Missing from this letter and the letter to the Laodiceans is any commendation. The only works that Christ speaks of are superficial, lacking sincerity and vital heartfelt love for God.
‘Strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.’ In the context of the rest of the message it indicates God will remove that church. God will remove even what is good from that church in time. Whether he would call out the active and the true and the loyal believers, or whether as they died or moved away they would not be replaced, it does not say. But God would bring about a judgement on the church. It would be his sentence. Maybe an effective ministry would be taken away from them. That has happened in the history of the church, many times. We have seen it in our land, around the country. We have seen churches wither and die, and it seems that God’s way of judging them was to remove the sound ministry to which they were no longer entitled, and error came in even from the pulpit.