The Church in Thyatira
18“To the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write: “The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things: 19“I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first. 20But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. 21I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22Behold, I will throw her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great oppression, unless they repent of her works. 23I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. 24But to you I say, to the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as don’t have this teaching, who don’t know what some call ‘the deep things of Satan,’ to you I say, I am not putting any other burden on you. 25Nevertheless, hold that which you have firmly until I come. 26He who overcomes, and he who keeps my works to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. 27He will rule them with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots; as I also have received of my Father: 28and I will give him the morning star. 29He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
Jesus introduced himself to each church in a different form. He gave each one a symbolic picture of himself, perhaps so that the churches would grasp their calling and listen closely to the word of God.
To the church in Ephesus he said that he walks among the seven stars and the seven golden lampstands; to the church in Smyrna, that he is the first and the last, who was dead and has come to life. To Pergamum he was the one who has the sharp sword; to Sardis, the one who has the seven Spirits and the seven stars; to Philadelphia, the one who holds the key; and to Laodicea, the church that drew such heavy rebuke, he was the Beginning of God’s creation.
Revelation 2:18
18“To the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write: “The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things:
To the church in Thyatira, Jesus introduced himself as the Son of God, saying that his eyes are like a flame of fire and his feet like burnished brass. Such eyes and such feet seem to carry a warning: he protects his own completely, and judges those who oppose him just as thoroughly.
That he went out of his way to introduce himself as the Son of God tells us how fiercely the church in Thyatira was under Satan’s attack. And yet the Son of God laid aside his throne and bore the cross to atone for their sins; his message, it seems, is that they too should boldly throw off the yoke of sin. Jesus, who came as the Messiah to save his own people, was also declaring his resolve to fight against Satan, who torments them. It was this absolute love that made Jesus Christ willing to bear the cross and able to leave his throne behind.
To each church he reveals himself in a way that fits its surroundings and circumstances, telling them that he can help them, so they need not be afraid and must hold fast to their faith. His love is more than enough to cover heaven and earth. You are covered by a love that will never waver, so you need not fear. With eyes like a flame of fire he watches so that Satan cannot carry out his cunning schemes, and with feet strong as burnished brass he keeps you from stumbling, so you have nothing to worry about. How could Satan hold back a love like flame, or escape the mighty power of God, strong as burnished brass? If only you live out the word, Satan will never get past the fence of God’s protection.
Thyatira lies midway between Pergamum and Smyrna. Its industry was especially advanced, so metalworking, wool weaving, leather tanning, and dyeing all flourished there. As industry grew and trades of every kind developed, the city became a major crossroads. Prosperity leaves people feeling no need of God. Wealthy Thyatira worshiped the Roman emperor, and temples of every kind, to Apollo the sun god and to Artemis the goddess of beauty, were scattered across the city. So many temples meant that it was hard for Christians to go on living out their faith, and hard to spread the gospel.
In the world today, people are living without restraint, as if to say that life is short, so they had better enjoy it. They are absorbed in socializing, in hobbies and travel, in eating and drinking. Of course a life with some ease in it is needed, but they pour much of their time into what delights the eye and make no effort to look into their own hearts. That is why this is an especially hard time to preach the gospel. What is more, with heretical teaching spreading everywhere, the world is racing toward the final judgment. In times like these, the church must proclaim God’s word all the more, and strive to bring even one more person to receive God.
Revelation 2:19-20
19“I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first. 20But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.
Jesus Christ said he knew all the works, love, faith, service, and patient endurance of the church in Thyatira, and that its last works were more than its first. But he goes on to say that they tolerated the false prophetess Jezebel, leaving her free to seduce his servants into sexual immorality and to make them eat things sacrificed to idols, and from this we can see that the praise he gave first was not really praise.
Here was a church whose works, love, faith, service, and patient endurance he knew, a church praised because its later zeal and self-giving were greater than its first. How, then, could such a church tolerate the false prophetess Jezebel? Their faith must have gone wrong somewhere.
The church is the gathering of those who have received Jesus Christ. Every church, then, must do its work with the word at the center. Sheer quantity of work does not make it devotion; the work must have a good purpose, with God at its center. Even if we do only one thing, it must be something that exalts the name of God, and the church must always carry out its work with the aim of saving people.
But the church in Thyatira did the things churches everywhere routinely do, and they ran their work by human ideas rather than by the will of God. Theirs was the zeal of people not yet born again through the word, and their love, faith, service, and patient endurance were probably practiced as they themselves saw fit. In other words, they were zealous in the name of Jesus, but salvation was not their aim.
Here is what we need to know: it is necessary to do what all churches commonly do, but only when we understand what God called us for can we do good works. Yet churches today have grown so used to a formal faith that unless they hold the same events as other churches, they feel they are not doing their work properly. They feel they are not living out their faith as they should. But God tells us that the church must work to save people, with the purpose of revealing his glory. Even if we do only one thing, he is telling us to do it wholeheartedly and honestly, according to his will.
Jesus Christ said he knew the love the church in Thyatira had shown. What, then, is this “love they showed”? I would like to consider it in light of the faith that led them to tolerate Jezebel.
They probably held the belief that the church must embrace anyone at all with love, no matter what. So they did not reprove even those who spread falsehood or those who sinned. They did this because they were indifferent to what kind of faith God saves. They would have thought that revival meant keeping even one more person in the church through kindness, rather than harming relationships by saying unwelcome things.
But this kind of human love can lead to the grave error of tolerating unbelief and turning a blind eye to those who teach falsehood. The church is indeed a place that embraces people and pours out God’s love, but it is not a place where we judge by human love. Whatever unsettles and shakes the church with falsehood must be brought under church discipline, and firmly, if only to protect the other members. Only when we work to save people can we show love as it should be shown and proclaim God’s will faithfully. If the church wraps everyone in love regardless, out of fear that people will leave, and tolerates wrong faith in order to be well spoken of, it will collapse. In the end such a church will fail to see through Satan’s schemes and will be unable to fight the good fight.
When the church in Thyatira failed to hold a right faith, Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess, taught them to worship idols. Her teaching was serious enough for Jesus to rebuke it, but the members of the church in Thyatira had no interest in God’s word, and they did not see their own fault. They tried to behave better in human terms, with no regard for the truth, and so they deceived themselves into thinking they were living their faith rightly. They acted this way because they had never moved beyond the understanding and common sense of the world. Morality is not faith; good behavior is not belief.
As the church in Thyatira showed love and labored zealously, more people began coming than at first, and the church grew. A church must indeed be kind to everyone, care for their hearts, and love them. But even that love must have the word at its center. The problem is that even if one person realizes their faith has gone wrong, that person will hardly sense how serious it is, because so many around them are only going through the motions. All the word they know is what Jezebel taught them, and so they cannot break free.
This kind of faith appears in today’s churches as well. Church members commit adultery with the world and chase the desires and pleasures it offers, yet they do not take it seriously at all. The world and the church are going completely different ways, but because the church strives for the world’s approval, its faith makes easy compromises with the world.
Worse still, because many churches only go through the motions of faith, they do not truly recognize this as sin. That is how pastors can preach falsehood to please people and still be tolerated. Even those who sit under a wrong message fail to discern it, since they do not see that falsehood is sin.
What grieves me is that even when people suspect their church is teaching a wrong faith, they cannot bring themselves to move to a church that preaches the truth, because they count the years they have served the church and the offerings they have given as their own merit. The cause is that they do not know how great a blessing it is to enter the Kingdom of God, nor do they have the faith to see that simply hearing the word is a miracle. The word is salvation; when a church fails to proclaim it, that church cannot extend the Kingdom of God.
Let me ask you one thing, then. Would you tell your family to eat food made from rotten ingredients? No one would cook with spoiled ingredients on the grounds that they were fresh once, or that they cost money and are a shame to waste.
For your health you throw out all spoiled food, so why do you say it is fine when the spiritual food you are given is rotten? You take time at the market to pick fresh vegetables; why, then, when you have a Bible, do you not read it for your salvation? Over time, the difference between wholesome food and unwholesome becomes plain in the body, and our health changes. So it is with truth and falsehood: as time passes, they will be revealed as wisdom and folly, and will part into heaven and hell.
People tend to think that, formal or not, so many are going to church nowadays that God could hardly abandon them all. But let us not forget that in the days of Noah, when nearly six billion people lived on the earth, he saved only eight. And let us keep firmly in mind that if we do not live by the word, God could abandon the whole human race. The truth is beyond comparison with the food of this world that we eat for the body, since eternal life hangs on it.
To the church in Thyatira, so proud of having served with all they had, Christ said that their deeds were not his will. He said that if Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and those of them who followed her did not repent, he would throw them into great oppression, kill their children, and repay them according to what they had done.
This does not mean that God kills children because their parents did wrong. Just as children are blessed when they honor the parents who passed God on to them, children who see the corrupt faith of their parents copy it, commit the same sins, and die for their own sins. Because the parents’ faith shapes the faith of their children so powerfully, we must pass on the word rightly. To hand the word on to our children when we know it only roughly is pride. Looking at the church in Thyatira, which toiled so devotedly and yet received no praise, we must know the truth for certain, pass it on, and live lives that set an example.
Jezebel was a wicked woman who led the people of Israel to worship Baal and corrupted Israel spiritually. And now her ideas are flowing through the church in Thyatira. These wicked ideas are corrupting them, yet they are spiritually blind, so they do not realize it, and they are not stopping her either.
Christ gave the church in Thyatira the chance to repent of their sins, yet they could not let go of their own thinking. When Jesus looked at Judas Iscariot and said that this was the man who would betray him, the disciples did not understand; if we are spiritually blind as they were, we too will fail to discern.
For the sake of the church, we must firmly stop anyone who acts outside the word. This matters because it is not merely one person’s problem but a deeply dangerous sin that stands in the way of others’ salvation. Only when the church proclaims the word of God rightly, and its people persevere in living by that word, does the church become what it should be and are its people able to be saved. When the church makes its decision in faith and responds firmly, those with a false faith cannot practice falsehood; but if it neither reproves evil nor discerns it, the church will collapse in the end.
An apple does not escape rotting just because it hangs on the tree, for a bird has only to peck it a little and it soon goes bad. Satan does not bother trying to tear from Christ those of us who hang on him. He simply wounds us and makes us rot from that spot. However large the apple, if it rots on the tree, the tree loses its beauty and the fruit is worth nothing at market. So too, if one of us rots, Jesus, who loves that person, will be mocked.
I hope you will not be overconfident that your faith stands firm, because if, through a moment’s carelessness, Satan puts even a small scratch in your faith, it will begin to rot from there and become hard to turn back. You must always examine your own faith and strive not to fall away spiritually. Look to see whether your pastor is preaching sound truth, and whether you yourselves are living by the word of God day by day.
Revelation 2:21
21I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.
Christ gave the church in Thyatira the chance to turn back. But once they fell for the temptation Jezebel held out, they lost their spiritual discernment. Because falsehood settles deep within, like a delicacy, it robs people even of eternal life. Just as God gave them the chance to repent, he will have given you many chances as well. He has caused you to hear the truth and given you a life in which you can show him that word by faith; if you still do not repent, you may never be given another chance.
Those who hold the same faith as Jezebel will be judged with her. Whatever excuse the church in Thyatira may make, if its people miss the chance to repent, they will not be forgiven. Even now, many people say they have lived their faith wrongly all this time because their pastor did not teach them rightly. Others say they do not go to church because churchgoers have not lived as they should. But everyone who falls into the second death must answer for it themselves. People who blame everything on others and never leave the place of sin are just like the sick at the pool of Bethesda.
God has already given the Bible to everyone and has sent servants who proclaim the true word, so no one has any excuse. Even if someone says they did not believe the Bible because they served another god, or did not go to church because they were busy with the affairs of the world, they cannot escape the final judgment. For God has already given us his law.
God gave the Bible for people’s salvation, yet they neither read it nor live by it, and that is why they are spiritually blind. And because they will not let go of their greed for the world, they have shut their ears to the truth. The false pastors who seduced their flocks with worldly words wholly contrary to God’s will will never be forgiven their sin, but neither will the churchgoers who became one in heart and mind with them and committed spiritual adultery.
People in the church think that only those who follow other religions and bow to idols are guilty of idolatry. But we must remember the Lord’s words that it is in the church, with Jesus Christ as the dividing line, that the wheat and the weeds will be separated.
Those who walk with God by the word and by faith, according to the will of Jesus Christ, are the wheat. If people go to church yet think, act, and live by the same habits as the people of the world, they will be sharply rebuked, as the church in Thyatira was. The reason is that on the last day Christ will judge Satan together with every evil fruit Jezebel has borne.
God has caused you to hear this word today because he is giving you yet another chance, to grant you salvation. It is not, as we excuse ourselves, that we have had no chance; if we cling to our own desires and our own righteousness even after being given the chance to turn back, we will miss even the last chance. May you always grasp the word of truth faithfully and stand firm on the rock of Christ.
It was absurd, but an idea was spreading through the church in Thyatira: to know what sin is, one must experience it. Following Jezebel’s teaching that sin makes the grace of God abound all the more, they committed the sin of joining in idolatry and sexual immorality. What was more foolish still was their conviction that even if they took part in such sacrifices, they would never truly worship idols, because they had faith.
This is folly born of not knowing how cunning and crafty Satan is, for it is like someone who drinks and insists they will never get drunk. It is like raising a heavy roof without first putting up the pillars. Or it is like children who promise at first that they can play games for a fixed time, only to find it has become a habit of staying up all night. So playing games is not so much wicked in itself; the sin is being held by the habit and wasting the time we owe to God.
What I want to say to you is this: make the effort to set aside quiet time to study the word and meditate on it. When we are constantly exposed to busy, restless surroundings, we have neither the time nor the room to look back on ourselves, and no time to reflect, make plans, or pray. For us, such a life is perilous ground, where it is easy to sin.
Because habits are hard to change, we have to work at it. Those who take no time for quiet conversation with God are always distracted, lose the ability to judge deeply, and lack the wisdom to speak and listen with sincerity when they talk with others. If we cannot look back on ourselves like this, we do not notice even when we grow proud, and when others offer us advice and counsel we lose our temper. That is how we stay in the place of sin.
The advice and counsel of others is God’s blessing, by which he makes us see what we cannot see for ourselves, and God’s love, by which he makes us look into what we have failed to notice. The church in Thyatira will be judged if it does not heed the warning now spoken to it. Counsel from brothers and sisters in the faith is likewise a love that saves us. So only the humble take counsel to heart and seize the opportunity when it comes.
Revelation 2:25-28
25Nevertheless, hold that which you have firmly until I come. 26He who overcomes, and he who keeps my works to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. 27He will rule them with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots; as I also have received of my Father: 28and I will give him the morning star.
What are you holding on to more tightly than God right now? If you are clinging to the world’s power and authority, its wealth and its pleasures, you must cast them away like refuse.
The Lord told the church in Thyatira to hold firmly what they had until he comes. They were to cling to the truth of Christ, to the hope of heaven, and to the faith that knows Jesus Christ will come again. In offering authority over the nations to him who overcomes and keeps his works to the end, he was promising the reward of salvation on the day Jesus Christ returns.
If his people overcome hard circumstances and Satan’s persecution to the end and preach the gospel, he will give them a great reward. By saying that he would rule the nations with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots, he gave the saints strength: to them he would give reward and salvation, and Satan, who persecuted them, he would judge by casting him into the eternal lake of fire.
He also said he would give the morning star to the one who overcomes. Rescuing sinners from death was already a love beyond all we could take in, yet he granted the further grace of giving us Christ himself, who is never defeated. The power of Jesus Christ, who is above all, guards our faith.
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies”: with these words he meant that what the Holy Spirit says to the churches is salvation itself, and because being able to hear the Spirit is a blessing, he tells them to listen. When the Holy Spirit makes known to us the perfect will of God and the sacrifice of Christ, and guides us into the truth, we must obey in faith. After all, for people formed from dust to be granted the blessing of hearing what the Holy Spirit says is a miracle like having our debt of sin canceled.
Friends, I hope you will listen closely to what the Holy Spirit is saying to our church and to you right now, and to what he has commanded. As you keep the faith according to the word, we will become a church that God approves, and we will be commended as an honest church walking rightly in the faith. People may make their plans, but without the standard of the word they cannot walk in the truth as they should.
Jesus said that he himself is the truth, and that only by living out the word can we meet the Lord of life. If, in gratitude to Jesus who bore the cross, you quietly hold fast to your faith, you will live forever with Jesus Christ, the morning star.
The words of Jesus Christ to the seven churches recorded in Revelation are our hope and our blessing. In hearing the rebukes the seven churches received, we have been given the chance to repent, and in hearing the praise they received, all we need is to hold the same faith they held. Through their rebuke and their praise we have come to understand the deep love of God, and we have met the love of a God who is patient to the end. If we live by God’s will and love him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might, we will receive the wonderful blessings promised to the seven churches.
May you go on building up the inheritance of God in perfect love, faith, service, and patient endurance. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.