Thyatira: A Call Not to Tolerate Sin - Lessons From Revelation's 7 Churches, part 4
Has tolerance caused spiritual compromise? Faith, obedience, and love for God will guide you to persevere.
If you’re really honest with yourself, have you begun to tolerate sin? Simply ignoring sin is not enough. If Satan can get you to compromise in one area of your life, the next area will be easier. Confront sin and seek repentance; God looks at your heart and motives.
God always gives us a way out and time to repent. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart.
When you persevere in faith, hope, and love in Christ, you will grow deeper in the things of God and will accomplish great things.
Jesus knows the intense pressure you’re facing, the trials, suffering, and afflictions. He also knows your faithfulness. Sometimes fighting the spiritual battle before us can become so consuming that we take our spiritual eyes off God. Let us not be fooled or seduced into thinking spiritual compromise or watered-down values are OK or acceptable to God.
Listen to the Spirit of God, be spiritually “on guard,” and press in: Choose today to be an overcomer, practice spiritual discipline and be guided by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Passionately seek the love of God and share it with those around you.
Pray, trust the Lord, and walk in faith. Always remember God is in control no matter how things may appear. People will take notice and listen when they witness your faith.
Thyatira, a church that embraced evil: A call not to tolerate sin.
Simply Ignoring Sin is Not Enough
We are continuing our study of the seven churches John addresses in the first two chapters of the book Revelation. We’ve already looked at the church in Ephesus, who had forsaken their first love; the church at Smyrna, who experienced persecution and were encouraged not to fear; and the church at Pergamum, where some appeared to be seduced and were displaying a morally compromised lifestyle.
Today, we will be looking at the church of Thyatira: a church that appeared to tolerate sin and teaching that was misleading some believers.
“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. 20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. 24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’ 26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:18-29, NIV).
The city of Thyatira was about 30-35 miles southeast of Pergamum and was known for its wool and dye industries that Lydia was a part of, according to the apostle Paul (Acts 16:14).
The city was also known for having trade guilds, what we might call unions, and if you were not a part of a trade guild, (most likely) you were not successful. The city was located along a trade route, and it had a small military garrison to protect the well-known city of Pergamum.
John commends the church for its works and acts of love along with their service and perseverance of faith. The believers were becoming more involved in acts of love and faith than they were in the beginning, yet not everyone was holding firm in the Gospel. Some were being led astray and embracing a compromising lifestyle. Where the believers in Pergamum were being influenced to compromise morally, some believers in Thyatira were not only being led astray spiritually, but they were beginning to tolerate what was being taught and embraced the sin and immorality. In Pergamum, the evil influence was beginning to infiltrate the church. In Thyatira, the evil teaching was being promoted and tolerated by believers; they were being misled to believe the teaching was spiritually acceptable.
John warned the believers in Thyatira that tolerating false teaching was wrong, and by allowing wayward teaching, they were saying it was OK. John openly calls out the woman called Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess. By allowing her to do as she liked and teach such ungodly things, they were approving of her teaching.
Don’t Do Anything That Might Lead Another Believer to Sin
Jezebel was leading believers astray. She was teaching believers that sexual immorality was Ok, and she embraced the practice of eating foods that was offered as worship to false gods as acceptable without concern. Friends, the act of eating food that was sacrificed to idols was wrong because the believer would give the impression to others that it was OK to participate in the worship of idols. The apostle Paul addressed the idea of eating meat that was sacrificed to an idol in 1 Corinthians 8: Paul tells the Corinthian believers not to eat the meat if it will cause another believer to stumble, reminding the believer that there is really one God.
In other words, Paul says to give thanks to God, but do not let your liberty cause another believer, or anyone for that matter, to sin (1 Corinthians 10:28-32). And for that reason Paul chose not to eat. Paul did not consider the false gods to be gods at all. He knew there was only one true God and rejected the worship of idols as nonsense.
Yet some believers in Thyatira seemed to be following a teaching where the food that was offered as a sacrifice to idols was to be given little thought as to how it might affect the believer’s conscience or the conscience of others. But not for the same reason as Paul. Instead, they simply didn’t care and chose to satisfy their own desires. Friends, giving little thought to sin or rebellion is very dangerous and it will spill over into other areas of your life spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. The enemy of your soul has a way of seducing a you into thinking and reasoning that some sin and evil act is simply OK, when it is anything but OK.
Don’t Give Satan the Satisfaction of Getting To You
Society will tell you to be tolerant regarding some lifestyle. The world will tell you that you need to be more tolerant regarding sin. Some might say that the bible is out of date with society and the way of life today. They might claim that what the bible once called sin is OK now.
But there’s only one problem with that kind of thinking.
Sin is sin. Understand. God looks at your heart and motives. In the Sermon on the Mount we learn that sin is more than an act, it is also a matter of the heart (Matthew 5:7-29).
The enemy of your soul will try to seduce you into believing a lie. Just ask Eve. Friends, the church is not to tolerate sin in its midst; rather we are to confront sin and seek repentance.
The church of Thyatira was not to tolerate, but rather to confront, the sin and the evil lifestyle that Jezebel was presenting to actually be sin and reject it. Just as we must always confront and reject sin within our own hearts. Where believers in Pergamum were being seduced into an immoral lifestyle, the believers in Thyatira were embracing and tolerating the teaching in the church and the lifestyle that it promoted to be acceptable. It appears there was a progressiveness of sinfulness in these seven churches.
Truth is, the enemy of your soul will not give up trying to get you to turn from worshiping Jesus. If the enemy can infiltrate a church through false teaching or seduction, he will. If he can get you to think you are OK by misleading thoughts or worldly thinking, he will. If he can get you to compromise in one area of your life, the next area will be easier.
When sin or false teaching is not confronted, it will spread and take root to lead the entire community of believers to sin and turn away from God Almighty.
God Always Gives Us a Way Out
The Son of God confronts the sin that was being tolerated in the church.
First, the believers are commended for how they lived but Jesus wouldn’t allow the believers who were tolerating sin to pull other believers into sin and idolatry.
Second, the believers are confronted with tolerating false teaching and immoral lifestyles.
Then Jezebel, and all those who followed her teaching, are called to repent.
Friends, God will always give you time to repent; however if you choose not to, He will deal with you in a severe way.
Verses 22 and 23 tell us that God will allow the rebellious believer, who is unwilling to change his way, to suffer severe consequences unless they repent. God desires the sinner to repent, otherwise why would he give time for the person to repent? But if they choose not to repent, God will repay the sinner according to their deeds.
John does not mince words. He is stating that God will not tolerate sin, and He will deal with the person according to the persons deeds. Only after the rebellious believer is warned to repent does God address the remaining believers in Thyatira. I use the term “rebellious believer” because John is writing to the church; John is writing to believers, not unbelievers. That is why it is so important that believers pray and ask the Holy Spirit to search their hearts and to consider how they are living. John warns the believers to make sure they are not involved, or even tolerate, any of Satan’s deep secrets. God is not imposing some spiritual burden or holier-than-thou lifestyle on the believer. God does not ask that you to do more than what you know scripture teaches.
You, as a believer, are not expected to be perfect. You are not expected to be sinless.
But every believer is called to repent from sin. Every believer is expected to avoid sin and not live a spiritually compromised lifestyle by refusing to be misled by false teaching. It is the truth that sets a believer free, and it is faith and the love of God, along with loving others, that will guide you to persevere and live a lifestyle of obedience and service to Christ.
When you persevere in faith, hope, and love in Christ, you will grow deeper in the things of God and will accomplish greater things as time goes on.
Be aware that taking sin lightly is only the start of turning your back on God. You will soon find yourself in a downward spiral spiritually, and immorality will have no effect on you. Soon, your conscience will become spiritually calloused regarding sin, and the idea of living a life set apart unto God is forgotten.
We will all one day physically die, that is until Jesus returns for His church, but that does not mean it is due to a sin you committed. I also believe any physical sickness a person experiences can be used by God for good. For some, to address the spiritual sickness within their heart. For others, to be a witness of their faith in God. No matter the case, I do not believe anyone will die physically without an opportunity to repent. Even the vilest of sinners will not be able to say that they did not have an opportunity to believe. That is why the church, and every believer, should ask the Holy Spirit to search their hearts and show the world the way of repentance.
Only genuine faith in Jesus and a lifestyle of obedience will confront a lifestyle of compromise and tolerance towards sin. Then we see the reward to the one who overcomes and remains faithful is twofold.
They will be given authority over the nations (Revelation 2:26).
They will be given the morning star, referring to Jesus (Revelation 2:28, 22:16).
There is a huge difference between the believer who overcomes and the one who refuses to repent. The one who refuses to repent will find themselves on a bed of suffering and spiritually dead, where the believer who overcomes will find themselves ruling over the nations. They will be alive forever with Christ. John ends the letter to the church of Thyatira with the words “whoever has ears let them hear” (Revelation 2:29). No one will be able to say they never knew to repent.
No one will have an excuse or be able to say that they were not warned of a coming judgement for those who refused to believe.
So, What Do You Believe?
The question before us today is: what do I believe?
The question is not:
“Do I love the Lord?”
And it’s not “do I have faith?”
Or “am I doing good and helping others?”
The question is: “am I tolerant toward sin in my life and am I unwilling to repent?” Will you confront the sin of spiritual compromise that has promoted an ungodly lifestyle, or will you simply tolerate it?
We must apply the scripture to every situation and ask the Holy Spirit to give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to our hearts; to confess our sin and fully embrace without reservation the love and forgiveness of God; to remain steadfast in faith against the winds of social tolerance and be on guard against the tricks and schemes of the enemy of our souls.
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