Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Revelation 3:10

Revelation 3:10. Because thou didst keep the word of my patience. The reference is neither to any precepts of Christ concerning patience, nor to any accounts given us of the patience of Christ Himself, but simply to Christ's ‘word,' which cannot be kept without much patient endurance on the part of His people.

I also will keep thee out of the hour of the trial, etc. The hour spoken of is described as that of ‘the trial,' the great, probably the final, trial which was now about to come, which was near at hand. ‘Out of' (comp. John 17:15) this trial believers are to be kept, not that they are to be kept in it, when in the course of providence it comes upon the Church as well as others, but that they are to be kept entirely out of it; it shall not touch them. This trial, then, is not to be a trial of the world, in order to see whether it will repent, or a trial of the Church, in order to confirm her in faith; nor is it to operate in two ways, bringing out the fidelity of the believing, and hardening the unbelieving. It really befalls the impenitent alone, and is the just recompense of their sin (comp. Matthew 24:5, etc.; 2 Thessalonians 3:3). Even if the righteous suffer in it, it will not be to them a ‘trial;' they are already elect, safe. That this is the true sense of the passage is confirmed by what follows. The trial comes upon the whole inhabited world; no part of the world shall escape it. But at the same time, it comes to try them that dwell upon the earth, not all living men without exception, but, as clearly shown by the use of this expression in the Apocalypse, only the wicked (comp. chaps, Revelation 6:10; Revelation 8:13; Revelation 11:10; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 13:12; Revelation 13:14; Revelation 17:2; Revelation 17:8). The ‘earth' is the opposite of ‘heaven' (comp. John 3:12), and they that ‘dwell upon the earth' do not include the saints who are already seated in heavenly places (comp. chap. Revelation 5:9; Revelation 13:6; Revelation 19:14).

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Revelation 3:10

Old Testament

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