"And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write...'I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. 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 2:18-20)
Christ commended them for their love, faith, service, and perseverance, as well as their steady progress in the Christian life. Yet in what may have been an aberrant understanding of love, they had tolerated Jezebel. That tells us that others knew what was taking place. The present tense verb describes the toleration as still going on at the time this letter arrived. It’s not that they commended her teaching and practice, but they allowed it to go on without intervening through admonition and discipline as Christ has instructed His church (Matt. 18:15-17). Can we imagine that some among them probably even got together and talked about how disconcerting this was? Yet they let it go, perhaps hoping that it might fizzle out so that they would not have to confront this Jezebel or her followers and face potential fall-out. That might affect their church attendance! People might not understand and think them to be judgmental.
Enough of such foolishness! What they thought was wisdom and honor by turning a blind eye to Jezebel’s actions, was actually foolishness that threatened all that they were as a church. Their tolerance was misplaced. It’s certainly appropriate for Christians to display tolerance toward others with different personalities and backgrounds. But Jesus Christ is intolerant when it comes to allowing false doctrine and ungodly lifestyles in the church. Toleration of false doctrine or ungodly lifestyles undermines the nature of the church as “the pillar and the support of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:15).
The reality that the church had tolerated this false prophetess among them demonstrates the measure of carelessness and presumption among them. Because they did have so many wonderful things happening among them, they left themselves unguarded. Not only were the leaders at fault, but also the members of the church failed to truly care for each other by guarding one another against false teaching and ungodly living. We have the reminder in this church that our church must never grow weary of spiritual diligence. We must never think that we are impervious to that kind of smooth influence. As Paul told the Corinthians after warning them of the devastating influence of temptation to sin, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).
The reality that the church had tolerated this false prophetess among them demonstrates the measure of carelessness and presumption among them. Because they did have so many wonderful things happening among them, they left themselves unguarded. Not only were the leaders at fault, but also the members of the church failed to truly care for each other by guarding one another against false teaching and ungodly living. We have the reminder in this church that our church must never grow weary of spiritual diligence. We must never think that we are impervious to that kind of smooth influence. As Paul told the Corinthians after warning them of the devastating influence of temptation to sin, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).
(Phil A. Newton)
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