By David Faust
The Lord sent letters to seven churches in the book of Revelation. Thyatira was the smallest and least important of the cities, yet it received the longest letter from the Lord.
Thyatira was home to many trade guilds. Artisans who worked with wool, linen, leather, pottery, and baked goods banded together to protect their interests. A plant grown in the region produced a beet-red dye used to make luxurious purple fabric. Lydia, a Christian woman mentioned in the book of Acts, may have belonged to the city’s fabric-makers’ guild, for Dr. Luke calls her “a woman from the city of Thyatira . . . a dealer in purple cloth” (Acts 16:14, New International Version).
Have you ever been tempted to bend your values so you could make bigger profits or find better acceptance by your peers? First-century trade guilds often honored gods or goddesses they hoped would make their businesses prosper, so Christians felt pressured to compromise their faith. For example, the silversmiths in Ephesus were angry because they feared that if people accepted Christ, they would stop buying silver statues of the goddess Artemis.
The Whole Armor of . . . the Devil
The Lord introduced himself to the church in Thyatira as “the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze” (Revelation 2:18). Metalworking was a major industry in the region, including a trade guild for coppersmiths and bronze workers. This description of Jesus’ feet reminds us that he stands sturdy and immovable.
The Lord began by commending the believers: “I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first” (v. 19). But he went on to voice a firm rebuke. “You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet” (v. 20). Whether her name literally was Jezebel, or it was a nickname for a smooth-talker well-known in Thyatira, this evil woman was leading people to accept sexual immorality and misleading doctrines.
Like other cult leaders and false teachers, this first-century Jezebel promised to disclose “Satan’s so-called deep secrets” (v. 24). But instead of pointing out and rejecting Jezebel’s heresy, some of the Christians were tolerating it. It appears the church’s leaders stood by passively, letting dangerous ideas go unchallenged.
Scripture tells us to stand firm and put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17); but do you realize Satan has armor too? Jesus compared the devil to a strong man, fully armed, who guards his house to keep his possessions safe. The Lord said, “But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder” (Luke 11:22). Christ is the stronger man who overpowers and disarms the devil, stripping away his armor. We can be bold in spiritual battles because weapons like prayer and the Word of God “have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4).
Understanding Tolerance
The Christians in Thyatira were tolerating something the Lord found intolerable.
To tolerate means to endure or put up with something. If you drink a lot of coffee, your body builds up tolerance to caffeine. If you live in a tropical climate, you develop tolerance to hot weather. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution encourages religious tolerance by saying, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The problem is, many today define tolerance as “accepting everyone’s viewpoints as equally valid.” We all have a right to our personal opinions, but that doesn’t mean every opinion is correct. Give me one hundred dollars and send me to the supermarket, and I’m free to purchase a wide variety of items. But not everything I can purchase has the same nutritional value. I could buy ice cream . . . or broccoli . . . or rat poison. I’m free to buy whatever I want, but some things are good for me; others are not. As an American citizen I am free to believe and practice whatever faith I choose, but that doesn’t mean every option will be equally nourishing for my soul.
Tolerance means disagreeing with others, but treating them with love and respect. It means holding firmly to your own convictions while allowing others to explain and defend their points of view. The late Tim Keller observed, “Tolerance is not approving an opinion you do not hold. It’s about treating the person—who’s saying what you powerfully disagree with—with respect, humility, and love.”
Tolerance goes too far when it moves us to replace truth with falsehood, and it goes too far when we replace plain biblical teachings with Satan’s so-called deep secrets. Tolerance had gone too far in Thyatira, so the Lord told the church there, “Hold on to what you have until I come” (Revelation 2:25). He’s saying the same thing to us. “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:29).
This is the fourth in a series of weekly articles based on Christ’s letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. Next week: “Wake Up!”
David Faust serves as contributing editor of Christian Standard and senior associate minister with East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the author of Not Too Old: Turning Your Later Years into Greater Years.
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