Tolerance in Thyatira

“Write to the angel of the church in Thyatira: Thus says the Son of God, the one whose eyes are like a fiery flame and whose feet are like fine bronze: I know your works—your love, faithfulness, service, and endurance. I know that your last works are greater than the first. But I have this against you: You tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and deceives my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat meat sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality. Look, I will throw her into a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her into great affliction. Unless they repent of her works" - Revelation 2:18-22 CSB

Here’s the concern: “you tolerate that woman Jezebel.” 

Now, tolerance, in and of itself, is not necessarily a problem. Tolerance can be a good thing, in the right place at the right time. But it can be a bad thing, and produce deadly compromise, in all the wrong places.

There is a kind of tolerance in society, in the public domain, that allows people with different religious beliefs to live together in peace, and respect each other as humans. 

In society, we as Christians advocate for religious tolerance, that the city or province or nation not punish or discriminate against groups for their religious beliefs.

But this distinction between the church and the city, or the world, is critical to keep in mind. The problem with the church in Thyatira is their tolerance in the wrong place. They may be very admirably tolerant of different views in their town. They are in the world. They are cultural-affirmers and participators. They are out there, doing acts of love in Thyatira. But in their wide, indiscriminate love in the world, they have become undiscerning in the church family — which can happen in large-hearted churches. 

They are tolerating, in God’s house, among God’s people, what they should not tolerate, and in a leader at that: Jezebel, who “calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing God’s people” — which may be literal adultery, or figurative, or both.

This Jezebel seems to profess the Christian faith, and is teaching in the church.  

The name Jezebel here is symbolic, proverbial for wickedness, a reference to one of the most evil figures in the history of Israel. In the days of Elijah, Ahab, who was Israel’s most wicked king to that point, did evil by taking a wife named Jezebel from the king of the Sidonians (1 Kings 16:31). It was a marriage of compromise: she worshiped the false god Baal, and he married her and soon did as well. Jezebel used her power as queen to kill true prophets of God (1 Kings 18:4, 13), and threatened to kill Elijah as well (1 Kings 19:2). 1 Kings 21:25 says she incited Ahab to evil. And in the end, Ahab and Jezebel did not escape God’s judgment. God avenged the blood of his prophets (2 Kings 9:7), Jezebel was thrown out a window, trampled underfoot, and dogs ate her flesh just as Elijah had prophesied (1 Kings 21:23; 2 Kings 9:36).

All this to say:  Thyatira is facing the characteristic temptations of their day. 

Which should not be a surprise for they are living in a broken in the world, while growing in love, professing Christ and yet still facing the temptations to cater to their fleshly desires and the social pressures from the unbelieving world surrounding them.

Every generation of Christians face the question of what to embrace in culture and what to reject. And in some senses, it's getting more and more complicated. 

Our cities today dwarf the largest cities in the world 2000 years ago. Not to mention a small town like Thyatira. And our communication tools and technology connects us with people and ideas and challenges far away — which is why we need each other in the church family, why we need faithful teaching, and why we need to be discerning. 

These are not easy questions. And yet, amid our confusing swirl of temptations today, all of it is relevant.

Consider Thyatira the economic pressures to just go along with the false religion in town to maintain their status in the workers guild (like a union). Are they willing to throw it all away for Jesus?

How often are we tempted to just go along with what society is serving us? Whether what our jobs pressure us to affirm, or what our entertainment involves. Or political expectations, that you’re all in with left or right, antiracism or nationalism, etc…

Ask yourself: 

    What is it today, for you, for us, that makes sin look normal and righteousness strange? 

    In movies, on television, in sports, in everyday interactions with others?

We could boil it down to this: the problem in the church in Thyatira was “worldliness.” Tolerance with the world. And what was especially perilous is that someone in the church was teaching what likely was a sophisticated form of tolerance. 

Perhaps she called it “the deep things of God.” Which Jesus says, in verse 24, amounts to “the deep things of Satan.” — All this may sound familiar if you were to go to specific worship services in places that have become tolerant to the worldly demands of conformity.

So how does Jesus respond to this compromise — 

    First is patience. Verse 21: “I gave her time to repent.” Jesus doesn’t rush to judgment. He gives time to repent — oh what patience and mercy! 

How amazing, says Leon Morris, that Jesus “still holds out the prospect of mercy. This is to be noted throughout this book. It is full of severe judgments, but always there is the prospect of deliverance for those who repent” (Revelation, 72). 

This is not confuse patience with tolerance. Jesus is not tolerant but patience because patience is not indefinite.

Second, then, is Christ’s judgement — never gratuitous, never overdone. Verse 22: "So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely.”

Christ is loving and patient. And even in the midst of judgment we still find GRACE. And in that GRACE we receive a promise!

This is the amazing part: two promises in verses 26–28: "The one who conquers and who keeps my works to the end: I will give him authority over the nations—and he will rule them with an iron scepter;
he will shatter them like pottery — just as I have received this from my Father. I will also give him the morning star."

First promise: Authority over the nations!

Jesus, the God-man, received authority from his Father to rule over the nations. And now, he will give that authority to his people. Not only, will Jesus, as Messiaha, as Psalm 2 celebrates, be king of the nations and rule over all people, but his people, he says, will rule with him.

Second promise: the morning star.

What in the world could that mean? The planet Venus has long been known as the morning star, because it appears on the horizon just before the sun. When you see Venus, you know the sun is coming up soon. Day is at hand. So the morning star represents hope for a new day, and that the darkness is soon to be broken. 

But what does it mean for us to get the morning star?

There are very few mentions of the morning star in Scripture, but Jewish tradition always associated the Messiah with the morning star. Jesus says in Rev. 22:16, which I think makes this a dead giveaway, He says:“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

The morning star is Jesus Christ himself! 

Which is the greatest possible thing he could promise his church family. 

        He will give us himself. 

        We will see him face to face. 

        We will be his, and he will be ours.

        Our final reward is to be with our Lord as heirs and rulers in His kingdom!

Today is the day to start this journey with Jesus (full of love and devotion)!

He has given you himself through His sacrifice on the cross — his death

He has given you a full life of love and purpose through His resurrection!

He has given you hope of a new day as the morning star! — a victory over sin and satan!

Jesus loves you and calls you out of worldly tolerance and into His righteousness for your benefit and health, and His glory!

As the morning star, Jesus has given us a hope for new day and to know that soon, the darkness will be broken.

May we all turn to Him in great joy and excitement living in His insurmountable grace upon grace.