Revelation 22:14

Revelation 22:14. Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city. The thought of the blessed ‘reward' that had been spoken of fills the mind of Him who is to bestow it, and He accordingly continues in this and the next following verse to enlarge upon it. Those who are to enjoy that reward are evidently conceived of as one class, the Church of Christ as a whole, not two classes, Jewish and Gentile Christians. All have ‘washed their robes,' and in that respect they are one. In the two last clauses of the verse their blessedness is presented under two points of view first, they have ‘a right to,' literally, they have authority over, ‘the tree of life,' so that they may eat continually of its fruit; secondly, they ‘enter in by the gates into the city.' This last we might have expected to be mentioned first, for the tree of life grows within the city. But the first is the most important, and therefore receives the place of prominence. It is also possible that, as it is ‘the right' to the tree of life that is spoken of, the eating of the tree may be separately viewed. The order may be first, the right; secondly, the entering; thirdly, the eating.