Week 52 Case 6 Philadelphia
The Lord says a couple of specific things about Philadelphia:
You have little strength
You obeyed my word
You didn’t deny me
You obeyed my command to persevere.
Obedience. Loyalty. Perseverance. Maybe on the surface not that impressive a list. But there’s no doubt Philadelphia had something going for it since the Lord told them: you are the ones I love.
The Lord also gave them one bit of advice: hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown (I remembered Thyatira: I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have).
I get the impression that Philadelphia was similar to Smyrna. John doesn’t say that Philadelphia was an impoverished and persecuted church like Smyrna. But he does say it wasn’t strong.
The other similarity was that Philadelphia & Smyrna were the only two churches on the list that John had nothing critical to say about. No fatal flaws.
Note: Revelation 3:7-13. Quotes from 3:8 10 9 11 2:24-25 (NLT)