Revelation 3:19
(Job 5:17; Proverbs 3:11-12; Hebrews 12:5-6.) So in the case of Manasseh (II Chronicles 33:11-13).
As many—All. "He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. And shalt thou be an exception? If excepted from suffering the scourge, thou art excepted from the number of the sons" [AUGUSTINE]. This is an encouragement to Laodicea not to despair, but to regard the rebuke as a token for good, if she profit by it.
I love—Greek, "philo," the love of gratuitous affection, independent of any grounds for esteem in the object loved. But in the case of Philadelphia (Revelation 3:9), "I have loved thee" (Greek, "egapesa") with the love of esteem, founded on the judgment. Compare the note in my English Gnomon of BENGEL, John 21:15-17.
I rebuke—The "I" in the Greek stands first in the sentence emphatically. I in My dealings, so altogether unlike man's, in the case of all whom I love, rebuke. The Greek, "elencho," is the same verb as in John 16:8, "(the Holy Ghost) will convince (rebuke unto conviction) the world of sin."
chasten—"chastise." The Greek, "paideu," which in classical Greek means to instruct, in the New Testament means to instruct by chastisement (Hebrews 12:5-6). David was rebuked unto conviction, when he cried, "I have sinned against the Lord"; the chastening followed when his child was taken from him (II Samuel 12:13-14). In the divine chastening, the sinner at one and the same time winces under the rod and learns righteousness.
be zealous—habitually. Present tense in the Greek, of a lifelong course of zeal. The opposite of "lukewarm." The Greek by alliteration marks this: Laodicea had not been "hot" (Greek, "zestos"), she is therefore urged to "be zealous" (Greek, "zeleue"): both are derived from the same verb, Greek, "zeo," "to boil."
repent—Greek aorist: of an act to be once for all done, and done at once.