See on ch. 1:20.

 This bitter comment begins a message that consists mostly of reproof. The sin of hypocrisy called forth Jesus’ most scathing denunciations against the religious leaders of His day (see Matt. 23:13-33). Now, to the hypocritical church of Sardis, the glorified Christ sends His most unqualified rebuke. Rather than being “quickened,” or made alive in Christ (see Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:13; Gal. 2:20), as this church claimed to be, in reality it was “dead” (cf. 2 Tim. 3:5). As applied to the Sardis period of the church, the message may be considered in terms of the church toward the close of the Reformation period and may be dated 1517 to 1755; however, see Additional Note on Rev. 2.

Some decades after the beginning of the Reformation the new churches experienced a period of violent doctrinal controversy. Eventually, differences of opinion were settled by the adoption of definitive creeds that tended to discourage the search for for additional truth. By a similar process the Roman Catholic Church, in the early centuries of its history, had crystallized much of its theology. Protected by the power and prestige of the state, and ensconced within the shelter of rigid creedal confessions, the national churches of the Protestant world generally came to content themselves with the form of godliness without its power. Another important factor that contributed to apathy toward spiritual things was the rise of rationalism in the 17th and 18th centuries. Under the impact of scientific discovery, many scholars came to believe that natural law was sufficient to account for the workings of the universe. Often they concluded that God’s chief function in relation to this world is only that of a first cause, and that since His initial act of creation, the world has functioned more or less independently of Him. Thinking men who found the avenues of independent theological thought closed to them by the rigid formulas of Protestant orthodoxy turned, in some instances, to the new philosophical rationalism. Although rationalism produced much high idealism and commendable thinking in such fields as political science and humanitarianism, its presuppositions when applied to religion went far to encourage the spiritual coldness that characterized much of Protestantism in the centuries following the Reformation.

 Here, “reputation.” Hypocrisy characterized this church, which was not what it pretended to be. Professedly, the Reformation churches had discovered what it means to live by faith in Jesus Christ, but for the most part they eventually lapsed into a state resembling, in certain ways, that of the organization from which they had withdrawn (cf. 2 Tim. 3:5). Their name—Protestant—implied opposition to the abuses, errors, and formalism of the Roman Catholic Church, and the name Reformation implied that none of these faults were to be found within the Protestant fold. See pp. 41-65.

 See on ch. 2:2.

 This figure, like those that introduce the messages to each of the other churches, is drawn from the description of the glorified Christ found in ch. 1 (see on vs. 16, 20).

 See on ch. 1:4.

The first important city on the highway south of Thyatira. Like Thyatira, Sardis enjoyed a favorable commercial location. Strabo, the ancient geographer, speaks of it as “a great city” (Geography xiii. 4. 5; Loeb ed., vol. 6, p. 171), although in John’s day it did not rival either Ephesus or Pergamum in importance. For further information about Sardis see pp. 97-99. The meaning of the name is uncertain; however, some suggest “song of joy,” or “that which remains,” or “something new.”