The Message to Sardis

3 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars:

“I know your works; you have a name of being alive, but you are dead.^(A)

⁶ but the widow^[a] who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.^(A)

²⁶ For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.

⁴ John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,^(A)

¹⁹ “I know your works: your love, faith, service, and endurance. I know that your latest works are greater than the first.

¹³ And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God^[a] made you^[b] alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses,^(A)

¹² These are blots^[a] on your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves.^[b] They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted;^(A)

²⁴ for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.^(A)

¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.^(A)

⁵ even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ^[a]—by grace you have been saved—