“But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.” Revelation 2:20
God is a very clear communicator. He knows how to make His words clear and understandable. In the Garden of Eden He very clearly told Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 1:16) One rule stated
clearly and precisely. Yet it is not long before Satan attacks God’s command. What does he suggest to Eve? “Are you sure that is what God really said?” As soon as Eve started rationalizing what God said, Satangained the foothold he needed to tempt her to sin.
When the church was formed and gentiles began to be saved we see the same clarity. There was pressure for new these believers to become Jews to be saved. Around 60 A.D. James and the elders in the church decreed ,“But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we
have written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.” (Acts 21:25) God’s commands are communicated clearly and without confusion. Just a few years later (Revelation was written between 68 A.D. and 95 A.D.) we find the church at Thyatira facing the very lie Satan used with Eve. This time an evil woman has entered the
fellowship of God. She looks and sounds Godly and wise. Yet her message is the same as the serpent’s. “Did God really mean this? That is not what God’s word says!” Beware!
Seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. The Lord calls what this evil woman is doing seduction (the intent is to lead believers from the right path). Remember what the Thyatiran believers are facing. They belong to craft guilds. Each of these guilds has an idol they worship to give them work and bless their craft. They hold feasts dedicated to their idols at which they honor and worship their “god”. These feasts often turn into drunken orgies at which sexual immorality would occur (as it did in the worship of the Canaanite idols in the Old Testament). These are the very practices God instructed the Gentile believers through James to avoid.
But Thyatiran believers face intense pressure to conform – failure to do so will cost them their livelihood. They will lose everything, become paupers and not be able to care for their families. So they brought the question into their church. What should we do? Does God really mean for us to lose everything we have and not provide for our families? Satan attacked believers by bringing pressure on them to sin but then he adds a second level of deception. He puts an ungodly false prophet in the church to tell them God does not mean what He said. Liberty in Christ allows them to engage in these sins. They are free! God’s word has to remain relevant for the times they lived in, doesn’t it? Enjoy your sin!
What can we learn? Satan creates doubts in our life because he wants us to violate God’s word. He used the same tactic with the Lord in the wilderness. What we must understand is that when God’s word is clear in its instruction and we begin to try and find ways to circumvent God’s clear instruction we are on the verge of temptation becoming sin in our lives. It matters not if a “godly” person tells us that sin is permissible. The authority of God’s word must be honored above all else. Take heed!