Revelation Chapter 3
VERSE 18 continued “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”
As taken from (Revelation Notes Southern Wisconsin, edited)
Gold Refined by Fire
The seventh church was cautioned to buy gold (truth) that was refined in fire (had been purified by the test of time and trials, and which had the dross burned out of it).
“For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is {to be} revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (1 Cor 3:11-15)
Pastor Charles Russell went out and gathered all this gold (truth) into the harvest message, and this makes him the most likely candidate to be the messenger to this church. This message is available for all to see and hear, but only if they are watching, which most are not. The true foundation of God’s salvation was revealed and it consisted of the ransom doctrine, and the information regarding how the Divine Plan is going to save not only a spiritual class, but also an earthly class (The Two Salvation's).
This church (the nominal portion) was not as rich as they thought, but were poor and blind and naked, (not covered by the robe of Christ), (See also Hos 12:8, Jer 13:25-27). Most did not accept the newly revealed banquet of rich truth of gold and silver from God, (and God’s chosen messenger to dispense this truth) and for that reason could not see the truth about God’s plan as it was revealed at that time.
Their material wealth and spiritual traditions of men had blinded them to their spiritual bankruptcy. The worldly spirit that had invaded this church, and their attitude about riches compares similarly with that of the harlot, who symbolizes this condition, “I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn” (Rev 18:7).
Their attitude was also similar to that of the Pharisees who thought that they were wealthy, but were in fact spiritually sick (Mat 9:10-13). They thought that they could see, but were blind (John 9:40-41, Mat 15:14). While the members of the seventh church are not literally Pharisees, many of them have problems that are similar, which is why the Lord rebukes them. Their condition is dangerous because they do not realize they are in it. They need spiritual eye salve so that they will be able to see how bad a condition they are really in. (This is why many have not yet fled Babylon as the Lord counsel them to do).
They wanted to keep their own food (doctrines, those which the world supplies), and clothing (supposed salvation, but in truth not but the filthy rags of their own righteousness), as it says in Isaiah 4:1. They still wanted to be called by the name of Christ, even though they didn't have his truth at all. Jesus tells them, that they should get from him the true salvation represented in the scriptures above.
This is the buying the gospel without price (Isa 55:1, Rev 21:6), true riches without price, i.e., it is the salvation that is free. In Rev 22:17 the invitation to the thirsty is given by the spirit of the bride, (The church), to the world.
The gold represents divine things such as harvest truth, which they should have accepted, rather than trusting in their own earthly wealth, (earthly wisdom and traditions of men), which will perish. They can only get this gold from Christ. They cannot take their earthly wealth with them after death, but only labors of true faith will have laid up treasures in heaven for them, (Rev 14:13, Matt 6:20).
Buying White Garments
Originally Adam and Eve were naked but felt no shame (Gen 2:25), but only after they sinned, were they ashamed of their nakedness, and sewed fig leaves to cover their nakedness (Gen 3:7). In Rev 16:15, at the time of the Second Coming, Christ says, “blessed is 'he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed”.
In Rev 3:4-5, we saw in Sardis those who had not soiled their clothes, and who walked with Christ dressed in white, because they were worthy. Many in the Laodicean church did not have any spiritual clothes and they didn’t even know it. (The same applies equally today for many of the Lord’s professed people). They were spiritually naked and they needed to come to Christ to get white garments or the robe of righteousness to cover their sins. They had lost the understanding of what Christ had done for them, but were instead trusting in man’s ideas of salvation. (Thus, the Way, the true way of obtaining the spirit nature is hidden from them, see our blog post entitled, “The Only Way” for further insight on this issue.)
Even Joshua the high priest was pictured as being dressed in filthy clothes, but in Zech 3:3-4 he was given new rich garments. These clothes are the white clothes of righteousness (Isa 61:10). Throughout Revelation white garments stand for the righteousness, which Christ imparts, to us (Rev 6:11, 7:9, 7:14, 19:8, 19:14). We see that we cannot attend the wedding feast without being cast out unless we have on the robe of righteousness.
“And he said to him, "Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?' And the man was speechless. "Then the king said to the servants, "Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' "For many are called, but few {are} chosen." (Matt 22:12-14 NAU)
Eye Salve
Their blindness was a spiritual blindness and the only way they were going to be able to see spiritual things, was to buy spiritual eye salve from the Lord. The false church system had lost sight of most of the original apostolic doctrines and had substituted their own ideas and traditions in their place. These things were blinding them to the truth about Christ and God’s plan. If they did not ask for this eye salve, they would not be able to see or get the understanding of God’s plan that was opened up at the time of the seventh church. Eye slave is sometimes symbolic of humility, which they would need in order to admit that they were not looking at things correctly.”
Because of the importance of this matter, we will take one more look at it as it is explained by Brother Shallieu in our next post.
