7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.
8 “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. 11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. 12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
G. Campbell Morgan suggests that the words about the open door form a parenthesis, and that the meaning is that the Lord had opened a door for them, and that, little in strength as they were, they had taken their opportunity and gone through it. The opened door was not His reward for their faithfulness, but rather the opportunity in which they had proved their faithfulness to Him. This is the real challenge of the letter. So often we fail to go through open doors, pleading lack of strength or gifts for the work of God. But both Moses and Jeremiah were chided by the Lord for adopting such an attitude when they were called to serve Him. One hesitates to think what would have happened if they had persisted in that attitude; cer tain it is that when we persist in it, and close our eyes to opportunities that lie to our hands, the work of the gospel suffers loss and harm. The glory of the Philadelphian Church is that, weak and feeble as it felt itself to be, it rose to the challenge of the open door before them and went through for Christ and His Name. And if yesterday's Note has any personal signifi cance for us, then we may be sure that the open door is where we live and where we work, in the natural circumstances of our lives, in the office and in the home. It is these that Christ proposes to make capital of for the gospel, and will, when we have eyes to see the open door before us.