The letter to the church in Thyatira (2:18)
Key phrase: Only hold on to what you have until I come. The city of Thyatira is now Akhisar. The city was on the trade route south east of the capital Pergamum and a period of great prosperity and increase was only beginning when the seven letters were written. More trade guilds were known in Thyatira than any other Asian city. The inscriptions mention the following: wood workers, linen workers, makers of outer garments, dryers, leather workers, tanners, potters, bakers, slave dealers and bronzesmiths (Ramsay). The woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth came from the city of Thyatira, (Acts 16:14). v18 - "To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. - Here he clearly identifies himself with the 'someone "like a son of man"' from 1:13 as the Son of God. His blazing eyes see everything, this repeats the description found in 1:14-15. The church in Thyatira was in a city which was a centre for the worship of Apollo, known as the 'son of God' because he was supposed to be the son of Zeus. The message is therefore sent from the true 'Son of God'. Thyatira was a centre for making the image of the all-seeing eye, little glass images which are still on sale today to tourists (Hill). Thyatira was famous for the manufacture of purple dye, and numerous references are found in secular literature of the period to the trade guilds which manufactured cloth (Swete quoted by Walvoord). Lydia was a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, Acts 16:14. Purple cloth was only worn by the wealthy (Luke 16:19, Rev 17:4) v19 - I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. - Compare this church to the Ephesians who lost their first love, and the almost dead Sardis. Notice that their love produced service and their faith produced perseverance, they were doing more than they did at first, theirs was not a dead faith, it was a growing faith (cf. 1 Thess 1:3). v20 - Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. - Despite their growing love and faith they tolerated evil in the form of Jezebel in their midst, she calls herself a prophetess but is in fact a false prophetess (Jezebel is transliterated from the Hebrew 'Izevel meaning, ironically, chaste [Zodhiates]). Compare this church to the Ephesians who did not tolerate wicked men (Rev 2:2), Ephesus had truth and lost their love, but they had love but lost their love of the truth and permitted impure doctrine to be taught in the church resulting in impure acts. They had not guarded the truth entrusted to them, the church leaders had not guarded their flock as those in Ephesus had. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth (1 Cor 13:6). Doctrinal error leads to immorality but the truth leads to godliness (Tit 1:1). Sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols are the same sins are mentioned at Pergamum. Jezebel brought idolatry into Ahab's life, she urged him on in evil (1 King 21:25-26), especially idolatry and persecuted the prophets (2 King 9:7), note that as with Balaam in the letter to Pergamum in Rev 2:14 a famous OT figure is used to heighten the imagery. He also uses the word Jezebel because that is how God sees the prophetess. Jezebel killed the true prophets of God (1 King 18:4) and by her teaching here she is bringing spiritual death to those who follow her. Since sexual immorality and eating sacrificed food to idols are mentioned in Acts 15:20 and in Corinthians 6:18, 8:1, we should take it literally. Eating food offered to idols would be a temptation with respect to the trade guilds which would have feasts involving food offered to idols and possibly sexual immorality. Once again spiritual compromise is warned against, James 4:4 warns that friendship with the world is hatred towards God, it is a form of spiritual adultery. In 18:4 the saints are warned to come out of Babylon so that they will not share in her sins or her punishment. The reason for his intolerance of evil is that he wants his bride to be pure cf. 14:4-5, Eph 5:27. See also comments on 2:14. v21 - I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. - Here we see God's patience and mans response. Delayed punishment does not mean that punishment does not come in the end (xxxx). v22 - So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. - They do not physically commit adultery with her, that is Jezebel, but they follow her example. She is repaid according to her deeds (v 23) as are those who follow her, this is conditional since they can repent. Contrast the bed of suffering with the bed of adultery (Ladd). Thyatira was famous for its purple cloth which the harlot woman Babylon also wears in Rev 17:4 and in 18:4 God commands his people to come out of her 'so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues'. v23 - I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. - This punishment will make all the churches aware that Jesus sees all and is intimately concerned with what they do. 'I am he who searches hearts and minds', see v18 'whose eyes are like blazing fire'. He repays each person according to what they have done (Psa 62:12, Isa 62:11, Jer 17:10, also Mat 16:27, 1 Cor 4:5, Rev 20:12, 22:12), in this verse judgement of her deeds is in this life. The similar references later in Revelation refer to the judgement of earthly deeds which occurs after death, in Rev 20:12 in which after death each person was judged by what they had done and 22:12 in which rewards are according to what people have done, indicating the importance of deeds done in this life, which is one of the important messages of Revelation, see also 14:13 in which their deeds follow them. We take our deeds with us into the next life to be judged and we are rewarded or punished. v24 - Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): - To those who resist sexual immorality and eating food offered to idols, and do not compromise with the world he does impose any other burden on them, see Acts 15:28. To learn Satan's so called deep secrets one has to plumb the depths of wickedness in order to appreciate God's grace. v25 - Only hold on to what you have until I come. - He only commands them to hold onto what they have (their deeds, love and faith, their service and perseverance) until he comes, the second coming or death whichever is earlier, Heb 3:14. He also told the church of Philadelphia to hold on to what they had, so that no one would take their crown (3:11). Compare this with John's injunction in 2 John 1:8 to 'Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully'. v26 - To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations - This is the only instance where overcoming is defined in the specific terms of doing His will. The saints must follow the example of Jesus who did his Father's will to the end, even to the cross (John 4:34, 6:38, Mat 26:39). We see the saints having authority over nations in 20:4 when the martyrs reign with Christ for a thousand years. In Mat 10:22 we are warned to stand firm to the end during persecution and we will be saved. We see hints of the saints authority over nations in 1 Cor 6:3 they judge angels, in Rev 5:10 they reign on the earth, in Mat 19:28 they judge the twelve tribes of Israel. There is an echo from Psa 2:8 here 'Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession', v9 of which is quoted in the next verse. v27 - 'He will rule them with an iron sceptre; he will dash them to pieces like pottery' -- just as I have received authority from my Father. - This is quoted from the Messianic psalm 2, verse 9, it is used also in Rev 12:5 of Jesus at his birth and Rev 19:15 when Christ comes again. To rule with an iron sceptre means to destroy rather than rule sternly. Lang remarks that Thyatira was dominated by a false seducing prophetess. He who resisted this usurping tyrant, and maintained the crown rights of Christ as Head of His Church, shall himself be a ruler in the day of Christ. We have Jesus as our example of an overcomer, see also the letter to Laodicea in which those who overcome will sit with him on his throne just as he overcame and sat with his Father on his throne (3:21). v28 - I will also give him the morning star - The Morning star refers to Jesus himself, see Rev 22:16, in which he is described as the bright morning star, and in 2 Pet 1:19 it refers to the second coming when 'the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts', Isa 14:12 speaks of the morning star as 'son of the dawn' but referring to Lucifer. The morning star is figurative of the approach of the day when He will appear as the 'sun of righteousness' (Vine). There are other scriptures which depict the righteous shining like stars (Dan 12:3, Phil 2:15). Thus they will receive a special interest in Christ himself. v29 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. - Note the formula: 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches', we all need to heed what is being said here. |
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