Gems in the book of Revelation
Part 130 - Revelation 2:26
Given authority through Christ
The ‘gem’ is in the promise that ends the letter following the words ‘to the one who is victorious’. Here is the rest of the letter :
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.
Jesus continues his imaginary journey through his churches in the city of Thyatira. It was another manufacturing centre though not as large as the last one, Pergamum. It seems to have had much the same problems as Pergamum. The main difference seems to have been that where the Christians in Pergamum had a rather fragmented fellowship with several splinter groups teaching different things these folk had only one split - though that a big one. A woman, here referred to as Jezebel (unlikely to be her real name), had a considerable following in the church. She was leading people astray, probably not teaching sexual immorality directly but encouraging people to enter fully into the culture of the city, which would rather inevitably lead to participation in various sexual events.
The reason for that was the same as in Pergamum: the necessity to be in a guild with its strict rules about who might or might not carry on a particular trade in the city. You had to be a member of the Guild of Bakers if you wanted to bake and sell bread as a business etc. You would then be required to attend a certain number of the regular feasts, eat the food provided, some of which would probably have reached the table via a sacrifice at a pagan temple, drink the alcohol provided, and participate in the general socialising, which might well include sexual activity with cult prostitutes. Much of that was contrary to Christian teaching. But ‘Jezebel’ was encouraging her disciples to full participation in all that went on.
Most cultures round the world today have not descended quite that far, but many are on a slippery slope headed that way. So what do we do? The depth of your problem will depend on what is going on in the particular society you are in, or would like to be in.
The fundamental principle has to be ‘no’. Of course, you may, with a clear conscience, do all you can to fit in with the society you want to be in provided you do not do anything that following Jesus would mean you should not do. The WWJD, What Would Jesus Do, slogan has rightly been criticised by many people but in this particular situation it is good and appropriate to use it.
We simply cannot step right outside our culture and society. When Christians have tried to do so, in Calvin’s Geneva, some early American States and so on, it has never worked satisfactorily. It is not possible to get those who have not set out to follow Jesus, of whom there are always some in every society, to follow the same pattern of behaviour as those who have done so. It cannot be done and shouldn’t be attempted. That is the way human behaviour has been since the Fall.
So we, who do strive to follow Jesus, must accommodate ourselves to the situation around us. To help us do so we have the great promises given to this church in Thyatira. When we set out to follow Jesus he comes to us, loves us in a new way and grants us the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, his Spirit. We receive something of his authority and status over all nations.
(The words are a quotation from Psalm 2:8, 9.) But we have always to remember who he was and how he behaved.
Of him it was said that ‘“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” (Isaiah 42:1-4). As we receive him into our lives we must be like that too. Tough, but infinitely rewarding.
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