But I have against thee that thou permittest the woman Jezebel, she who calls herself prophetess, and she teaches and leads astray my servants to commit fornication and eat of idol sacrifices.
The Lord's charge against Thyatira turns on one word: "But." What follows is not a complaint about what the assembly was doing. It is a complaint about what the assembly was allowing.
One older translation softens this into "a few things." The charge is heavier, and it reaches past one town in Asia.
The Authorised Version reads, "I have a few things against you." The Revised Version and others read, "I have against you." The Lord had a grave charge against the angel. Through its representatives, the Church was allowing an evil among them more serious than any that had appeared before. In other words, the papacy stands at the front of this address... It seems obvious that Thyatira pictures the general state of the Church in the Middle Ages.
Notice what the Lord charges them with. Not teaching the error. Not believing it. Letting it alone.
The charge here is not only the personal guilt of the teacher, but the tolerating or allowing of what another does. "But I have against you that you permit the woman Jezebel." You may be clear of the evil doctrine yourself, and you may condemn it. That is important for every child of God. But it is not enough. These addresses show that the Lord calls for more. Where people teach, or even hold, what offends Christ, He demands that we "repent" of their presence among us. All are affected by tolerating the evil inside, whether it is actively taught or only quietly held.
The name here is a symbol. The verse also carries two faults at once, and a smoother translation can hide one of them.
The Lord said, "You permit that woman Jezebel … and she teaches." There is a twofold rebuke in these words, which the Authorised Version obscures. First, they tolerated a wicked person, in defiance of 1 Corinthians 5:13. Second, they let a woman teach, against what 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:12 forbid... The woman in Thyatira called herself a prophetess. That is, she claimed to teach by divine authority. But her teaching was vile, and meant to lead souls astray. We need not suppose that her name was really Jezebel; the name is used symbolically.
The previous letter, to Pergamos, named Balaam. The difference between him and Jezebel is where each one stands.
Balaam, named in the message to the angel of the Church in Pergamos, was a seducer from outside. He stands for the snare which the world became to the Church. Jezebel was a corrupter inside and represents the shameless alliance of the Church with idolatry and with the world.
Jezebel was a real person before she became a symbol. A system that claims to speak for God does not just add error. It pushes out what held the ground before it.
To understand the meaning of the "woman Jezebel," we must recall Israel's history in the days of the real Jezebel. King Ahab married her, lost his own place and authority as king, and let this wicked woman rule. Under her rule the whole country was led into idolatry... In the same way, a false church system rises up and tries to rule Christendom. Like a prophetess, it claims to speak with divine authority and to pass on the mind of God. It takes the place of "teacher" and "leader" of God's people. For the Lord says, "You permit … that woman … to teach and to lead away My servants." So the teaching of this evil system sets three things aside. First, the Word of God, which gives the mind of God. Second, the Spirit of God as the Teacher. Third, Christ as the Head and Leader of His people.
The verse names two sins. Both are pictures of something else.
The sin of fornication or adultery here is a picture of wicked dealing with the world. For a Christian or a church, such dealing is what marrying a Canaanite would have been for an Israelite. To eat food sacrificed to idols shows communion with what was directly linked to the power of Satan, for "what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God." And it is an easy thing to have fellowship with demons. Men think little of it, and even Christians fail to weigh how serious it is.
Two words in the verse are easy to rush past: "My servants."
It is striking that the Lord Jesus shows people in Thyatira whom He called "My servants," despite everything against them. And so it has always been. There is every reason to believe that many God-fearing people never left the Roman Catholic system. They had a conscience about the word of God and a love for the Saviour. Yet it was plainer still that they were dulled by accepting a merely human unity and by the doings of Jezebel.
- Permit. The charge is not that the assembly taught the error. It let the error stay. Being clear of evil yourself is not enough when Christ asks for repentance over its presence.
- Prophetess. She claims to speak for God. On that claim the assembly allows two forbidden things at once: a wicked person tolerated, and a woman teaching.
- Inside. Balaam seduced from outside. Jezebel corrupts from within. That is why this letter marks the worse stage.
- Replaced. Her teaching displaces the Word as God's mind, the Spirit as Teacher, and Christ as Head and Leader.
- Owned. Even inside that system, the Lord still says "My servants." The evil around His own does not make Him disown them.
And I gave her time that she should repent, and she will not repent of her fornication.
In the letter to Thyatira the Lord names a woman called Jezebel, whose teaching the church allowed, and this verse tells us what He did before He judged her. Two questions follow: why does God wait so long over evil, and what happens when someone will not repent?
The Lord does not strike the moment evil appears. One writer notes who He is dealing with: not an outsider, but a woman claiming to be a prophetess inside the church.
"I gave her time to repent," and she did not repent. So we see that God does not judge her all at once. He gives her time to repent. He is patient with her, but she does not repent. He was not dealing with the pagan world here. To them He preaches the gospel, so that He may win their souls to Christ. But this was a woman who called herself a prophetess in the church. She taught God's servants "to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols." God deals with her on the ground of what she claimed to be.
Older translations end the verse with "she repented not." The ESV reads "she refuses to repent." One writer explains why that difference matters.
The Lord's patient grace still waits, even in the case of Jezebel. He says, "And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not"; or, more exactly, "And I gave her time to repent, and she wills not to repent of her sexual immorality." How long that time was in Thyatira we do not know. But in the historical church that this assembly stands for, what patience the Lord has shown! What constant calls to repentance, what warnings in one form or another — and all in vain. "She wills not to repent." This is not mere blindness and ignorance. It is her will acting against God.
Long patience is not a sign that the case is mild. One writer weighs what the delay proves, and what the word "fornication" pictures.
Repentance was flatly refused, though the Lord had given plenty of space for it. "Fornication" (for that is the figure used) was both taught and practised. His long patience is the sure sign of two things. First, that what He was about to judge was completely evil — otherwise He comes quickly, in the jealous care of true love that counts on a true answer. Second, that when the judgment comes, it must be final and unsparing. … The sin of fornication or adultery here pictures that sinful dealing with the world. For a Christian or for the church, it is what marrying a Canaanite would have been for an Israelite.
In the letter to Ephesus the Lord threatened to remove the lampstand. Here He never mentions it, and one writer takes that silence seriously.
The Lord gave space for repentance; but, He says, "She will not repent." To Ephesus He said that He would remove the lampstand unless there was repentance. Here He never mentions the lampstand. That shows He did not own the system Jezebel stands for as a light for Himself.
Writers read Jezebel as more than one woman. She stands for a whole system, and the verdict on the system is not the last word for every person caught inside it.
There is a third thing that we find only in the last letters: a church inside this great, wide Christendom. The system is never to repent. God "gave her time to repent" of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent — though people may get clear of it.
Jezebel would not repent. But the call to repent keeps sounding, and one writer says what it asks of us.
Seven times the Lord says, "Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." We are not told to hear what is said to one particular church, but to all of them. May we not say that the Spirit's first great call is to "repent"? Five times in these letters we hear the call to repentance. The Lord has exposed the evils in the professing church and among His people. So it is for us to own our failure and humble ourselves in the dust because of the low moral condition that lies at the root of all failure.
- Space — The Lord does not judge at the first sight of evil; He gives room, and He gives it to those who claim His name.
- Will — Ignorance was not the problem. The better reading is "she wills not to repent" — a will set against God.
- Length — A long delay signals how deep the corruption runs, and how complete the judgment will be when it falls.
- Silence — Here the Lord never threatens the lampstand. He never owned this system as a light of His own.
- Escape — The system never repents, but people can still get clear of it. That is why the Lord repeats the call to repent in letter after letter.
Behold, I cast her into a bed, and those that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,
The letter to Thyatira reaches its sharpest moment: the assembly has tolerated a woman named Jezebel, and the Lord now says what He will do to her and to everyone tied to her. Three questions follow — what the bed means, why the punishment differs from person to person, and how far the "great tribulation" reaches.
The threat does not come first. It follows a period the Lord gave her to repent. She refused it — not from ignorance, but by her own will.
The Lord's patient grace still waits, even in Jezebel's case. He says, "And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not." A better rendering is: "And I gave her space to repent, and she wills not to repent of her fornication." How long that space lasted at Thyatira we do not know. But think of the historical church which that assembly pictures. What patience the Lord has shown! What constant calls to repentance, what warnings of one kind or another — and all in vain! "She wills not to repent of her fornication." It is not mere blindness and ignorance. It is her will acting against God.
The picture answers the sin. Her bed was the place of pleasure; now it becomes the place of pain. The ESV calls it a sickbed; the older wording quoted on this page reads simply "a bed."
"Behold, I cast her into a bed." The word "bed" stands in sharp contrast to the bed of the harlot with its forbidden pleasure. It will be a bed of affliction. Next come "those who commit adultery with her" — the first and only time the word "adultery" appears in Revelation. Those who have tampered with the evil, who have defiled themselves by association with Jezebel, are the group meant here — a growing crowd in our times, born of the false spirit of tolerating evil and ignoring it.
A bed is also where the strong are laid low. The Lord puts the woman who claimed to speak for Him where she can do nothing.
At Thyatira, Jezebel, as queen and prophetess, claims that authority rests in herself… She calls herself a prophetess as a cover for spreading her evil teachings. The Lord thinks so little of this authority that, in His anger, He "casts her into a bed", feeble and powerless, and what comes from her He kills with death.
The verse names one group; the next verse names another. They are not judged alike.
There are two kinds of judgment here, for they were not all the children of Jezebel. In Scripture, committing adultery is a common picture of tampering with evil, especially idol worship, because it meant God's people giving themselves to someone other than Him… Some are not her children, but people who deal with her, who are content to keep company with the evil and share in it… Those who have committed adultery with her, who have tampered with this spirit of false prophecy, "I will cast into great tribulation, except they repent." But those who are her children, who got their Christian place and name through this false doctrine, will have full judgment.
One rule sets the size of each sentence:
There are varying degrees of guilt, but the main point to grasp is that God judges evil according to the measure of each one's responsible connection with it.
The sentence ends with a condition: "unless they repent." That is how God works.
It is a principle with God always to give an opportunity for repentance before He carries out judgment. "I gave her space to repent." He has always acted this way from the beginning of time, and His Church and His people should act the same way. Even when speaking of the judgment He would bring on Jezebel, the Lord adds, "except they repent." Such is His patience and His longing to see His professed people recover from evil.
Both writers link this to the judgment described later in the book. One reads it as looking ahead to that destruction:
This vile system will come into "great tribulation." This looks on to the time told in greater detail in Revelation 17 — 18. Then the revived Roman Empire, as God's instrument, will destroy this system.
Another is more careful about pressing the phrase that far:
The verse does not say "the great tribulation" in so many words. Still, we would judge that what Jezebel represents will grow into the mystical Babylon of Revelation 17, and will be destroyed during the great tribulation period. The judgment, when it comes, will be final.
- Space — God gives room to repent before He judges. The tragedy here is a will set against Him, not a lack of light.
- Bed — Her bed of pleasure becomes a bed of affliction. The Lord leaves the prophetess who claimed authority feeble and powerless.
- Association — God judges evil by the measure of each person's connection with it. Those who tamper with it and those born of it are not judged alike.
- Exception — "Unless they repent" still stands for those who tampered with the evil. Tolerating evil, not ignorance, is what put them there.
- Reach — The tribulation here points on to the fall of the system described in Revelation 17 — 18. That judgment, when it comes, is final.
and her children will I kill with death; and all the assemblies shall know that *I* am he that searches [the] reins and [the] hearts; and I will give to you each according to your works.
The Lord ends His message to the church in Thyatira by judging the children of the false teacher Jezebel, and by claiming to read what is hidden inside people. Who are "her children," and why must all the churches learn from this one local judgment?
Verse 23 is sharper than verse 22. Commentators see two groups here: people who keep company with the evil, and people the evil produced. They quote the older wording, "I will kill her children with death," where the ESV reads "I will strike her children dead."
There are two kinds of judgment, for they were not all the children of Jezebel... Some commit adultery with her; they have tampered with this spirit of false prophecy. Of them He says, "I will cast into great tribulation, unless they repent." But her children have got their Christian place and name because of this false doctrine. They shall have full judgment: "I will kill her children with death." It is not tribulation only for them.
The word "children" is chosen with care. It points to teaching so active that it reproduces itself in people.
You can see how active Jezebel is, because she has "children." They were born and shaped by her evil teaching. So they presented themselves as the expression of her views and as her spokesmen.
That definition also draws a line of comfort.
True believers, even though linked with her, are not her children.
"Kill with death" sounds like repetition. Writers take it as weight instead, and they name more than one death in it. Some also identify Jezebel's system with Rome.
There is full judgment for those who have become devoted followers of Rome and keep this evil system going. There is spiritual death as well as physical death. There is also the second death, which is eternal separation from God (Ezek. 18:4; Rev. 20:12-15).
The ESV says the Lord searches "mind and heart." Older translations say "reins and hearts." "Reins" is an old word for the kidneys, used here as a picture.
The kidneys, used symbolically for the inward thoughts and feelings. Ps. 7:9; Ps. 16:7; Ps. 26:2; Ps. 139:13; Prov. 23:16; Jer. 12:2; Jer. 17:10; Jer. 20:12; Lam. 3:13; Rev. 2:23.
So the Lord claims to read motives, not just conduct. One writer traces where that claim comes from.
When the Lord exposes the evil in the professing church and judges it, the practical effect is that the churches come to know that Christ searches the reins and hearts. Hidden evil comes to light, and Christ is acknowledged as the divine Searcher of the secret thoughts and hidden deeds of men. In Old Testament times this belonged to Jehovah alone (Jer. 17:10). The churches are to learn the lesson — or rather to know that Christ, the One they have to deal with, carries out this solemn work. He knows everything.
Those eyes read what is inside. So His dealings with a believer may touch something the believer has not yet noticed.
In Revelation 2 and 3, we see the Lord Jesus Christ walking among the churches with the eyes of fire — not in the world. He is there so that "all the churches may know that I am He who searches the reins and hearts." In His discipline He may be dealing with something in us that we know nothing about, but which He sees... It is a very solemn thing for us to despise the chastening of the Lord. He chastens us because we are loved, because we are His.
The last clause could sound like pure threat. One writer reads it the other way.
The closing words of verse 23 are an encouragement. The Lord will deal with the evil system, yet He will judge each soul individually. He will repay each one according to their works. The individual is not lost in the crowd. In the case of Thyatira this leads to the discovery of a remnant that is for God, as the following verses show.
The same words carry a warning:
Every professed believer is also accountable to God for his own works.
- Each is sorted. Two sentences fall, not one. Those who dabble with the evil face tribulation. Those who owe their religious standing to it face full judgment.
- Each is defined. "Her children" are the people false teaching formed and produced. Believers who are only caught up in the system do not belong to that group.
- Each is searched. Reins and hearts mean the inward thoughts and feelings. The One who reads them holds what belonged to Jehovah alone in the Old Testament.
- Each is corrected. The same gaze that exposes a system also deals with what a believer cannot yet see in himself. That discipline is a mark of love.
- Each is repaid. No one disappears into the crowd. Judgment is individual — a threat to the pretender, a comfort to the faithful.
But to you I say, the rest who [are] in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I do not cast upon you any other burden;
The letter to Thyatira has just exposed Jezebel and her teaching. Now the Lord turns to a faithful few, asks almost nothing of them, and marks them out by what they never learned — "the deep things of Satan."
Who is the Lord speaking to here, and what does He expect of them?
The Lord turns to "the rest," or the remnant, in Thyatira, "who do not hold this teaching." Here, for the first time, He formally recognises believers who are not counted in the public state of the assembly, yet who are not as openly separate as believers were in a later day… So the Lord speaks with great tenderness of those who were true to His name. He did not expect great things from them.
The words "as they say" report what others were saying. On one reading, people threw the charge of dealing in Satan's depths at the very ones who had refused the corruption.
So the time had come when people who turned away from evil were counted mad. The people they refused to walk with accused them of knowing the "depths of Satan" — that is, of being led by him, as having fallen into one of his most subtle traps. And what brought on this terrible charge? Separation from evil, and a clear purpose to walk in the path of truth and holiness… But the Lord's verdict was enough for this "rest," as it has been for the true remnant in every age of the church. Anyone who cares for the honour of Christ must be satisfied with His approval.
Other writers read the phrase as a true description of the system around these believers. They lived inside it without knowing its evil.
Even in the darkest period of the Roman church's history, many dear saints of God have been inside it who knew nothing of the evil ways of the bishop of Rome and his council. The Lord Himself hints at this in His address to Thyatira… Here we find a believing remnant tied to a system marked by "the depths of Satan."
So what was this knowledge the others boasted of?
"Not knowing the depths of Satan" — that is, what they called by that name — I take to mean plain morality and separation from the world… They said that "the rest" did not know the depths of Satan, because these believers made people think that outward morality and holiness were needed in the church. So the true saints got the name of being led by Satan, and the instruments of Satan got the name of holding the word and Spirit of God.
The Lord asks nothing extra of them. So what did their faithfulness consist of?
How kind the Lord's word is to this feeble remnant! No other burden — only hold fast what they had. And what did they have? It is striking that we are told what they did not have: they "do not hold this teaching" and "have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan." This is faithfulness seen from its negative side. The Lord values even this.
What does "no other burden" mean in practice?
Even in Thyatira there are those who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan. On them the Lord lays no other burden — that is, He leaves them where they are. Sincere, and not knowing the awful system they are in, they can walk before God with an honest heart.
This verse and the ones around it mark a turn in the whole series of letters.
In the message to this assembly we find a marked change, shown by three plain facts. First, the Lord addresses a remnant for the first time. Second, He brings in His coming for the first time. Third, He no longer looks for the hearing ear in the assembly as a whole, but in the one who overcomes. These facts prove beyond all question that in Thyatira all hope of restoring the whole body is given up.
So the direction the Lord gives is forward, not backward.
He does not expect them to get back to the place the church fell from. He points them forward to His coming… So you must not expect Jezebel to be put right… No, your eye must rest on something else; and here the hope comes in.
- Seen. The Lord singles out "the rest" — believers He does not count with the public body. He speaks to them with tenderness, not with big demands.
- Slandered. "As they say" reports what others said. Commentators differ: some read it as a charge thrown at the faithful, others as the real evil around them.
- Spared. The Lord lays no fresh burden on them. Their faithfulness shows in what they refused, and He values even that.
- Steadied. He tells them to hold what they have. He does not ask them to repair what the whole church has lost.
- Summoned. "Until I come" enters the letters here for the first time. Their hope now rests on His return.