Wednesday
Wednesday
The Letter to Thyatira—Holiness
You are now doing more than you did at first.
Revelation 2:19
If Thyatira was noted for anything in the ancient world, it had a commercial rather than a political distinction. It was a prosperous trading center. Inscriptions that archaeologists have discovered reveal that Thyatira boasted numerous trade guilds. There were, for example, associations for bakers and bronze workers, for clothiers and cobblers, for weavers, tanners, dyers, and potters. This is of particular interest to us because it was from Thyatira that Lydia, one of Philippi’s notable converts, had come. She traded in material treated with Thyatira’s purple dye and is described by Luke as “a dealer in purple cloth” (Acts 16:14). Is it possible that Lydia, newborn in Christ, on returning to Thyatira, had been the means of planting the Christian church there?
In his letter to Thyatira, Jesus emphasized holiness as the next essential mark of a model church. He begins his letter in terms of warmest commendation, for he knows their love and faith, their service and perseverance. These are four fine virtues and include the triad of faith, hope, and love. It is also noteworthy that, whereas Ephesus had declined from a good beginning, Thyatira was now doing more than she had done at first.
But unfortunately, this was not a complete picture of the church. In that fair garden a poisonous weed was growing. Alongside Thyatira’s sterling qualities she was guilty of moral compromise. The church tolerated an evil self-styled prophetess. Symbolically named Jezebel after King Ahab’s wicked queen, she was leading some of Thyatira’s church members astray, persuading them that Christian freedom gave Christians license to engage in immorality.
Jesus had called on her to repent, but she had been unwilling. So his judgment would inevitably fall on her and also on her followers unless they repented of her ways.
The holiness of self-control and Christlikeness is another essential characteristic of a model church. Tolerance is not a virtue if it is evil that is being tolerated. God still says to his people, “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16; see Lev. 19:2).
For further reading Revelation 2:18–29