The church in Thyatira - Pt. 2

 

[Jesus said] “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (Revelation 2:18-29 ESV).

 

In this part of his letter to the church in Thyatira, Jesus calls for repentance. Though he does that in other letters too, in this letter repentance has center stage. The situation has to do with a woman called Jezebel and her resistance to God’s call for repentance. Here we see that refusing to repent is like building a stone wall against God’s grace. God’s season of grace is filled with Jesus’ calls to God’s children to turn from their ways of disobedience and ­toward a life that is “in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). We need to make good use of the time that God gives us for repentance.

 

When Jesus speaks about Jezebel’s “children,” we see how easy it can be to get caught up in a movement. It may be easy for us to ignore the call to repentance when we think, “Everyone is doing it!” Repentance demands that we listen more to Jesus than we do to our peers. In Jesus’ address to the rest of the church, we see how repenting and turning away from false teaching helps the community to flourish and grow in authority to live God’s way. We need a caring, supporting, and loving church community, and we need to “hold on to what [we] have” until Jesus returns. Repentance works best when we practice it quickly and often (cf. 1 John 1:9).