As ancient cultures mixed and blended together, their gods inevitably followed suit. The mythologies of regional gods merged with national ones, creating a familiar but distinct patchwork of deities across the Roman Empire.
In Thyatira, the blending of Lydian, Macedonian and Greek cultures resulted in Helios Pythius Tyrimnaeus Apollo—a sun god who became one of the city’s primary deities, and who would have been worshipped in citywide festivals and by the trade guilds there.
His connection with Apollo meant that Apollo Tyrimnos (his shortened name) was considered a son of Zeus, chief of the Greek gods. The emperor, in turn, was considered Apollo incarnate—and therefore divi filius, or “son of a god.”
Here was a false god laying claim to the majesty of the sun—and not only that, but a reason to worship the emperor as the divine son of a god.
In the opening line to his letter to the church in Thyatira, Jesus challenges all those lies. He identifies Himself as “the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass[1]” (Revelation 2:18).
Jesus is the true Son of God—not Apollo, and not the emperor. His eyes shine like a flame of fire—not the eyes of this imaginary god of the sun. He has no equal—not in Thyatira, not anywhere. One commentary remarks, “With such eyes the Son of God can see into the most distant and darkest places, and with such feet he can stamp out all opposition to his rule” (Robert Bratcher and Howard Hatton, A Handbook on the Revelation to John, p. 57).
This is the imagery Jesus uses to set the stage for His message to the church in Thyatira.
It’s easy to skip over Thyatira’s praise and go right to its censure. But the praise is important, and we can learn from it too:
“I know your deeds—your love, your faith, your service, your perseverance—and your latest deeds are greater than your first” (Revelation 2:19, BSB). In sharp contrast to the Ephesian church, which was at risk of losing its lampstand unless it heeded Christ’s warning to “repent and do the first works” (verse 5), the church in Thyatira had grown. The members there had more love, more faith, more service, more perseverance (from a Greek word meaning “patient endurance,” “steadfastness” or “fortitude”) than they had when they first became Christians.
This was high praise from Jesus Christ, who saw a vibrant and spiritually developing congregation when He looked at His people in Thyatira.
How long have you been a Christian?
Is that a stretch of time you measure in weeks? Months?
Years?
Decades?
If you have a long history of following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, think back to what your works were in those early days. You probably had an excitement—an eagerness to practice things like showing love, serving others and exercising your faith. If the letter to the Ephesians teaches us anything, it’s that holding onto that eager desire is integral to our Christianity.
But eagerness isn’t growth. Eagerness creates opportunities for growth. We grow in love, service, faith and patient endurance by practicing those things—even trying and failing at those things. The Ephesian Christians had disconnected themselves from the love they began with; the Christians in Thyatira had embraced it and leaned into it. As a result, they had spiritual fruit to show for it. They were among those “who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred” (Mark 4:20).
Now back to you.
What changes have the passage of time and an eagerness to do God’s will produced in you? How have you grown since you started down this path?
Those are good questions to be able to answer—but there’s nothing you can do to change those answers. The past is the past. You’ve done what you’ve done. That story is written.
What matters more is what’s ahead.
Whether you’re brand-new to this way of life or you have half a century of experience, the focus is on the changes you want to see in your future.
What kind of Christian do you want to be a year from now?
Ten years from now?
Thyatira improved in the areas it did—in love, in faith, in service and in patient endurance—by doing those things. That’s the only way anyone can get better at anything. And it’s the only way we can get better.
We have to seek out opportunities, even create opportunities to practice these skills over and over and over again. And in the process, we will change, we will improve, we will have works “greater than the first.” If we ask God for help, He will help us find opportunities to grow just like the church in Thyatira did. And growth is such a big part of what God is looking for in us.
In many ways, Thyatira is the spiritual mirror image of Ephesus.
While the Ephesians had walked away from their first love while remaining vigilant against false teachers and doctrinal heresies, the members in Thyatira had grown in godly love while at the same time failing to protect the congregation from heretical teachings.
This is the charge Jesus brings against the church in Thyatira: “But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols” (Revelation 2:20, ESV).
You may immediately notice some connections between Jezebel and the issues plaguing both Ephesus and Pergamos.
In Pergamos, we learned that the Nicolaitans were promoting “the doctrine of Balaam . . . to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality” (verse 14). These same Nicolaitans had been rejected by the Ephesians (verse 6), but they seemed to be making inroads in Pergamos, where their doctrine of spiritual compromise was beginning to take root.
In Thyatira, the situation is even more dire. This time, we have no mention of the Nicolaitans, but their doctrine finds a mouthpiece in the form of “that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess”—an enigmatic figure who aims to “teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols” (verse 20).
The most immediate and striking difference between the problems in Pergamos and Thyatira is a matter of proximity. In Pergamos, the Nicolaitans appear to be operating at the fringes of the congregation. They are dangerous, but they are distinct—Jesus draws a line between “you” and “them” (verse 16).
In Thyatira, Jezebel claims to be a prophetess—that is, she claims to speak the inspired words of God. She is not an outside agent trying to smuggle heresy into the Church, but an established figure within the Church. It seems the congregation in Thyatira is providing her with a platform to spread her message.
Her exact identity and message have been lost to time, but like the Nicolaitans, we have enough context to know that she was promoting compromise with Roman society—a compromise that God rejected in the strongest of terms.
In the Old Testament, Jezebel was a wicked queen of Israel (and often the true power behind the throne of her spineless husband, King Ahab[2]). Jezebel was the daughter of a foreign king, and it was through her marriage to Ahab that Baal worship became prominent in Israel (1 Kings 16:31-32).
When Ahab wanted the vineyard that was beside his palace, Jezebel was the one who planned a vicious conspiracy to have the vineyard’s owner murdered in cold blood (1 Kings 21:1-16). When Elijah the prophet publicly exposed 450 prophets of Baal as false prophets serving a false god, it was a furious Jezebel who threatened Elijah’s life (1 Kings 18:20–19:3).
Elijah’s challenge to the Baal-worshipping crowds must have seemed odd: “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21).
Israel had fallen into syncretism, a blending of religions. Why should they choose between these two gods? Why not just worship both?
Just as a variety of cultures had blended together in Thyatira to create Apollo Tyrimnos, so, too, did Jezebel’s Baal worship blend and mingle with worship of the true God. The result was an abomination that God hated (Deuteronomy 12:29-32), but that the people saw as perfectly acceptable. In their minds, they weren’t faltering (or “limping,” as the ESV translates it) between two opinions—they were just combining the two into one.
The Bible is clear: for God’s people, this kind of compromise is not an option.
The fact that the false prophetess of the congregation in Thyatira is spiritually associated with Queen Jezebel of the Old Testament tells us a great deal about her role in God’s Church—the same way that associating the Nicolaitans with Balaam tells us about their role.
Unlike Balaam, who was an external threat to Israel, Jezebel was an internal threat. She was the queen—she had an incredible amount of influence over the nation. Likewise, this Jezebel figure in Thyatira appears to have been an influential member of the Church—someone who held some amount of sway over the congregation.
Like the Nicolaitans in Pergamos and Ephesus, this “Jezebel” seems to have been advocating that Christians could (and maybe even should) get involved in the pagan practices of the world around them. Her teachings were designed to “seduce [Christ’s] servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols” (Revelation 2:20).
The teachings of this false prophetess claiming to speak on behalf of God were seductive—they drew people in and led them astray. How many Christians in Thyatira had she convinced to share in the trade guilds’ sacrificial meals for Apollo Tyrimnos, the city’s sun god? How many Christians in Thyatira now believed that God had placed His seal of approval on spiritual and moral compromise? How many Christians in Thyatira believed they could please God with one foot in the world and one foot in the Church?
How many Christians believe that today?
Jesus was not just sitting idly by while Jezebel masqueraded as His mouthpiece. For Jezebel—and for all those who refused to separate from her—judgment was coming.
Claiming to speak on behalf of God, Jezebel packaged her deceptions artfully. She offered “deep secrets” (Revelation 2:24, NET). The Greek phrase here suggests “knowledge which is very difficult to know” (Louw and Nida Greek-English Lexicon, 28.76), and Paul used the same word when he explained that “the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10).
As a false prophetess, Jezebel likewise presented her teachings as God’s deep secrets, but Jesus unmasked them for what they really were: “the so-called ‘deep secrets of Satan’” (Revelation 2:24, NET). They weren’t real deep secrets, and they weren’t from God.
They were lies originating from Satan the devil.
Jesus reveals that Jezebel’s punishment is already en route: “I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works” (verses 21-23).
There is poetic justice in Jezebel’s fate: the woman promoting spiritual harlotry[3] will be cast (from a Greek word meaning “to throw forcefully”) into a different kind of bed—a sickbed. Jezebel’s message would have promised social and economic security through compromise with paganism. Jesus was making it clear that such compromise would accomplish the exact opposite. Unless Jezebel’s coadulterers repented, they would find only sickness, tribulation and death.
This coming judgment would be a warning to not just Thyatira, but all the churches—Jesus is the One with “eyes like a flame of fire,” who “searches the minds and hearts” (verses 18, 23). Nothing escapes His sight. He sees all, He knows all, and He will reward each of us according to our works.
Thyatira’s false prophetess remains a powerful warning to the Church today: convincing lies can come from within God’s Church. Left unaddressed, these “deep secrets of Satan” will produce the only thing Satan’s lies ever produce: pain and self-destruction.
Paul told the Thessalonians, “Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21, ESV).
Prophecy refers to any message inspired by God. As Christians, whenever we encounter something that appears to be prophecy, our job is to test it—to examine it, to ensure it doesn’t conflict with the inspired message of the Bible (Isaiah 8:20). If it does, we must reject it both from our own lives and from the Church as a whole. Satan’s lies must be given no space to take root and grow.
With the (notable) exception of Jezebel’s influence, the church in Thyatira was on the right track. Their works had only improved over time. They had increased in love, service, faith and patient endurance. And so to the remainder of the congregation—to the ones who weren’t entangled with Jezebel and Satan’s lies—Jesus says, “I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come” (Revelation 2:24-25).
The overcomers in Thyatira would be the ones who removed themselves from Jezebel’s sphere of influence, repenting if necessary, and who then held fast to the truth. Judgment on Jezebel and her followers was looming, but the overcomers were promised rewards at Christ’s return: “power [or authority] over the nations” and “the morning star” (verses 26, 28).
The promise of power and authority is straightforward. Just as God the Father gave the resurrected Christ authority over the nations, so, too, does He promise to share that authority with His faithful disciples. Together, they will “rule them with a rod of iron; they [unrepentant nations] shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels” (verse 27).
However, the Greek word Jesus uses for “rule” can also refer to the act of shepherding.[4] As faithful Christians join Christ in ruling over the nations (compare Revelation 20:4), they will be tasked with not only disciplining rebellious nations, but lovingly shepherding all God’s creation into a state of unity with Him.
The reference to the morning star is a little more difficult to decipher. As with the white stone promised to the overcomers in Pergamos, there are theories, but no definitive answers.
At the end of the book, Jesus identifies Himself as “the Bright and Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16). The people of the first century world would have also referred to the planet Venus as “the morning star.” To see the morning star in the sky was to know that daylight—and the end of darkness—was at hand.
Peter offered similar encouragement to the Church: “And so we have the prophetic [divinely inspired] word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19).
Jesus Christ is our Morning Star—our promise that the night of this world will not last forever, that in fact “the night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Romans 13:12).
The future that matters—the future you and I are dedicating our lives to reaching—that future is on the horizon. It is real and it is on its way. For assurance, we don’t need to look any farther than “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).
Whether this was the exact imagery Jesus had in mind when He spoke to the church of Thyatira is unclear, but there is no doubt that our Elder Brother is our hope before the dawn. Our job is to overcome and keep Christ’s works till the end (Revelation 2:26), at which point we, too, “will shine . . . like stars in the sky” (Philippians 2:15, NIV).
Footnotes
[1] Jesus used the Greek word chalkolibanon (Strong’s #5474), which so far has not been found in any other contemporary Greek text. Its etymology and its connection to Daniel 10:6 suggest it refers to a valuable, shining metal alloy, most likely bronze or brass.
[2] See 1 Kings 21:25.
[3] Throughout the Old Testament, God uses sexual immorality as a way to describe spiritual unfaithfulness to Him—idol worship, the blending of religions and so on. Jezebel’s promotion of literal sexual immorality went hand in hand with her spiritual unfaithfulness to God. Those who “commit adultery with her”(verse 22) seem to be those who joined in her unfaithfulness, whereas “her children” (verse 23) seem to be those who fully accepted her message.
[4] Revelation 2:27 quotes from Psalm 2:9, which speaks of breaking the nations with a rod of iron. In the original Hebrew, the words for “break” and “shepherd” are pronounced similarly—rāʿaʿ (Strong’s #H7489) and rāʿâ (Strong’s #H7473), respectively.
