¹⁸ “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Thyatira. This is the message from the Son of God, whose eyes are like flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze:

¹⁹ “I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things.

²⁰ “But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman—that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet—to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. ²¹ I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to turn away from her immorality.

²² “Therefore, I will throw her on a bed of suffering, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer greatly unless they repent and turn away from her evil deeds. ²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person. And I will give to each of you whatever you deserve.

²⁴ “But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (‘deeper truths,’ as they call them—depths of Satan, actually). I will ask nothing more of you ²⁵ except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come. ²⁶ To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end,

To them I will give authority over all the nations.
²⁷ They will rule the nations with an iron rod
    and smash them like clay pots.

²⁸ They will have the same authority I received from my Father, and I will also give them the morning star!

²⁹ “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

Revelation 2:18-29

Dear God, this is interesting. Two churches in a row have the same sin: allowing sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols. In this case, it appears the sexual immorality is heterosexual-based (adultery with the woman as described in verse 22) as opposed to a vague sexual immorality at the church in Pergamum from yesterday.

I was talking with a friend last night about sexual immorality. And I know I’ve said this before (I think I said it yesterday too), but I think we don’t raise the standard high enough. It’s a little like the Republican Party in the United States wanting power to the local government as long as local is defined at the level of government at which they have the power (and I say this as a moderate Republican). In this case, we want you to banish sexual immorality and we want to banish it from our midst as long as it is the sexual immorality that is just below the rung on the ladder at which we are being sexually immoral.

But I like this encouragement to the faithful that is written here. You see them. You see their faithfulness to you and your teaching: love, service, faith, and patient endurance (verse 19). And you circle back around to them at the end in verses 24 and 25.

Father, last night was everything I could have hoped it would be with the men in the CMLS class. And it wasn’t me. It was you. And I don’t have numbers I can walk around today and pump my chest about. That’s good. But I did get an affirmation in that I heard at least one man praying quietly along with me while I prayed a prayer for them to accept your gift and follow you. It touched me so much. I didn’t feel euphoric. I just felt happy for them. But I also know it’s only the beginning of the journey for them. It’s like when I drop a big fundraising mailing at work. With your grace and people responding to the mailing, getting it in the mail is only the beginning. It’s the follow-up where the real work lies. The men who prayed last night, and even those who didn’t, have long roads ahead of them. Help them to take it one step at a time, and help all of the teachers to guide them in that life that fill find them being everything the faithful people of Thyatira were.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen