Cross Examined 5 | Seduced

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: I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols... He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

One small word, one small compromise, can make a very big difference—and Jesus sees it all.

One Word Can Make a Big Difference

In the year 1611, after seven years of work by 46 translators, the King James Bible was officially completed and released. Nearly 500 years later it is still in circulation and remains one of the top-selling English translations. For about 450 years it was the primary English Bible.

About 20 years after the first printing, King Charles I commissioned a reprint, finished in 1631, and a thousand copies were delivered. But as scholars went through the text, they found that among the more than 780,000 words, one small word was missing—in a small but crucial verse, Exodus 20:14, the seventh commandment. The 1631 edition read, "Thou shalt commit adultery."

That small word made a big difference. All but about 11 copies of what came to be called the Wicked Bible were burned and destroyed. The printer's license was revoked, and he was fined 300 pounds—about a year's wages. You can still buy one of the surviving copies today, for around $99,500.

I remember sitting with a group of pastors about ten years ago, looking at a booklet by Pastor Chuck Smith on ministering to those who grieve. One pastor, Matt Dotson, came across a paragraph quoting 1 Corinthians 15:53, which read, "This mortal must put on immorality." Of course the verse says, "This mortal must put on immortality." One letter can make a big difference.

Of course, misprints and typos are not the reason people engage in immorality. We find ourselves drawn toward things against the Scriptures not because of misprints, but because of our fallen sin nature. We don't need typos to justify these things—we do that just fine on our own.

The City and Church of Thyatira

The church Jesus addresses in this fourth letter was not only caught in compromise, like Pergamos, but was actually engaged in immorality. It is not unheard of that there would be sinful people in church—we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God. But the problem here was bigger than individual sin within the hearts of the people. There was a much more grievous issue.

Thyatira was the smallest of the seven cities mentioned in Revelation 2 and 3, situated about 40 miles southeast of Pergamos. For many years before the Pax Romana, it was little more than a speed bump to invading armies. Established during the Greek Empire as a military outpost to delay armies marching toward Pergamos, it was conquered, destroyed, and rebuilt several times.

Situated on a trade route, the city grew to have great trade guilds—the closest modern equivalent would be a union. Archaeologists have found more evidence of trade guilds in Thyatira than in any other Asian city of the time. There were guilds for wool makers, tent makers, leather workers, tanners, and linen makers. One thing Thyatira was especially known for was purple dye—valuable and costly to produce, associated with royalty and the upper levels of Roman society.

Lydia and the Founding of the Church

We meet someone from Thyatira who dealt in that very thing. In Acts 16, on Paul's second missionary journey, he came to Philippi. There being no synagogue, he went to the river where God-fearers would gather, and found a group of women.

Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.

Lydia became a believer, and it is very probable she was among the first to bring the gospel back to her family and to the merchants of purple cloth in Thyatira. Many believe the church there began in part through Lydia's ministry. No doubt it was further established during Paul's third missionary journey, when he ministered for two years in Ephesus and the whole peninsula of Asia Minor heard the Word of God (Acts 19).

So Jesus writes to this small gathering of Christians, connected perhaps to Paul and to Lydia, about 40 years later.

Jesus Sees All and Will Judge Thoroughly

These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and feet like fine brass.

Like the revelation to Pergamos, this is a powerful picture of Jesus. He begins, "I am the Son of God." In ancient Middle Eastern thought, to be the "son of" something meant you carried that nature. As the Son of Man, Jesus has the nature of a man; as the Son of God, He has the nature of God. This is the only time in Revelation that Jesus introduces Himself as the Son of God. To those who claim Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God, just come to Revelation 2:18.

This revelation points back to Revelation 1:14, where John saw Jesus with eyes like a flame of fire and feet like fine brass refined in the furnace. The eyes mean He has a penetrating gaze—nothing is beyond His view. The feet of fine brass speak of purity and enduring stability.

Remember Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel: an image with a head of gold, chest of silver, body of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay—broken to pieces by a great rock. There was no stability there. But Jesus has feet of finely refined brass: enduring stability. And brass throughout Scripture is associated with judgment. In Revelation 14 and 19, pointing back to Isaiah 63 and 34, Jesus comes to tread the winepress of the wrath of God. At the very least, it is not a pretty picture. He sees all, and He will judge thoroughly.

The One Who Sees Clearly

Christians who bear the name of Christ stand in a difficult position. Because the Spirit of God dwells in us, we are sometimes compelled to say, "That's wrong." People reply, "Doesn't the Bible say, 'Judge not'?" In Matthew 7, Jesus did not forbid judgment—He warned that the same judgment will be turned back on us.

Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?... Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

We must see clearly before we judge, and judgment must begin at the house of the Lord. Yet here is the only One in all the universe who can see perfectly and judge righteously, because there is no speck or plank in His eye. The author of Hebrews reminds us:

There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Isaiah warns, "Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord... and they say, 'Who sees us?'" Some think they hide their deeds under a cloak of false righteousness—attending church, carrying a Bible, even wearing "Not of This World" jeans. But Jesus tells us in Luke 8:17 that all things done in darkness will be brought to light. Nothing is ever hidden from the Lord.

We Need to Increase in Good Works

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

Jesus knew exactly what was happening in Thyatira. He commends their love (agape, sacrificial love), their service that springs from love, their faith—better translated faithfulness, dependability—and their patience that springs from faithfulness. And He notes their constant improvement: they were growing in all of these.

This exhorts us to increase in good works. We are not saved by works—"For by grace you are saved through faith... not of works, lest anyone should boast." But the very next verse says, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." Peter says it too:

Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness love.

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The church at Thyatira was doing this—and Jesus commends them for it.

The Indictment: That Woman Jezebel

Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

The woman's name was probably not actually Jezebel—people don't name their children Jezebel any more than Judas. To understand the name, go to 1 Kings 16–21. Jezebel was the daughter of a pagan king, married to Ahab, king of Israel. She was a false-god-worshipping harlot, Satan's agent to corrupt God's people toward idolatry and immorality. She raised up 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah who seduced the nation. In the showdown on Mount Carmel, God revealed His power through Elijah—yet immediately afterward Elijah fled in fear of her threats. She was bad news.

That same spirit was now found in an individual in Thyatira—a self-proclaimed prophetess. The word "that woman" could also be translated "your woman," suggesting she was someone the church held dear. In her teaching she was seducing Jesus's servants into sexual immorality and idol worship. People who had love, faithfulness, service, and patience were nonetheless following her vile doctrine.

Jesus Is Exceedingly Patient and Gracious

And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.

How thankful we should be that Jesus is patient and gracious. He gave her time to repent—but she refused. Because she would not, He says:

I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death.

Many see a connection between her immoral bed and the sickbed of judgment. As for killing her "children"—her disciples, those who follow her form of teaching—this means you cannot be a Christian perpetually practicing such sinful things and assume everything is fine. Paul tells the Corinthians, who were being seduced along the same lines, that those involved in such a list of sins cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. These things do not go together.

What Was Jezebel Teaching?

Commentators offer two common views, both heresies that arose in the first and second centuries. The first is antinomianism, from the Greek a-nomos, "no law." The idea was that since you are under grace, there is no moral law to observe, so whatever you do is fine. Paul addresses this in Romans 6: "Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid!" It is taking advantage of God's grace, forgetting that His kindness leads us to repentance.

The second heresy is connected to Gnosticism, a philosophical dualism. It taught that humanity is two parts—a good spirit and a corrupt body—completely separate, so whatever you do with the body doesn't matter, since the spirit alone will be joined to God.

What might this have looked like in practice? Remember, the only way to work in Thyatira was through the trade guilds, each connected to a patron deity. To be part of a guild was to be part of the temple, involved in idol worship and immorality. The theory is that Jezebel taught believers it was acceptable to participate—"If you're going to survive and thrive here, you must show you belong by joining in these things."

Compromise in Our Day

This fast-forwards into our day, too. Some of you are being called by your employer or institution to do things that violate your conscience before God. You say, "I can't do that—I'm a Christian," and you're told, "Either find a way, look the other way, or you don't survive here." I've spoken with people in this very church who have faced exactly that. I read an article just days ago about a woman whose résumé was rejected outright—the employer told her, "We won't hire you because you went to a Christian university, and we don't like Christians." Some of you are being tempted, called to compromise in some way.

Hold On and Stand Strong

Now to you I say, and 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 will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come.

To those not entangled in Jezebel's teaching, Jesus says: hold fast. One day the Lord with His penetrating gaze and His position of thorough judgment will return. May He find us holding fast—to sound doctrine (2 Timothy 1), to the traditions of the apostles (2 Thessalonians 2:15), to our confession of faith (Hebrews 4:14), and to our hope (Hebrews 6:18).

How do we hold on and stand strong? Ephesians 6 is a good place to start:

Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Take up the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God—and pray always with all prayer in the Spirit. That is how we stand against the depths of Satan.

The Promise to the Overcomer

He who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—"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; and I will give him the morning star.

Jesus says: you who overcome—who keep My works, not Jezebel's—will rule and reign with Me in My kingdom. Many connect this to the millennial reign of Christ, a subject for another day. And "I will give him the morning star." The only other reference to the morning star is Revelation 22:16, where it refers to Jesus Himself. Jesus says, in effect, "If you overcome, I will give you Myself, fully."

To those enduring wickedness in this church, Jesus says: if you overcome, you will rule and reign with Me. So hold on to what you have. Stand strong in your integrity, your self-control. Grow in knowledge and grace. And know for certain—as Jesus, Paul, Peter, and Jude all taught—false teachers will come, teaching lies from seducing spirits like Jezebel. Hold on and stand strong.

Finally, how do we overcome? We end where we end every week:

Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Jesus stands before Thyatira and says, "I am the Son of God—believe, trust, hold on, and add to your faith virtue, self-control, perseverance, and godliness—and stand strong."

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank You for a word that is a challenging word, and Lord, no doubt You by Your Spirit are challenging us. Maybe there are places in our lives today that we need to lay down, that we need to repent of and say, "God, would You forgive and cleanse us of unrighteousness?" Help us to hold on and stand strong, to bring glory to Your name through our lives, to do Your works and abound in them in the days in which we live—for we know there will always be false teachers and false prophets.

Where Ephesus tested those who claimed to be apostles and would not let them teach, this church in Thyatira was the opposite: they did not test the self-proclaimed prophets. Yes, they had the love Ephesus lacked, but they were soft on doctrine. Lord, I pray we would have balance—growing in love, service, faithfulness, and patience, yet standing strong upon the surety of Your Word and who You are. Use our lives as a backdrop on which You display Your glory and Your grace this week, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.