Revelation 3
1 And to the angel of the assembly1 in Sardis write: These [things] says the [one] having the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works, that you have [a] name that you are zoe-alive2 and you are dead. 2 Become staying-awake [ones], and establish the rest which are [about] to be dying, for I have not found your works fulfilled before my God. 3 Be remembering therefore, how you received and heard, and keep and repent. If you therefore not be staying awake, I will come as [a] thief, and you will not know in what sort of hour I come upon you. 4 But you have [a] few names in Sardis which have not stained their garments, and they will walk with me in white, because they are worthy. 5 The [one] gaining victory will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the scroll of zoe-life2, and I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. 6 The [one] having ears let3 him be hearing what the spirit says to the assemblies1.7 And to the angel of the assemblies1 in Philadelphia write: These [things] says the holy, the true, the [one] having the key [of] David, the [one] opening and no one shuts, and shutting, and no one opens: 8 I know your works. Behold I have given before you [an] opened door, which no one is able to shut it, because you have [a] little ability, and you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Behold I will give [them to be] of the synagogue of Satan, [those] calling themselves Jews, and are not, but are false. Behold I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and they will know that I agape-loved you. 10 Because you kept the word of my endurance, I also will keep you from the hour of test [about] to come upon the entire inhabited-world, to test those dwelling upon the land. 11 I come swiftly. Hold fast what you have, in order that no one take your crown. 12 The [one] gaining victory, I will make him [a] pillar in the temple of my God, and he will not go out ever [again], and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven from my God, and [I will write upon him] my new name. 13 The [one] having ears, let3 him be hearing what the spirit says to the assemblies1.
14 And to the angel of the assembly1 in Laodecia, write: These [things] says the Amen, the trustworthy and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God: 15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. O that [you were] cold or hot. 16 For thus you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am [about] to vomit you from my mouth. 17 Because you say that: I am rich and are become rich and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold fired from fire in order that you be rich, and [to buy] white garments in order that you be clothed and the shame of your nakedness not be manifested, and to anoint your eyes with salve in order that you see. 19 As many as I philia-love I rebuke and discipline. Be being earnest, therefore, and repent. 20 Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with me. 21 The [one] gaining victory, I will give to him to sit with me on my throne, as I have gained victory and sat with my father on his throne. 22 The [one] having ears, let3 him be hearing what the spirit says to the assemblies1.
1EKKLESIA (εκκλησια) from "called out". Appears 114 times in the N.T., but only in two places in the Gospels ( Matt.16:18 (twice) and Matt.18:17 (twice)). It's worth noting that when Jesus uses the term EKKLESIA, Christian community as we know it didn't yet exist—there were only the disciples. EKKLESIA is apparently different from 'synagogue' (SYNAGOGE (συναγωγη) which occurs 56 times in the N.T.) EKKLESIA is used in secular Greek literature of a popular assembly 'called to assemble', and also of those 'called' to a cult. EKKLESIA is used frequently in the N.T. outside of the Gospels to refer to Christian communities, but in Acts.7:38 it is used of the people of Israel led through the desert by Moses, and in Acts.19:32 ff. of a secular assembly. Thus, all told, the common translation of EKKLESIA as 'church' doesn't really reflect 1st century usage—it seems to mean more like 'a group of people assembled for some specific purpose'.
2from ZOE "ZOH-ay" (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected. Although it means 'life' in the conventional sense (for example: Matt.9:18, Matt.27:63, Luke.2:36, Acts.25:24, Rom.7:2, 2Cor.1:8, 1Thes.4:17, 1Tim.5:10, Rev.19:20), Jesus uses ZOE exclusively of 'life eternal' (with the possible exceptions of Luke.15:13, Luke.16:25). The other N.T. writers use ZOE in both senses—temporal and eternal, generally clear from the context. The Father is the 'zoe-living God' (see Matt.16:16). The Septuagint (LXX) in Gen.2:7 has "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of zoe-life, and the man became a zoe-living psyche-life" (and see 1Cor.15:45); and Gen.3:20 (LXX) "And Adam called his wife's name ZOE, because she was the mother of all zoe-living." Contrast PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. See John.12:25 where both ZOE and PSYCHE occur. Greek also has the word BIOS (βιoς ) for 'life' in the sense of biological processes.
3imperative