THE OBEDIENT CHURCH / 3:7–13 About twenty-five miles southeast of Sardis on a high plateau sat the city of Philadelphia. The city was also about one hundred miles due east of Smyrna (another city on the letter carrier’s route). Christ had no words of rebuke for this church. Though small and struggling, the church in Philadelphia had stayed true to Christ, and he told them simply to hold on to what they had. 3:7 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is