Revelation 2:20, commentary and pictures

Christ rebukes the church at Thyatira, though full of zeal and activity and charity, for suffering the self-called prophetess Jezebel to teach and seduce His servants into fornication and eating things sacrificed to idols. In this He weighs the character of all who take His name, knowing the thoughts and intents of the heart and every word and act, which calls for close self-examination. The seven churches are symbols of seven states of the Christian church from Christ's first coming to His second appearing, the number seven showing completeness so that the message to Thyatira portrays the state of the churches today and is in force now. That same danger threatens God's people now when worldly plans and interests absorb time and cause the work to languish, so Christ as the true Watchman warns to prepare to meet the Lord in the clouds with power and great glory and calls His workers to tireless vigilance and far greater earnestness and self-sacrifice. Those who take a halfway position toward reproof go farther under Satan's blinding deception until they turn the verse against the instrument God uses to correct them, calling visions deception and the messenger Jezebel. Some invoked the verse to brand a woman as the false prophetess Jezebel for teaching within the shut-door message that the wicked are destroyed and the dead sleep, but to apply it to a true woman messenger on that ground is darkness and error with no force against those truths and is to be confessed as wrong and renounced in humility.

Setting and Warning to Thyatira

The seven churches are symbols of seven states of the Christian church spanning the period from Christ's first coming to His second appearing. Each church name is symbolic of the church in a different period of the Christian era, and the number seven indicates completeness, showing that the message extends to the end of time and is in force today. This verse belongs to the first three chapters of Revelation, which give an earnest warning to prepare to meet the Lord in the clouds of heaven, for He comes with power and great glory. That warning confronts indifference to the signs foretold by Christ and shows that the end of the world is right upon us. The verse belongs to Christ's message to the church in Thyatira in the second chapter, within the message to John.

Those in Thyatira who have not accepted the doctrine associated with Satan's depths, who have not known those depths, are to hold fast what they already have until Christ comes. Those who overcome and keep His works to the end receive authority over the nations and the morning star. The church of Thyatira described in Revelation 2:18-29 is full of zeal, activity and charity, yet endangered because false teachers are suffered to teach and seduce God's servants. The verse shows Christ weighing the character of those who take His name as Christians and exercising close supervision over every individual. He knows the thoughts and intents of the heart as well as every word and act, knows all about each religious experience, and knows whom each loves and serves, so the verse calls for close self-examination.

The message to Thyatira portrays the state of things existing in the churches of the religious world today. Its figures are symbolic of God's professed people as wheat developing among tares, with truth standing on its own eternal basis in contrast with error. The verse belongs to the message of Revelation 2 that must be heeded to understand what it means to lose first love. That means seeking the Lord with all the heart, respecting those who have borne the burden, loving God supremely and neighbor as self, and humbling the heart before God. Then He can safely work with and for His people, and the truth prospers in their hands and goes forth as a lamp that burneth.

Jezebel, Reproof and Misuse

The Jezebel of the verse is one who calls herself a prophetess, a deceiver who opposes God's work by teaching and seducing His servants to lead them astray with corrupting teaching. That suffering of false teachers to teach and seduce is the danger of God's people now, when worldly plans and schemes and interests absorb time and attention and cause the work of the third angel's message to languish. Christ as the true Watchman gives the example of constant diligence in behalf of His church, and His workers must come into line with the progressive work He has outlined. They are to arouse to labor with far greater earnestness and faith and self-sacrifice and with tireless vigilance.

Those who take a halfway position toward God's reproof by receiving part of it and rejecting part of it go a step farther under Satan's leading, blindfolded in deception about their own feelings. They turn the verse against the instrument God uses to correct them, rejecting visions and calling God's messenger a deceiver and the woman Jezebel.

The verse was also turned into a charge by those who held that teaching the sleep of the dead and the destruction of the wicked within the shut door was an abomination brought in by a woman false prophetess, Jezebel. To apply the Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess to a true woman messenger on that ground is darkness and error, with no force against those truths. When met, that misuse is exposed, and is to be confessed as wrong and renounced in humility.