Bible Commentaries
Revelation 22

Verses 3-5

THE SERVICE OF HEAVEN

‘His servants shall serve Him … and they shall reign for ever and ever.’

Revelation 22:3-5

Service is the task of heaven; not toilsome, for the taint of the course no longer vitiates it; not mechanical, but spiritual; cheerful also, and perfect, because there is nothing to depress or mar it in the presence of the healing leaves of the tree of life.

Four things make the service perfect in matter and spirit:—

I. His servants shall see His face.—The vision of God’s face will make the service full of joy and strength and spirit, and banish all feeling of toil and drudgery and discontent.

II. His name shall be in their foreheads.—It is not easy to maintain integrity and do work as God’s servants amid the promiscuous company of the visible Church; but there, where no forehead shall bear any other name than God’s; where His name shall be visible and legible wherever it is written; where each shall know himself and know his brother as marked by the common and only name, where each shall have the full assurance that he is God’s servant and is surrounded only by God’s servants—there, there will be nothing to paralyse, disconcert, or hinder that service with which God’s servants shall serve Him.

III. There shall be no night there.—What a service that must be which is carried on for ever in the unfading and unsetting light of God Himself by men who know Him and their duty, no longer through means and ordinances and providences circuitously, but directly and immediately, as they see light in His light!

IV. They shall reign for ever and ever.—They serve, but they also reign. They contemplate their service and execute it as from Christ’s throne, on which they reign with Him.

Verse 17

THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE

‘And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.’

Revelation 22:17

This is an invitation in the picturesque language of the writer of the Book of the Revelation to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

‘The Spirit and the Bride.’ The Spirit of God and the Church of God.

I. Why are these two mighty spiritual forces so closely joined together?—They are mutually dependent one on the other. The Spirit could not be manifested apart from the Church. The Church could not exist without the Spirit.

II. The Spirit speaks through the Church.—It is the living organism through which Christ manifests Himself to the world. And by the Church we do not mean the clergy only; we mean every faithful and consistent Christian. Each one is an evangelist inviting outsiders to come into the banqueting-house, when the banner over them will be love, to feast upon the blessings of salvation.

—Rev. C. Rhodes Hall.