REVELATION 3 — LETTERS TO SARDIS, PHILADELPHIA, AND LAODICEA

The final three letters complete the circuit of the seven churches. They contrast strongly with one another. Sardis has a good reputation but is spiritually dead, and Christ has nothing good to say about the church as a whole, only about a few individuals. Philadelphia is a small and weak church that Christ commends without rebuke, and Laodicea is a wealthy and self-satisfied church that is lukewarm, which Christ rebukes without a word of commendation. The letters illustrate that Christ evaluates churches not by their size, reputation, or wealth, but by their faithfulness and love, and that the same Lord who commends also warns and disciplines. Each letter again shows Christ in a form that suits the situation: to Sardis, as the one who holds the fullness of the Spirit and the stars, with authority to revive; to Philadelphia, as the holy and true one who holds the key of David, the keeper of the door of the kingdom; to Laodicea, as the Amen and faithful witness, the beginning of creation, in contrast to a church that is unfaithful. The seven letters taken together present the complete picture of the church's condition: good, bad, weak, strong, and dead, and they call every church to examine itself by Christ's standards.

The letters to Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea contain details that reflect their cities with remarkable accuracy. Sardis was famous for its history of surprise captures, and its acropolis was thought to be impregnable, but Herodotus recorded how Cyrus took it by having a soldier climb an unguarded cliff, and Polybius recorded a similar story for Antiochus III. The warning "wake up" and the threat of coming like a thief would have resonated deeply. The city had a large Jewish community and an enormous synagogue, whose ruins can still be seen, together with a temple of Artemis, which shows that the city had a complex religious environment. Philadelphia was devastated by an earthquake in AD 17, as Strabo and Tacitus record, and the people lived in fear of tremors, which is why the promise that the conqueror would be a permanent pillar in God's temple and never go out of it would have had special meaning. Laodicea's wealth is attested by Tacitus, who reports that after the earthquake of AD 60 the city was rebuilt without help from Rome, and by the Roman writer Cicero, who cashed bills of exchange there. The city's black wool and eye medicine, known as Phrygian powder, were famous. The water supply came from springs about six miles away by aqueduct, and the remains of the system, with deposits of calcium, can still be seen in the pipes, showing that the water arrived warm and mineral-laden. Hierapolis, six miles to the north, was famous for its hot springs, and Colossae, to the east, had cold mountain water. The reference to lukewarm water is a local allusion that would have been clearly understood by the Laodiceans, and it shows that the author was familiar with the region. These specific details add to the historical credibility of the book.