Revelation 22:14; Blessed Are They That Do His Commandments

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Revelation 22:14 (KJV)  Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 

Following the appropriation of the three titles to Himself, Jesus pronounces the seventh and last latitude of the book (cf. Revelation 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7) – Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Revelation 1:3 (KJV)  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. 

Revelation 14:13 (KJV)  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. 

Revelation 16:15 (KJV)  Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. 

Revelation 19:19 (KJV)  And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 

Revelation 22:7 (KJV)  Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

Jesus is the one who pronounces the beatitudes at Revelation 16:15 and 22:6 too.

John Himself gives the beatitudes at Revelation 1:3 and 20:6. At Revelation 14:13 the beatitude comes from a heavenly voice, and the one at Revelation 19:9 is from one of the angels who have the seven bowls. The blessings of this book come from a variety of sources, all of them authoritative.

The final blessing deals with the ultimate issues of life – access to the Tree of Life (Revelation 22:2) and entrance to the Holy City (Revelation 21:25). The blessed one are those who wash their robes in order to gain these supreme privileges. The allusion is to the heavenly multitude who in Revelation 7:14 have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 22:2 (KJV)  In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 

Revelation 21:25 (KJV)  And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 

The need for this cleansing comes when people defile the spiritual apparel through sin, like most of the church of Sardis as cited in Revelation 3:4. These described in this beatitude have repented and clothed themselves in the pure white linen that stands for the righteous deeds of the saints (Revelation 19:8) (Kiddle). They are all believers in Christ, not just the martyrs as sometimes contended.

The right over the Tree of life is presumably the authority to eat the fruit of the tree (Lee, Beckwith). The overcomer in the church in Ephesus receives a similar promise in Revelation 2:7.

Revelation 2:7 (KJV)  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

The sequence of placing authority over the Tree of Life before access through the gates of the city has seemed illogical to some, that is, an apocalypse way of thinking (eg. Ladd) but this is not faulty logic. It is a case of referencing the greater privilege first because it includes all others, including entrance to the city. The suggestion that partaking of the Tree of Life pertains to the citizens within the city and entrance through the city’s gates relates the nations, is also faulty. Both are relevant to all believers: right over the Tree of Life and access to the way that leads to it (Lee). The latter promise resembles that to the church in Philadelphia in Revelation 3:12.

Revelation 3:12 (KJV)  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: 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.

[Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 – An Exegetical Commentary, Moody, 1995, 506]