Rev 2:18 - Thyatira the Doctrinally Compromised ChurchThe Christ Who Sees All and Judges All

Rev 2:18 And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.




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We shall see that the main criticism leveled at the Thyatiran church was toleration of "that woman," Jezebel. It is, therefore, fitting that the Christ speaking to the pastor of this church is pictured as having eyes like a flame of fire and feet like burnished bronze. These are symbols of penetrating anger, purity and judgment.

The eyes of flaming fire not only produce light to see, but also fire to consume. God will in no way pardon the unrepentant wicked. Rather He will judge them with a terrible judgment. Hence verse 23... "...And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve." True religion is a matter of the mind and heart. As a man thinks, so is he. And what a man thinks will spring from what a man is at the very core, which is why God Himself puts a new heart within His children.

All of God’s true children have the heart of Christ at their core - the heart after Christ’s own heart, begotten of God unto newness of life - a new creation. It is this life within that springs forth into eternal life and which produces the fruit of the Spirit of God, through faith. It is us, yet not us, but Christ living in us. It is His gracious gift working in us towards completion at the Day of Jesus Christ.

God knows those who are His. His eyes see the hearts of all people and He knows their minds. He knows those in whom He has planted the Holy seed - and He knows those who are working from their own dead flesh, conformed to the world even though they may make outward professions and demonstrations of faith. They may have a form of religion covering the spectrum from the merely ritual to the outwardly pious. But their ways are based upon the ways of men and rely upon their own deeds. They either serve their own lusts or they try to justify themselves before God by their own human "goodness".

Nothing is hidden from His flaming fiery eyes. And those who live by works or who inhabit the deeds of the flesh will be judged accordingly - by their works. But by the deeds of the law is no man justified. Their judgment will be swift and terrible. And nothing can escape the purity of He whose feet are like burnished bronze - pure, strong, beautiful. He walks in holiness. It is His absolute holiness that undergirds his judgments. "Be thou holy, for I am holy..." Holiness - the forgotten nature of God.

Today God is reduced in the minds of many to nothing but love. And not just love, but that sort of love that is mushy, undiscriminating, tolerant of evil and all-encompassing. It has been forgotten that the love of God emanates from His holiness - it hangs upon His holiness. Love does not overpower or negate the demands of His holiness. Love satisfies those demands, in Christ.

God is indeed love. And Christ is indeed the supreme evidence of this. But He is evidence also of the infinity of the gap between the holiness of God and the horror of all sin, and all who, by their unwillingness to be freed, are captive to it. He is evidence of the stupendous cost of reconciliation and, thereby of the dreadful degradation, corruption and wickedness of all humanity.

And so, let us see that, along with His commendation to the true church, the Lord holds forth imminent judgment for those who are not His own, and chastisement for those of His who tolerate through a lack of discernment the corruptions of the world and the devil in their midst. More than a place of "tolerant love," Christ’s church is to be a place of purity and holiness, free from worldly influence, teaching and corruption.