judged, what would your gathering be but a defiance of the holy
discipline by which the Church was scattered? what would it be but another
Babel?
Can you think that visible unity is so dear to Christ, as that He
should desire it apart from true cleansing and fellowship in the truth?
Surely this address to Philadelphia is completely in opposition - in designed
opposition - to all such thoughts. Why should it be that here we have not the
Lord presenting Himself as One who "has the seven Spirits of God and the seven
stars " - plenitude of spiritual power, and His people in His keeping - but as
"the Holy and True"? Strange indeed it may seem that dead Sardis should be thus
reminded, and not Philadelphia! But to Philadelphia such an utterance would
seem as if it meant no less than the recovery of the Church by their means. To
Sardis it is manifestly exhortation instead of assurance. Philadelphia, even as
Philadelphia, needs rather the warning that they must not mistake, in any
sanguine interpretation of present blessing, what the days are in which they
live, and that they must guard against such a conception of practical unity as
would set aside all the value of unity. How perfect in its place is every word
of God!
Let us notice then, again, what the Lord commends. "Thou hast a
little power, - hast kept my word and not denied My Name, - hast kept the word
of my patience." Every one must remark these "My"s, which continue to the end
of the address. They show that the true Philadelphian clings to Christ Himself,
to His word, His person, His strangership in the present, His certainty of the
future. His work is to obey Christ, hold fast the truth as to Him, be waiting
for Him. The work of gathering may, so to speak, look after itself, if this be
done. We are to be united by the Centre, and not merely or mainly by the
circumference. And thus alone can there be anything that shall have fruit for
God or commendation from Him who here speaks to His people.
It is easily
to be seen then how the Philadelphian character may be lost by a false
conception of it.
"Brotherly love" is a precious thing when it is really
what it purports to be; but see where the apostle, in his exhortation, puts it.
"Add to your faith," he says, "virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to
knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness ;
and to godliness brotherly love." If this be the order, (and as order he gives
it,) how many things are needed to precede its proper development! No doubt all
these things are in the Christian in some sense at the beginning, just as
petals, stamens, and other parts of the flower, are wrapped up in the bud
before it opens. But there is a relation of these to one another shown in the
order of appearance; and that is what is important here. No "love of brethren"
no Philadelphia - is true, save as these things are found in it. For it all,
Christ must be both sap and sun; and this is what the word in Revelation
emphasizes.
Philadelphian gathering is to Christ, then; and it is Christ
who gathers. A common faith, a common joy, a common occupation, find their
issue in that which is the outward sign of the spiritual bond that unites us.
Who that knows what gathering at the Lord’s table means would suppose that
communion there could be other than hindered by the presence of what was not
communion, any more than harmony could be increased by discord? Of want of
intelligence I am not speaking: there is no discord in the presence of a babe;
but an unexercised conscience, a heart unreceptive of divine things, - which
means receptive of how much else! - how must the power of the Spirit be
hindered by them! The Scripture rule for times of declension is - "with those
that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 Tim. ii. 22); and the way to
find these is not to advertise for them, but to "follow righteousness, faith,
love, peace" walking on the road in which they are walking.
It results,
I'm confident, that if we really seek the blessing of souls, we shall guard
with more carefulness, not with less, the entrance into fellowship. We shall
see that it be "holy and true," as He is with whom all fellowship is first of
all to be. Careless reception is the cause of abundant trouble, and may be of
general decline. "Evil communications corrupt good manners." Men cannot walk
together, except they are agreed. When trial comes, those that have never been
firm of purpose, never, perhaps, convinced of the divine warrant for the
position they have taken, scatter and flee from it with reckless haste,
carrying with them, wherever they go, an evil report of what they have turned
their backs upon. Such persons are, generally speaking, outside of any hope of
recovery, and often develop into the bitter enemies of the truth.
We are
incurring a great responsibility if we press or encourage people to take a
position for which they are not ready; in which, therefore, they act without
faith. It is just in principle what the apostle warns us of, the danger of
leading others without an exercised conscience, to imitate a faith that is not
their own. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." No wonder there are wrecks all
along the track of a movement for which this is so constantly required, and in
which so many are endeavouring to walk without it. Ought we not to remember
that it is the Holy and the True that is seeking fellowship with us? and that
nothing but what answers to this character can abide the test that will surely
come?