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. Let me quickly remind you that I read the whole section. But we will come back to the blessings in a later message. We are looking at some of the other things. And the rewards will be touched upon in a different and specific message.
I want you to call your attention first that Thyatira is the smallest church. And it has the biggest letter. The smallest church has the biggest letter. He has the most to say to the smallest church in the group. And I think that’s very significant. Let us remind ourselves quickly, though it doesn’t really apply today, of our purpose.
Act 1, Christ is revealed. The book is about Him and not merely from Him. Act 2, the Old Testament explored. And Act 3, the truth applied. Today’s message really doesn’t fall into any of those categories; I hate to say it. But it is one of those just the way the message laid out.
We want to be reminded that the book is not a mystery to be solved. It is a revelation about Christ intended to encourage His people in times of persecution and adversity. We have noted in the past the idea of judgment from the introduction. Two weeks ago we dealt with food sacrificed to idols, which often involved sexual immorality. And then we talked about the need to not tolerate false teaching.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, I should say, this again is the focus. And I call your attention to be very gracious with the redundancy of some of this. But this is what’s in the letter. He speaks to each one of these churches about these things.
Now here’s the point of interest. The three principal concerns, the three principal moral concerns throughout Scripture and especially the New Testament are idolatry, false doctrines, and sexual morality. You only read the New Testament or the Bible. That’s what you keep coming against because those are the three things that affect us as Christians mostly.
These are the three great challenges. And this theme is extremely present in Revelation. And this can show us the practicality of the book. It isn’t supposed to be approached just as a mystery to be unlocked. It is to be approached with the focus of how it speaks to us in our day-to-day.
When we approach it as this mystery, the focus is often on the judgment that’s going to be poured out upon the world. The judgment that will be poured out upon the world and this is an important consideration. The book begins, as we’ve noted, talking to the church. For example, chapter 1, it says it was given to His servants. And then it says the letter is written to the seven churches.
Focuses God’s people. And when we come over this and we skip over these sections too lightly, we can miss that. Now, although we have already dealt with some of the things of Thyatira, I wanted to call our attention to two specific issues: The nature of the tribulation in verse 22, I will throw her into tribulation. I will throw her into great tribulation because she would not repent.
And the second one, the secret teaching that he mentions in verse 24, who do not, have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan. I want our focus to be on those two things this morning. Although in speaking of them, there is some degree of redundancy.
Now let us talk about the nature and meaning of tribulation. Again, I want to remind you; we’ve talked about this. Depending on where you come from, your background, in the dispensational aspect, the dispensational side of the church family, there is this focus on tribulation as something that happens to the world in the rebellion against God.
The great tribulation or the tribulation period. You’ve heard that. And depending on who you listen to, even now, Charles Stanley, John MacArthur, David Jeremiah, Adrian Rogers, most of the Southern Baptists focus on the tribulation as something that’s yet to happen to us, yet to happen to the world.
But when we read the scripture, tribulation is something the Christian endures and experiences. Look at this passage from John 16:33. I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world. Acts 14:22.
The apostles were strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that they, through many tribulations, must enter the kingdom of God. We must be very careful not to see tribulation in the book of Revelation, especially as just something that’s happening to those people.
It is happening to God’s people because of His corrective actions or because of our love for Christ. Jesus says, if they hated me, they will hate you. There is a degree of tribulation that comes to the believer because of our union with Christ. Now James uses a different word, but he has a similar thought.
James 1:12, Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. The English Standard Version. But then the King James says, Blessed is the man that endures temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them that love him. Notice that.
The crown of life I’ll come back to. But he says, you’re going to be tried. You’re going to be tested. You’re going to go through tribulation. Again, it’s a different Greek word, but it has the same connotation. And notice that phrase, the crown of life.
The only other place in the entire New Testament where that appears is here in Revelation chapter 2. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested. For ten days, you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
The only two passages where that phrase, crown of life, is found are both connected to us enduring tribulation and struggle and trial. And this is a message for the Christian church today, that we deal with these things, and we have to deal with it. It’s not just about a world in rebellion who suffers tribulation but God’s people because of their union in Christ.
Consider these two passages. Romans 8:35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? That is a statement that has no meaning. There’s no value to that unless we’re going to go through tribulation. Romans 12:12, Rejoice in hope; be patient.
The Greek word is persevere from it but the Greek word means to remain under, to endure, to stay in there, to depend on the Lord as He leads us through the tribulation. And what happens so many times when we come to this passage of Scripture especially in the book of Revelation and the word tribulation appears, we immediately go to its something the world is experiencing for their rebellion against God, which is true and which we will see as we go forward.
But here, I am calling your attention to the fact that tribulation is not something just the world experiences but that the Christian experiences. Now, Robert Wall in the New International Bible Commentary says this about Jesus’ words in verse 22.
I will throw her onto a sickbed. He says this Christ’s warning, I will cast her onto a bed of suffering may indicate that the false teacher champions the opposite. That is, escape from suffering. Especially if this city’s materialistic values are projected onto its idols, Jezebel’s heresy is the ancient equivalent of the current gospel of prosperity that equates the gospel with present material blessings.
One of the failures of the, and I’m not against money but one of the failures of the prosperity gospel is it suggests you’re not supposed to have any trouble. And let’s all be honest about it today. A whole lot of problems can be solved if you have enough money in life. This week, those of my age group got the letter from the, well, my, my, yours might be different.
My supplemental, my Medicare supplemental insurance went up $32 this month. There are a lot of problems in life that can be solved with greenbacks. But we cannot preach that message because that’s not the message that God has given us in the Word. There is tribulation in the world in which we live because we’re living in a broken, fallen-down world.
Therefore, we should not get caught up in the use of the word tribulation as though it only applies to the world. And we also have to be careful here. Because when we emphasize that way, we’re not ignoring the fact that most of the Christian church on planet Earth this is not a moral judgment.
This is not a moral judgment but children, we have to be honest about in America, we have no clue what the rest of the world copes with. We complain about $4 a gallon gas and $32. I got real upset when I got that $32 a month. And I sat down and said wait a minute that’s really about a dollar a day.
Not that big a deal in the big scenario but there are Christians in the world who are suffering. They’re suffering. And so this idea of tribulation is something for the world someday in the future is really not going to help us. We must see that most of this and whenever you hear much of, not all, and it’s not a moral judgment but much of what dispensational teachers reserve as some future period for the world is already occurring in much of the Christian world.
They’re already encountering tribulation beyond what you and I consider to be tribulation. Then the second thing I’ll call your attention to is the nature of secret teaching. Whenever you hear a teacher who comes along and says, now here’s something nobody’s ever seen. Now please stay with me a moment because you’ve heard me say something similar.
I frequently stress that you may never have heard this before. When I say that, I mean because there’s so much in the book and we have so little time. I mean honestly 40 minutes on Sunday morning, 90% of the Christian community probably that’s all they get. That 90 minutes, 40 minutes on Sunday morning is all they get.
And some don’t get that because many pastors take 10 minutes give you a brief, blue, blue, blue there it is and we go home. Much of the Christian community does not know some of the things of this book. I did this some time ago. How many sons did Abraham have?
David’s over here counting. Do you need 12? No, that was Jacob. But it illustrates my point. It illustrates my point. Jacob had twelve sons. How many sons did Abraham have? Most people say two. That’s wrong. It’s wrong.
The two is Isaac and Ishmael but if you read the book of Genesis and I probably shouldn’t have done that because now I’m going to be in trouble. It says after Sarah died, Abraham had another woman. And he had seven or eight wives, seven or eight sons by him. Her. Thank you.
Whew rescued. Yeah, we got to make sure we get that right here this morning. And there’s all kinds of… Who was… Who was… Pastor stay with your outline okay? But my point is we don’t know the scriptures and so sometimes we will learn something that we didn’t know or that we’d forgotten because the book is so expansive.
Okay? But I’m not talking about it. This is someone who comes along and says here’s something nobody… It’s a secret God’s just decided to reveal today. Nobody’s ever heard it before. And when you hear that, it should set off a red flag in your heart and in your life.
Because it’s something false. It’s untrue. And you’ll hear that. And people, a lot of times the charismatic community especially says this is a new thing that God is doing. Well, He’s not given us some truth that we’ve never heard before. He’s already given it to us in the Word.
There is tribulation in the world in which we live because we’re living in a broken, fallen-down world. Therefore, we should not get caught up in the use of the word tribulation as though it only applies to the world. And we also have to be careful here. Because when we emphasize that way, we’re not ignoring the fact that most of the Christian church on planet Earth this is not a moral judgment.
This is not a moral judgment but children, we have to be honest about in America, we have no clue what the rest of the world copes with. We complain about $4 a gallon gas and $32. I got real upset when I got that $32 a month. And I sat down and said wait a minute that’s really about a dollar a day.
Not that big a deal in the big scenario but there are Christians in the world who are suffering. They’re suffering. And so this idea of tribulation is something for the world someday in the future is really not going to help us. We must see that most of this and whenever you hear much of, not all, and it’s not a moral judgment but much of what dispensational teachers reserve as some future period for the world is already occurring in much of the Christian world.
They’re already encountering tribulation beyond what you and I consider to be tribulation. Then the second thing I’ll call your attention to is the nature of secret teaching. Whenever you hear a teacher who comes along and says now here’s something nobody’s ever seen. Now please stay with me a moment because you’ve heard me say something similar.
I frequently stress that you may never have heard this before. When I say that, I mean because there’s so much in the book and we have so little time. I mean honestly 40 minutes on Sunday morning, 90% of the Christian community probably that’s all they get. That 90 minutes 40 minutes on Sunday morning is all they get.
And some don’t get that because many pastors take 10 minutes give you a brief blue blue blue there it is and we go home. Much of the Christian community does not know some of the things of this book. I did this some time ago how many sons did Abraham have? David’s over here counting do you need 12?
No, that was Jacob but it illustrates my point it illustrates my point Jacob had twelve sons how many sons did Abraham have most people say two that’s wrong it’s wrong The two is Isaac and Ishmael but if you read the book of Genesis and I probably shouldn’t have done that because now I’m going to be in trouble. It says after Sarah died, Abraham had another woman.
And he had seven or eight wives, seven or eight sons by him Her Thank you Whew rescued Yeah we got to make sure we get that right here this morning And there’s all kinds of… Who was… Who was… Pastor stay with your outline okay? But my point is we don’t know the scriptures and so sometimes we will learn something that we didn’t know or that we’d forgotten because the book is so expansive.
Okay? But I’m not talking about it. This is someone who comes along and says here’s something nobody… It’s a secret God’s just decided to reveal today. Nobody’s ever heard it before. And when you hear that, it should set off a red flag in your heart and in your life.
Because it’s something false. It’s untrue. And you’ll hear that. And people a lot of times the charismatic community especially says this is a new thing that God is doing. Well He’s not given us some truth that we’ve never heard before. He’s already given it to us in the Word.
2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to his own glory and excellence. He’s given us all things that are necessary to our life.
Jude 1:3 Beloved, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. It’s already been given to us here. We don’t have to go looking for some new mystery and some new secret to be revealed to boost us and hold us up.
Now we’ve been studying Wednesday nights. We’ve been going through the Apostles’ Creed and noticing how the recitation of the Apostles’ Creed gives us a distinct concept of the faith. It sets us apart from the culture if we know that stuff. And we’ve been dealing with that.
But the Apostles’ Creed wasn’t there at the beginning. It came along later. So what about that, Pastor? Well, we acknowledge that doctrine develops. Some of these concepts of God, the Trinity for example was not something they understood right away. It developed and they had to learn to articulate it.
The doctrine developed but it developed out of the Word. And it was consistent with the Word. It was not some new idea. They contradicted the Bible altogether. And it’s very important for us to see that. When you hear someone say here’s something new nobody’s ever seen before be careful.
I got a man some years ago who used to attend our church. And he brought this book in and said pastor, this is the best book I’ve ever read would you read it and tell me what you think? That’s not a good idea with your pastor because I’m especially gifted at finding everything that’s wrong with any book.
And so I opened it up and said okay. And the first thing I saw when I opened the book up, here’s something nobody’s ever seen before. Well, I went to doing my research and quickly found out that there were other people who had seen that point.
They discounted the point as being incorrect. I warn you. And the man was a good teacher he died last year I think. I don’t question whether he was a true Christian or not whether he’s in heaven today. That’s not the point. The point is anytime somebody says, I found something that nobody’s ever seen before look out.
Look out we must stay with the Scripture. And that’s one of the things we talk about the historic Christian faith connecting ourselves all the way back to Christ and the apostles to the best of our ability. Now notice the irony if I can get back over here to my passage.
Notice the irony in verse 24. Now nobody’s going to stand up in the church and say, I’m teaching the deep things of Satan. Nobody’s going to do that what’s happening and what we believe and what the commentators say is there’s irony here.
The people are saying boy this is the deep stuff God’s given us. And Jesus says no that’s a lie from the devil that you think is coming from God. Grant Osborne in his commentary on Revelation says, calling these teachings deep secrets has an ironic sarcastic air.
The cult’s claim to know the deep things of God is shown to be in reality the deep things of Satan as a false prophet Jezebel’s teachings are satanic at the core. And our followers are steeped in the ideas of the evil one. Children we must be conscious of the fact that and we’ve talked about it in the last message dealt with some of those secondary issues.
When it gets into the substance and the meat of Scripture being contradicted, that’s not coming from God. It’s not coming from God maybe coming from a fallen man or from the devil I’m not going to say everybody’s being used as the devil but if it contradicts core Christian beliefs, it is not from God.
And here’s the problem in Thyatira you tolerate that woman because you think she’s teaching things from God. And it’s not from God because it contradicts what the Scripture says. This is the point. The evangelical commentary on the Bible.
The evangelical commentary on the Bible says Satan’s so-called deep secrets were occult practices which were a particular temptation in antiquity and are condemned by the New Testament. I’m going to read two statements to you I’m going to ask you which one came from the Christian I feel like I have more control over my life, you know.
There are things that I can create for myself I mean they’re there but bringing those things into manifestation I feel like I’m in more control. I have more of an active part in what happens to me The second one We use the power we use power, the power of the mind to reveal what we need according to those involved everybody has the power but most people don’t use it.
Let me get to my microscopic footnotes here this is my book by the way. The first statement I feel like I have more control. I create things that’s from a word of faith that’s from a Joel Osteen adherent. The second one is from a witch that’s a witch Witchcraft It’s almost word for word.
They’re expressing the same belief, I have this power. This is the challenge of the Christian in the 21st century we’re losing distinctions of what we believe and Jezebel comes along and says here’s what I’m saying and everybody flocks to it and thinks oh what deep things from God And Jesus says maybe not.*
Now listen let’s say a word here about because this comes into why people are listening to Jezebel. Now it’s this, in Thyatira apparently there are trade guilds.
They’re like unions today not a perfect apples to apples but close in a modern union you pay dues and you get benefits from those dues. You hear talk about your union rep and sports has it government workers have it police has it you pay your dues and then you receive benefits.
In ancient times, this was called a trade guild. And you had to attend dinners that the guild held in order to continue to receive the benefits. Listen to William Hendrickson he says Thyatira became a trading city here were to be found the trade guilds wool workers linen workers makers of outer garments dyers leather workers tanners potters etc but these trade guilds were associated with the worship of deities.
Deities each guild had its guardian God. The situation was as follows if you wish to get ahead in the world, you must belong to a guild but if you belong to the guild your very membership implies that you worship its God. You will be expected to attend the guild festivals and to eat food a part of which is offered to that deity, and which you receive on your table as a gift from that God.
And you must not walk out unless you desire to become the object of ridicule and persecution in this difficult situation what must a Christian do? This was the situation in Thyatira. The people were trying to do business but to do business, you had to be involved with these pagan gods and the question is how can I do this?
And the answer is or seems to be that Jezebel is coming up with a way around it here’s how you can be part of that and yet not be guilty of compromising your faith. Now I’m going to give you some of these possibilities and I draw this from Greg Beal’s commentary.
And I also call your attention to the number of scriptures that can be misused to justify this viewpoint first Jezebel apparently taught that it was possible for Christians to participate to some degree in idolatrous situations first on the basis that involvement was legitimate as long as Christians were not sincere. As long as you don’t believe that God is real I know it’s not a real God therefore it’s okay for me.
Now, I don’t have a lot of time here because I’ve got seven of these that I’ve got to plow through but children we must we must we must what’s the right word? We’ve got to come to a correct understanding of sincerity. You can be sincerely wrong.
The Pharisees were very sincere in their belief that Jesus was a false teacher who was leading the nation astray and needed to be killed sincerity is not the final word on whether you’re saved or not or whether you’re interpreting scripture or not The implications seem well as long as you know it’s a fake God there’s nothing real about it. It’s okay to participate in that.
Remember our distinction between the purchase of meat that was sacrificed to an idol and participating in the feast. The same kind of thing here. It could also be that they’re misapplying Paul’s statement that an idol has no real existence in the world it’s not real therefore I can’t be doing anything wrong now I kind of fit this in here somewhere so I’m going to say it now.
And there’s more to be said later in the message but I’m afraid I’ll forget it because it’s not on my outline those this week, I think it’s this week Ronnie will put on the sign there is no I in team nor in church. It is not about me. It is not about you. It is about us have you ever seen? You may have.
I do not have any memory of seeing a small Mennonite church. I’ve seen small brethren churches Lutheran churches Baptist churches Methodist churches Pentecostal church. I cannot remember ever having seen a small Mennonite church. I’m not saying there aren’t some. I’ve never seen them why is that if it’s true?
Why is that because they do not see Sunday morning as something of 60 minutes and that’s all there is to my Christian experience. They see it as a community that we are connected to. And when your sincere belief is counterproductive to the well-being of the community, you need to rethink your belief.
It’s not just about well here’s what I believe here’s what we believe it’s a very important consideration and when we act the wrong way we’re influencing the congregation not just my own personal walk. They might think of this not as a sacrifice to the emperor but in honor of the emperor and there’s Romans chapter 13 give honor to whom honor is owed.
I’m just doing what the Bible says because they might have appealed to Jesus’ words and say give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and therefore, they go to the festivals and they honor Caesar because that’s what Jesus said to do or they might argue as we saw last week about the weaker brother. As long as he doesn’t stumble.
And what is the mantra? What is the modern paraphrase to that well I’m not hurting anybody I’m not hurting anybody by what I do this isn’t hurting anyone. Do you know what the read while we’re on the subject of witchcraft W-R-E-D-E what is the read in witchcraft? Do no harm as long as you’re not hurting anybody it’s okay to do it.
And the Christian cannot buy that viewpoint because we are connected to one another, we are linked in an organic way. We are linked to one another in union with Christ and what we do individually impacts the body as a whole. They might have emphasized the spiritual to such an extent that the physical isn’t important this is Gnosticism.
Gnostics believed the body didn’t matter because why did they have such a loose viewpoint of sexual morality? Because the body doesn’t matter as long as you’re walking with Christ, we’ve had Christian people ask us well what is God what business is it of God who I sleep with?
Whether I’m married to them or not because sex is part of your life and your life has been surrendered to Christ. It is no longer your life to live as you choose. It is His life to command and that’s why you obey Him in that way it is the Spirit, they say, who gives life.
The flesh is no help at all that’s true but do you know what the very next word says? We sing it in a song Jesus says after everybody leaves he says will you leave also Peter says where will we go. You have the words of eternal life and we sing that song. You know what else Jesus says there?
It is the Spirit that gives life to the flesh. It has no help at all my Word is life and His Word gives us instruction on how to live this is the important consideration finally the argument is if your relationship with God is deep enough being involved with the demonic won’t matter.
The Bible Speaks Today commentary says it has been discovered that for a small town Thyatira had a remarkable number of trade guilds and many of the Christians there would have been involved in membership with the attendant problems of conscience some therefore hold that Jezebel recognized these idol feasts as satanic temptations but taught that Christians should be strong enough in spirit to be able to explore the deep things of Satan.
And then fifthly which I didn’t make a slide for God’s grace can be most appreciated by God indulging in sin we’ll really get a better sense of how gracious God is if we engage in sin chapter 6 of Romans what shall we say then are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means how can we who are died to sin still live in it?
We’re supposed to turn from these things but the culture and this could be part of what’s going on. These are all the possibilities of what Jezebel is teaching to allow the people to get around this predicament compromise their faith now you know this but as a rule if we have to make a long, drawn-out defense of some action it’s probably wrong.
If you’ve got to keep explaining justifying rationalizing and say well this is okay because that’s a pretty good sign right from the get-go it’s wrong and you shouldn’t be doing it. We must also notice this is a little thing here but it’s very important we must discern the difference between the application of a truth and the alteration.
It is true that every verse of Scripture, the Holy Spirit can take any verse in this book and give it application to a particular situation in my life as long as the truth is not altered once the truth is altered, it is no longer applicable and it’s a very fine line to understand it.*
Now let me call your attention to something very significant verse 22 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 note that. They repent of her works.
Typically when the Scripture talks about repentance, it’s me repenting of my works you repenting of your works here they are commanded to repent of her works how can you repent for someone else’s works? But this is what they’re called to do and if they don’t do it, they’ll be struck dead but the implication is that it is the signification of their toleration. The people of Thyatira must stop must cease their indifference to the false teaching.
They’ve got to stop saying well it’s okay no, it must be called out if it’s truly false now here’s a statement that people make and it’s wrong I shouldn’t say it’s wrong it has limited application okay Limited application. Here are some people could say Well I don’t believe that stuff that they teach but they do and that’s between them and God.
Have you ever used the statement well that’s between them and God that’s a statement that’s not accurate now, I don’t have the scripture because I just came up with this this morning when I went through my message. In Matthew 18 Jesus says and since I got plenty of time, I’ll jump over quickly and try to find it so that you know I’m not just talking off the top of my head which I worry oh perhaps too much about that in my life chapter 18 of Matthew verse 15 If your brother sins against you go tell him his fault between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you’ve gained your brother but if he does not listen take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses if he refuses to listen them tell it to the church and if he refuses to listen even to the church let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector now that’s where I wanted to bring in the Mennonite community.
The Mennonite community places great emphasis on communal accountability, which reflects this teaching. If an individual within their community is not responsive to correction from peers or small groups, it escalates to a larger group intervention. This process ensures that issues are addressed collectively rather than being hidden under the guise of personal privacy.
The point here is that while we might think, “Well, as long as it’s between them and God,” there are situations where what one person does impacts others in the community. In such cases, it becomes a matter not just of individual conscience but of communal responsibility and health.
Now back to Jezebel’s teaching at Thyatira: those who align with her teachings must repent of their works because their actions contribute to a broader spiritual problem within the church. Their tolerance or participation allows false doctrines to persist and spreads deception, affecting the whole community.
This is why it’s crucial for believers not only to examine their own hearts but also to be vigilant about what influences they permit in their communities. When false teachings are tolerated, they create an environment where sin can thrive unchecked, leading to spiritual harm for many.
Let’s now consider the implications of this kind of communal accountability further. It challenges us to take seriously our role within our faith communities. We must not only focus on personal salvation but also be active participants in maintaining doctrinal purity and moral integrity within our congregations.
In practical terms, this means being willing to speak up against false teachings, even when it’s uncomfortable or unpopular. It requires a commitment to the truth of Scripture as the ultimate authority for faith and practice. And importantly, it involves prayerfully seeking God’s guidance in how best to address issues that arise within our community settings.
In summary, the situation at Thyatira calls us back to an essential truth: unity in doctrine is vital for the health of any Christian congregation. We must remain steadfast in holding fast to the teachings of Christ and resist any alteration or dilution of these truths under whatever guise they may come.
Therefore, let’s take this lesson from Revelation seriously as we seek to live out our faith in a way that honors God and edifies His church. Let us be diligent in prayer, study, and fellowship with one another, holding fast to the truth amidst a world full of deception and half-truths.
May God grant us wisdom, discernment, and courage as we navigate these challenges together in love and faithfulness to Christ. Amen.*