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.
Pillar in the temple. In one sense there shall be 'no temple' in the heavenly city, because there shall be no distinction of things sacred and secular; for all shall be holy to the Lord. The city shall be one great temple, in which the saints shall be not merely stones, as in the spiritual temple on earth, but eminent as pillars: immovably firm (unlike Philadelphia, the city so often shaken by earthquakes, Strabo, 12 and 13:), like the colossal pillars before Solomon's temple, Boaz (i:e., 'in it is strength') and Jachin ('it shall be established'). Those pillars were outside, these shall be within the temple.
My God - (note, Revelation 2:7.)
Go no more out, х ou-mee (G3364) eti (G2089)] - never more at all. As the elect angels are beyond possibility of falling, being under 'the blessed necessity of goodness,' so shall the saints be priests forever unto God (Revelation 1:6). The door shall once for all shut safely in forever the elect, and shut out the lost (Matthew 25:10; John 8:35: cf. Isaiah 22:23, the type, Eliakim). 'Who would not yearn for that city out of which no friend departs, into which no enemy enters?' (Augustine.)
Write upon him the name of my God - belonging to God in a special sense (Revelation 7:3; Revelation 9:4; Revelation 14:1; especially Revelation 22:4), therefore secure. As the golden plate on the high priest's forehead bore Yahweh's name, "Holiness to the Lord" (Exodus 28:36-38), so the saints in their royal priesthood shall bear His name openly, as consecrated to Him. Compare its caricature in the brand on the forehead of the beast's followers (Revelation 13:16-17), and on the harlot (Revelation 17:5: cf. Revelation 20:4).
Name of the city of my God - as one of its citizens (Revelation 21:2-3; Revelation 21:10), briefly alluded to by anticipation here. The full description forms the appropriate close of the book. The saints' citizenship is now hidden, then it shall be manifested: he shall have the right to enter in through the gates into the city (Revelation 22:14) - the city which Abraham looked for (Hebrews 11:10).
New, х kainees (G2537)]. Not the old Jerusalem, once "the holy city," but having forfeited the name. [Nea would express that it had recently come into existence; kainee (G2537), that which is new and different, superseding the worn-out old Jerusalem and its polity (Hebrews 8:13).] 'John, in the gospel, applies to the old city the Greek, Hierosolyma; but in the Apocalypse, always, to the heavenly city, the Hebrew, Hierousalem. The Hebrew is the original and holier name; the Greek, the recent secular one' (Bengel).
My new name - at present incommunicable: only known to God; to be hereafter revealed as the believer's own in union with God in Christ. Christ's name written on him denotes he shall be wholly Christ's. New also relates to Christ, who shall assume a new character (answering to His "new name"), taking with His saints a kingdom; not what He had with the Father before the worlds, but that earned by His humiliation as Son of man. Gibbon ('Decline and Fall,' ch. 64:) gives an unwilling testimony to the fulfillment of prophecy as to Philadelphia temporally: 'Among the Greek churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect-a column in a scene of ruins; a pleasing example that the paths of honour and safety may sometimes be the same.'