Who defines the principles that govern the church?

The believer’s instinctive answer would be: “The Bible.” Though when viewed through the lens of reality, contemporary churches have been governed by an amalgamation of skewed traditions and corruptive culture. With Jesus Himself talking so little about churches, where does the blueprint (principles) of building the church come from? Well, as we read through the Pauline epistles, we understand that such teachings and establishing of the church principles arise largely in response to issues, conflicts, and dangers of apostasy arising within the early churches. And so today, these divinely-inspired and timeless epistles serve the same purpose of preserving unity and safeguarding the church, from the same enemies that confronted the early churches. If a civil engineer wants to build a building without first drawing up a blueprint – he would be considered foolish. Likewise, an apostle (Ephesians 2:20-21) who seeks to build a church without using the God-given blueprint – must be considered foolish (1 Corinthians 3:10-11). And as any existing building which does not adhere to the building codes is declared to be a liability and a safety hazard. So it is with any functioning church which does not adhere to God’s standard becomes spiritually liable (Hebrews 13:17) and is a hazard waiting to happen (Matthew 7:26-27). 

The message to the fourth church, Thyatira, begins as such: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze. The vivid description of Jesus Christ in the beginning of the letter is the same as John’s first glimpse of Christ in Revelation 1:14-15 and of Daniel’s vision in Daniel 10:6. This image of Christ is of one as a Judge. His eyes like a flame of fire denotes the fire of judgement that burns up the trees (lives) that do not bear good fruit in Matthew 3:10. The burnished (or polished) bronze is a symbol of judgement throughout the Old Testament, with the altar and the articles in the outer court all being made out of bronze. As with other introductions, this paints a picture of what is to come. For the church of Thyatira, it is one of impending judgement upon them, if there is no repentance (Revelation 2:22-23). The message begins with the good things about the church: I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first (v19). Notice how Jesus always sees the good in the church and is quick to point it out first before the rest. This is unlike many of us who as someone often said: “We see the small black dot clearly and are blind to the rest of the white board.” It’s interesting to point out that Jesus would mention deeds (works) and faith separately here. Indeed, faith without deeds is a dead faith (James 2:17-18). Unlike the church of Ephesus, which had left their first love (Revelation 2:4), the church of Thyatira is being commended for their love. This being the only church to receive a commendation for their love. And the concept of this agape is not existing only in some abstract thought. But seen through their service or ministry, as 1 John 3:16-18 also confirms to us. Thyatira was a city of much commerce, especially thriving in the industry of purple dying (Acts 16:14), an expensive color to produce and used by only certain people for signifying their royalty or elitist social status. So the service of the church must have significantly been in the ministry of rendering and caring for the poor among them and in their larger societies. With their latter deeds many, more or farther than their first deeds. These greater deeds were being birthed out of greater love and faith which are aforementioned when practiced with perseverance. This must challenge us to greater deeds as well, but importantly in the right order – love, faith and perseverance.

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 sacrificed to idols (Revelation 2:20 NASB1995). The shortcoming of the church that led to the warning of judgement is this: tolerating. The word has multiple meanings to it, each giving us a facet of what it truly encapsulates: to permit, to yield, to disregard, to keep no longer or to abandon. Now, before we can understand about the woman Jezebel, it is vital we remind ourselves that the book of Revelation is full of signs and symbols (Revelation 1:1). So, this could both be referring to a literal woman by the name of Jezebel in the church of Thyatira or a symbolic figure of the character type of Jezebel in the Old Testament scriptures. And exploring both these possibilities, will help us in heeding the imminent dangers of Jezebel’s in our churches even today. It is clear to us that the church tolerated Jezebel and the text also implies that the church indeed were discerning of the dangers of this character, yet did not choose to actively resist her. Possibly, this could indicate the prevailing spiritual passivity of the church at large (Matthew 24:11-12) or a lack of unity among the leadership in standing as one against heresies. Now the name Jezebel derived from the Hebrew stands for Baal exalts. Baal being the main Canaanite God by whom the Israelites were led astray into idolatry by Jezebel, the wife of Ahab (1 Kings 16:31-32). Interpreting the text using the historical significance of the woman Jezebel, reveals how and where Jezebel works in the churches: where sin is considered trivial (1 Kings 16:31), compromises in Biblical righteousness have already been made and are being passed on (1 Kings 16:30), the power to manipulate other men through false authority (1 Kings 19:2-3) and deception/lies (1 Kings 21:1-10) and the power to incite a man to do great evils in God’s eyes (1 Kings 21:25). If the historical figure of Jezebel is indeed foreshadowing the woman mentioned in Revelation, then this woman at Thyatira was probably the wife of one of the elders there. Now, to understand what Revelation 2:20-21 tells us about this Jezebel. The Lord begins by saying: who calls herself a prophetess, clearly implying that she was a false prophet (Matthew 24:11). This was possibly the manner in which she gained the foothold of authority within the church. And now with this false authority that she exercised, she now began to oppose Biblical authority in the church by teaching (1 Timothy 2:12-15) and seducing (Revelation 2:20 KJV) the servants of God. The sins she led them astray into committing were fornication and eating food offered unto the idols. As we have seen previously with the churches of Ephesus (who resisted) and Pergamum (which fell) – sexual sin and bending the knee of compromise to pagan cultures, also troubled the church of Thyatira. And we see how the heart of this woman has became so hardened in sin (Hebrews 3:13) that she had lost all desire to repent of her acts and continued on in her perversions (v21). And in Revelation 2:22-23, severe judgement is pronounced upon her (Jezebel) and upon her children (believers who were led astray). The judgement of God is always two-fold. One, on the one who causes others to sin – always being severer. Two, the one who silently yields to it and does not resist (James 4:7). To note, the word pestilence used in v22 actually means death leading to eternal separation. And finally in Revelation 2:24-25, Christ exhorts the rest of the undefiled believers of the church to hold fast till His return to the purity of doctrine and teachings.

The parting words of Christ bear its familiar tone of resemblance as to the other churches in v29: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The Lord is calling us today to repent of all our sinful deeds. He searches the minds and hearts of men and judges each according to our deeds. To whom does authority belong to? To the one who overcomes and keeps his righteous deeds till the very end – this is the eternal promise of God.