A DANGER OF COMPROMISE

Revelation 2:18-29
Bob Bonner
October 9, 2005

Several years ago, Becky and I developed an organic garden for the purpose of growing our own herbs and vegetables. Over the past several years, Becky has introduced a few flowers here and there to make it look pretty. Then she began to use it as a nursery for starting new plants that she would later transplant elsewhere in our yard. This past summer the flowers and other plants so outnumbered the vegetables that I had a hard time finding the vegetables. I was not pleased with that, so Becky and I had a “pow wow” over what was the purpose for this organic garden. In the end, she asked me, “How about if we compromise?” I responded, “What do you have mind?” She asked me to write down four vegetables I wanted to plant and she wrote down four she wanted to plant. Then, if there was any room for flowers, she could use the extra room for flowers. In the end, we now have plans for eight different vegetables and flowers. The compromise turned out to be very good.

But sometimes, compromise is not good. In fact, it can be life threatening. This morning, we are going to witness how compromise led to the downfall of a church in the first century, the church of Thyatira. Let’s look at Jesus Christ’s letter addressed to Thyatira in Revelation 2:18-29. “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this: ‘I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things acrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them—I place no other burden on you. Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come. He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also 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.’”

One of the reasons Thyatira was so small can be realized by looking at a map of the area. Unlike Pergamum, Smyrna and Ephesus, Thyatira was not a seaport. It is located about 30 miles inland, southeast from Pergamum. This very small city rested in a plain between two rivers, on a major Roman highway. The highway was the trade route between Sardis and the royal governing city of Pergamum. If it were not for Thyatira being situated on this major trade route, it probably would not have existed as a thriving community. But because of its strategic location, it was provided with many opportunities to buy and sell goods to those who traveled the highway.

Another geographically unique attribute of this city is that it was situated right at the opening of the only pass leading to the very important governing royal city of Pergamum. It was, in effect, the back door to Pergamum. As a result, a very large Roman garrison was established there for the sole purpose of keeping the royal city of Pergamum safe in case it was invaded. Thyatira’s role militarily was to simply hold off any advancing army until some major reinforcements could arrive. It was not a military town whose purpose was to be a base from which they could launch large operations to the rest of the world. It’s sole purpose was for protection against and for the delaying of any enemy advancement upon Pergamum.

Under the long peace of the Imperial rule of Rome, Thyatira enjoyed developing into a town made up of many guilds and trade unions that energized their peaceful industry. Probably its most well-known guilds were those dealing with bronze, wool and the purple dyeing industry. The minerals for smelting bronze products were not so unique to the area that it made this place the only place you could purchase bronze weapons or tools. What created the need for bronze was the stationing of the military in its city and its continual need for repairing its old weapons as well as making new weapons, and the supply and repairing of bronze tools and repairs for the travelers passing through.

A second large industry in this community was the production of wool. Because of its lush green valley, Thyatira was a natural for raising sheep for the purpose of harvesting the wool; hence, its wool industry abounded.

But what increased the demand for wool produced in this area was another industry that really put this little community on the map, and that was the purple dye industry. Typically, purple dye had been created from oysters. But in Thyatira grew a plant that is unique to the area, from which they could create an even better purple dye. Purple dye was a rare product and highly desirable among the wealthy class. Purple was the color of royalty. People from around the world would come to Thyatira just to purchase the purple dye and purple cloth.

According to Acts 16, Lydia was from Thyatira and was a seller of purple dye. Some believe that it was through her testimony that the church in Thyatira was birthed. From what records we have, the church at Thyatira may have ceased existing by the end of the second century, so the life of the church at Thyatira was short-lived.

One major reason the church did not fare well in Thyatira, was their members were either being killed for their faith, or harshly treated and forced to relocate to other towns because they could not find work. It’s hard to have a church, if you are not allowed to live and participate in the community. What church you do have is forced to go underground or to be secretive. But even then, you still are not safe.

The religious persecution of the believers was directly tied to the trade unions and guilds in Thyatira. There were many other construction unions and trade guilds in Thyatira than just the bronze, wool and purple dye industry. What’s important to keep in mind is the strength and influence of these trade unions. If you were not a member in good standing, it was difficult, if not impossible, to make a living.

Each trade guild had its own god and members of each guild were pressured into participation in its pagan feasts. Participation demanded that you make sacrifices to the god of your trade guild and that you participate in immoral sexual practices expected of one who worshiped the god of that guild; and all their gods insisted upon some form of sexually perverse practice. Any Christian who refused to offer sacrifices or to participate in these immoral sexual activities faced serious job security and acceptability. Again, if you couldn’t practice the trade in which you had been trained, how else were you supposed to provide for yourself and your family? This presented a huge dilemma and much suffering for those who wanted to remain true to Jesus.

Along with being home to a temple to Apollo, the sun god, the citizens of Thyatira also worshiped Zeus, who in Roman and Greek mythology, was the most high-ranking of all their gods. The emperors were declared to be “sons of Zeus” and this gave credence to the strongly supported emperor worship of the day. It is probably for this reason that Jesus, in verse 18, addresses Himself, the author of this letter, as being “the Son of God,” a title for God used only this one time in the book of Revelation. By addressing Himself as such, Jesus was making the point to the believers that there is only one God and it wasn’t Zeus, it was Yahweh. All of the other gods were figments of human creation. And being that Jesus is the only Son of God what He was about to say to them carried with it the weight of a sovereign executive order that had better be listened to and obeyed. Using this title, “Son of God” was a way for Jesus to bring these Christians back to focusing on who and what was real, and who was the only “way, the truth and the life.”

When Jesus declares that He has eyes “like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze,” His point is that His eyes are pure and they search into the hearts and minds of people and He has intimate knowledge of all things. He knows our motives and intents. As a result of what He sees in the believers at Thyatira, His eyes are “hot” with anger.

We know He is angry by the following description of His feet being like “burnished bronze.” Feet were made for walking and stomping. Elsewhere, Christ’s feet are described as “treading the winepress” or crushing grapes. These bronze feet are a reference to Christ’s judgment. Burnished bronze is a bronze that has been heated to an intensity that makes it glow. This description refers to Christ’s indignation at what He sees and His promised resultant righteous judgment against the sin of this city, against the sin of the false teachers and false believers, and His discipline toward those believers who have compromised their faith.

After making sure that His hearers recognize who it is that is addressing them and the frame of mind He is in, He has their attention. His next words are, first of all, words of praise for their good works on His behalf. Jesus highlights four specific worthwhile and productive deeds of the Christians in Thyatira.

He first mentions their “love.” Interestingly, this is the only church commended in these seven letters for its love, whereas Ephesus was condemned for having left its first love. Does this love refer to the love for Christ or for the lost? What I do know is that you can’t truly love the lost without first loving Christ, so at the very least, we can be assured that His praise is for their love for Him.

But what is really amazing about this church is while they obviously have a notable depth of love for Christ, at the same time they have people in the church tolerating sin and even promoting evil amongst the believers. As we read further, we realize that part of their love for Christ was misguided in that, in the name of love, many sinful practices were being tolerated.

Jesus also congratulates them for their service for making sure the needs of their their own people were being met. Most of us would have been delighted to be a part of this church. With all of its problems, this church functioned well as a family.

Third, Jesus commends them for maintaining the faith; they were holding fast to the pure doctrine of the faith. The good works they were performing flowed out of what they knew the Word of God to teach. Yet, as we will see later, while some were doing this, others were promoting heresy and false doctrines. So, obviously, this is a spiritually divided or schizophrenic church.

Last, Jesus praises them for their patience. This refers to the tough mental endurance, the bearing up under the heavy load of rejection and the pagan pressures to conform. God blesses them for not compromising their faith in order to maintain their jobs by joining in with the worship of idols.

Jesus ends His words of praise to these Christians by stating that even under the incredible persecution they were suffering, their service to Christ in ministry efforts to others was growing rather than shrinking. They were not resting on their laurels from the past when things were easier or reflecting on the “good old days.” In contrast to the church at Ephesus who had left their first love, they were moving forward in reaching out to the lost.

And that raises a question: Is it possible for a church to be maturing and growing in number due to reaching out to those who don’t know Jesus, yet be compromising with sin and headed toward total collapse? Christ’s next statements, in verses 20-23, prove that it is. All is far from being well in the church at Thyatira.

In verse 20, Jesus tells us that at the root of the problem is a woman, a self-proclaimed and hence, false prophetess who is leading the church through false teachings. She is identified as “Jezebel.” At the core of Christ’s rebuke is that the true believers were allowing this Jezebel to continue rather than confronting her for her lies and throwing her out! As a result, great moral decay takes place in this church.

To fully appreciate who this woman was and what she was doing, one must go back to the Old Testament and read up on another woman, her namesake, Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab. Like the Jezebel in the Old Testament, this Jezebel taught believers to be “broad minded” about religion and to accept or welcome those religions who distort the historical doctrines and teaching of biblical truth. She encouraged the Christians at Thyatira to compromise their beliefs by participating in the practices of idol worship unique to their particular guilds, so that the Christians would not lose their jobs or their lives.

She, herself, was guilty of sexual immorality and as verse 21 tells us, she knew it and refused to repent. She had been given ample opportunity to submit her life to Jesus and to follow Him and cease from her prostitution and encouraging of others to worship idols, but she stubbornly refused. Furthermore, like her Old Testament counterpart, this Jezebel was guilty of taking over leadership from the men in the church.

As a result, Jesus pronounces three judgments: One against her, and two against her followers. First, He declares, that He will cast her onto a bed of “sickness.” Because she slept on a bed of immorality, she would become ill. Maybe the disease would be a sexual disease. There is a bit of irony and even sarcasm in this statement. The word for “bed” here refers not to a place of sleeping but of a place of illicit sexual relations, something of a whorehouse. In essence, Jesus is saying, “If it’s a bed she wants, so be it—but it will prove to be a bed of pain, not pleasure.” This bed of suffering is to induce Jezebel to recognize her sin and to repent.

Second, Jesus condemns her followers to experience great tribulation distress unless they repent not only of what they are doing, but “repent of her deeds.” In other words, in addition to stop living in sin, they were to declare her to be wrong and that she was a false prophet and to get rid of her or they would be judged right along with her.

Finally, Jesus condemns “her children” to death. “Her children” refers to the next generation who will follow in her footsteps. His judgment of her will extend to them.

What’s notable about this judgment, according to the latter half of verse 23, is that it would be so dramatic that all the churches would know that Christ not only searches hearts and minds, but that He will bring judgment to those who refuse to repent.

After speaking these words of rebuke against some in the church, now Jesus speaks words of encouragement and exhortation to those who have remained faithful and did not fall under Jezebel’s spell.

First, in verse 24, Jesus promises that they will experience some relief in comparison to those who refused to repent. He tells them that they will not experience any further burdens of life, other than the ones He is allowing them to suffer right then. In other words, they won’t experience the punishment of the unfaithful that He just promised in the previous verses.

Jesus never promises us a problem-free life. But He does promise that when we follow after Him and seek to make His priorities our priorities, then we will not face the unnecessary disciplines of the Lord, placed upon those who ignore God’s will. To put it another way: God will not lump the faithful believers into the same class that He plans to discipline or bring judgment against.

Nevertheless, Jesus does give the faithful some instruction in verse 25. He says, “Hold fast until I come.” Don’t stop remaining faithful to the truth. Continue to refuse to compromise your faith in order to hold your jobs with your unions. Remain sexually pure and true to the doctrines of the faith.

Keep in mind this letter was not written just for the church at Thyatira, as verse 29 reveals, but that Jesus intends for all the churches down through history to gain instruction from this letter. That’s why He adds “Until I come.” Those words are for all of us who would come later in history. These words tell all believers down through history that Jesus is coming again. It is not a spiritual coming or a symbolic coming, but a virtual coming back to earth to judge this world and to establish His kingdom on earth. In fact, from chapters 4 through 19 of this book, that is the constant reference point---Jesus’ coming again to earth, to judge this world and to establish His physical kingdom on the earth.

Then Jesus makes a promise to a specific group of people at Thyatira. They are those whom He calls “overcomers” in verse 26. The “overcomer” in Revelation is not one who has conquered an earthly foe by force, or has broken a bad habit. An “overcomer” is one who has remained faithful to Christ to the very end.

Specifically, in Thyatira, the overcomer includes the believer who has not fallen under the spell or false teaching of Jezebel. These are the people who have not compromised their faith in order to hold their jobs at their unions or hold their social status or friendships with those who reject Christ. They have refused or turned away from participating in the worship of idols and any form of sexual immorality. In short, the “overcomer” demonstrates his faith by his obedience throughout his days.

To these “overcomers” Jesus promises two rewards. The first reward is mentioned in verses 26-27. It is that they will be given authority to “rule over the nations” and to wield the “iron rod” of judgment against those who persecuted the church.

This “ruling over the nations” refers to being given a great responsibility and role of authority under the Lord’s direction when Jesus comes to establish His millennial kingdom. The mention of the “iron rod” in verse 27 speaks to what Jeremiah the prophet talks about in Jeremiah 19:10-11. If a potter regarded his work as no good, he would take a metal-tipped staff and smash the pottery to pieces, forever destroying it.

During the first century, Rome was the only power on earth that exercised authority over the nations, and ruled them with a rod of iron, and smashed them like potsherds: to those living under the Roman State this description is startlingly applicable.

Accordingly this promise designates the “overcomer” as heir to a greater, more terrible, more irresistible strength than even the power of the mighty Roman Empire possessed. This promise to the believer to be a part of judging the nations could not escape the attention of an Asian reader. This was a big deal to those who had been persecuted for years. The persecuted believer of this small and feeblest of present-day, first century cities would rejoice at being offered a role in making sure that justice is served in the long run.

Keep in mind, that Thyatira of all the seven cities mentioned in these letters was the least fitted by nature and its history to rule over any nation. They must have been shocked by this promise. This promise would be similar to saying to the citizens of Drain, Oregon, “You get to rule against all those in China who have executed millions of your brothers and sisters in Christ for the past fifty years.”

This once again emphasizes the truth behind Christ’s promise that if we have been faithful in a few things, He will make us rulers over many things.

The second reward given to the overcomer is mentioned in verse 28. Jesus promises to “give him the morning star.” What does that mean? I will be honest with you, I’m not sure. In Revelation 22:16, we are told that Jesus is the “morning star.” But is that the meaning here? I doubt it because all believers are promised to be given the person of Jesus Christ the moment they are saved. We are also promised to be in His presence forever. It must mean something else.

Another possibility is that the morning star, the one that shines brightest in the early morning may be symbolized here, indicating the glory and special honor that the righteous overcomer will experience in the messianic kingdom as referred to in Daniel 12:3.

Finally, in verse 29, Jesus warns us all to pay attention and take the necessary steps not to fall into the same troubles as Thyatira.

So, what lessons can we learn from this? First, it should be a warning to all Christian leadership that the reason for their authority in Christ is not to lord it over the flock, but to protect it and to stand against both false teaching and false prophets no matter what the consequences might be.

Second, it should be a warning to the congregation not to be swept along by doctrines or teachers that encourage or excuse sexual immorality..

Third, we should all make sure that we don’t sacrifice our calling to be witnesses for Christ on the altar of being approved or accepted by our world. Remember: the way of the cross is going to cost us all something, if we are going to be faithful to Christ. Someday, we may be faced with not being able to get work, unless we submit to that which Jesus says we must not submit to.

One final observation comes from the interesting contrast between the troubles of Ephesus and those of Thyatira: The Christians at Ephesus were weakening in their love for the lost and Christ, but strong in doctrine; while the Christians at Thyatira were strengthening their love for Christ and others, but weakening in their doctrine. The lesson being that: unloving orthodoxy and loving compromise are both wrong.

back to top