Thyatira, as most of the other six churches written to in Revelation 2-3, had positive and negative attributes/characteristics.
First: the negative. There was a false prophetess simply referred to as Jezebel in verse 20. This woman was teaching doctrine that was in opposition to God’s will. In the following verses, Jesus is clear and quite blunt when it comes to his feelings on sin. Sin and God do not mix, therefore, Jesus would not tolerate sin, nor does he tolerate sin today. He says, in verses 21-23, that He gave her a chance to repent, but that now he would punish her and any of her followers with a great tribulation.
God does tolerate sin and tolerance does not equal love. As a matter of fact, the love that we see in Jesus’s death on the cross proved that tolerance of sin is the polar opposite of true love.
However, not all in this church were tolerant of Jezebel. As verse 24 tells us, there were many that did not hold to her teachings and that God would not burden them with the punishment that comes from failed responsibility. This group had done all that they could to get rid of this woman’s influence, and Jesus was aware of that.
Here’s a couple of positives from this lesson.
Imagine living in a place where you had to choose between having a job and following God. This was the choice that many of the Christians in Thyatira were facing.
Trade guilds were a large part of the culture in Thyatira. As a matter of fact, the guilds held so much power that it’s said that men could not find a job unless they belonged to one of these guilds. These guilds all had its own deity, as well as feasts and festivals and guild meetings at times would involve eating meats sacrificed to idols as well as other immorality. One could not be a part of these trade guilds and be a Christian. Needless to say, it took a lot of trust and faith to be a Christian in Thyatira.
The Thyatiran Christians had a faith much like the faith of Abraham, which we see in Hebrews 11:8-10, 17-19. Abraham left for an unknown land because God told him to. He was “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” He, as the Thyatiran Christians, was not worried about what earthly troubles they might have. The focus was on a land that was everlasting. Also, Abraham was willing to kill his son Isaac because he had faith that God would bring him back to life, as God had promised that through Isaac his offspring would be named.
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This is the type of trust and faith we should work towards.
And finally, look at the description of the Christians in Thyatira found in Rev. 2:19.
Here are some of the things said about them; they were:
• Working
• Loving
• Faithful/Trusting
• Serving
• Patient/Enduring
• Improving (Your latter works exceed the first)
How incredible would it be if all congregations in the body of Christ could be described this way!
~ Jared McLeod
