10. patience--"endurance." "The word of My endurance" is My
Gospel word, which teaches patient endurance in expectation
of my coming
(Re 1:9).
My endurance is the endurance which I require, and which I
practice. Christ Himself now endures, patiently waiting until
the usurper be cast out, and all "His enemies be made His footstool."
So, too, His Church, for the joy before her of sharing His coming
kingdom, endures patiently. Hence, in
Re 3:11,
follows, "Behold, I come quickly."
I also--The reward is in kind: "because thou didst keep," &c. "I
also (on My side) will keep thee," &c.
from--Greek, "(so as to deliver thee) out of," not
to exempt from temptation.
the hour of temptation--the appointed season of
affliction and temptation (so in
De 4:34
the plagues are called "the temptations of Egypt"), literally,
"the temptation": the sore temptation which is coming on: the
time of great tribulation before Christ's second coming.
to try them that dwell upon the earth--those who are of earth,
earthy
(Re 8:13).
"Dwell" implies that their home is earth, not heaven. All mankind,
except the elect
(Re 13:8, 14).
The temptation brings out the fidelity of those kept by Christ
and hardens the unbelieving reprobates
(Re 9:20, 21; 16:11, 21).
The particular persecutions which befell Philadelphia shortly after,
were the earnest of the great last tribulation before Christ's coming,
to which the Church's attention in all ages is directed.
JFB.
Picture Study Bible