Exegesis: Some Thoughts on Revelation 1:3

"Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near." 

Revelation 1:3 

Since Revelation has been granted by the Father to Jesus Christ, and through him to an angel, the Apostle John, and the church around the world (1:1-2), the one who reads it aloud is blessed. To be blessed (μακάριος, makarios) is to experience a joy in God that is not subject to the ebb and flow of life in this world. To takes John’s book in hand, gather the people of God, and read it aloud to them will cause the one so doing to experience this kind of joy because in the reading he will become part of the process of revealing God’s truth to God’s people. And, of course, the reason John highlighted the one who reads it “aloud” is that this was the typical way of presenting the Word of God to the gathered people of God in the first century. 

Notice that John introduces the word “prophecy” here (προφητεία, prophēteia), meaning an authoritative word from God either applied to a current situation or with regard to a future situation or both. In this case, the word is appropriate, for this revelation has to do with things “that must soon take place” and with things that have already taken place. And while the word here for “soon” (τάχος, tachos) means “without delay, at once, speedily” (Analytical Lexicon, Friberg), the things to follow may stretch out over centuries or millennia of time because God’s sense of timing is not the same as ours. 

In addition to the one who reads the prophecy aloud, those who hear it read will likewise enter into the joy of God, assuming that they keep what is written, for they  will gain insight into the things of God, the meaning of their present circumstances, and the certainty of his purposes and plans in the world. The word here for “keep” (τηρέω, tēreō) means to guard or protect something, and thus to “keep” the prophecy of God is value it, protect it, and obey it. In addition to what I have mentioned, John says that those who keep the revelation will be blessed, “for the time is near.” Again, this doesn't necessarily mean that the end of all things is moments or days away, but it does mean that we are in the final stage of the present age and that God will soon bring the current order of things to its appointed end. Therefore, those who keep the words of Revelation will be blessed, for they will be welcomed into the eternal joy of their Master, the Lord Jesus Christ.