The Revelation is Sent to the Church in Thyatira
(*All Bible verses are from the NIV unless otherwise noted)
Chapter 2:18-25
Rev 2:18 “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.
Rev 2:19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
Rev 2:20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.
Rev 2:21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.
Rev 2:22 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.
Rev 2:23 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.
Rev 2:24 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,
Rev 2:25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
Rev 2:18
To the angel of the church in Thyatira:
Thyatira, the modern Turkish city of Akhisar, was located on the Hermus river, 38 miles from Pergamos. It was a prosperous trading town famous for its indigo dyes (purple-colored or navy blue) made from the madder-root, a perennial, climbing vine1.
During his second missionary journey (Acts 16:13 – 15), the apostle Paul traveled to Philippi, where he met a woman named Lydia, from Thyatira, “a dealer in purple cloth.” After listening to Paul’s preaching, she and her entire household were baptized.
Rev 2:18
These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and feet are like burnished bronze:
Verses from the Bible are filled with colorful metaphors and similes:
Psa 6:7My eyes grow weak with sorrow;they fail because of all my foes.
Psa 22:14 I am poured out like water,and all my bones are out of joint.My heart has turned to wax;it has melted within me.
Ps 12:6 And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times.
Song of Solomon 4:1 How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from the hills of Gilead.
Isa 48:4 For I knew how stubborn you were; your neck muscles were iron, your forehead was bronze.
Jer 15:20 I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you,” declares the LORD.
Consider what is suggested by phrases such as “Her eyes blazed with anger,” “His heart was on fire with the love of music,” and “He stood his ground in the face of danger as if his feet were solid stone!”
In addition, items made of bronze, iron, or steel are strong, solid, and enduring.
What image is invoked by Christ’s blazing eyes and feet of solid bronze?
Rev 2:19
I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance:
According to Heb 11:6, two basic things are necessary to having faith in God:
Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Faith and confidence in God’s ultimate victory motivates people to serve His cause and persevere through hardships!
Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Ps 20:6 Now this I know: The LORD gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand.
Heb 10:36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
Isa 25:9 In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
Rev 2:20
You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess…she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols:
1 Kings 18-21 tells the story of Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab. She contested the worship of the One God by disregarding the rights of the common people and by defying the prophets Elijah and Elisha. She provoked internal strife that weakened Israel for decades, and her name has become synonymous with wickedness. A person may be called a “Jezebel” who is vindictive and traitorous!
It’s possible that a woman in Thyatira was actually named Jezebel. It’s also possible that John hears the name used as a pejorative for someone who is stirring up trouble in the church.
The Greek word translated here as “sexual immorality” is porneuo (por-nev’-o)2, referring to the act of prostitution, unlawful lust, and sexual intercourse outside of marriage. As discussed earlier (notes on 2:14), the Christian views on morality were vastly different than those of pagans, and many early Christians struggled to make the break from millennia of established tradition. What Christians viewed as sexual promiscuity, many pagans saw as socially acceptable. While the annual pagan feasts and rites of offerings to the gods were a natural part of community celebration, they were considered abhorrent by Christians.
Rev 2:21
I have given her time to repent:
The Hebrew words, shuwb (Ezek 14:6 and 18:30), and nacham (Jer 4:28, and Psa 90:13) mean to turn back, to turn away, to retreat, and, to sigh deeply, to be sorry, to pity, console, or to regret3.
The Greek word for repent is metanoeo (me-ta-no-e’-o) (Matt 3:2 and Luke 13:3), and means much the same thing – to have a change of mind and heart, to reconsider, to relent, or to have remorse4. Note that repentance is not simply saying, “I’m sorry.” Look back at the discussion of verse 11. When a wrong has been committed, how does having a broken heart, and, a contrite spirit, affect relationships with others and with God?
Rev 2:22
I will cast her on a bed of suffering…and strike her children dead:
Consider the use of the terms “child”, and, “children”in the following verses:
Acts 13:10 “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?
1John 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
It is highly improbable that children of a wicked person would be held responsible for their parent’s sins and be punished by God. Whether Jezebel is the actual woman’s name or a general derogatory term for Christians who continued pagan practices, her symbolic children might be those who follow her teachings and example. Spiritual (and often physical) death results from rebellion against God, while obedience leads to true life.:
Rom 8:6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
Rom 8:10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
Eph 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Col 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins…
Rev 2:23
I am he who searches hearts and minds:
Ps 7:9 Bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure— you, the righteous God who probes minds and hearts.
Ps 26:2 Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;
Jer 20:12 LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have committed my cause.
Rev 2:23
I will repay each of you according to your deeds:
Every deed or action has an eventual consequence – some good, some bad. Choosing to live as Jesus taught – unselfish love, generosity, and kindness – brings deeply spiritual rewards. Living a life of greed and selfish ambition, more often than not, leads to hurt and destruction. However, our good deeds are not what gain us salvation:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jer 17:10 “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
Eph 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Rom 3:24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith..
Consider the difference between doing good things in response to love and faith in Christ, and believing those good works are what guarantees salvation. The Book of James offers important insights:
If a person’s faith in God is genuine, their lives will demonstrate that truth. Being “rewarded according to our deeds” is the attainment of love, peace, and true spiritual relationships. Those rewards don’t save us. They are a result of the saving action of the Holy Spirit!
Jas 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?
Jas 3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
Rev 2:24
Satan’s so-called deep secrets:
Revisit your notes on Gnosticism (vs. 2) in relation to Paul’s admonition to the Corinthian church:
1Cor 2:10 …these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Rev 2:25
Hold on to what you have until I come:
Luke 8:15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
Col 1:11 …being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience…
Persecution of believers has continued into modern times (see Section Two, Part 1, Eternalism). In non-Christian countries hundreds are imprisoned or murdered every year. Christians have boldly stood their ground throughout history, and continue to hold on to essential beliefs in a world of increasing ridicule, mockery, and criticism.
Footnotes
- Thyatira: https://www.biblestudy.org/, accessed Dec. 20, 2023. ↩︎
- Strong’s G4203. ↩︎
- Strong’s H5162, and H7725. ↩︎
- Strong’s G3340. ↩︎
*All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
