Revelation 2:27
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
This promise belongs to the message Christ came from heaven to give John on Patmos in the first three chapters of Revelation, addressed specifically to Thyatira. It is spoken to those who have not accepted false doctrine nor known the depths or deep things of Satan, upon whom no other burden is laid but to hold fast what they have until He comes. It closes with the call for whoever has an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Thyatira was full of zeal and activity, yet its charity and love and zeal were endangered by false teachers. That same danger faces God's people today, who must arouse themselves and let their labors be marked with far greater earnestness.
The names of the churches symbolize the Christian church in different periods of the Christian era, and the number seven indicates completeness. So the messages portray conditions existing in the churches of the religious world today, remain in force to the end of time and extend to the end of time, and use symbolic figures for the state of God's professed people. There wheat develops among tares, and truth stands on its own eternal basis in contrast with error.
Christ weighs with discrimination the character of all who take His name, and every individual is under His supervision. He knows the thoughts and intents of the heart as well as every word and act, He knows all about each one's religious experience and whom each person loves and serves, which calls for close self-examination.
As part of those three chapters the verse gives an earnest warning to prepare to meet the Lord in the clouds of heaven. For He comes with power and great glory, confronting indifference to the signs He foretold and giving evidence that the end of the world is right upon us.
The verse must be understood and put to the use Christ designed, with prayer for wisdom against having a name to live while dead. Revelation demands close and critical study because Christ visited John on Patmos to show what would be in these last days. Those who receive it are to be wide-awake to see intelligently and to speak intelligently about what is to be in this last remnant of time.
To the one who overcomes and keeps Christ's works unto the end Christ promises power over the nations. That is sharing with authority and honor in the rule He received from His Father, together with the morning star. Ruling them with a rod of iron and breaking them to shivers as a potter's vessels pictures the firmness, authority, and power of that rule over all opposition.
The same image of ruling with a rod of iron also describes Satan's harsh control over human agents who join him in deceiving others and making void God's law. Their wrongdoing under that rule brings suffering to people and animals. The same image also describes a father's severe control of his family, which does not win children's love. It warns against governing children by force and arbitrary will rather than with tenderness and love.