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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Revelation 3:17 - 3:17
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Self-sufficiency is the fatal danger of a lukewarm state (see on Rev 3:15).
thou sayest - virtually and mentally, if not in so many words.
increased with goods - Greek, “have become enriched,” implying self-praise in self-acquired riches. The Lord alludes to Hos 12:8. The riches on which they prided themselves were spiritual riches; though, doubtless, their spiritual self-sufficiency (“I have need of nothing”) was much fostered by their worldly wealth; as, on the other hand, poverty of spirit is fostered by poverty in respect to worldly riches.
knowest not that thou - in particular above all others. The “THOU” in the Greek is emphatic.
art wretched - Greek, “art the wretched one.”
miserable - So one oldest manuscripts reads. But two oldest manuscripts prefix “the.” Translate, “the pitiable”; “the one especially to be pitied.” How different Christ’s estimate of men, from their own estimate of themselves, “I have need of nothing!”
blind - whereas Laodicea boasted of a deeper than common insight into divine things. They were not absolutely blind, else eye-salve would have been of no avail to them; but short-sighted.