A Few Things Against Thyatira Revelation 2:20

After John the apostle saw the vision of Jesus in chapter one of “Revelation”, he began to write to the “seven churches in Asia”. He started with the church located in “Ephesus”, then the “church of Smyrna”, the “church in Pergamos” and the “church in Thyatira” where He told them, “And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things says the Son of God, who has his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;” He added, “I know your works, and charity, and service, and faith, and your patience, and your works; and the last to be more than the first.” In chapter two and verse twenty of Revelation, John shared how Jesus told “the church in Thyatira”, “I have a few things against you” where we read:

Notwithstanding I have a few things against you, because you suffer that woman Jezebel, which calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

The verse begins, “Notwithstanding I have a few things against you, because you suffer that woman Jezebel, which calls herself a prophetess, ...” John began with the word, “notwithstanding” which means “nevertheless, with an exception, yes and moreover” “I have a few things” or “Jesus owned, possessed and held a small amount of things” “against you” which means “toward the church in Thyatira”, “because” which means “since” “you suffer” or “the church in Thyatira” “that woman” which means “that female human being” “Jezebel” which refers to “the wife of Ahab who was an impious and cruel queen who protected idolatry and persecuted the prophets and means chaste”, “which calls herself” or “who affirms, maintains and names her own self” “a prophetess” which means “a woman to whom future events or things hidden from others are at times revealed either by inspiration or by dreams and visions”. Jesus had “things against” the “church in Thyatira” which included allowing the spirit of “Jezebel” to enter in among them.

The verse continues, “... to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.” John added the words, “to teach” or “to hold discourse with others in order to instruct them and deliver didactic discourses” “and to seduce” which means “and to cause to stray, wander, roam about or lead astray and aside from the right way” “my servants” or “Jesus' bondmen and men of servile condition” “to commit fornication” which means “to prostitute one's body to the lust of another or give one's self to unlawful sexual intercourse or idolatry or worship of idols”, “and to eat things” which refers to “things consumed or devoured” “sacrificed unto idols” which refers to “flesh left over from the heathen sacrifices which was eaten at the feasts or sold in the market”. The “church in Thyatira” allowed the “teaching” and “seducing” of “spiritual worship of idol and things offered to them” within their fellowship.

When we think through John's words in this verse, we see how the “church in Thyatira” was recognized by Jesus for following the “teaching” and “seduction” of “Jezebel” who was the pagan wife of wicked Ahab. Worship of “idols” and the “eating of meats” “sacrificed” to them was practiced by the “church in Thyatira”, and for this Jesus was not pleased. Worship of God and His Son Jesus Christ is the only adoration that should be “sacrificed”. This is the will of God, and those who align with Him and His plan of “salvation” shall never accept or receive any “seduction” or “teaching” of worship toward anything else.

Next time John writes how Jesus tells the “church of “I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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