“Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols“
Nevertheless I have a few things against you
Jesus turns from commendation to condemnation of the church at Thyatira.
because you allow that woman Jezebel
The trouble in Thyatira was tolerance. The word “allow” means to tolerate. The church at Thyatira tolerated a false teacher by the name of Jezebel. The church distanced itself from this problem and let it lie to fester only to become a greater problem later. Tolerance is a concept of compromise.
The Jezebel of the Old Testament was King Ahab’s queen. She was a Canaanite and daughter of a pagan priest named Ethbaal, a worshipper of Baal. He killed his brother to become King of Sidon, Lebanon. Jezebel may have been a priestess who worshipped Astarte, later called Aphrodite [the Romans called her Venus], the goddess of lust.
When King Ahab of Israel brought his wife to Samaria, the capital of the northern tribes, she brought her religion with her. Baal was a fertility god. Baal worship used both male and female temple prostitutes to appease him. Jezebel built a temple to Baal and an altar to Astarte. With this came hundreds of prophets to promote her religion.
“Now it happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, ‘Is it peace, Jehu?’ So he answered, ‘What peace, as long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft are so many?’” (2 Kings 9:22).
Jezebel fancied her religion, a Phoenician Baal cult in Israel that promoted harlotry and magic. She seduced her tolerant and weak husband to persecute the Lord’s prophets and led Israel into idolatry. Her name stood for anything that endangers orthodox teaching. The Jezebel counterpart of this verse is a symbolic name for a person who distorts doctrine.
Some manuscripts read “your wife” instead of “that woman.” If so, this would mean that this Jezebel was the pastor’s wife! However, the strongest manuscript evidence does not support this.
who calls herself a prophetess
Jezebel was a self-styled and self-appointed prophetess, but she was no true prophetess. Just because people claim something does not make it true. Many people claim religious status in our day, but this does not mean they carry authentic biblical authority.
Jezebel taught that it was permissible to belong to a trade guild. Belonging to a trade guild included idol worship and sexual immorality at religious feasts.
to teach and seduce My servants
This phony priestess both taught and seduced her followers. “Seduce” means deceive. Jezebel was probably beautiful, brainy, personable, but deceptive. The church at Thyatira was more interested in the delivery than the content. The church of our day is more interested in form than substance.
Jezebel seduced God’s servants. She seduced Christians.
to commit sexual immorality
Committing “sexual immorality” is not the same as committing adultery. This is a much more general term than “adultery” and means to engage in any illicit sex act. This could range from fornication to prostitution. A person who commits this sin, sins against his own body (1 Corinthians 6:18). It is God’s will that we abstain from sexual immorality by consecrating ourselves to Him (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
“Sexual immorality” here is sex acts associated with idol worship. Jezebel taught Christians to engage in sexual promiscuity in idol worship. The Jezebel of this verse attempts to draw God’s people into sexual immorality through religion.
and eat things sacrificed to idols
The combination of religion and sex is a great problem. Jezebel taught the church to combine paganism and Christianity. The appeal for this combination was sex. Whenever we combine Christianity with paganism, truth always loses out.
Principle:
Unadulterated tolerance is not biblical.
Application:
A church may think that unrestricted tolerance is a virtue, but the Bible demands that we choose. Indifference will not do. It is not right to go along with the permissiveness of unadulterated tolerance.
Some churches have scanty standards. These churches are indifferent to sexual immorality, abortion, or euthanasia, “This is just a matter of preference.” Their central operating principle is “choice.” They want autonomy in determining what is true. This is unadulterated relative thinking, a philosophy perfect for a pluralistic society.
Pluralism demands toleration. Toleration used to mean patience and longsuffering with people. Now tolerance means that all views are equally valid. That is a major shift in thinking. Not only are all views equally tolerable, but all views are equally valid. In this situation, we kill truth. The only truth left is tolerance, which, in reality, is no truth. Values then have no value.
Today in Many Churches the Word of God has been compromised for money. Excommunication is rarely heard of.May our Good Lord God revisit His Church for cleansing.
As a christian do you agree with Oral Sex. It is called Christian oral sex in the internet!
Thank you for excellent uncompromised exposition on this important passage.
Pastor, if you would be so kind, will you give me some examples of todays churches “being more interested in form than substance”. I’m trying to get a picture in my mind of some comparative things relating to churches of this era. Thank you, and bless you as you have blessed us. (your readers)
Gregg, I have written a book on this subject–Certainty, a Place to Stand. There are two wings of the emergent church movement: 1) those who accommodate truth to reach people and 2) those who use postmodern methodologies but still hold to truth. The post-conservative movement attempts to accommodate truth to reach postmoderns (those who do not believe in absolutes).
Helo,my quesion is for two people who are maried to each other ,does it mattter what they do in the privacy of their bed room.Because the Bible state it clear that sex before( outside) marriage is a sin.Is there any specific warning that explain what kind of sex should be perfomed by two Godly married couple.
Eleazar, I was supposed to write a book on sex with two archeologists but I was the only one to write my chapter. Find my chapter at this site:
http://versebyversecommentary.com/articles/theology-of-sex/
Grant, thank you for your great detailed commentaries, they have help me go deeper into God’s Word and deepen my relationship with my Lord.
Although this was written over 20 years before I am reading it (11/26/20) it has become so much truer in today’s world view. In these times tolerance has changed in our culture so much. Now if you are not tolerant for all that people think and do we are ridiculed. The church (true scripture teaching churches) is under fire more than ever. I am so grateful for being able to study the word as it was meant to be taught, full of truth, conviction and love. May the Lord continue to bless your teaching to those who are not hearing the truth from their churches.
Thank you for the blessing, Graham.
Wow, I was 3 years old when this was written. Holds so much truth more than ever. The Lord Bless you & protect you.
I got some clarity! Blessed indeed! Telerance of unbiblical ideas, principles, etc are destructive to pure and powerful Christianity. Lord help us always to see where we are missing it in Jesus name