The Things That Remain

Revelation 3:2 

Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.

It is good to remember that the Apostle John was instructed to write these letters to the angels or messengers (the pastors) of these seven churches. In that light I see the Lord addressing the preacher in Sardis and telling him:

Be watchful

The preacher ought to be aware of his church. He ought to seek to know the spiritual estate of the families in it and do his diligence to see how that impacts the spiritual health of the church body as a whole. He ought to take “inventory” of that which has been lost and that which remains.

Strengthen the things that remain

As he is watching he will no doubt become aware of those things that are lost and those things that remain. His task is to identify the things that remain and strengthen them. Rather than attempting here to answer whether those things that remain are meant here to refer to people, or practices or doctrines, I prefer to see that any and all of them may be in view. It is the pastor's task to identify what remains and what needs strengthening within the congregation God has placed him.

I have not found thy works perfect before God

John Gill writes concerning this phrase, "meaning that the reformers, and reformed churches, stuck where they first began; and did not carry their works neither with respect to doctrine, and especially with respect to discipline and worship, to a greater perfection, as they ought to have done: and however perfect they might appear before men, they were not so in the sight of the omniscient God, nor found so by Christ..."

The Reformers may have attempted a good work but it is certain that they stopped far short of it. Had they chosen to connect themselves with and strengthen that which remained, that which existed already, the Anabaptist churches, they would have improved themselves in far greater ways than by simply leaving the yoke of Rome. Instead they only shook off Rome's authority but not her false doctrines and practices.

What is blatantly obvious is that the Lord, in none of these letters, instructs the pastors to abandon their charge. The work may be in terrible straits, near dead. The pastor of the church is to remain at his post, strengthening what remains.