Be watchful; literally, become watching. The use of ψίψνομαι implies that the watchful state is not the normal one—a change is needed before the watching can come about (comp. Revelation 1:9, Revelation 1:10, Revelation 1:18; Revelation 2:8; Revelation 4:2; Revelation 6:12, etc.
). The use of the present participle instead of an adjective ("watching!" for "watchful") makes the charge more definite; not merely "be of a watchful character," but "become a watcher". Stablish the things that remain, which were ready to die.
The reading, "were ready to die," is the best attested, and as being less smooth than "are ready to die," was more likely to be altered. It anticipates the time when the command will be obeyed: "which were ready to die when thou didst begin to stablish them."
No doubt τὰ λοιπά may be masculine in signification, and mean those members of the Church who have still some life in them. But this interpretation anticipates Revelation 3:4, which apparently introduces a new fact.
It seems better, therefore, to retain the neuter, and interpret "the things that remain" as meaning the few good elements of faith and practice which still survived. The externals of the Christian life were there; otherwise it could not have been even nominally Christian.
And these externals might be made realities to support the revived life of the Church. For I have found no works of thine. The difference between the Authorized Version and the Revised Version here depends upon the presence or absence of the article before ἔργα.
The balance of probability is against τά, and its absence makes the reproach stronger. Fulfilled before my God. The substitution of "fulfilled" (Revised Version) for "perfect" (Authorized Version) is important.
The Greek is πεπληρωμένα (John 16:24; John 17:13, etc.), not τέλεια (1 John 4:18). And "fulfilled" is better than "complete" (Alford, Tregelles), in order to bring out the connexion with the numerous places in which the same verb occurs, especially in the writings of St.
John (Revelation 5:11; John 3:29; John 7:8; John 12:38; John 13:18; John 15:11, John 15:25, etc.; 1 John 1:4; 2 John 1:12); in many of which passages "complete" would not stand as a rendering. "Fulfilled," or" made full," means made up to the right standard of excellence.
The works of the Sardian Church have been weighed, and found wanting before God. "A minister of Christ is very often in highest honour with men for the performance of one half of his work, while God is regarding him with displeasure for the neglect of the other half."
"Before my God" is undoubtedly the true reading, whatever may be the case in Revelation 2:7. Only in the writings of St. John does Jesus Christ speak of the Father as "my God;" and this fact is one more link between the Fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse.
In this chapter we have five instances—here and verse 12 (comp. Revelation 2:7 [possibly] and John 20:17). In Matthew 27:46 Christ adopts the language of Psalms 22:1, and addresses the Father as" my God;" and St.
Paul uses similar language (Ephesians 1:17). The expression, "before God" ( ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ), is specially common in the Apocalypse and in the writings of St. Luke and of St. Paul; it does not occur in either St.
Matthew or St. Mark.