Although Sardis was known far and wide as a congregation full of the life of God, Jesus could see that a spirit of death had permeated the church. When Jesus looked at the fledgling congregation meeting in Philadelphia, He didn t see the lack of success that worldly-minded Christians would see; He saw a group of believers who would faithfully follow Him no matter what they encountered. The last of the seven churches Jesus would address was the nauseating, self-satisfied congregation of Laodicea. Their prosperity deluded them into believing they were godly Christians, when actually they were spiritually impoverished.
