Revelation 3:18

I counsel thee "There is deep irony in this word. One who has need of nothing, yet needs counsel on the vital points of self-preservation."

to buy Cf. Isaiah 55:1: the counsel to a poor beggar to buyis of course meaningless, unless he can buy "without money and without price," or, as the Hebrew of that passage more literally means, "for (what is) not money and for (what is) not a price." Thus the word is not a mere synonym for "receive:" the sense is, "Thou hast nothing to give, but thou must give all that thou hast" (Matthew 13:44; Matthew 13:46). The nothingness of human merit is a reason against exalting self, but not a reason for sparing self: the Lord does not bid us say, "We are unprofitable servants: we cannot and need not do what it is our duty to do." (Luke 17:10.)

gold tried in the fire Right in sense, though "fresh burnt from the fire" would be perhaps more literal: cf. Revelation 1:15, where the same participle is used as here. The meaning of the "gold" is defined in the next words: it stands for spiritual "riches" of any sort.

white raiment As in Revelation 3:4.

that the shame&c. Cf. Revelation 16:15.

and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve Read and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes. Collyriumwas the common dressing for weak eyes, and could be applied by a barber (see Horace's Satires, passim), but perhaps hardly by the patient himself.