THYATIRA The Corruption Revelation 2v20.
"Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols".
The problem at Thyatira was the toleration of evil doctrine ( which led to evil practice ). The force behind the word "sufferest" is actually "sufferest without protest" tolerating an obviously evil doctrine, turning a blind eye to it and continuing in active service as if nothing is wrong. This is the opposite problem to that at Ephesus. At Ephesus they were weak in love and strong in doctrine; at Thyatira they were strong in love but weak in doctrine. Polarization, the tendency to one extreme or the other, is the order of the day in the church, as it is in the world. God wants His people to find a balance between truth and love and follow the example of His perfect Servant in whom was blended fullness of grace and fullness of truth. At Ephesus they had empty hearts; at Thyatira they had empty heads. Both are toxic to the spiritual health of God's people. Take a simple example from nature; the common salt of the earth is made up of two chemical poisons, sodium and chloride. Taken separately they can kill the body, but together they form sodium chloride, simple table salt which is in every day use for the flavouring of food for the health of the body. So it is in spiritual things.
- Jezebel - Probably not her real name but because she was in character like her Old Testament counterpart, Jesus gave her this name. She called herself a prophetess (she was not); she taught God's people publicly (she is forbidden to do this). Her teaching was leading the church into to practices of evil, just like the Jezebel of the Old Testament. The story is found in 1st Kings chapter 16 - 21. She was a Zidonian princess who worshipped the god Baal. She married the King of Israel (who worshipped God) and sough the rest of her life to mix the worship of God with the worship of Baal. This New testament Jezebel sought to marry the church with the evil world system around.
- The trade guilds - Thyatira was a city whose commerce was controlled by a number of trade guilds. In order to make a living you needed to become a member of one these because they controlled every profession, and without that you could not work. The problem with it was the conditions of membership which involved the following; regular attendance at social occasions; involvement in temple worship, which lead to fornication with temple prostitutes. It was a culture of evil under the guise of material prosperity. There is little doubt that Jezebel was teaching that they should become members, and go along with the culture in order to maintain a prosperous life style and indeed to fund the good works for which they had become famous.
- Doctrines of demons - The problem with all this is that it led the people of God to the worship of idols, the same as the former Jezebel had done in Israel. "This seduction" of God's servants was very strong, because it involved the need to work and make a living. Jesus called her doctrine "the depths of Satan." It is Satan's masterplan to use the basic needs of day to day living to cause God's people to compromise, because they have to live and work in a world of evil. The same seduction is present very strongly today. The temptation to compromise for the sake of material gain is very real. The Lord who has "the fullness of the earth" at His disposal is well able to make up any material loss because of faithfulness to Him. The danger of compromise is all around us, the doctrines of demons are very subtle. Such teaching and practice as was tolerated at Thyatira is unacceptable to the Lord.
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