Letters to the Churches
Revelation Chapter 2
The messages to the seven churches are authored by the Son of Man, as He stands in the midst of the candlesticks that represent these
churches. He has different words for each church, praising them for different strengths, exhorting them to improve on their
specific weaknesses, and offering to each different blessings.
The form of each of these seven sections is the same, an abbreviated letter form. First, the letter is addressed to "the angel (or messenger) of" a
specific church, from the Son of Man, but with a different description of Himself each time. With the exception of the letter to the church
at Laodicea, each of these descriptions are part of chapter 1's description of the Son of Man. Following is the body of the letter,
usually with both praise and criticism. Towards the end of each letter is a reminder to everyone to hear what the Spirit is saying - "he who
has an ear, let him hear." This is an old tradition, carrying back to
Deuteronomy 6:4,
where it emphasizes the importance of that Word from God, and in
Mark 4:9,
when Jesus uses this phrase with the parable of the sower - the one that was so figurative that
his disciples later had to ask him to explain it. Also at the closing is a blessing specific to that particular church. In good literary
form, these blessings are repeated at the end of Revelation, starting at chapter 19.
Notice what Marva Dawn refers to as a recurring "dialectic" in these charges to the churches. One church is praised for it's pursuit of truth,
but criticized for a lack of love, while another has just the opposite situation. Both churches wrestle with the contradiction of
trying to do both, trying to strike a good balance. She points out the parallel with the person of Jesus Christ, who was both man and God. Many
heresies in the early church were groups who considered Jesus as more man than God or more God than man.
The "Crossing" Form
There is an interesting and purposeful pattern to these letters - the 1st and 7th churches are in grave danger, the 2nd and 6th churches
receive only praise, and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th churches are in between. Robert Wall identifies this as an ancient Greek form called
a chiasmus, or "crossing," in which the form emphasizes the middle items. This form would have been familiar to
the listeners, and John uses this form elsewhere in the Book of Revelation to place an emphasis. By ordering the letters this way, John's is
reminding all churches that most of them are just getting along, too held down by little things to truly excel.
Those that interpret Revelation as a foretelling of history view the seven churches as figurative, representing the church through the
ages. Ephesus represents the early church. The next to last church, Philadelphia, would represent the strength of the church in the
1950s and 1960s, and the last church, Laodicea, represents the decline of the church, with the message being that the second coming
must be soon.
There are several problems with this theory. First, it assumes a modern "linear" interpretation, based on our way of thinking of history,
instead of the more normal "crossing" form that would have been understood in the first century. Also, the messages to the known churches
are too similar to our knowledge of the status of those churches for this to have been merely figurative, so the foreteller must admit that
the text works both for the historical church and for the future church. It is also takes a very limited, ethno-centric view to describe "the
church" at a given time period for this to work. As just one example, the descriptions of Ephesus do not fit "the church" in the time of
Paul's missionary journeys. The message of affliction of the Smyrna church fit with some churches during the persecutions of Nero, but not
all - some churches "sold out." Even the "good old days" of the 1950s may have been like Philadelphia in the American South, but certainly
not in the rest of the world - churches in Cuba were fiercely persecuted, the Russian Orthodox church struggled to coexist with the
Soviets, and churches in South Korea waited to have their "golden age" until the 1980s.
We will study each of the churches as we go through chapters 2 and 3, and then compare these letters to better understand the balances
that God calls us to achieve.
Background:
Ephesus was the greatest city in Asia, called "the Light of Asia," the "Vanity Fair" of Asia. It had the best harbor, the best road system
leading out from the city, so it was the central trading center of the region. It had been given status as a "free city" under Rome, which
meant that it was self-governing and no Roman troops stationed there.
It was the center of worship for Artemis, or "Diana of the Ephesians," a fertility goddess predating Greek and Roman mythology, and as
such was a center of pagan religion and superstition. People came from around the world to buy amulets and charms of the "Ephesian
Letters."
The city had a reputation for crime and immorality, fueled by the Temple of Artemis. Any criminal who was inside the Temple could not
be arrested. The Temple hired hundreds of priestesses / prostitutes. Hericlitus was known as the "weeping philosopher" because
he said that no one could live in Ephesus without weeping for its immorality.
At the same time, it had a strong and dynamic Christian community. Paul spent more time in Ephesus than in any other church. Timothy was
that church's first bishop. The church was home base to Aquilla, Priscilla, and Apollos. John was the leading figure there in later days, and
tradition has it that he brought Mary, the mother of Jesus, to Ephesus where she died and was buried.
Character of Christ:
1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
The Greek text indicates that Jesus safely holds the entirety of the seven stars - the whole, undivided church - in his right hand of
power and authority. Jesus constantly walks among the churches, always near.
There is also an equality in the references to both the seven stars and the seven candlesticks. This may have been a pointed reminder to
the well-respected, dominant church at Ephesus that no church was "greater" under God than another.
The Good:
2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say
they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
This church had much going for it, especially from a human perspective. Jesus said "I know" their toil, a word that calls an
image of putting all of oneself into the work at hand. The steadfast endurance was referenced earlier as a powerful perseverance. They
hold strong to orthodoxy, and are effective at weeding out those who would intentionally deceive them and lead them astray.
6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
A few verses later, Jesus specifically praises their rejection of the Nicolaitans, proponents of a doctrine that
since we are saved, and since the flesh is evil
anyway, we might as well indulge in any immorality we choose. These false believers chose to accommodate, to go along with society - eating
meat offered to idols, adultery - rather than to follow the command to be different from society, but the Ephesian church would not.
The Bad:
4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will
remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
However, this church had "left" (a better translation is "abandoned") its "first love." There are two primary possibilities for what
this means.
The first is that they have lost their enthusiasm, as Christianity becomes a routine. It is the danger of substituting a lesser motivation for
the right motivation. It is the danger of doing Christian service for the love of the activity rather than for the love of God.
The second interpretation is that in their zeal for orthodoxy, they have paid the price of love and fellowship. They were clearly beset
with constant challenges to their beliefs, outside by an immoral "religion" and inside by heretics like the false teachers and Nicolaitans. It is
easy to understand how they could have replaced love for others by distrust, how they could have slipped into skepticism and cynicism in
listening to others.
It is best to consider both meanings for this passage. When we let go of the love that Jesus with his redeeming power places in our hearts, it
will show both in our love for God and in our love for others, and you can't truly love others without loving God and vice versa.
A personal aside: there is a point where we do service because we love the fact of having responsibility, we pride ourselves in doing our
duty, or doing even more than our share of the work. Jesus tells us that our only reward then is that self-pride. When we do work for Jesus,
with our love for Him as the focus, the work is different, and the feeling inside is completely changed! For me, the comforting, warm glow of
self-esteem is replaced by a vibrant, out-of-control energy that encourages me to recklessly throw myself into whatever the work is. It
scares me! I feel myself enthusiastically giving up control. I am overwhelmed by emotion. I enjoy the feeling so much I sometimes
later feel selfish and guilty. And the work that is done leaves me staring in awe at God's fingerprints. As I now "see through a glass darkly," I
think this is what Jesus intends to give us when we let him!
Jesus is clear in what is demanded of them: (a) remember ("keep on remembering") how you used to be, (b) repent and turn away from
your error, (c) do like you used to do. Otherwise, Jesus is coming to remove their lamp stand. In other words, this offense is serious
enough to destroy the church. The verb tense used in the Greek eliminates this as being nature taking its course - John portrays this as
an intentional pruning.
I mentioned with "The Good" the verse about hating the Nicolaitans, although John specifically placed that praise immediately after the
chastisement. In doing so, John made a point about the dual, linked nature of love and hate. You can't be passionate about something with out
being opposingly passionate about that which would destroy it! In our culture and in our religion, we don't like to deal with hate, we
prefer to suppress it, and at times, we suppressing our love in
the process.
The Blessing:
7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life,
which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Notice that the blessing talks about giving the Ephesians food from the tree of life in Paradise. This may be a contrast
with the Nicolaitans, who
had no reluctance to eat food from pagan temples. It certainly is a reference to the end times, when the glory of Eden would be
restored as man's relationship with God was made right again, as in the vision at the end of Revelation of the Tree of Life growing
in the New Heaven.
Background:
Smyrna was north of Ephasus, on a gulf of the Aegean Sea. It rivaled it's southern neighbor in trade and size, and exceeded Ephesus in
beauty and in culture.
Part of the beauty of Smyrna can be attributed to an earlier tragedy. The city was destroyed in 580 B.C., and was rebuilt to a comprehensive
city plan in 290 B.C. That plan used broad boulevards as main thoroughfares, and emphasized the beauty of the temples by placing them
artistically on the hills surrounding the city.
The city had deeper ties to Rome than any in the area, even though it was Ephesus that had the status as a "free city." They had allied
with Rome before it became a power in that region, and it was the first place in Asia to conduct emperor worship. At the time of the
letter, the city had an important temple to the deceased emperor Tiberius.
The Jewish community there was well established and respected, and very hostile towards the Christian church because of their straying
from the Jewish orthodoxy and because their reputation damaged the "good name" of the Jews in Smyrna. Sixty years after Revelation was
written, there was a particularly famous account of the martyrdom of Polycarp, the bishop of the church in Smyrna. The rage of the
Jews towards Polycarp was so great that they gathered firewood ("did work") to burn him at the stake on a Sabbath day.
The situation for Christians was very difficult in Smyrna because of the attitudes of the rest of the citizens. Mobs of emperor worshipers
and mobs of Jews would attack Christians and rob them of anything they owned. Death was a constant threat, either from trumped-up
charges made to the magistrates or from mob violence.
Character of Christ:
8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;
The description of Christ as He "who became dead and came to life again and is still living" is a clear reference to Easter and the
Resurrection, and for the early Christians, a defiant statement to remind them of how different they were than the Jews or the
Emperor worshipers. In a city famous because it was destroyed and rebuilt to better than before, Jesus reminds them that he died and
came back to life, and so provides us with eternal life.
There was also purposeful significance to Smyrnans in the description of Jesus as "the first and the last". The citizens
of Smyrna were avid participants in the government of their town, with great efforts spent to achieve the highest forms of recognition
and authority. To this, Jesus reminds them that He is the first and the last authority.
The Good:
9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not,
but are the synagogue of Satan.
10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall
have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
The Greek word for "poverty" used here to describe this church is not the word we translate as "poor," but the word we
translate as "destitute" - they had nothing! The temptation must have been great to give in a little, to rejoin the synagogue to survive. Jesus knew
they had nothing, but reminded them that they had riches as well - God's gifts, assurances, the fellowship of believers. This must have
reminded them of the teaching of Jesus, "Do not amass for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust destroy and
where thieves break through and steal, but procure for yourselves treasures in heaven."
They also faced "tribulation", a word that, translated literally, means a "burden that crushes." Slander from Jews to cause them to be outcasts
and to be put to death. This text turns around a common boast from the Jews to call them a synagogue of Satan, but Jesus says it is the Jews who, compromising with the Smyrnans, who are the evil ones.
For these Christians, suffering is coming, but Jesus tells them not to fear the "first death," but to rely on God. Their testing would be
for 10 days, a number symbolic of completeness. What that means is their persecution would be for as long as necessary for God to
accomplish his purposes, a reminder that even in their struggle and pain, God is in control.
The Bad:
None!
The Blessing:
11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
If they would be faithful to death, Jesus will graciously give them the Crown of Life. This was a reference not to a ruler's crown of
authority, but a victor's garland of achievement. However, even the church's faithfulness cannot "earn" the Crown -- it is a gift from the
Grace of God. For the persecuted Christian grasping to hope, this is a relief! God isn't holding them to a standard for how well they do in the
persecution for them to "earn" it. The crown is a gift because of who God is. The church has nothing to lose, all to gain!
Whoever conquers (a specific military term) will not be harmed by the second death. There are several reasons for this choice of
words. One is as a contrast to the first death, which would in earthly terms be seen as a defeat. Another is a reminder that they, not the
Jews, had the Truth. The Jews didn't really understand Heaven - that came with the teaching of Christ. They did have a concept that everyone
faced the first death, and all but the Elect would face the second, eternal death. Or, to quote Hal Lindsey, "he who is born but once shall
die twice, but he who is born twice shall die but once."
Background:
Pergamum was a much older town than Ephesus or Smyrna, and had for 400 years been a capital of that region. The town was
beautiful, built high on a hill overlooking the River Caicus. The town was known as a seat of government, and the Roman officials had
their regional headquarters there. It was also a center of culture and knowledge, with a library of 20,000 volumes, second in size
only to the famous one in Alexandria.
The town was the location of three different worship centers. The most visibly prominent was to the Greek gods Zeus and Athena, which
went along with the town's reputation as a seat of culture, but also underscored that the town was "past its prime" by
worshiping the anachronistic Greek gods. The most historically significant was a temple to Asclepius, the god of healing, because this
temple was the closest thing in the ancient world to a hospital. The temple was served equally by priests and doctors. Several items in the
worship of Asclepius would have bothered Christians -- the proper title for this god was "Asclepius the Savior," and the symbol for
Asclepius, still seen today on medical badges, was of a snake. However, there were much bigger problems in Pergamum.
As the administrative center for the Roman government in Asia, Pergamum also served as the "diocese" for emperor worship. To enforce
that worship, the Roman governor in Pergamum was of the small class of governors who had the ius gladii, the "right of the
sword." This ruler could execute anyone on the spot in the name of the Roman government, and the proconsul of Pergamum had executed
people who would not worship Caesar.
Character of Christ:
12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;
Christ is described as the one with the two-edged sword. Jesus reminded the church at Pergamum that in the end, it was He that truly had the "right of the sword."
By the time of this writing, the image of Jesus's two-edged sword being the Word of God was well established, and can be found in both
Ephesians 6:17
and Hebrews 4:12.
This would have been a particularly strong image for John, who wrote in his Gospel that the Word
had become flesh and dwelt among us. Given that the problems at Pergamum involved the compromising of their faith, this imagery was
a call to this church to get back into the Word.
The Good:
13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even
in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
It was obviously tough to be a Christian in Pergamum - Jesus said they lived in the "seat of Satan," which most commentators believe refers
to the seat of Roman rule and emperor worship for that region
of Asia Minor.
However, there is more to the statement of Jesus that "I know where you live." The normal Greek word that early Christians used
for "to live" was paroikein, specifically "to sojourn," since our only true home is Heaven. In this case, Jesus purposefully used the
Greek word katoikein, "to reside", to drive home the point that this was their earthly permanent residence. To refer to the
Pergamum Christians under this kind of persecution as sojourners would be to downplay their struggle and encourage them to move
away. As Barclay points out, "the principle of the Christian life is not escape, but conquest." The choice of this one Greek word affirms
the conquest of their faith in the location where God called them to reside.
Their condition was underscored by a particularly trying period that had included the martyrdom of Antipas, of which we know
almost nothing other than what is in this verse. In this verse, however, Antipas is called "my Faithful Martyr," a phrase more
powerful in Greek than English. The term for Martyr is martus, which is also translated as "witness." For early Christians, the two were
often one in the same. This exact Greek phrase, used here more as a title, appears also in Revelation 1:5, but in that case, John refers
to Jesus! What an message of the faithfulness of Antipas and his reward in Heaven.
The Bad:
14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a
stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
But even as they withstood the direct confrontation of their beliefs by emperor worship, some succumbed to the compromise of their
faith by following after "Balaam" and the Nicolaitans. The reference to Balaam is to a false prophet in ancient Israel who had
been hired by the king of Moab to destroy the Israelites from inside by compromising their worship. This church was lured by the
same compromising teachings: that it was acceptable to worship God and superstitions, and that it was polite to compromise and
accept the ways of non-believers, and that relaxed moral standards were not a problem. This would have been in line with the
Nicolaitan beliefs that are referenced in the letter to Pergamum.
Their compromise of faith conflicts directly with Paul's writing in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect." Paul wrote in I
Corinthians 9:22 that "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." His emphasis there is not to lower the
standards of Christianity to the common norm as was being done in Pergamum, but to bring some others up to the fullness of
Christianity however possible.
Jesus was clear that he would fight with those who wandered. This Greek verb used is unquestionably aggressive, but the focus is
selective - not on the whole church, but strictly to those that have compromised their beliefs. It may be that we interpret the
verb here as so strong because our human tendency is to "excuse" our failures, to explain away why we are not really to blame for
what we do wrong. For those in the wrong at Pergamum, as for all sinners through time, there is only the option of complete repentance.
In the imagery of Jesus fighting with the wanderers is the weapon He will use -- the two-edged sword of the Word of God. Unlike the
Roman proconsul with the right of the sword, Jesus is not here described as an executioner. Jesus will confront and convict those at
Pergamum of the error of their ways by His Word and thus lead them back into a proper faith -- He never gives up on them!
The Blessing:
17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna,
and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
For both of the promises made to those in this church who conquer, that of hidden manna and of a white stone with a secret new name
on it, there are several parallel interpretations that shed meaning to these images.
Manna is first introduced in Exodus 16
as the way that God fed His people in the wilderness as they were waiting to be led into the
Promised Land. This by itself coveys that we belong to God and are in his care, even more so when we think of Jesus as being the Bread of
Life broken for us. A blessing referring to food from God again symbolizes the difference between true believers and the Nicolaitans, as it
did in the letter to the church in Ephasus. As we continue with the references to the Nicolaitans, consider that
there was much more wrong with their practice of accommodation than merely where they chose to buy meat.
The phrase "hidden manna" refers to a legend surrounding the fall of Judah when conquered by the Babylonians in the sixth
century B.C., at which time the temple was demolished. The prophet Jeremiah was supposed to have taken from the temple a pot
of manna that was one of several items kept in the Holy of Holies since the time of Moses. To save this one holy item from the
Babylonians, Jeremiah took this pot of manna and hid it in a rock cleft on Mount Sinai. There legend says it would remain hidden until
the Messiah comes. Thus, this first image encourages the followers with the sustaining love of Jesus to be made complete at the
second coming.
There are many different historical interpretations that can be made of a white stone. Many of these refer to a colloquial first century
reference that a white stone represented a day where good things happened, as opposed to a "black stone day." Another use for white tablets
was as tickets admitting the bearer to feasts.
White and black stones were also used by judges at that time to vote for guilt or innocence, and the only other use of this Greek word for
stone was Paul recounting in Acts 26:10
how he had voted for the stoning of Steven by casting a black stone. Thus, we can interpret this
white stone from Jesus as the eternal forgiveness we receive at the Judgement.
A stone with a name on it refers to the pagan practice of carrying around a good luck charm with the name of a god on it, giving the bearer
some sense of power. The name on the stone here may refer to a new name for the believer, but most commentators believe this name is for
God. That it is a secret, new name emphasizes the special, close relationship that Jesus wants to have in Heaven with each of
us. The giving of the name of "Faithful Witness" to Antipas earlier in this letter emphasizes how special that will be!
(Pronounced "THIGH - a - TIE - ra")
Background:
Finally, a city that wasn't one of the major cities of the region! Thyatira was on the road between the capital city of Pergamum and the
inland city of Sardis. It's major geographical value was as a military outpost to protect the approach into Pergamum, but it was
in a lousy tactical location down in a valley. Because it was on a trade route between major cities, it thrived on trade, and was
notable for the number of crafts guilds in the town. Lydia, the seller of purple that had founded a church in Philippi
(Acts 16:14),
had
come from from Thyatira.
This city was the least significant of the seven cities in Revelation, but to it was the longest of the seven letters written. This would
have been a pointed reminder to those in Asia that God does not size up the world by the same measuring sticks that we use.
Unlike the first three cities, there were no powerful pagan temples to fight against the beliefs of the Christians. The struggle there was
more economic -- financial success meant being a member of one of the craft or trade guilds, organizations that were as strong
as unions are today. The moral struggle for a Christian participating in these guilds were at the mandatory social functions and
feasts, often held in a pagan temple, with their formal sacrifices to the patron god of their craft, the meat sacrificed to idols, and
frequent immorality. However, rejecting the guilds meant losing financial opportunities.
Character of Christ:
18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his
feet are like fine brass;
The appearance of the "Son of God," with eyes as a flame and feet of burnished bronze, spoke of overwhelming power - eyes that
could see into any hidden places, feet that were firmly planted and immovable. The reference to brass and fire hit home to the
craftsmen who worked with brass and metals, but the reference also carried back into Daniel's image of an angelic messenger in
10:6.
In
this image is power, seriousness, and purity, setting the stage for uncompromising "straight talk" to this church.
The Good:
19 I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.
The first of the straight talk in the letter concerns what this church is doing well. They are praised for their love, their loyalty
and faithfulness to Jesus, their service and ministry to others, and their steadfast endurance. Further more, they are doing
increasingly more of these works as time goes on. The image would be of a vibrant, growing church, one that to human observers
would be a big success.
The Bad:
20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach
and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give
unto every one of you according to your works.
Then the straight talk starts naming names! The woman, who is labelled as "a Jezebel" and about which we know nothing more than
what is in Revelation, clearly was an influential leader and "pillar" of this church ("a prophetess"). Like Jezebel of
1 Kings 16,
she must have used her influence to compromise Christian beliefs. She wanted to build up the church, but she apparently valued that
church at the expense of holding true to the Savior.
Note that Jesus has this against the whole of the church that they tolerate Jezebel. Jesus holds her accountable for her evil, but
He also demands of his followers to confront what is wrong and outside of His teachings.
The two specific charges made against Jezebel are that she led the church members to immorality and eating food offered to idols - this is
a similar story of compromise and accommodation to society as in the previous letters. The key differences for Thyatira was that the
motivation in this church would have been economic, and that this wasn't a slipping away from the Truth but a blatant, open teaching of
how to compromise. I believe that the immorality and idolatry presented for this church address the gamut of other moral compromises
that the church members probably made to go along with the economic powers in the region, and could have included "accepted"
practices of deceptive pricing, unfair weights, hidden charges, misrepresented materials, and the like. I believe that Jezebel
had no problem encouraging the church members to go along with the "Caesar is Lord" pledge as a "cost of doing business."
Leon Morris cautions that we today should not consider this prevalent problem of the first century church as irrelevant for
our day. Christ commands His church to be in the world but not part of the world. We do not have the option of being "a group of old-fashioned
people always trying to retreat from the real world." Likewise, we cannot compromise our faith to more fully embrace the real world as
Jezebel did.
24 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they
speak; I will put upon you none other burden.
25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
Jesus praises the "rest of you", those that have not followed this Jezebel. In His praise is indication of more dangerous side to
these false teachings than we have seen in Ephasus or Pergamum, as in verse 24: "...have not learned what some call 'the deep
things of Satan'..." Talbert believes that this phrase references the Christian's knowledge that there is nothing to a false God,
so Jezebel's followers used this knowledge to justify accommodating false religions. Since they know there is no Zeus, that God alone is
the one God, what harm does it do to participate in "worship" of one who does not exist? What clearly false, twisted logic!
Barclay interprets a more insidious problem in this heresy led by Jezebel. The structure of the phrase parallels Paul's reference in
1 Corinthians 2:10
that "the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God." From this parallel passage, this teaching could be a
Christian gnostic deviancy of the day that sought to probe the depths of Sin, and claimed that God's grace would abound as Christians
sinned more. After all, Christians belonged to God in the end, so they could not be "lost" in sin. Some even considered it a duty to sin!
We don't need to understand the exact nature of Jezebel's teachings to understand the essence of what she was doing. Here we have a
church that by all human appearances is strong and effective, but the one with eyes like a flame of fire sees that the church is in state
of dangerous compromise in its beliefs and practices.
Once again, God's judgement is so much wiser than our human judgement. In our assessment, surely a church with so much evil teaching
would be the worst of the churches in Asia, much worse than that one in Ephesus! However, Jesus sees in Thyatira a degree of promise
and faith that was not possible to the church that had lost its first love.
Jesus had given Jezebel, her paramours (those that would
try out her teachings) and her children (those that had fully accepted her teachings) every opportunity to repent. Notice that I do not
interpret this list as a literal one, as one commentator does in interpreting the individual immorality of the person Jezebel. While
Jezebel likely did commit adultery, she also led the church in collective "adultery." In response, Jesus would bring sickness, affliction,
and death on those as was necessary to show the church that He is the rightful and only head of the church.
In this threat is a reminder that it isn't the outward works that are the measure of Christian faith, but what is inside that truly
counts. Jesus is the one that searches "minds and hearts" (in the vernacular of the first century, this is literally the "hearts and
kidneys" as the seat of reason and emotion) and judges by the works found there.
The Blessing:
26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
28 And I will give him the morning star.
29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
For those in Thyatira that did not hold to the teachings of Jezebel, Jesus requires them to hold on to their faith, and Jesus will come
with power and strength to sustain them. Note that He doesn't excuse those that are led astray by Jezebel -- we are all accountable for
our own actions and our beliefs!
The first promise for those that conquer is a reference to the Messianic promise of
Psalm 2:8-9,
where God establishes his Son as ruler
over all the earth and subdues all earthly powers. To add to the appropriateness of this blessing, the "iron rod" and the "clay pots which are shattered" would be even more of the products made by this
city of craftsmen! Jesus not only tailors His message to the truth that each church needs to hear, but puts it in terms that are closest and
most meaningful to each church! For those who continue, the power of Jesus in the Second Coming are theirs.
The second promise is that they will be given the morning star. This is a reference to the end of Revelation (22:16), where Jesus proclaims
that He is the bright and morning star.
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