3 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
Here, as in the previous letters, our Lord matches His designation to the need of the Church in Sardis which had a name that it lived, and was dead. He calls Himself the One that 'hath the seven Spirits of God' - that is, the One Who can give life. Commentators tell us some particularly interesting things about Sardis. It was one of the very wealthy cities of Asia Minor, and was situated geographically in a well-nigh impregnable position. There were two occasions in its history when the city was under siege, but it was careless because it thought it was impregnable, and the besieging armies found Sardis' weak spot and entered the city like thieves in the night. This illuminates our Lord's warning word to the Church there, 'If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief'. It seems that the Church partook of the atmosphere of the city; life had become too easy for them. An easy and voluptuous decadence had gripped the city's life and had penetrated into the life of the Church also. This, it should be clear, carries a very pointed warning for our own time. The dangers for the Church of living in an affluent society are very real and very considerable, chiefly the temptation to be beguiled by an imperceptible and ever-increasing spirit of materialism from the simplicity that is in Christ. Significantly, there is no mention in this letter of any danger of persecution by the Jews, or pressure about emperor-worship; there was no internal heresy. They were untroubled without and within. They had 'never had it so good' - and a spiritual paralysis was upon them! Is there not a message here for the Church of our day?