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 showed each church a symbolic image, probably so that the churches would realize their mission and listen to God’s word.

To the church in Ephesus he said that he walks among the seven stars and the seven golden lamp stands, and to the church in Smyrna that he is the first and the last, who was dead and has come to life. To the church in Pergamum he called himself the one who has the sharp sword, and to the church in Sardis the one who has the seven Spirits and the seven stars; to the church in Philadelphia he called himself the one who has the key, and to the church in Laodicea, which received much rebuke, the Beginning of 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 said that his eyes are like a flame of fire and his feet are like burnished brass, and he introduced himself as the Son of God. In saying that his eyes are like a flame of fire and his feet like burnished brass, he seems to be giving a warning: he is the one who protects believers completely and judges those who oppose him completely.

He went out of his way to introduce himself as the Son of God. Look at that, and you can see how severely the church in Thyatira was being attacked by Satan. Even so, this is probably a word telling them that they too must boldly throw off the yoke of sin, because the Son of God set aside his throne and carried the cross to redeem their sins. Jesus, who came as the Messiah to save his people, was also showing his resolve to fight against Satan, who torments believers. Because Jesus Christ had this absolute love, he willingly carried the cross and could give up his throne.

He shows himself to each church in a way that fits its surroundings and situation, and tells it not to be afraid but to hold on to its faith, because he can help. That love more than covers heaven and earth. We are covered by a love that never wavers, so we need not be afraid. He watches with eyes like a flame of fire so that Satan cannot devise cunning schemes, and he guards us with feet strong as brass so that we do not stumble; so we have nothing to worry about. How could Satan stop a love like a flame of fire, or escape God’s mighty power, which is like brass? As long as we 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 well developed, so metalworking, wool weaving, leather working, and dyeing flourished. As its industry grew, the development of all kinds of trades made it a hub of travel. Human wealth has no need of God. Wealthy Thyatira worshiped the Roman emperor, and all kinds of temples to Apollo, the sun god, and Artemis, the goddess of beauty, were scattered across the city. So many temples meant surroundings in which believers found it hard to keep up their life of faith, and in which the gospel was hard to preach.

Look at the world now. People live recklessly, as if to say that you only live once, so you should enjoy it. They enjoy meeting people and focus on hobbies, travel, and eating and drinking. Of course a life with some leisure is necessary, but they pour a great deal of time into pleasing their eyes and make no effort to look into their own hearts. That is why these are times when it is even harder to preach the gospel. On top of that, heretical ideas are spreading everywhere, so the world is racing toward the final judgment. In times like these, all the more, the church must proclaim the word of truth and should work hard so that even one more person may 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 that he knows all the works, love, faith, service, and patient endurance of the church in Thyatira, and that it had left more fruit of its works at the end than when it first began. But look at the word that it tolerated the false prophet Jezebel, left her alone while she seduced believers into sexual immorality, and let her make them eat things sacrificed to idols. Then you can see that the words of praise that came first were not praise.

Jesus said he knew its works, love, faith, service, and patient endurance, and he praised it because the zeal and devotion it offered later were greater than its first devotion. How, then, could the church in Thyatira tolerate the false prophet Jezebel? That is the question. There must surely be something wrong in their faith.

The church is the gathering of people who have received Jesus Christ. That is why every church must work with the word at its center. Doing a lot of work, no matter what, is not devotion; the church must have a good purpose centered on God. Even if it does only one thing, it must do what lifts up God’s name, and it must always carry out its church work for the purpose of saving people.

But the believers in Thyatira did the things churches generally do as a matter of form, and they carried out their work by human thinking rather than by God’s will. Their zeal was probably the zeal of believers not yet born again through the word, and their love, faith, service, and patient endurance were probably done the way they themselves thought right. In other words, they were zealous in the name of Jesus, but salvation was not their aim.

What believers need to know is this: doing the things all churches generally do is necessary too, but only when they realize what God called them for can they do good works. But churches these days have settled into a formal life of faith, so they think that if they do not hold the same events other churches hold, the church is not doing its work properly. They think they are not living the life of faith rightly. But God is saying that the church must work to save people and must work with the purpose of revealing God’s glory. It is a word telling the church that even if it does only one thing, it should do it honestly, with all its heart, according to God’s will.

Jesus Christ said that he knows the love the church in Thyatira showed. Then what is this “love they showed”? I want to think about this “love they showed” in light of their faith, which tolerated Jezebel.

They probably held a faith that said the church must wrap anyone at all in love, no matter what. So they did not rebuke even people who spread falsehood or people who sinned. Behind this lay their indifference to what kind of faith God saves. They probably thought that revival meant showing kindness and keeping even one more person in the church, rather than going out of their way to say something unwelcome and damage relationships.

But this kind of human love can commit the great wrong of tolerating unbelief and turning a blind eye to people who spread falsehood. The church is indeed a place that wraps people in God’s love and gives to them, but it is not a place that judges by human love. Anything that confuses and shakes the church with falsehood must be put under church discipline, and handled firmly, if only to protect the other believers. Only when the church works to save people can it show the right love and rightly proclaim God’s will. If a church wraps everyone in love no matter what because it is afraid of people leaving, and tolerates wrong faith in order to hear pleasant words, it will collapse. In the end such a church will fail to discern 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 believers to worship idols. Her teaching was serious enough for Jesus to rebuke it, but the believers in Thyatira had no interest in God’s word, so they did not realize their own wrong. They tried to act more kindly in a human way, with no regard for the truth, and so they mistook themselves for people living a right life of faith. They acted like this because they had not gone beyond the understanding and common sense of the people of the world. Morality is not a life of faith, and good deeds are not faith.

As the church in Thyatira showed love and worked hard, more people began attending than at first, and the church grew. Of course the church must be kind to everyone, care for their hearts, and show them love. But even that love must have the word at its center. The problem is this: even if one person realizes they are living the life of faith wrongly, so many people are living a formal life of faith that the person does not feel how serious it is. All the word they know is the teaching Jezebel gave them, so they cannot get out of it.

This kind of faith appears in today’s churches too. Believers commit sexual immorality with the world and covet the greed and pleasure the world offers, yet they do not think it serious at all. The world and the church walk completely different roads, but because the church tries to win the world’s approval, it holds a faith that makes convenient compromises with the world.

What is more serious is this: because many churches are living a formal life of faith, they do not deeply recognize that this is sin. That is why they tolerate pastors who preach falsehood to please people. Even the believers who hear the wrong word do not realize that falsehood is sin, so they cannot tell the difference.

What is sad is that even when people think their church is teaching a wrong faith, they cannot go to a church that preaches the truth, because they count the years they have devoted to that church and the offerings they have given as their own merit. The cause is that they do not know what a great blessing it is to enter the kingdom of God, and they have not come to the faith that hearing the word is itself a miracle. The word is salvation itself, but the church fails to proclaim the word, so it cannot expand the kingdom of God.

Then let me ask you one thing. Do you tell your family to eat food made from rotten ingredients? No one would cook with them, saying that they are fine because they were fresh at first even if they are rotten now, or that it would be a waste because they paid money for them.

For your health you throw out all the spoiled food, so why do you say it is fine when you are given rotten spiritual food? At the market you spend time to buy fresh vegetables, so why don’t you read the Bible for your salvation when you have it? Over time, good food and bad food gradually show up in the body, and your health changes. In the same way, as time passes, truth and untruth will show themselves as wisdom and foolishness, and they will part into heaven and hell.

People will think that, even if it is a formal faith, so many people go to church now; surely God would not abandon so many people? But do not forget that in the days of Noah, when close to six billion people lived, God saved only eight. Keep in mind that if people do not live by the word, God is one who could abandon the whole human race. Truth is a matter on which eternal life depends, so it cannot be compared with the world’s food we eat for the body.

The believers in Thyatira prided themselves on having devoted themselves with all their might, but Christ told them that their works were not his will. He said that unless not only Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, but also they who followed her repented, he would throw them into great oppression, kill their children, and give to them according to what they had done.

Of course, God does not kill children because their parents did wrong. Children are blessed when they honor parents who passed God on to them. In the same way, children who watch the faith of fallen parents copy it just as it is, so they will commit the same sins as their parents, and the children die for their own sins. A parent’s faith has an enormous influence on a child’s faith, so we must pass on the word rightly. To know the word only roughly and pass it on to our children is arrogance. Look at the church in Thyatira, which devoted itself zealously and still received no praise. Seeing it, we should know the truth for certain and pass it on, and live lives that set an example.

Jezebel was a very wicked woman who led the people of Israel to worship Baal and corrupted Israel spiritually. And now that woman’s way of thinking is flowing through the church in Thyatira. Such a wicked way of thinking is corrupting them, yet because they are spiritually dark, they do not realize it and cannot even stop her.

Christ gave the believers in Thyatira a chance to repent of their sins, yet they could not let go of their own thinking. Jesus looked at Judas Iscariot and said that the one who would betray him was that very man, and still the disciples did not understand. If we are spiritually dark like those disciples, we too will not be able to discern.

For the sake of the church, you must firmly stop anyone whose actions stray from the word. That is not just one person’s problem; it is a very dangerous sin that blocks the salvation of others. Only when the church proclaims God’s word rightly, and its members persevere to live by that word, does it become a right church, and only then can they be saved. If the church makes a decision in faith and deals with them firmly, people with false faith cannot practice falsehood; but if it can neither rebuke evil nor discern it, the church will in the end collapse.

An apple does not escape rotting just because it hangs on the tree. For if a bird comes and pecks it even a little, that apple soon rots. Satan does not bother trying to pull believers off Christ, on whom they hang. He only wounds them and makes them rot from that spot. However big an apple is, if it rots on the tree, the tree loses its good looks and the fruit will have no market value. In the same way, if a believer rots, Jesus, who loves that person, will be mocked.

Do not be overconfident that your faith is standing firm. If you let your guard down for a moment and Satan puts even a slight scratch in your faith, it starts to rot from that spot and becomes hard to turn back. You must always look back on your own faith and strive not to fall spiritually. You should check whether your pastor is preaching the right truth, and whether you yourself are living by God’s word every 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 a chance to turn back. But once they fell for the temptation Jezebel offered, they lost their spiritual discernment. Falsehood, like a delicacy, settles deep inside, and in this way it makes people lose even eternal life. Just as God gave them a chance to repent, he will have given you many chances too. He has let you hear the truth and given you a life in which you can show that word to him by faith; if you still do not repent, you may never receive another chance.

People who hold the same faith as Jezebel will be judged with her. Whatever excuse the believers in Thyatira make, if they miss the chance to repent, they will not be forgiven. Even now many people say they have lived the life of faith wrongly until now because their pastor did not teach them rightly. And some say they do not go to church because churchgoers did not live rightly. But the problem is that each person must bear all the responsibility for falling into the second death themselves. People who put the blame for everything on others and do not leave the place of sin are just like the sick people at the pool of Bethesda.

God has already given the Bible to everyone and sent servants who proclaim the right truth, so no one can ever make excuses. 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 worldly work, they cannot escape the final judgment. For God has already given us his law.

God gave the Bible for people’s salvation, yet people do not read it or live by the word, and that is why they are spiritually dark. They do not let go of their covetousness toward the world, and that is why they have shut their ears to the truth. The sin of false pastors, who seduced believers with worldly words utterly different from God’s will, is never forgiven; and the church members who became one in heart and mind with them and committed spiritual adultery will not be forgiven either.

Believers think that only people who follow other religions and bow down to idols commit idolatry. But we must remember the word that says the wheat and the weeds are separated in the church, with Jesus Christ at the center.

The wheat are those who live the life of faith with the word and faith, according to the will of Jesus Christ. Even if people go to church, if they act by the same thinking, deeds, and habits as the people of the world, they will be sharply rebuked like the church in Thyatira. For on the last day Christ will judge Satan together with all the evil fruit that Jezebel bore.

God lets you hear this word now because he is giving you one more chance, to give salvation all the more. It is not that we have no chance, as our excuses claim. If, though given a chance to turn back, you hold on to your own greed and righteousness, you will miss even the last chance. I hope you will always be firmly built on the rock of Christ, faithful and understanding the word of truth.

Absurdly, an idea was flowing through the church in Thyatira that to know what sin is, one must experience sin. Following Jezebel’s teaching that God’s grace grows richer through sin, they ended up committing the sin of taking part in idol worship and sexual immorality. What made them even more foolish was their conviction that even if they took part in such sacrifices, they had faith, so they would never actually worship idols.

Such behavior is foolish, done without knowing how cunning and clever Satan is. It is like someone saying they are sure they will never get drunk even if they drink. It is like putting up a heavy roof without raising any pillars. It is like children who promise at first to play games only for a set time, and later end up staying up all night out of habit. So it is not that games are an evil sin; being held by a habit and wasting the time that should be given to God is itself what becomes sin.

What I want to tell you is this: work at making quiet time in which you can search the word and meditate on it. When you are always exposed to a busy, restless environment, you have no time or room to look back on yourself, and no time to reflect, make plans, and pray. For us believers, a life like this is a very dangerous setting in which sin comes easily.

Changing a habit is hard for anyone, so we have to work at it. A person who does not take time to talk quietly with God is always distracted, less able to judge deeply, and lacking the wisdom to give and receive sincerity in conversation with others. When people cannot look back on themselves like this, they do not realize it even when they are proud, and they flare up in anger when they hear others’ advice and counsel; that is why they stay in the place of sin.

The advice and counsel of others is God’s blessing, which lets us see what we cannot see ourselves, and God’s love, which lets us look into what we do not realize. If the church in Thyatira does not heed the warning he is now giving it, it will be judged. In the same way, the counsel of brothers and sisters in the faith is love that saves our very lives. That is why only the humble accept counsel and can take the chance they are given.

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 more firmly than God right now? If you are clinging to the world’s power, authority, wealth, and pleasure, you should throw it away like rubbish.

The Lord told the church in Thyatira to hold that which it has firmly until he comes. He was telling it to hold firmly to the genuine truth of Christ, to the hope of heaven, and to the faith that knows Jesus Christ will come again. He said he will give authority over the nations to him who overcomes and keeps his works to the end. That is a promise to give the reward of salvation one day, on the day Jesus Christ comes again.

If believers overcome hard circumstances and Satan’s persecution to the end and preach the gospel, he will give them a great reward. With the word that he will rule them with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots, he gave believers strength, saying that he would give them reward and salvation, and would judge Satan, who persecuted them, by throwing him into the eternal lake of fire.

He also said he will give the morning star to the believer who overcomes. Rescuing sinners from death is already a love too great for us, yet he has granted the grace of giving Jesus Christ himself, who is never defeated. The power of Jesus Christ, who is absolute, protects the faith of believers.

What the Holy Spirit says to the church is salvation itself, and it is a blessing that people can hear the Spirit’s words. That is why he said that he who has an ear should hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. When the Holy Spirit makes known God’s perfect will and Christ’s sacrifice and guides us into the truth, we must obey in faith. For that people made of dust should ever receive the blessing of hearing what the Holy Spirit says is like the miracle of having the debt of our sins canceled.

Friends, listen carefully to what the Holy Spirit is saying to our church and to you now, and to what commands he has given. As we keep the faith according to the word, we will become a church God recognizes, and we will be commended as an honest church living a right life of faith. Even if people make plans, they cannot rightly walk the road of truth without the standard of the word.

Jesus said that he himself is the truth, and that only by living out the word can we meet the master of life. If we quietly keep our faith with thankful hearts toward Jesus, who carried the cross, we will live forever with Jesus Christ, the morning star.

The words of Jesus Christ to the seven churches recorded in Revelation are hope and blessing for believers. Hearing the rebukes the seven churches receive, we have been given a chance to repent; and hearing the praise they receive, we need only hold the same faith they held. Through their rebukes and praise we have come to understand God’s deep love, and we have met the love of God, who is patient to the end. If we live by God’s will and love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might, we will receive the wonderful blessings he promised to the seven churches.

May you go on building up God’s inheritance with complete love, faith, service, and patient endurance. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.