‘And he says to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He who is unrighteous, let him still behave unrighteously, and he who is filthy, let him still be made filthy, and he who is righteous, let him still behave righteously, and he who is holy let him still be made holy”.'
With this compare Daniel 12:9-10. But Daniel had to seal the book for it could not finally apply until the new age when Christ had come. John, however, is in the new age and there is nothing to necessarily intervene between His time and the final fulfilment of God's purposes. His readers are not to see it as something that will happen in the distant future but as something that is almost upon them. Now the book need not be sealed, it is about to come into fulfilment.
Revelation 22:11 has two parallels, the righteous and the unrighteous, the holy and the ‘unclean'. The world is divided into two. Firstly those who respond to Christ and are declared righteous in God's sight through His offering of Himself once for all on their behalf, with resulting righteous behaviour in their lives, and those who reject him and are still unrighteous before God, and thus behave unrighteously. And secondly those who are acceptable to God and can come into His presence, and those who are defiled and cannot approach Him. All their righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Those who are acceptable to God as ‘holy' are those who have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14; Revelation 22:14), and those who are satisfied with themselves and seek no cleansing are filthy.
He is warning of the consequence of men's attitudes. What men are will result in what their lives become. Self-improvement is in vain in heavenly terms. It may make us more acceptable to man but it will not make us more acceptable to God. The righteous are those who respond to Christ who become ‘righteous' in God's eyes, in a state of acceptability to Him. They become ‘holy', set apart to God and sanctified in Christ. The unrighteous are those who fail to respond to Christ and are liable to condemnation (although in man's eyes some may be very righteous). The ‘filthy' are those who, while they may be bathed and washed, and may be in fine clothes, fill God's heart with ‘holy horror' because of their earthliness and spiritual uncleanness. Those who are holy may be clothed in dirty clothing through no fault of their own (if John was working in the mines he may have been in such a state), but their hearts are pure and fixed on things above and God gladly accepts their approach.
John is not, of course, telling men to be satisfied with their position. He is making them aware of the choice available. He is saying, I have told you what is to come. Now it is up to you what you do. They must do what they choose.