The Seven Churches: Thyatira
Tolerance is a lovely virtue when it is exercised to allow the full variety of God-given life to grow with freedom. It has its place but it also has its limits. God gives all manner of personalities and gifts to people, but He never gives sin. The Thyratiran believers thought that they were giving grace to a questionable prophetess in their community, but in Jesus’ eyes they were “tolerating” her sin. That put fire in His eyes! This letter begins as a wake-up call to a church drifting from its moral moorings. Then, Jesus opens the letter and speaks directly through it to us. We need to hear what He’s saying here just as much as they did.
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants. Revelation 2:20
All scripture citations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.
Chief Characteristics
Whole books are written about most of these crucial components. These characteristics are summaries of what is grounded in scripture, not fabricated through speculation.[i] Speculation is trying to “see” more than we are being shown. What we see by Biblical revelation is real enough, but a fuller view will only come as these still distant components draw nearer.
Travellers, commerce and correspondence from Greece or Italy would arrive at Asia Minor's major seaport, Ephesus, then journey up the coast towards Pergamum, before turning east on the interior highway to Laodicea. The letter to the church at Thyatira would have been the fourth letter delivered.
The ancient town of Thyratira never reached the size or stature of its neighbors Ephesus, Pergamum and Smyrna. It was situated within the kingdom of Pergamum on the Roman road that led to Laodicea. Despite being of relative unimportance to the world, it was still territory coveted by the Enemy. He sent in one of his most notorious temptresses to lead the church astray. Apparently, some were letting down their guard and giving way to her charms. In view of this, the city’s position “on the road to” Laodicea poetically describes the direction these believers were headed, since Laodicea’s church is synonymous with complete moral and spiritual laxity. Jesus wrote to stop their stumble before it became their downfall.
Pre-Figured in Scripture
Every crucial component of the Last Days has already “appeared” in the Biblical prophetic narrative in the past, somewhat like a dress rehearsal for the final drama. These foreshadows are called “types” because they precede their ultimate expression (the “antitype”).[ii] As shadows of the future reality, however, they cast a revealing light of their own.
Delilah: The Temptress of Samson
The Jezebel of Israel’s history is infamous for the way she incited King Ahab to “do evil in the sight of the Lord.”[iii] She promoted idolatry, persecuted the faithful and pursued the prophet Elijah, driving him from the country. She embodied the treacherous, manipulative ways of her namesake spirit. The false religion she brought to the Northern Kingdom did indeed encourage ritual sex and cultic prostitution, though she herself is not known for sexual immorality. She seemed to have been faithful to Ahab to a fault, going beyond the law to satisfy his desires.
Delilah, on the other hand, has a name that cannot be dis-associated from sexual scandal. She sizzled on the outside, schemed on the inside. Samson fell for her, traded his inheritance as a Nazarite to bed her, and lost his divine strength because of her. She’s the temptress that prefigures the Jezebel of this letter, whose sexual immorality drew the notice and harsh discipline of the Lord. Sadly, Samson’s Delilah is never said to have loved him, though the text says he loved her. She was a deceiver who used her charms to bring down the Philistine’s greatest enemy. Thyatira’s Jezebel used her charms in a vain attempt to bring down her master’s greatest enemy, the church in her region. Unlike Samson with Delilah, Jesus saw Jezebel’s heart and rejected her. He wants us to do the same.
She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. Judges 16:19
The Book of Revelation Chapter 2:18-29
The Bible exposes the secret plans and deceptive operations of the dark kingdom, even as it unveils the glorious realities of what our God is doing. The truths of scripture are, therefore, our rock-solid building blocks for interpreting the times we are entering. Nevertheless, for biblical information to become true revelation both prayer and the Holy Spirit are needed.
To the Church in Thyatira
"And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: 'The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. Revelation 2:18
Look out denizens of Thyatira! The Son of God has fire in His eyes and He’s looking right at you! Would it not startle you, if the letter in your hand caught fire as you read it? Something like that seems intended by the way Jesus begins this letter. Of course, it opens with the familiar greeting to the “angel of the church” but by now we all know it is the people of the church He has in mind.[iv] What He has on His mind—as with us who bear His image—shows up in the look of His eyes. Since they can’t see Him, He lets them know up front that He “has eyes like a flame of fire.”
It’s true He used these same phrases by way of general introduction to John while first appearing to Him on Patmos. That was before this series of individual church letter began. The opening parts of that earlier description seem tailor-made to fit the context of each church He addresses. The companion part of this description includes the sight of His feet that “are like burnished bronze.” Burnished bronze in antiquity epitomized the best metal they could produce with its great strength and dazzling beauty, as sunlight or torches played off the highly polished surface. Forming such a metal and forging it required the blazing heat of a refiner’s furnace. The fire in our Lord’s eyes is matched by the fiery trial He walked through to forge the path of our return. In a moment, He will call for them to return.
"'I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.” Revelation 2:19
Jesus praises them for four “works” —not virtues. Virtues are what flow from us. They disclose our true nature wherever it has been fused with His. Works, on the other hand, are virtuous activities. This is not a full compliment. Nevertheless, although they are having to “work” at it, they are succeeding in the area of love, faith and patient endurance. This measure of progress earns words here of praise and approval. Perfection is our unattainable goal. We are to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, but please catch the wink: We can only do our best with His help. We can only be our best, if we die to self so that Jesus can live through us. That will only happen fully and finally when we arrive in heaven. Until then, there is (thank God) measurable progress that can be made walking with Him in the right direction.
Progress, however, means that there is always room for improvement. Jesus compliments them for their work of “love,” the highest of the virtues; for their “faith” which works through love; for their “service” which is love’s most tangible expression; and finally, for their “patient endurance” which spreads love’s inward kindness to others—when the pressure is on. So far so good. In fact, it seems very good. Then, comes the first hint that all is not well in Thyatira land. When we remember that love is the foremost virtue and that first among the many loves is loving devotion to the One who loves us, then we will catch the wind of what’s coming. Jesus now tells them that their “latter works exceed the first.” That’s not the divinely preferred order!
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols Revelation 2:20
Without counting the words, this certainly feels like the shortest preamble to the “punch” that the Lord has taken so far. One all-too-brief sentence of encouragement, then it’s straight to point of correction. Combined with His fiery look, this alerts us (and them) that this warning is urgent. We don’t say to a child about to step in front of traffic, “You know, I really liked the way you handled yourself back there in the classroom. I’m a friend of your father, but I need to tell you…” No! We shout first and introduce ourselves later. Jesus is practically shouting. That woman Jezebel would get anyone’s goat. Not His of course—He doesn’t have a goat nature the devil could get a rise from. But the Thyratirans do. The problem is rather than getting vexed with her, they’re getting along with her.
Jesus faults them for their “tolerance.” Oh, what does that say about our “politically correct” ways? We bend over backwards trying to keep everyone from feeling disparaged or worse, excluded. Intolerance is practically the only “sin” left in our modern world—or at least the only one a person can safely express intolerance towards. Jesus doesn’t want “that woman” tolerated. Her rap sheet is long. She “calls herself” by a title and thereby claims a position in His Body that He never gave her. She’s no “prophetess” though honorable women prophets abound in scripture. This real-life imposter proves her colors by “teaching and seducing” others.
That her teachings are false is evident by what she promotes: “sexual immorality” and eating “food sacrificed to idols.” Whether Jezebel’s “seducing” is by her beguiling way of spreading these false teachings, or by direct allurement is not clear. What is clear is that this is now a consistent theme running through the first three letters. We need to be sure it’s not running through our life or that of our church. It is also starkly clear that Jesus doesn’t tolerate sexual immorality or trafficking with false idols in any way, shape or form. His patience is not a sign of tolerance. His silence cannot be taken as approval. These sins—and helping people get free of them—should be as serious a thing to us as it is to Him.
I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Revelation 2: 21
Now, we see how the Lord has been working behind the scenes. Yes, He was sitting back. Yes, He was being silent. No, He was not abandoning the cause. Grace, in one way of viewing it, is God giving us time to turn around. Even as He gives us time, He gives us signs. He speaks in the heart the warning words, “You know this isn’t right.” One way or the other they are there. He also frustrates our path and plans. The obstacles are meant to wake us up like those bump strips they put on country highways just before the stop sign appears. He has been providing this gracious service for Jezebel. Let’s don’t forget that He has also been trying to issue warnings to her through other church members. That’s His charge against them. Rather than reprimanding her, they are allowing her to operate freely. All in the name of tolerance. Sound familiar?
By the way, why would any mother name their child Jezebel? Why would any believer not change that name on conversion? Perhaps, in some mysterious way she is secretly living up to the name. We would say she’s chosen to own it. Apparently, she is fulfilling her name without apology. “She refuses” to change her ways which is the essence of rebellion. Day after day it’s always the same game with her. She is playing at church, promoting herself as a guide to others, but refusing to be led by her church’s true Prophet and Teacher. Has she no idea that the Lord put a stop sign on her path? Can’t she feel the wake-up bumps? Evidently not.
22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. Revelation 2:22-23
Reading Leviticus 26, one sees how the Lord spelled out in advance to the Israelites the chastisements they would increasingly suffer, if they ever fell away from trusting and obeying Him. He knew they would! He knew in advance that they would fail to repent no matter how He worked with them. He forewarned their future exile. It became unavoidable. Merely because He foresees our fall, doesn’t mean He desires it or wills it or needs it. That He can foresee our stubborn resistance to His grace and still work with us to the bitter end is a marvel to behold. We see Him working here with Jezebel. Will she repent? We don’t know, but it doesn’t look promising for her or for “those who commit adultery with her.”
One bright spot is that at least her flaming disaster might light the way for others to avoid her end. What sane person, however, would want their life to become only a negative example? The book of each person’s life while they are living may be a confusing lesson to read, but in the end we will all point only one way or the other. Jesus states two truths which He sees as lessons we can learn from Jezebel and His dealings with her. First, He “searches” then He “gives.” Jesus searches everyone. He is not casually observing our behavior, much less monitoring us only occasionally from the distance. He intentionally probes us to the depths of thought and feeling, motive and desire. Not even our slightest flaw is hidden from His jeweler’s eye. This is going on 24/7!
Jezebel thought she could get away with pulling the wool over her fellow church-goers’ eyes. Jesus saw through it all and though He waited, giving her time to repent, He would act decisively when the time comes. As they say, “What goes around, comes around.” That’s because we have not just a Savior who will forgive our sins, but a Lord who will bring us to account if we refuse to repent of them. That day of reckoning is coming for Jezebel, but the warning in this verse isn’t only for her. It’s for us: “I will give to each of you according to your works.” That’s Jesus shifting the focus of the passage from “that woman”—the notorious Jezebel of legendary wickedness—to the other sin-prone souls He keeps an eye on. That would be everyone else who ever lived. Feel “included” yet? Good. Political correctness is dying on the vine.
24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. 25 Only hold fast what you have until I come. Revelation 2:24-25
Fortunately, “the rest” of the believers in Thyatira did not “hold this teaching.” They discerned correctly that what Jezebel promoted was not of God and avoided it like the plague. They had the scriptures which are entirely clear on these key issues, but such is the power of the deceiver that truth can be turned inside out. That Jezebel was good at deception is shown by how far this infection spread and by the serious steps the Lord took to remedy it. Was she also deceived? Was she an unwitting victim herself, or did she know full-well that she was serving Satan, rather than Jesus? This is a hard question to answer from the outside looking in. It would require soul-searching honesty on the part of the one deceived and a willingness to be utterly transparent with others about it. That’s something the true deceiver keeps his victims from doing at all costs.
It does seem from this context that Jezebel had to be in on the deception. Jesus didn’t say that she was the one promoting “what some call the deep things of Satan,” but she is likely at the source of it. The power of prophetic vision and artful teaching is that other believers, who may not have those gifts, begin thinking that perhaps this person knows “deep” things. It requires a solid knowledge of scripture with the wisdom to discern spirits both of people and of the invisible realm in order to unmask the deceiver. This problem is amplified if the person has a personal charisma, a ready command of scripture and an elevated status in the church.
Just what this teaching consisted of is anybody’s guess at this point. Like so much else it is lost to time. Beyond that it is a true enigma. Deceptive teaching normally stays clear of any association with Satan for obvious reasons. Usually only Satanists practicing their craft outside of the church would want to go deep and long on his things—and boast about it by naming it. This is where it may help to remember that Satan has another side, so to speak—that of Lucifer, the “light bringer.”
Many who pursue occult knowledge believe that Lucifer is humanity’s friend, since it was the “evil” Yahweh who wanted to keep knowledge away from us in Eden. Lucifer, on the other hand, set humanity free to pursue (his) knowledge and wisdom. You get the drift. It is easy to see how this kind of thinking could turn any idea in the Bible inside out. Still, we don’t know, nor do we need to. That’s not God keeping us in the dark—He just didn’t write His Book to satisfy every point of human curiosity. But He did put what we needed in it—to keep us from the dark!
26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. 28 And I will give him the morning star. Revelation 2:26-28
We saw in the previous letter that for us to “conquer” will require listening, repenting, obeying and holding fast. The promise here is that for those who pursue the way of faith and “keep my works to the end” a great measure of authority will be granted. We’ll look into that promise in a moment. For now, there is a mystery to probe. It is strange, is it not, that Jesus tells us (for He shifted the focus to all of us in verse 23) that we are to keep “His works”? Not keep “our works” heading in the right direction, as He previously praised this group of believers for doing (verse 19). Somehow our work has become keeping His work. See the shift?
What does Jesus mean by keeping His works? One “work” might lead our thinking to the cross, His great, one of a kind work of redemption, but that’s not what He said. Perhaps, however, by “works” He is pointing us towards keeping the works He directly assigns us to do under His leadership. Those are His works, growing out of His plans, not ours. That would almost fit the bill. Yet, another way to understand the riddle, however, is to do the works that He did while He walked among us. Of those works, two especially leap to mind: miracles and dying to self.
Jesus said to the disciples on their final night together that a day would come when we would do “the works I do; and greater works than these.”[v] Those greater works are coming! The glory of this “latter house” of His Body on earth will exceed the supernatural activity of the Early Church.[vi] So, say many prophetic voices—and many hearts. For those greater works to come, an even greater work may be required of us. Later that same evening, Jesus knelt alone in the Garden of Gethsemane to do it. The challenge of our times may call for the same level of surrender He reached in the face of the suffering that awaited Him. He worked at it so hard that sweat “like great drops of blood” fell to the ground beneath His knees.[vii] Yielding to the Lord without giving way in fear or favor to others is what Jesus wanted from the Thyatirans. He will desire no less from us upon whom the End of the Age is falling.
Assuming we conquer in life and bear up under the weight of these works, we are promised to become “more than conquerors.”[viii] First given by Paul in the magnificent eighth chapter of Romans, that phrase is explained by Jesus here. Once conquerors gain victory, they become rulers. That’s the something “more” which is promised to us. Jesus assures His faithful Bride that we won’t be passing around laurel wreaths in heaven, we’ll be “given authority” to reign with Him on earth. Not everyone will receive this. Only those who fully submit to His authority now in the ways He just decreed, will be rewarded with ruling over nations then.
To rule with “a rod of iron” necessarily requires being trained by one. A rod in the wrong hand can easily smash an earthen pot “to pieces.” Only a well-trained disciple can bring brokenness to peace—to the restoration Jesus desires. As He fully submitted to the Father, so too those who fully submit to Him will share in the authority the Father gave Him for reward. That will usher in the dawning of a new day, the unending Day of Jesus’ reign on earth, symbolized by the gift of the “morning star”—the heaven’s first sign that a new day has arrived.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' Revelation 2:29
Listen, dear heart. Listen. But listen with your heart. “What the Spirit says to the churches” is not a matter of mere words and intellectual understanding. We will need that of course. Nevertheless, as with our own discourse and disclosures, so much more than what is being said is revealed by the way it is said. An unexpected look in the eye, a certain tone of voice, a pause or an inflection are among the many ways we discern what a person—even one we know well—is trying to communicate. Jesus has His own inimitable way of expressing Himself. Some of those ways are recognized by all who listen. Some are unique to each one. The better we know Him, the better we can recognize His voice, the way of His words and the meaning of His ultimate Word, Holy Scripture.
Next Piece of the Puzzle
Letter 5: Sardis Sometimes the harder you try the behinder you get. People pleasing is like that. No matter how hard you try, it’s never good enough to keep everybody happy with you. Trying to please God works the same way. The believers of Sardis aren’t “ripping and running” with the world (as sinners in the South describe a lifestyle of immorality). No, these are good church people trying to do good. In fact, they are working so hard at it that it’s killing them. If that sounds like anyone you know, read on. Jesus says their works are dead. He sure doesn’t sound pleased.
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Endnotes
[i] Cambridge Dictionary defines speculation as “the act of guessing possible answers to a question without having enough information to be certain.” It derives from the Latin word “speculari” which means “to look at, view, observe” and originally indicated “close observation and intelligent contemplation.” By the late 1500s it gained the disparaging sense it carries today of “mere conjecture.” See etymonline.com.
[ii] Adam is the type; Jesus, the “second Adam” is the antitype: Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. Romans 5:14
[iii] There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. He acted very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the LORD cast out before the people of Israel. I Kings 21:23, 25-26
[iv] This greeting cannot mean that only an angelic dignitary from the invisible realms is the intended recipient, since the rest of the letter makes it clear that Jesus is sending both encouragement and correction to the church’s Christian believers. It does, however, reveal to us that this church has an angel who is over it in some ordained role: as a watchman, a helper or guardian, or a ministering spirit. In fact, according to Jesus’ previous greeting to John, we know that all seven of the churches has its own angel. Does this mean that every Christian church everywhere also has its own angel? Due to silence on this point, it is impossible to say from scripture one way or the other, although the likely supposition would be that this is indeed the case, since God shows no partiality. What then is our protocol for addressing them? What are their proper responsibilities over us and what are ours to them? More silence! (from “Letter 1: Ephesus”)
[v] “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. John 14:12
[vi] The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.’” Haggai 2:9
[vii] And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Luke 22:44
[viii] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:37