He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
He that hath an ear is commanded to hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches at the close of the message to Philadelphia after Christ's promises to the faithful who kept His word. What is to be heard is Christ's own message spoken by God through the Holy Spirit, not from human lips or by human influence. Hearing means more than having ears, it means receiving the truth, repenting, holding fast what is held, overcoming, and following Christ's counsel rather than self-righteousness. The word to be heard holds out the promise that the overcomer will be made a pillar in God's temple never to go out, inscribed with God's name and the name of New Jerusalem and Christ's new name. It also holds out the warning to Sardis that has a name to live while dead to be watchful and repent, and to Laodicea that is lukewarm and self-satisfied to buy gold tried in the fire and white raiment and eyesalve, a message sent especially to God's professed people today.
Place in Revelation
The call for everyone with an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches is the closing appeal of the message to Philadelphia. It comes after Christ has presented Himself as Him who is holy and true, who has the key of David and opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens. It comes after He has set before those who have little strength, who kept His word and did not deny His name, an open door that no man can shut. It comes after His declaration that those of the synagogue of Satan who lie in saying they are Jews will come to worship before their feet and know that they are loved. It comes after His promise to keep those who kept the word of His patience from the hour of temptation coming upon all the world to try those who dwell on the earth. It comes after His warning, Behold I come quickly, to hold fast what they have that no man take their crown. It comes after His promise to make the overcomer a pillar in the temple of God never to go out, inscribed with the name of God and the name of the city of God, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, and His new name.
The same call also introduces the message to Laodicea that follows. It belongs with Revelation 3:14-15. There it summons hearers to Christ's warning against being neither cold nor hot but lukewarm, and to His counsel to repent, overcome, and be spiritually renewed rather than remain self-satisfied.
It is part of the whole third chapter of Revelation, which itself is part of the messages in the first, second, and third chapters. Christ came from heaven to give those messages to John on the Isle of Patmos, and God sent them by His angel to be read, studied, and understood. They are solemn warning about the last events of this earth's history, about things which will be in these last days, which Satan seeks to keep minds confused about in order to gain a great victory. Message after message was given in this way to the angels of the churches at Ephesus, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
It belongs to the message to the sixth church, which represents the believers who proclaimed Christ's coming in autumn 1844. That church then faced a period of trial connected with sanctuary teaching and the call to keep God's commandments. The names of the churches are symbolic of the Christian church in different periods of the Christian era, and the number seven indicates completeness, so the messages extend to the end of time. They portray with symbolic figures the state of God's professed people today, with wheat developing among tares and truth standing on its own eternal basis in contrast with error. Christ weighs the character of every Christian with full knowledge of heart, word, and act, which calls for close self-examination. The words spoken after His promises to the faithful in Sardis and Philadelphia contain no soothsaying but plain and sure truth.
Voice Speaking Clearly
The Spirit is speaking to the churches, and what is to be heard is Christ's own message spoken by God through the Holy Spirit with no human messenger behind it. It is penned by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, coming not from human lips but from the lips of the heavenly Messenger who cannot be inspired by any human influence. The speaker to be heard presents Himself as Him who is holy and true with the key of David who opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens. He presents Himself also as the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, who knows their works that they are neither cold nor hot and declares that because they are lukewarm He will spue them out of His mouth.
The verse calls everyone able to hear to listen to what the Spirit says to the churches, including the message to the Laodicean church. Those with spiritual hearing must hear, heed, repent, overcome, remain faithful, and follow Christ's counsel rather than rely on self-righteousness or their own abilities. Hearing means more than merely having ears. It means receiving sacred truth and becoming wise through it, and those who truly hear take its burden to others and invite them to come to the water of life as laborers together with God.
The call for anyone able to hear is repeated to stress the importance of attending to Christ's messages to the churches. Those messages disclose what is coming and prepare them for difficult times, so churches need reformation and present truth rather than unsupported speculation. What the Spirit says puts every church member on trial for his own soul, and each person must for his own soul's sake hear and obtain guiding light from the experience of the past. All who dishonor the name of God will have no place in His kingdom.
Christ the great Head moves in the midst of the candlesticks and will never be without a church. Faithful and true witnesses to His name and glory will stand unflinchingly when the test comes. If some fail to testify to the Word their candle will be put out, it will be demonstrated who are faithless, and those who are faithful will take the places of those who refuse to shine. Hearing the Spirit therefore means remembering from whence fallen, repenting, and doing the first works.
Warnings and Promises
The word to be heard includes the call to overcome and the promise that the faithful overcomer will be made a pillar in the temple of God never to go out, with written upon him the name of God and the name of New Jerusalem coming down from heaven and Christ's new name. Bearing that name carries responsibilities to be borne, and hearing leads to perfection of character, having the name of Jesus on the lips, working for the salvation of others, receiving a higher realization of truth as it is in Jesus, reaching a high standard, and feeling earnestness and intensity about life-and-death work especially in the cities instead of staying neither cold nor hot. Some of these things are not fully understood now and must be left with the Lord until seeing the King in His beauty makes them clear.
The word to be heard also includes the charge to hold fast what is already held till Christ comes and to overcome and keep Christ's works to the end. To him who does so is promised power over the nations to rule them with a rod of iron as vessels broken to shivers, and the morning star.
The word to be heard includes the warning and counsel of the True Witness to Sardis about having a name to live while dead and having imperfect works. It calls for being watchful, strengthening the things that remain, remembering how truth was received and heard, holding fast, repenting, watching, and walking in white. Hearing means taking heed by reading the whole third chapter and making personal application of it, examining the heart for hardness of heart toward brethren, lack of love, self-love, and self-deception, and accepting the counsel shown in relieving the necessities of brethren by encouraging words and deeds.
The word to be heard is the message to Laodicea from the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, who knows their works that they are neither cold nor hot. Because they are lukewarm He declares He will spue them out of His mouth. Those who say they are rich and have need of nothing are in truth wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, and the message warns against such spiritual lukewarmness and self-satisfaction and calls for repentance, spiritual renewal, and heeding the counsel to buy gold tried in the fire, white raiment, and eyesalve.
The third chapter in which the call stands gives a picture of the spiritual life of many and holds out precious promises to the overcomer. Its call to hear what the Spirit says to the churches is the Word of life to be heard with close attention, and includes lifting up Christ as physician and risen Saviour who heals the sick, rebukes disease, raises the dead, and gives life.
Message for Today
The call to hear is fulfilled by reading the whole third chapter and making a personal application of it, for the messages to Sardis about being watchful, strengthening what remains, repenting, overcoming, and walking in white, and to Laodicea about lukewarmness, are sent to the church of the present day. The Laodicean part applies especially to the people of God today, to professing Christians who have become so much like the world that no difference can be seen. Its last part describes the condition of Seventh-day Adventists in the present hour when the time is at hand. Heeding its lesson of warning is urgent because a most trying time is before them and perils thickening around them will continue to increase until the close of this earth's history.
The Laodicean part of the word God sent by His angel from heaven to be read and studied belongs to the church in Los Angeles and to churches generally. It presses them to have a deep work of grace done in their hearts, to awake and give the unconverted evidence that they believe truth of heavenly origin, and to do the work God has given them to do. It is a special message commanded to be brought before the professed Christian churches, not addressed to the common sinner or to those making no profession, but to church members, with those addressed in every church. It is to be given especially to churches that are not obeying the truth and are living in transgression of the law of God, and hearing it involves their eternal interest, for it is a message of life or death to them.
The Laodicean words are being fulfilled today and must be read and understood as God's revealed truth. Hearing means living under a heavenly Watcher who marks words and deportment and reads the motives that prompt action, having no time to be idle and indifferent, striving to develop Christian character with spiritual understanding cleansed, purified, sanctified and ennobled, taking sides now and purifying the mind now by obeying the truth. The messages to the churches in the first, second, and third chapters give the history of Satan's effort to bring dissension into the church, and the difficulties they describe must be met today. They are Christ's message given to John on the Isle of Patmos that must now be carefully studied and understood, warning that men will arise claiming to have new light, using true texts of Scripture but misapplying them and giving them a wrong meaning and wrong application. Their theories if received would destroy faith in the truths that have stood the test for half a century, including the light on the sanctuary question given by the Spirit of God and confirmed by those who passed through the disappointment of 1844.
The third chapter points out the danger of losing hold upon the things heard and learned from the Source of all light, commanding to remember how truth was received and heard, and to hold fast and repent. Hearing the Spirit means not listening for even a moment to skepticism, falsehood, human interpretations, fables, and subtle theories coming through minds of those who have departed from the faith, which imperceptibly imbue the mind and draw away from the faith. Such things loosen one pin or remove one pillar from the platform of truth, spoil faith, confuse understanding, and make faith of none effect, while truth is to be received direct and uncorrupted from One who is truth into the inward parts and heart to be developed in character, as preparation for immortal life where none who have changed the truth of God into a lie can enter. The messages of the third chapter must therefore be preached as Bible truth held for the past fifty years, spread by having discourses reported, and obeyed now because they apply to many people living in the world today. They are a message of great importance to be read with Revelation 5 by ministers and ministers' wives and families as the highest education, learned not from human unsanctified teachers but from God Himself through obedience to all of God's commandments spoken in awful grandeur from Sinai's Mount.
Hearing and Obeying
To hear is to give determined attention in order to understand and obey, for the call comes from God through the Holy Spirit with no human messenger behind it, and it is a warning given in a crisis. There is no excuse for closing the heart to light and warning, because very soon all will wish they had heard. Careful heed must be given to words of mercy and encouragement and warning, especially by those who have a name that they live but are dead, including stewards who have risen to the highest places. The word comes not from human lips but from the lips of the heavenly Messenger who cannot be moved by any human influence, and the whole third chapter is penned by inspiration of the Spirit of God. What is to be heard includes the promises just spoken to the faithful, that false claimants will come to acknowledge Christ's love, that those who keep the word of His patience will be kept from the hour of temptation coming on all the world, that Christ comes quickly so what is held must be held fast lest the crown be taken, and that the overcomer will be made a pillar in God's temple bearing the name of God and the name of New Jerusalem and Christ's new name.
What the Spirit says must be heard, and every word of the third chapter is to be studied by those watching for souls as those who must give an account. Those who hear are to serve as watchmen under the Holy Spirit, answering in clear decided tones, guarding every outpost, and rousing themselves from stubborn unbelief. If they permit one soul to pass into uncertainty, or lead souls wrong so they stay confused and perish in the enemy's snare, the blood of those souls will be required at their hands. Hearing means remembering from whence fallen, repenting, and doing the first works, and remembering how truth was received and heard in order to hold fast and repent rather than give it up. It means receiving truth direct and uncorrupted from One who is truth into the inward parts and heart to be developed in character, as preparation for immortal life where none who changed God's truth into a lie can enter, and refusing even for a moment to listen to skepticism, falsehood, human interpretations, fables, and subtle theories coming through departed minds that loosen one pin or remove one pillar from the platform of truth.
Hearing and meditating on that instruction closes the ears to surrounding folly and nonsense, so that hearers neither listen to and repeat such things nor crave them. When Christ satisfies soul hunger those trivialities become distasteful and the bread of heaven is chosen instead. The call is an earnest appeal, especially to students and young men and women, to know there is a right side and a wrong side and to be on the right side as a matter of highest consequence. In Noah's day the largest number chose the wrong side, and the world under Satan's training has gone mad sustaining and popularizing sin and transgression of God's law, but that does not lessen one principle of Jehovah. What the Spirit says is an earnest warning to prepare to meet the Lord in the clouds with power and great glory, confronting indifference to foretold signs with evidence that the end is right upon us. It calls for advancing and receiving God's grace with saving effect day by day through watchfulness and prayer in faith bringing blessing through the Holy Spirit.
What the Spirit says calls for religion in the home and for educating and training children to have well-balanced characters the Lord can approve. Thorough work in home life is essential, and while these duties are neglected God's blessing cannot be expected, though the Lord will work with human efforts and will not do the work He has given people to do. He that has an ear must hear and obey, including the call to be converted on health reform by temperance in eating and drinking to keep mind and body fit for service, by denying perverted appetite so God can cooperate, and by abandoning flesh meat because it animalizes human nature, robs love and sympathy, builds the body from a wrong source, and lets lower passions control higher powers, bringing commandment-keepers into sacred relation with God. Hearing leads to perfection of character, having Jesus' name on the lips, working for others' salvation, receiving higher realization of truth as it is in Jesus, reaching a high standard, and feeling earnest intensity about life-and-death work especially in the cities instead of staying neither cold nor hot. It means striving to develop Christian character under a heavenly Watcher who marks words and deportment and reads motives, having no time to be idle and indifferent, with spiritual understanding cleansed and purified, choosing blessing, and purifying the mind now by obeying truth.
Hearing means examining the heart for lack of love for brethren and hardness of heart, self-love, and self-deception. It means taking heed to the warning and counsel of the True Witness to Sardis and Laodicea about having a name to live while dead, imperfect works, and lukewarmness, by remembering how truth was received and heard, holding fast, repenting, watching, strengthening what remains, and accepting the counsel to buy gold tried in the fire, white raiment, and eyesalve, shown in relieving brethren's necessities by encouraging words and deeds. The verse stands as part of the Lord's last testimony to John, message after message to the angels of the churches at Ephesus, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. It was given in the setting of selfishness in working fields with destitute places left unworked, to call for earnest effort to put workers into those fields.
He that hath an ear is commanded to hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches at the close of the message to Philadelphia after Christ's promises to the faithful who kept His word. What is to be heard is Christ's own message spoken by God through the Holy Spirit, not from human lips or by human influence. Hearing means more than having ears, it means receiving the truth, repenting, holding fast what is held, overcoming, and following Christ's counsel rather than self-righteousness. The word to be heard holds out the promise that the overcomer will be made a pillar in God's temple never to go out, inscribed with God's name and the name of New Jerusalem and Christ's new name. It also holds out the warning to Sardis that has a name to live while dead to be watchful and repent, and to Laodicea that is lukewarm and self-satisfied to buy gold tried in the fire and white raiment and eyesalve, a message sent especially to God's professed people today.
Place in Revelation
The call for everyone with an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches is the closing appeal of the message to Philadelphia. It comes after Christ has presented Himself as Him who is holy and true, who has the key of David and opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens. It comes after He has set before those who have little strength, who kept His word and did not deny His name, an open door that no man can shut. It comes after His declaration that those of the synagogue of Satan who lie in saying they are Jews will come to worship before their feet and know that they are loved. It comes after His promise to keep those who kept the word of His patience from the hour of temptation coming upon all the world to try those who dwell on the earth. It comes after His warning, Behold I come quickly, to hold fast what they have that no man take their crown. It comes after His promise to make the overcomer a pillar in the temple of God never to go out, inscribed with the name of God and the name of the city of God, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, and His new name.
The same call also introduces the message to Laodicea that follows. It belongs with Revelation 3:14-15. There it summons hearers to Christ's warning against being neither cold nor hot but lukewarm, and to His counsel to repent, overcome, and be spiritually renewed rather than remain self-satisfied.
It is part of the whole third chapter of Revelation, which itself is part of the messages in the first, second, and third chapters. Christ came from heaven to give those messages to John on the Isle of Patmos, and God sent them by His angel to be read, studied, and understood. They are solemn warning about the last events of this earth's history, about things which will be in these last days, which Satan seeks to keep minds confused about in order to gain a great victory. Message after message was given in this way to the angels of the churches at Ephesus, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
It belongs to the message to the sixth church, which represents the believers who proclaimed Christ's coming in autumn 1844. That church then faced a period of trial connected with sanctuary teaching and the call to keep God's commandments. The names of the churches are symbolic of the Christian church in different periods of the Christian era, and the number seven indicates completeness, so the messages extend to the end of time. They portray with symbolic figures the state of God's professed people today, with wheat developing among tares and truth standing on its own eternal basis in contrast with error. Christ weighs the character of every Christian with full knowledge of heart, word, and act, which calls for close self-examination. The words spoken after His promises to the faithful in Sardis and Philadelphia contain no soothsaying but plain and sure truth.
Voice Speaking Clearly
The Spirit is speaking to the churches, and what is to be heard is Christ's own message spoken by God through the Holy Spirit with no human messenger behind it. It is penned by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, coming not from human lips but from the lips of the heavenly Messenger who cannot be inspired by any human influence. The speaker to be heard presents Himself as Him who is holy and true with the key of David who opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens. He presents Himself also as the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, who knows their works that they are neither cold nor hot and declares that because they are lukewarm He will spue them out of His mouth.
The verse calls everyone able to hear to listen to what the Spirit says to the churches, including the message to the Laodicean church. Those with spiritual hearing must hear, heed, repent, overcome, remain faithful, and follow Christ's counsel rather than rely on self-righteousness or their own abilities. Hearing means more than merely having ears. It means receiving sacred truth and becoming wise through it, and those who truly hear take its burden to others and invite them to come to the water of life as laborers together with God.
The call for anyone able to hear is repeated to stress the importance of attending to Christ's messages to the churches. Those messages disclose what is coming and prepare them for difficult times, so churches need reformation and present truth rather than unsupported speculation. What the Spirit says puts every church member on trial for his own soul, and each person must for his own soul's sake hear and obtain guiding light from the experience of the past. All who dishonor the name of God will have no place in His kingdom.
Christ the great Head moves in the midst of the candlesticks and will never be without a church. Faithful and true witnesses to His name and glory will stand unflinchingly when the test comes. If some fail to testify to the Word their candle will be put out, it will be demonstrated who are faithless, and those who are faithful will take the places of those who refuse to shine. Hearing the Spirit therefore means remembering from whence fallen, repenting, and doing the first works.
Warnings and Promises
The word to be heard includes the call to overcome and the promise that the faithful overcomer will be made a pillar in the temple of God never to go out, with written upon him the name of God and the name of New Jerusalem coming down from heaven and Christ's new name. Bearing that name carries responsibilities to be borne, and hearing leads to perfection of character, having the name of Jesus on the lips, working for the salvation of others, receiving a higher realization of truth as it is in Jesus, reaching a high standard, and feeling earnestness and intensity about life-and-death work especially in the cities instead of staying neither cold nor hot. Some of these things are not fully understood now and must be left with the Lord until seeing the King in His beauty makes them clear.
The word to be heard also includes the charge to hold fast what is already held till Christ comes and to overcome and keep Christ's works to the end. To him who does so is promised power over the nations to rule them with a rod of iron as vessels broken to shivers, and the morning star.
The word to be heard includes the warning and counsel of the True Witness to Sardis about having a name to live while dead and having imperfect works. It calls for being watchful, strengthening the things that remain, remembering how truth was received and heard, holding fast, repenting, watching, and walking in white. Hearing means taking heed by reading the whole third chapter and making personal application of it, examining the heart for hardness of heart toward brethren, lack of love, self-love, and self-deception, and accepting the counsel shown in relieving the necessities of brethren by encouraging words and deeds.
The word to be heard is the message to Laodicea from the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, who knows their works that they are neither cold nor hot. Because they are lukewarm He declares He will spue them out of His mouth. Those who say they are rich and have need of nothing are in truth wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, and the message warns against such spiritual lukewarmness and self-satisfaction and calls for repentance, spiritual renewal, and heeding the counsel to buy gold tried in the fire, white raiment, and eyesalve.
The third chapter in which the call stands gives a picture of the spiritual life of many and holds out precious promises to the overcomer. Its call to hear what the Spirit says to the churches is the Word of life to be heard with close attention, and includes lifting up Christ as physician and risen Saviour who heals the sick, rebukes disease, raises the dead, and gives life.
Message for Today
The call to hear is fulfilled by reading the whole third chapter and making a personal application of it, for the messages to Sardis about being watchful, strengthening what remains, repenting, overcoming, and walking in white, and to Laodicea about lukewarmness, are sent to the church of the present day. The Laodicean part applies especially to the people of God today, to professing Christians who have become so much like the world that no difference can be seen. Its last part describes the condition of Seventh-day Adventists in the present hour when the time is at hand. Heeding its lesson of warning is urgent because a most trying time is before them and perils thickening around them will continue to increase until the close of this earth's history.
The Laodicean part of the word God sent by His angel from heaven to be read and studied belongs to the church in Los Angeles and to churches generally. It presses them to have a deep work of grace done in their hearts, to awake and give the unconverted evidence that they believe truth of heavenly origin, and to do the work God has given them to do. It is a special message commanded to be brought before the professed Christian churches, not addressed to the common sinner or to those making no profession, but to church members, with those addressed in every church. It is to be given especially to churches that are not obeying the truth and are living in transgression of the law of God, and hearing it involves their eternal interest, for it is a message of life or death to them.
The Laodicean words are being fulfilled today and must be read and understood as God's revealed truth. Hearing means living under a heavenly Watcher who marks words and deportment and reads the motives that prompt action, having no time to be idle and indifferent, striving to develop Christian character with spiritual understanding cleansed, purified, sanctified and ennobled, taking sides now and purifying the mind now by obeying the truth. The messages to the churches in the first, second, and third chapters give the history of Satan's effort to bring dissension into the church, and the difficulties they describe must be met today. They are Christ's message given to John on the Isle of Patmos that must now be carefully studied and understood, warning that men will arise claiming to have new light, using true texts of Scripture but misapplying them and giving them a wrong meaning and wrong application. Their theories if received would destroy faith in the truths that have stood the test for half a century, including the light on the sanctuary question given by the Spirit of God and confirmed by those who passed through the disappointment of 1844.
The third chapter points out the danger of losing hold upon the things heard and learned from the Source of all light, commanding to remember how truth was received and heard, and to hold fast and repent. Hearing the Spirit means not listening for even a moment to skepticism, falsehood, human interpretations, fables, and subtle theories coming through minds of those who have departed from the faith, which imperceptibly imbue the mind and draw away from the faith. Such things loosen one pin or remove one pillar from the platform of truth, spoil faith, confuse understanding, and make faith of none effect, while truth is to be received direct and uncorrupted from One who is truth into the inward parts and heart to be developed in character, as preparation for immortal life where none who have changed the truth of God into a lie can enter. The messages of the third chapter must therefore be preached as Bible truth held for the past fifty years, spread by having discourses reported, and obeyed now because they apply to many people living in the world today. They are a message of great importance to be read with Revelation 5 by ministers and ministers' wives and families as the highest education, learned not from human unsanctified teachers but from God Himself through obedience to all of God's commandments spoken in awful grandeur from Sinai's Mount.
Hearing and Obeying
To hear is to give determined attention in order to understand and obey, for the call comes from God through the Holy Spirit with no human messenger behind it, and it is a warning given in a crisis. There is no excuse for closing the heart to light and warning, because very soon all will wish they had heard. Careful heed must be given to words of mercy and encouragement and warning, especially by those who have a name that they live but are dead, including stewards who have risen to the highest places. The word comes not from human lips but from the lips of the heavenly Messenger who cannot be moved by any human influence, and the whole third chapter is penned by inspiration of the Spirit of God. What is to be heard includes the promises just spoken to the faithful, that false claimants will come to acknowledge Christ's love, that those who keep the word of His patience will be kept from the hour of temptation coming on all the world, that Christ comes quickly so what is held must be held fast lest the crown be taken, and that the overcomer will be made a pillar in God's temple bearing the name of God and the name of New Jerusalem and Christ's new name.
What the Spirit says must be heard, and every word of the third chapter is to be studied by those watching for souls as those who must give an account. Those who hear are to serve as watchmen under the Holy Spirit, answering in clear decided tones, guarding every outpost, and rousing themselves from stubborn unbelief. If they permit one soul to pass into uncertainty, or lead souls wrong so they stay confused and perish in the enemy's snare, the blood of those souls will be required at their hands. Hearing means remembering from whence fallen, repenting, and doing the first works, and remembering how truth was received and heard in order to hold fast and repent rather than give it up. It means receiving truth direct and uncorrupted from One who is truth into the inward parts and heart to be developed in character, as preparation for immortal life where none who changed God's truth into a lie can enter, and refusing even for a moment to listen to skepticism, falsehood, human interpretations, fables, and subtle theories coming through departed minds that loosen one pin or remove one pillar from the platform of truth.
Hearing and meditating on that instruction closes the ears to surrounding folly and nonsense, so that hearers neither listen to and repeat such things nor crave them. When Christ satisfies soul hunger those trivialities become distasteful and the bread of heaven is chosen instead. The call is an earnest appeal, especially to students and young men and women, to know there is a right side and a wrong side and to be on the right side as a matter of highest consequence. In Noah's day the largest number chose the wrong side, and the world under Satan's training has gone mad sustaining and popularizing sin and transgression of God's law, but that does not lessen one principle of Jehovah. What the Spirit says is an earnest warning to prepare to meet the Lord in the clouds with power and great glory, confronting indifference to foretold signs with evidence that the end is right upon us. It calls for advancing and receiving God's grace with saving effect day by day through watchfulness and prayer in faith bringing blessing through the Holy Spirit.
What the Spirit says calls for religion in the home and for educating and training children to have well-balanced characters the Lord can approve. Thorough work in home life is essential, and while these duties are neglected God's blessing cannot be expected, though the Lord will work with human efforts and will not do the work He has given people to do. He that has an ear must hear and obey, including the call to be converted on health reform by temperance in eating and drinking to keep mind and body fit for service, by denying perverted appetite so God can cooperate, and by abandoning flesh meat because it animalizes human nature, robs love and sympathy, builds the body from a wrong source, and lets lower passions control higher powers, bringing commandment-keepers into sacred relation with God. Hearing leads to perfection of character, having Jesus' name on the lips, working for others' salvation, receiving higher realization of truth as it is in Jesus, reaching a high standard, and feeling earnest intensity about life-and-death work especially in the cities instead of staying neither cold nor hot. It means striving to develop Christian character under a heavenly Watcher who marks words and deportment and reads motives, having no time to be idle and indifferent, with spiritual understanding cleansed and purified, choosing blessing, and purifying the mind now by obeying truth.
Hearing means examining the heart for lack of love for brethren and hardness of heart, self-love, and self-deception. It means taking heed to the warning and counsel of the True Witness to Sardis and Laodicea about having a name to live while dead, imperfect works, and lukewarmness, by remembering how truth was received and heard, holding fast, repenting, watching, strengthening what remains, and accepting the counsel to buy gold tried in the fire, white raiment, and eyesalve, shown in relieving brethren's necessities by encouraging words and deeds. The verse stands as part of the Lord's last testimony to John, message after message to the angels of the churches at Ephesus, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. It was given in the setting of selfishness in working fields with destitute places left unworked, to call for earnest effort to put workers into those fields.