The Seven Churches - Thyathira

Rev 2:18 “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.”

Thyathira is a city near Smyrna and a church both appalled and criticized by the Lord. The city was popular for garments and dyeing. Or maybe famous for fashion. The other mention of the city is in Acts 16 about Lydia who urged Paul and Silas to stay with her. She was selling purple goods and wanted Paul to acknowledge her faithfulness to the Lord.

Jesus is very happy about the church’s love, faith, service and patient endurance. The verse gives importance to each of these qualities by quoting “love and faith and service etc.” This is God acknowledging every single thing in detail. We should understand that patient endurance is appreciated which is an important quality of a church which helps it grow. The most important quality is that the church displayed growth in terms of works. If we set some standards in a church, we should ensure we stay there or exceed that standard but never recede from that state. If our commitments with the Lord decrease it becomes disgraceful in a church.

The important problem to the church is that it tolerated a person named or behaved like Jezebel. She taught the members to be sexually immoral and seducing them towards that sin. Sexual immorality was a serious problem at that time but when we come to our times, this comes in another form for the church. The bride of Christ should be pure in who is worshipped. If the church gives the husband’s place to anybody or anything else, it becomes immoral. The second problem is about eating things sacrificed to idols which is about looking for gain by serving men. This is condemned of every member in the church who would make an earning out of sin. This is not OK in the church. The Lord does not criticize the action but if the church tolerates these actions, it becomes fatal for the church.

Jezebel called herself a prophetess which is the easiest way to gain attention in the church. She is actually misleading the church for her gain. She wants pleasure and so takes the whole church down by making sin a teaching. She actually uses the Lord’s name to make men fall for her.

For such people, God gives time and opportunities to repent but if they delay that change and think about changing later, God sees that as refusal to repent. This means that she knows what she does is sin but her love towards that path of immorality makes her justify herself so much that even others can fall into this. Verse 22 says how God will make her partners fall into a great tribulation unless they repent of her works. Christ uses the word “her works” meaning that she is responsible completely but still that does not give an excuse to her followers.

The punishment is level starts low with the lady herself, then higher to her partners and death to her children. The reason is because the Lord wants be a just here. She should live in a deathbed so that people know the Lord knows everything. Her partners who believed her teaching and did not look out to the Lord take higher tribulations and the products of her sin are those who cannot be changed at all. These should be killed. The children point to every gift or goodness the church has received because of this sin.

For this church the Lord introduces Himself as having fiery eyes and bronze feet. This shows that God looks at every progress of the church with eyes that are not merciful but with fire. The feet like bronze indicates that He will move within the church and make His presence felt with heaviness and brightness. This is not of the past because in starting of chapter 4 only the future starts. The Lord coming as a strong judge is not only of the future but He is the same inside the church which is His body.

The other lesson here is that the ones who have not corrupted themselves did not learn from the depths of Satan. Jesus acknowledges this term because if anyone tries to learn what comes from Jezebel, they will fall. But if we keep away from even understanding what that is, there are very high chances for us to stand up with righteousness. The Lord says that staying without understanding this itself is a burden or a cross enough for a person and the Lord does not want to place any other hardship in addition to this.

The one who conquers this woman’s teaching is strong enough to rule the ends of the world. The morning star, or the star that appears before the sun.