[:en]TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA (vs. 18-28)
Speaker: Words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze
- Commendaiton: Good deeds, love, faith, service and persevrance
- Rebuke: You tolerate teachings of Jezebel – who engage in sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols
- Counsel: Repent
- Punishment”: I will cast suffering on them and stirke their children dead
- Reward: He who overcomes and do my will, I will give him the authority to rule over the nation. I will also give him the morning star.
Thyatira was a town with many trades for cloth making, dyeing and pottery. Lydia, Paul’s first convert in Philippi was a merchant from Thyatira (Acts 16:14). The city was basically secular, without focus on any particular religion.
Jezebel was a pagan queen of Israel considered to be the most evil woman who ever lived. A woman in the church in Thyatira was teaching that immorality was not a serious matter for believers. She may have used the name to symbolize the kind of evil she was promoting. Sexual immorality is serious because it violates the relationship commitment. It brings diseases to our bodies. It has the power to destroy families, churches and communities.
Meat was offered to idols in pagan temples. Eating it was not wrong but it could violate the conscience of weaker Christians. Seeking our selfish pleasure and freedom without caring about the needs and concerns of fellow beleivers are not acceptable.
“The deeper truths” of Satan were either false teachings advocated by heretics or secret insights that guaranteed to promote deeper spiritual life. We should hold on to the basic Christian truth and shun away teachings that turns us away from the Bible.
“Morning Star” appears just before dawn when the night is coldest and darkest. When the world is at its bleakest point, Christ will appear and expose evil with His light of truth and bring His promised reward.[:]