What does Revelation 3:10 mean?

Jesus did not bring any accusation against the church at Philadelphia. Only Philadelphia and Smyrna have this distinction. Rather, Instead, He commends them for patient endurance. These believers did not give up or give in to the oppressors' attempts to convert them to a false form of Judaism. Because the church showed such patience, Jesus promised to keep it "from the hour of trial."

Jesus' words make it clear that the church will not go through the hour of trial, a reference to the "tribulation," a seven-year period of intense earthly distress and the subject of much of the book of Revelation. The Greek word translated "from" is ek, meaning "out of." Unlike other forms of hardship, where God promises to be with us, or to keep us "through" or "in" those times of difficulty, the church will be kept out of the tribulation. If the church were destined to be kept through the tribulation, the Greek word dia, meaning "through," could have been used.

Further, Jesus said the hour of trial is coming on the whole world, not on the church. The judgments unleashed in the tribulation will fall on "those who dwell on the earth"; that is, on those whose home is the world, not heaven. Jesus will take Christians out of the world before the tribulation begins, in an event known as the rapture.