John’s message to Sardis, a Roman governor from a nearby province wrote to the emperor asking if Christians should be punished merely for the “name,” or for some crime in particular. On their part, many Christian martyrs declared that they were ready to suffer death for the “name.”) But even more than in this repeated use of the term “name,” the baptismal overtones of this message may be seen in its repeated references to white, clean garments (see vv. 4 and 5). It was customary in the ancient church,