It Starts Small

The trouble with Thyatira was tolerance. The church allowed a false teacher and distanced its self from this problem and let it lie to fester and only become an even greater problem later. Tolerance is a concept of compromise.

This teacher was identified as the woman Jezebel. The Jezebel in the Old Testament was King Ahab’s wife. These two were both among the most wicked in the ruling of Israel. Jezebel was a Canaanite and daughter to the pagan priest named Ethbaal. They worshipped Baal. Ethbaal killed his brother to become the King of Sidon. It is thought that Jezebel was a priestess who worshipped Aphrodite, the goddess of lust.

Jezebel brought her pagan religion with her when she was brought to Samaria by King Ahab. Baal was considered the fertility god. Baal worship used prostitutes of both genders to appease the god. Jezebel built her own temple to Baal and an alter for Aphrodite. With this, hundreds of pagan prophets came to promote this pagan religion.

Jezebel loved her pagan religion. Her Baal cult promoted harlotry and magic. She seduced her tolerant and weak husband to persecute the Lord’s people and prophets and lead Israel into idolatry. Her name stands for anything that endangers the teaching of the Word of God. In this verse, this Jezebel counterpart is a symbolic name for a person who distorts doctrine.

This Jezebel was a self appointed prophetess but she was no true prophet. Just because a person claims to be something “of God” does not make it true. Many people claim a religious status but that does not mean they carry any authentic biblical authority.

This counterpart taught it was permissible to belong to trade guilds and by belonging to them, she taught it was permissible to include idol worship and sexual immorality at religious feasts. This phony both taught and seduced her followers. Another word for seduced is deceived. This phony woman was more than likely beautiful, scholarly smart, and personable, but deceptive. The church at Thyatira was more interested in how the content was delivered that the actual content. You do not have to go far to find churches like that in America today.

The ultimate goal by this woman was self-worship and she obtained her own worship by seducing Christians.

Committing “sexual immorality” is not the same as committing adultery. This is a much more general term than “adultery” and means to engage in any illicit sex act. This could range from fornication to prostitution. A person who commits this sin, sins against his own body.

Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.

1 Corinthians 6:18

It is God’s will that we abstain from sexual immorality by consecrating ourselves to Him.

For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality,

1 Thessalonians 4:3

“Sexual immorality” here is sex acts associated with idol worship. Jezebel taught Christians to engage in sexual promiscuity in idol worship. The Jezebel of this verse attempts to draw God’s people into sexual immorality through religion. The combination of religion and sex is a great problem. Jezebel taught the church to combine paganism and Christianity. The appeal for this combination was sex. Whenever we combine Christianity with paganism, truth always loses out.

Jesus then goes on with a warning:

And I gave her time

The deviation from biblical ethics had gone on for a considerable time. Jesus was patient with her and gave her plenty of time to repent.

to repent of her sexual immorality

The word “repent” means to change ones mind or purpose. A person who repents changes their thought and attitude toward God’s will. Sorrow is the focal point in the English word “repent,” but it is not the essential idea of the Greek word. The primary idea behind the Greek word is change of thinking.

and she did not repent

Jezebel remained intransigent in her doctrine and practice. It is interesting that her message was a message of tolerance, but she was intolerant when it came to repentance. This is a grave indictment of the church at Thyatira.

Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed

Adulteresses usually commit their sin in bed. Jesus casts Jezebel into bed, but it’s not a bed of sexual pleasure. It’s a bed of pain and sickness.

²⁹ For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. ³⁰ This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 11:29-30

Jesus will cast her into a bed of pain. The place of sin becomes the place of discipline.

and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation,

“Adultery” here is metaphorical, representing those whom Jezebel led away with her solicitations to false doctrine. Those who go along with this spiritual adultery will come into great tribulation.

unless they repent of their deeds

God is open to those who repent of false doctrine. Repentance averts God’s discipline. A church may think that unrestricted tolerance is a virtue, but the God’s Word demands that we choose. Indifference will not do. It is not right to go along with the permissiveness of unadulterated tolerance.

God will not endure false doctrine forever. Churches that deceive their people will face God’s judgment.

False doctrine is like adultery; it is unfaithfulness to truth.