Again, in Revelation 3:12 Jesus said “and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”
What Jesus is saying is that he will give his bride (his church) the family name, the “name of my God.”
“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name…” (John 17:11-12)
There is no confusion in one name, the name of the Father, or “God” – the family name. It is only logical that Jesus would want to keep his children in his family name. When they take on many names, then comes confusion because then the true children of God will become divided as if they were part of different families, or organizations. Notice what Jesus said “while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name.” Why did he do that? Because he wanted that “they may be one, as we are.” He wanted his people to have the same oneness that Jesus has with God the Father.
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named” (Ephesians 3:14-15)
Jesus always kept his servants, his church, in his Father’s name: “God”. But during the two church ages of Smyrna and Pergamos, men established their own name, the Roman Catholic Church (also: the Greek Orthodox Church.) Then in the next two church ages of Thyatira and Sardis, men established many different Protestant sect names. But here in the Philadelphia church age Jesus says “I’m going to put the right name back on my true people: the church of God”, the church that is made up of people who have separated themselves from the world of sin, to God.
The word church is identified by scholars as being derived from two original Greek words. One “kuriakon” means “belonging to the Lord”, the other “ecclesia” which means “the assembly called out by legitimate authority”. The church is made up of people who have answered God’s call to serve him, and only him. In Philadelphia the bridegroom calls for the marriage feast – declaring that his people don’t belong to men’s churches. They “belong to me!” Now Jesus, as the one with the authority to do so, calls them out of false church brides:
“Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4)
Jesus’ church is addressed in the New Testament as the “church of God” because the church represents the true and faithful people of God, that have been called into one body to worship God. And so in the following scriptures the church is named after God:
- “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28)
- “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth…” (I Corinthians 1:2)
- “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God” (I Corinthians 10:32)
- “But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God” (I Corinthians 11:16)
- “What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not?” (I Corinthians 11:22)
- “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” (I Corinthians 15:9)
- “…unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia” (II Corinthians 1:1)
- “For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it” (Galatians 1:13)
- “For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus” (I Thessalonians 2:14)
- “So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure” (II Thessalonians 1:4)
- “For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?” (I Timothy 3:5)
It is a privilege to bear the name of God by living faithful to God’s Word. To live this way there must be an utmost veneration and love for God ever on your heart and mind. The scriptures give us a spiritual vision of this describing it as having God’s name written in our foreheads.
- “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.” (Revelation 14:1)
- “And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.” (Revelation 22:4)
What name is written in your forehead? Does it belong to God, and do you fully belong to God? Are you a true and faithful servant in the family of God, or are you called, or identified by another name? If you belong to God, you should bare his identify in both spirit and in name. There is only one family name because there is only one family of God.
ध्यान दें कि फिलाडेल्फिया के लिए यह संदेश पूर्ण रहस्योद्घाटन संदेश के पूर्ण संदर्भ में कहां है। यह भी देखें "रहस्योद्घाटन का रोडमैप।"