GETTING THE MESSAGE/Clinging to Christ for hope
The letter to the church in Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29) begins this way: “The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like flames of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.” The words are a reminder that Christ cannot be deceived. He has penetrating vision into the heart and soul of man. He sees through any façade of religion, but he also knows who is faithful.
The Lord commends the church in Thyatira for its faithfulness: “I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. This is a commendation every Christian should strive after. The way to it is by being near in heart to the death of Christ for your sins. These virtues proceed from closeness to Christ.
The apostle Peter tells Christians that if they are ineffective or unproductive in the faith, the reason for it is they have forgotten they have been cleansed from their former sins (2nd Peter 1). Our souls must be purified by grace, renewed by the Spirit of grace who magnifies Christ to us. By clinging to Christ, we are continually cleansed from spiritual defilement.
Christ, then, is directing us in this letter to look at ourselves. Am I growing in my faith? Could he say about me that my latter works exceed the first, that my faith and love are evident to him? Knowing his penetrating gaze upon us helps us. It reminds me that he saw all the corruption in my heart, and yet laid down his life to cleanse me from my sin. His love is a restraint against sinning and a spur to faith and service to him.
After commending the church in Thyatira, the Lord points outs a serious error: “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.”
These sins were forbidden by the apostolic council in Acts 15, so we might wonder why a church like Thyatira, so rich in faith and love, could tolerate teaching that promoted blatant immorality. When a soul is rich in grace, it tends to be gracious and patient with the sins of others. But the church and Christian is also called to holiness of life. Many in Thyatira didn’t hold to the teaching of the false prophetess, but they had not stopped it or renounced it as they should have.
We aren’t told the specifics of the false teaching, only that it led people to participate in idolatry and sexual immorality. We are told the label the Lord put on it. He identified it with Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab in the Old Testament who promoted the worship of Asherah and Baal, idols that permitted sexual deviance. She combined it with the worship of the Lord, which was an abomination to the Lord.
Churches that are open and affirming of any sexual orientation or any idolatry don’t have signs out that say the church of Jezebel. They wouldn’t like the label. But the Lord, with eyes like flames of fire, sees things differently. He warns of judgment coming on such sins.
In verses 21-23, the Lord calls for the repentance of those practicing these sins. The Lord loves mercy. Though the offense against him was great, he mentions repentance three times. It is the kindness of the Lord that leads to repentance. All is forgiven if the sinner returns to him.
But there must be repentance, a renouncing and turning from this teaching and sin. The Lord knows when it is genuine: “I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works” (verse 23).
The Lord quoted the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was contrasting a dried-up bush in the desert with a fruitful tree whose roots were fed by a nearby stream. The difference is obvious. Christ’s message to his people is that they are to be a humble, holy people and to flee immorality and idolatry that ruin or dry up the soul. He died to save us from such things. Those who live by grace flourish in Christ.
As in all the letters to the churches, the Lord points his people to the future (verses 26-29). Faith considers the future enjoyments of the promises of God. These things cannot be ours apart from being purified from sin in Christ. The Christian hope is not in the present but the future, and this gives us wisdom to draw near to Christ, looking to that day.
The Rev. Chris Shelton is pastor of Union’s First Presbyterian Church.