<p>3:4- see on Rev. 2:17.</p><p><em>But you have a few names in Sardis that did not defile their clothes, and they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy</em>- The Lord refers to His people not simply as 'people' but as &quot;names&quot;. The Hebrew idea of a name is that it expresses personality and character. We are not numbers on a screen, but unique persons, known intimately to the Lord. These faithful ones were undefiled by the fact the others in their church were apostate- yet another disproof of any theory of 'guilt by association'. The clothes undefiled refer to the gift of righteousness imputed at baptism abiding; just as the gift of the Spirit received abode with them (:3). &quot;Walk with me&quot; is yet another reminder that the destiny of the believer is to share the Lord's destiny; all that is true of Him is to become true of us. And this includes the idea of being &quot;worthy&quot;, which we are not in our own strength, but only on account of being in Him, the worthy one.</p><p>Again we must give full weight to the fact that the &quot;few&quot; in Sardis who had not defiled their clothes attended an apostate ecclesia; and yet they are <em>not </em>seen as &quot;defiled&quot; by the Lord Jesus. This is proof positive that there is no such thing as guilt by association with erring members of an ecclesia. Those faithful members were not rebuked for not disfellowshipping the others. The Lord&rsquo;s criticism of the ecclesias seems to be that they had allowed false teaching to develop, rather than the fact they hadn&rsquo;t separated from it. Smyrna was an ecclesia which received no criticism at all from the Lord; they weren't rebuked for not disfellowshipping the other local ecclesias who were apostate (Rev. 2:8-11). The elders at Sardis, an ecclesia holding many false teachers, were told to strengthen what remained (the Greek is usually used regarding people)- they were to strengthen the faithful minority, but nothing was said about withdrawing from them because they fellowshipped weak brethren.</p>