Church at Thyatira

TO: Church at Thyatira

FROM: The Son of God who has eyes like a flame of

fire and feet resembling silver bronze.

1. I know:

     a. Your doings
     b. Your love
     c. Your faith
     d. Your service
     e. Your patient endurance
     f.   You have recently toiled harder than you did at first

2. I have this against you: you tolerate the woman Jezebel,

who calls herself a prophetess and by her teaching leads

astray My servants so that they commit fornication and eat

what had been sacrificed to idols.

3. I have given her time to repent, but she is determined not

repent of her fornication.

4. I am about to cast her upon a bed of sickness and I will

severely afflict those who commit adultery with her unless

they repent of conduct as hers.

5. Her children too shall surely die.

6. All the churches shall know that I am He who searches

into men’s inmost thoughts.

7. And I will repay each of you in accordance with his deeds.

8. To the rest in Thyatira who do not hold these teachings

and have not learned the “deep things” -- to you I say that

I lay no other burden on you.

9. Hold fast to what you possess until I come.

10. To the victor, the one who obeys my commands to the

very end, I will give authority over the nations. He shall be

their shepherd ruling them with a rod of iron, just as

potter’s ware is dashed to atoms; and his power over

them shall be like that which I Myself have received

form My Father.

11. And I will give him the Morning Star.

12. Let all who have ears give heed to what the spirit is

saying to the churches.

THYATIRA

NOTES AND RELATING SCRIPTURES:

Thyatira was a workingman’s town, with many trade guilds for cloth making, dyeing, and pottery. The
city was basically secular, with no focus on any particular religion. (LB)
The city where Lydia was born who had been converted by Paul at Philippi (JFB)
Mysticism/ a mystical tendency (TB)
Committed but compromised; always starting things but never getting finished
They are similar to Pergamum but tend toward mysticism
The mystic teaches contemptible doctrine regardless of the bible’s constant plea for sound doctrine
Titus 2:1
They allowed personal experience to be the criterion of truth. This led to false mysticism
The devil used a woman to appeal to this tendency 2 Timothy 2:13-14
Command: repent of your ways

should be on guard against extremes

avoid the danger of cold intellectualism

refuse to allow emotional experience to replace the revelation of the word

What the Spirit says:

don’t drift away on emotional experience and ignore the stated principle of the word of God

the word is our only firm basis in the strong currents of human theory and false doctrine

False doctrine may hide under a beautiful mask:

a mask of super-piety

a mask of service to humanity

Service good when directed to God and not based on vain theories of human philosophy
The overcomer has promise of having authority - ruling the nations
Overcoming promises - P 172-173 Forerunner

2:18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God,
who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass:

Son of God – from Psalm 2:7, 9 – and referred to in verse 27 (JFB)
Eyes like flame of fire – signifying His piercing insight into all persons and all things (MH)
Eyes like a flame – answers to verse 23 (JFB)
His feet like fine brass – He acts with perfect strength and steadiness (MH)
Feet like brass – answers to verse 27. He is treading them to pieces with His strong feet (JFB)

References: Revelation 1:14, 15; Matthew 4:3

2:19 “I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your last works,
the last are more than the first.

There is no religion where there is no charity (MH)
As love is inward, so service is its outward manifestation (JFB)
Patience – perseverance – steadfastness (NAS) – endurance (JFB)
I should be the ambition and earnest desire of all Christians that their last works may be their best
works (MH)

References: Revelation 2:2

2:20 “Nevertheless I have a few things against you that are tolerate, because you allow your
wife Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit
sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

Jezebel - a wicked woman like the wife of Ahab; claiming to be a religious teacher, while she seduced
the people into error and sin. Her teaching was the same as that of Balaam
Wife Jezebel – intimates that this bad woman was the wife of the bishop of the church and his
criminality in suffering her was therefore the greater (AC)
That she not only called herself a prophetess but was recognized as such by her associates (Z)
The sin of these seducers was that they attempted to draw the servants of God into fornication, and to
offer sacrifices to idols (MH)
She is being allowed to teach her contemptible doctrine regardless of the Bible’s constant plea for
sound doctrine (TB)
A woman in the church in Thyatira was teaching that immorality was not a serious matter for believers.
(LB)
Sex outside marriage always hurts someone. It hurts God because it shows we prefer to follow our own
desires instead of God’s Word. It hurts others because it violates the commitment so necessary to a
relationship. It hurts us because it often brings disease to our bodies and adversely affects our
personalities. (LB)
In heathen temples, meat was often offered to idols. Then the meat that wasn’t burned was sold to
shoppers in the temple marketplace. (LB)
The deeper the church penetrated into heathenism, the more she herself became heathenish; this
prepares us for the expressions ‘harlot’ and ‘Babylon’ applied to her afterwards (JFB)

References: 1 Kings 16:31 (And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the
son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and
worshiped him); 21:25 (But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because
Jezebel his wife stirred him up); Exodus 34:15 (lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the
harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice); 2 Kings 9:7; Acts
15:29 (that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep
yourselves free from such things, you will do well….); 1 Corinthians 10:20 (No; but I say that the things which the Gentiles
sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons)

2:21 “And I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her sexual
immorality.

Time – space (JFB)
Her activity had evidently gone on for some time, and previous warnings had been unheeded; now
sickness and plague will fall as a judgment on her and her votaries (Z)
She willed not to repent – a transition from literal to spiritual fornication. The idea arose from Jehovah’
s covenant relation to the Old Testament Church being regarded as a marriage, any transgression
against which was therefore harlotry, fornication, or adultery. (JFB)

References: Revelation 9:20; 16:9, 11; Romans 2:4 (Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and
forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance), 5 (But because of
your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God); 2 Peter 3:9 (The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some
count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance)

2:22 “Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great
tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.

Indeed – Behold – calling attention to her awful doom to come (JFB)
Cast her into a bed - of severe affliction (WNT)
Bed – the place of her sin shall be the place of her punishment. The bed of her sin shall be her bed of
sickness and anguish. (JFB)
Her punishment is distinct from theirs; she is to be cast into a bed, and her children to be killed; while
those who make themselves partakers of her sin by tolerating her, are to be cast into great tribulation
(JFB)
Repent – shall have repented by the time limited in My purpose (JFB)

References: Revelation 17:2; 18:9

2:23 “I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who
searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

Her children - meaning probably her dupes or those whom she ensnared (WNT)
Her proper adherents; not those who suffer her, but those who are begotten of her. A distinct class
from the last whose sin was less direct, being that only of connivance. (JFB)
Kill her children with death – that is, the second death (MH)
Kill with death – a Hebraism for ‘slay with most sure and awful death’ – not die the common death of
man (JFB)
Death may mean pestilence as in the second occurrence in 6:8 (Z)
Minds – literally kidneys – figurative for inner man (NAS)
The design of Christ in the destruction of these wicked seducers, was the instruction of others. God is
known by the judgments that He executes. (MH)
I am He – an emphatical ‘I’
Minds – reins – the seat of desires; Heart – that of the thoughts (JFB)
Searches – an accurate following up of all tracks and windings (JFB)
According to your works – not according to the mere act as it appears to man, but with reference to the
motive, faith and love being the only motives which God recognizes as sound (JFB)
Give to each according to works – the constant principle of divine judgment in Scripture (Z)

References: Jeremiah 11:20 (But O Lord of hosts, you who judge righteously, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You I
have revealed my cause); 17:10 (I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his doings); Psalm 7:9 (O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; for the
righteous God tries the hearts and minds); 26:2 (Examine me, O Lord, and try me; test my mind and my heart); 139:1 (O Lord,
Thou hast searched me and known me); Luke 16:15 (….You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows
your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God); Acts 1:24; Romans 8:27; Matthew 16:
27

2:24 “Now to you I say, to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who
have not known the depths of satan, as they say, I put on you no other burden.

This lovable church, strong in warm devotional life, had apparently forgotten to apply the objective
standard of God’s Word, allowing personal experience to be the criterion of truth. This emphasis on
personal experience led to a false mysticism (TB)
The church should be on its guard against extremes: it must avoid the danger of cold intellectualism,
but at the same time refuse to allow emotional experience to replace the revelation of the Word (TB)
Do not have - not only do not ‘hold’, but are free from contact with (JFB)
Depths - spiritism or demon worship that sets aside the atoning blood of Christ (WNT)
That these seducers called their doctrines: depths, profound mysteries; what Christ called them:
depths of satan, satanical delusions and devices (MH)
Depths – these false prophets boasted peculiarly of their knowledge of mysteries and the deep things
of God; pretensions subsequently expressed by their arrogant title “Gnostics” (full of knowledge) (JFB)
The original sin of Adam was a desire to know evil as well as good; so those who want to know the
depths of satan (JFB)
False doctrine may hide under a beautiful mask. IN Thyatira it was a mask of super-piety. IN our day it
is often the mask of service to humanity. (TB)
Burden – abstinence from fornication and idol meats – Acts 15:28, 29 (JFB)

References: 2 Timothy 3:1-9 (But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves,
lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers,
without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a
form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households
and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt
minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was);
Acts 15:28 (For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things); 1
Corinthians 2:10 (For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God)

2:25 “But hold fast what you have till I come.

Hold fast – do not let go from your grasp (JFB)
If hold fast faith and a good conscience until He comes, all the difficulty and danger will be over (MH)
What does the Spirit say? Don’t drift away on emotional experience, ignoring the stated principles of
the Word of God, for the Word is our only firm basis in the strong currents of human theory and false
doctrine. (TB)
Till I come – when your conflict with evil will be at an end. The Greek implies ‘uncertainty’ as to when He
shall come (JFB)
Until I come – His coming is a visitation of judgment upon the unfaithful but of reward for the faithful (Z)

References: Revelation 3:11; John 21:22

2:26 “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power
over the nations--

My works – in contrast to ‘her’ works (JFB)
Until the end – the image is perhaps from the race wherein it is not enough to enter the lists, but the
runner must persevere to the end (JFB)
Power – rule – shepherd; the shepherd’s staff is a protection for the sheep but a weapon of offense
against their enemies (Z)
Nations – Gentiles

References: John 6:29 (Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent);
Matthew 19:28 (So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of
His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel); Matthew 10:22 (And you
will be hated by all on account of My name….); Hebrews 3:6 (but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we
are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end); Psalm 2:8 (Ask of Me, and I will surely give the
nations as Thy inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Thy possession)

2:27 “He shall rule them with a rod of iron;
They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’--

as I also have received from My Father;

Rule – shepherd (NAS)
Rule with rod of iron – He shall restrain vice by the strictest administration of justice; and those who
despise the word and rebel shall be broken and destroyed (AC)
As I also received – even as I – Jesus had refused to receive the kingdom without the cross at the devil’
s hands; He would receive it from none but the Father, who had appointed the cross as the path to the
crown (JFB)

References: Psalm 2:8 (Ask of Me, and I will give the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your
possession.), 9 (You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel); Isaiah 30:14 (And
whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar; so ruthlessly shattered that a sherd will not be found among its pieces to
take fire from a hearth, or to scoop water from a cistern); Jeremiah 19:11

2:28 “and I will give him the morning star.

A morning star appears just before dawn, when things are coldest and darkest. (LB)
I will give unto him ‘Myself’ (JFB)

References: 2 Peter 1:19 (And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a
dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts); 1 John 3:2

2:29 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’

Ear – hear – incline your ear – submit and consent to the divine will – Isaiah 55:3 Amplified