Awake: someone who is “dead” in verse 1 cannot logically be told to Awake, but this is part of the author’s style. See Eph 5.4 for similar use of these figures. This word should not be understood to mean “awake from sleep”; on the contrary, it means “Become alive again,” “Wake up from death,” or “Begin living as Christians (or, followers of me) again.”

And strengthen what remains and is on the point of death: the verb strengthen means, in this context, to restore to strength, to renew, to invigorate, to put strength (vigor) back into. New Jerusalem Bible translates “put some resolve into what little vigour you have left.” And what remains refers to their Christian virtues or activities that had been neglected and were about to die, that is, about to disappear completely.

For I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God: Christ has investigated what the Christians at Sardis have done, and he has discovered that their works do not measure up to the standards set by God (for your works see 2.2, 19). The word perfect here translates the perfect passive participle of a verb that means to complete, fulfill, bring to perfection. Moffatt translates “nothing you have done is complete”; Revised English Bible has “brought to completion.” The implication seems to be that the Christians at Sardis had begun to do things as Christians but had lost their enthusiasm and not finished what they had begun. Another translation model for this clause is “For I have discovered (or, found out) that in God’s opinion you have not completed anything that you have done.”

The phrase in the sight of my God means from God’s point of view, or the way God looks at things. God’s standards have not been met. For this use of the Greek adverb “before,” here translated in the sight of, see 1 Tim 2.3; 5.4. The possessive my God means “the God I serve (or, worship),” not “the God I possess.”

An alternate translation model for this verse is:

• I have found that your lives as Christians do not meet the standards that my God has set. So wake up from your spiritual sleep, and renew (or, restore) the strength of the Christian qualities you still have, before they die (or, disappear) completely.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .