Chapter
Verse

Revelation 3:10

ESV Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.
NIV Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
NASB Because you have kept My word of perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of the testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who live on the earth.
CSB Because you have kept my command to endure, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is going to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth.
NLT 'Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world.
KJV Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
NKJV Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

What does Revelation 3:10 mean?

Jesus did not bring any accusation against the church at Philadelphia. Only Philadelphia and Smyrna have this distinction. Rather, Instead, He commends them for patient endurance. These believers did not give up or give in to the oppressors' attempts to convert them to a false form of Judaism. Because the church showed such patience, Jesus promised to keep it "from the hour of trial."

Jesus' words make it clear that the church will not go through the hour of trial, a reference to the "tribulation," a seven-year period of intense earthly distress and the subject of much of the book of Revelation. The Greek word translated "from" is ek, meaning "out of." Unlike other forms of hardship, where God promises to be with us, or to keep us "through" or "in" those times of difficulty, the church will be kept out of the tribulation. If the church were destined to be kept through the tribulation, the Greek word dia, meaning "through," could have been used.

Further, Jesus said the hour of trial is coming on the whole world, not on the church. The judgments unleashed in the tribulation will fall on "those who dwell on the earth"; that is, on those whose home is the world, not heaven. Jesus will take Christians out of the world before the tribulation begins, in an event known as the rapture.
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