‘I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire that you may become rich, and white clothes so that you may clothe yourself and so that the shame of your nakedness should not be revealed, and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.'
They were famed for buying expensive goods. Let them therefore now take notice and ‘buy' what is of worth. The purchases mentioned here are like the purchases made from the water-seller in Isaiah 55:1, ‘without money and without price'. Jesus is advising them to obtain them from Him, bought at the cost of His own blood. They consist of:
· the true gold, refined by fire, referring to purified lives lived in obedience to God, refined by tribulation and endurance;
· pure white clothing, the righteousness of Christ which will cover them before God and hide their nakedness before the angels, and the resulting righteousness of good lives which is the result;
· the truly valuable eye salve of the Spirit that they might see and understand the truth.
In Zechariah 13:7-9, when the shepherd has been smitten and the sheep have been scattered God promised to restore one third of the people, saying ‘I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried, they shall call on my name and I will hear them. I will say it is my people, and they shall say the Lord is my God'. And again in Malachi 3:3 he says of the Lord's messenger, ‘who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when he appears? For He is like a refiner's fire --- he will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, and they shall offer unto the Lord offerings in righteousness' See also Proverbs 22:1. So the idea of refined gold is of people who have truly turned from sin to the Lord and offer Him righteous offerings, which in the New Testament sense means righteous prayers with thanksgiving and full dedication (Romans 12:1; Hebrews 13:15; compare Revelation 5:8).
White clothing is regularly what heavenly beings are seen as wearing, suggesting purity, righteousness and acceptability to God. In the Old Testament God's people are made white by God's forgiveness (Isaiah 1:18); and by tribulation and martyrdom (Daniel 11:35; Daniel 12:10). In Revelation 19:8 the fine clothing of Christ's bride the church is ‘the righteous acts of the holy ones', God's people, for receiving the imputed righteousness of Christ necessarily results in righteous actions, but the clothing there is not specifically said to be white.
Those who are redeemed to God are given white clothing (Revelation 6:11) as will be overcomers (Revelation 3:4-5). And the gathering in Heaven of the people of God is in white clothing, because they have gone through great tribulation and have washed their clothes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:9; Revelation 7:13-14).
So the buying of white clothing refers (1) to the obtaining of cleansing and imputed righteousness through the cross of Christ, (2) to the resulting lives lived in purity, producing good thoughts, attitudes and actions, (3) to the enduring of tribulation for Christ's sake, and (4) to the goodness of God in the provision of such clothing to the redeemed. There is a subtle suggestion that, while they pride themselves in the black clothing they produce, they need to consider their need for white clothing.
They boast about their eye salve so let them truly anoint their eyes with the true eye salve. To anoint their eyes with eye salve is to pray to God that He will open their eyes through the Spirit so that the eyes of their understanding may be enlightened (Ephesians 1:18), and they may understand His truth (Isaiah 35:5), and so that their eyes may not be dim, which will result from looking to the King Who reigns in righteousness (Isaiah 32:3). Thus they should look to their Maker with eyes that have respect to the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 17:7).