Original Meaning
IN CONTRAST TO churches strong in their own sight (3:17), but like the Smyrnean Christians who acknowledged their poverty (2:9), the Philadelphian church has only a “little strength,” but has proved successful in standing in that strength (3:8). Although closer in location to Sardis, the Philadelphian Christians’ situation resembles that of their fellow believers in Smyrna, roughly sixty miles to the west.
Jesus is the one “who holds the key of David,” with the authority to open and shut. This means that Jesus is not only the “root of David” (5:5; 22:16), but the majordomo, the one who controls entrance into the royal palace, a position of the highest authority in the kingdom (Isa. 22:15–25, esp. 22:22; Isa. 45:1–2; Ezek. 44:2).1 As such Jesus determines who may enter his household and who may not.
As in Smyrna, believers in Philadelphia experienced conflict with the local synagogue.2 Probably they were like the Jewish Christians for whom John first wrote his Gospel, many of whom were likely expelled from their synagogues (similar to the formerly blind man of John 9:34). But Jesus defended that man as one of his sheep, noting that he as the divine shepherd had the right to determine who belonged to his people and who did not (10:1–15). In the same way here, though these synagogues may have expelled Jewish Christians from their houses of worship, Jesus welcomes the believers into his own household.
Though the authorities believe they have excluded these believers from God’s people, Jesus is the one who truly provides access to the new Jerusalem (21:12–14). This is the likeliest sense of opening and shutting the door here.3 Some Jewish leaders in the late first century apparently felt they had the authority to control access to the synagogue and God’s people (Matt. 23:13). The text probably also alludes to a door to heaven (4:1), or more likely to the gates of the new Jerusalem (3:12; 21:12–15, 21, 25; 22:14) or the entrance to the temple (11:19; 15:5), to presently available fellowship with Jesus (3:20), or to Jesus as completed salvation (cf. Luke 13:24–25; John 10:7–9; 14:6).4
The biblical prophets had promised God’s people that the Gentiles would one day bow down to them (Isa. 60:14; cf. 45:14; 49:23; cf. 45:23; 49:7; 66:23), as Jewish tradition also recognized (1 Enoch 90:30; 1QM 12.14). But here unbelieving Jews join unbelieving Gentiles in bowing down before the faithful believers (Rev. 3:9).5 They must recognize that God has chosen his people (Isa. 49:7) and that he loves them (43:4; esp. Mal. 1:2). As those whom Jesus loves, they are the destined inhabitants of “the city he loves” (Rev. 20:9). What marks them as Christ’s people is that they have “kept” or guarded his word (3:10; cf. 1:3; 2:26; 3:3, 8; 12:17; 14:12; 16:15; 22:7, 9); he will thus guard them.6
Revelation 3:10 first introduces Revelation’s typical contrast between “those who live in heaven” and “those who live on the earth.” The earth-dwellers are normally the wicked who invite judgment (6:10; 8:13; 11:10; 13:8, 12, 14; 17:2, 8), whereas the heaven-dwellers refer to the righteous (12:12; 13:6). That the term earth-dweller does not normally include the suffering saints on earth (though cf. 2:13) may suggest that though these people suffer temporarily on earth, their long-term home is heaven.7 The hour of testing is designed to test unbelievers; believers will be protected during it (see comment on 7:1–8).8
Despite Jesus’ praises for the Philadelphian Christians’ perseverance to this point, however, “it’s not over till it’s over.” They must continue to hold fast what they have (3:11), that is, to continue to keep the message that demands their perseverance (3:10), lest their persecutors seize from them their crown (3:11; cf. 2:25). The “crown” is a victor’s wreath appropriate to overcomers (see comments on 2:10, where the crown of life contrasts with the second death in 2:11), and losing it means roughly the same as the warning to the preceding church: exclusion from the kingdom (3:5).
Those who do overcome, however, will not only be welcome in Jesus’ household, God’s temple; they will constitute a part of it (3:12). Thus, though expelled from “Satan’s synagogue” (3:9), they remain in God’s temple. This image directly recalls Isaiah 56:5, in which foreigners and eunuchs will have a place and an eternal name within God’s house, better than that of Israelites. Although Gentiles were permitted in the Old Testament temple (1 Kings 8:41–43), the architecture of the second temple (destroyed a few decades before Revelation’s writing) had separated even Israelite women from Israelite men. It placed the women on a lower level than Jewish men and placed Gentiles even further from the sanctuary (see Acts 21:29).
Meanwhile, eunuchs had always been excluded from God’s people (Deut. 23:1). Yet God promised the Gentiles and eunuchs who obeyed his commandments a better place than that of his own people who did not obey (Isa. 56:3–6), thereby making his new temple a “house of prayer for all nations” (56:7; cf. Mark 11:17). That Christ had established his people as one new temple made of both Jew and Gentile was familiar imagery for Christians in Asia by this time (Eph. 2:18–22; 1 Peter 2:5). Everyone would expect this new temple to include pillars (Ezek. 40:9–41:3; 1 En. 90:29) just as the old one did (Ex. 27:10–17; 38:10–28; 1 Kings 7:2–6, 15–22), and personified pillars specifically functioned as an image of strength or blessing (Ex. 24:4; Ps. 144:12; Jer. 1:18; Gal. 2:9; 1 Clem. 5.2).9
That such pillars would bear the name of God, of the new Jerusalem, and Jesus’ new name (3:12) merely confirms that they belong in the holy city. Ancient pillars frequently bore honorary inscriptions,10 and one might expect the same for eschatological pillars.11 Further, earlier prophets had already announced the significance of the new Jerusalem’s future name (Jer. 33:16; Ezek. 48:35; cf. b. B.B. 75b). God had also promised his people a new name in the time of their end-time vindication (Isa. 62:2; see comment on Rev. 2:17). Perhaps because Philadelphia had adopted two new names in the first century, Philadelphian Christians would be particularly sensitive to the promise of a new name. But such honorary names appear in some other locations, and of course all believers will have a new name.12
The new Jerusalem “is coming down out of heaven” (3:12); some take this as an iterative present, suggesting that the new Jerusalem always meets believers in the present as they submit to God’s reign. More likely, the present tense merely vividly emphasizes the origin of this city as from above (21:2), which contrasts it with the merely human Jerusalem in which Israel’s hopes were recently shattered and the synagogue community from which Philadelphian Christians have been expelled (3:9).
Bridging Contexts
IF JESUS’ PROMISE to excluded Christians tempts any of us toward unnecessary separatism, it is helpful for us to remember the reasons for that exclusion. The Christians here are not excluding others or seceding from their public witness in a difficult arena, but are excluded against their will on account of their witness.
Because our Bridging Contexts section often addresses dangers in interpretation, it may be helpful to address one popular application of 3:10. Many North American interpreters have argued that this verse supports the doctrine that the church will be raptured out before the final three-and-a-half or seven-year Tribulation.13 Thus, for example, one notes that one is kept not merely from suffering but from the “hour” of suffering.14 Such a reading of this text is not impossible grammatically, but this verse by itself is not a good foundation for the doctrine, as both the words employed and the broader context of Revelation suggest.15
The “hour of trial” does not settle the issue. In Revelation “hour” can refer to either testing before the end (9:15; 17:12) or to the final hour at our Lord’s return (3:3; 14:7, 15).16 In either case, references to time in Revelation are often qualitative, addressing the kind rather than duration of time (see comment on 12:6). “Trial” more likely refers to tribulation before Jesus’ return (cf. 2:10), but the sample size for Revelation’s use of the term is too small to be sure.
The phrase “keep … from,” however, may prove more suggestive. Elsewhere in Revelation “keep” refers to guarding God’s commandments. The expression “keep … from” appears only here in Revelation, but it occurs in one other New Testament instance, where John also records Jesus as speaking and where the meaning is clear: not removal from trial, but protection through it (John 17:15; cf. 1 John 5:18).17 This may fit the image of eschatological survivors found in some end-time texts (Mark 13:20; 4 Ezra 6:25; 7:27). In the Bible God generally delivers his people after they are already in testing (e.g., Ps. 34:19; 107:6; Jer. 30:7). Interestingly, persecution did continue for Philadelphian Christians (Mart. Polyc. 19.1).
More important is the broader context of Revelation. No description of Jesus’ return precedes 19:11–16, and no clear mention of any corporate resurrection precedes the “first” resurrection in 20:4–6, at the beginning of the thousand years. Although saints are slaughtered throughout Revelation, they are also protected from God’s anger in 7:1–8, an activity that would fulfill the promise of 3:10 to Philadelphia and Christians like them. One commentator complains that the “effect of this ‘pretribulation rapture’ is to dissociate Christian readers from any persecution and suffering at the hands of the Beast and to deny the church’s identity as a martyr church.”18 Those who, for whatever reasons, dissociate Christians from the suffering saints in Revelation miss much of the relevance of the book’s primary warnings. But in the final analysis, it is possible that Revelation may not refer to the specific three-and-a-half or seven-year Tribulation emphasized in modern prophecy teaching anyway (see discussion of 12:5–6); if it does not, it might not even comment directly on such a question as we have addressed here.
Contemporary Significance
DEPENDENCE ON GOD’S power. That the Christians have little power (3:8) counts in their favor before God; power is easily abused, but weakness often leads to dependence on God’s power.19 Although theologians debate some of the more radical proposals of liberation theologians, one insight of liberation theology clearly draws on the biblical perspective: God’s special concern for the broken. God promises to live with and embrace especially the broken and humble, just as he is far from the proud and self-sufficient (Ps. 51:17; Isa. 57:15; 66:2; James 4:6). Each of us comes from a different background, some with more advantages and some with less, but God judges us not on what power we start with, but on what we do with what he has given us.
The Christians in Philadelphia have become broken by their exclusion from the synagogue, hence from their heritage. Faithfulness often means being excluded from circles that mean much to us—sometimes even from family. Those who have grown up in Christian homes or have families in a church may not recognize the need of single Christians or Christians in religiously mixed marriages to experience Christian family ties in the church, especially if such people have experienced rejection for the gospel’s sake from their family of origin. I have witnessed this familial rejection among some messianic Jewish friends or those converted from nominal, “culturally” Christian homes, and felt something like it in the earliest days of my own witness.20
Jesus will preserve his people through their trial, which they share with the world (3:10), and will vindicate them (3:9), presumably at his coming (3:11). Even in the worst situations, hope provides believers strength to endure.21 But perseverance is mandatory for participating in that hope (3:11; see comment on 3:5). Each of the images of reward in 3:12 emphasizes the depth of God’s love for his faithful people. Many people attend larger churches without knowing other members personally, but Jesus promises fellowship and recognition to those otherwise excluded. Some Christians today are embarrassed to wear explicitly Christian markings (such as church sweatshirts) or speak openly for their faith, but those excluded today for their faith will wear the name that identifies them as citizens of the promised future world.
Participation in God’s eternal temple. That Christians will participate eternally in God’s temple indicates that we will always live in his presence (cf. 21:3, 22–25). Revelation is full of allusions to the heavenly temple: the ark (11:19), the tabernacle (15:5), the altars of incense and sacrifice (6:9; 8:3–5; 9:13), the sea (4:6; 15:2; cf. 1 Kings 7:23–25, 39, 44)—and of course the lampstands (1:12–13; 2:1, 5). Because throughout Revelation heaven appears as a temple and the primary focus of its activity is worship, we also recognize that our function in God’s temple will include worship.
Never are we as close to our eternal destiny as when we are glorifying God by worship or by inviting others to recognize his greatness. Of course, worship is not merely what often passes for it in our churches; we can easily mistake a sense of awe in majestic hymns or a sense of excitement in familiar praise choruses for worship, while ignoring the true object of worship to which such songs summon us. Worship involves recognizing God’s and Christ’s true identity and work (cf. 5:9–10, 12), so that we are in awe of not merely sublime sounds but of the Lord himself. When we know what God is truly like, we cannot withhold the honor due him.