Revelation 2

Overview:

v.4

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.

v.6

But you have this in your favor: You hate the principles of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Jesus can hate specific movements and teachers. Just as he called out Pharisees face to face he calls out false teachers by name.

jj

v.7

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

v.9

I know your afflictions and your poverty - yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

The poor should always be cheerful and happy, if they can hear their Saviour saying unto them, "I know thy poverty - but thou art rich." However keen the feeling arising from the reflection "I am a poor man," the edge of the sorrow is taken off if the mind can be turned to a brighter image - "but thou art rich."

barnes

v.20

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

v.21

I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.

Time to repent shows mercy. God gives us time to repent, we should deal with others the same way. And she did not repent speaks to the judgment of God. God gives time to repent, but it is not an unlimited time. There is a time when God says, My Spirit shall not strive with man forever (Genesis 6:3). This means that when God gives us time to repent, we must take advantage of that time.

enduringword

This is biblical backing for the term often used, "window of mercy" or "window for repentance" that I hear many church-goers say.

jj

v.24

Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you):

See grace#Barnes on Revelation 2 24 Revelation2 v 24.

v.26

To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations -

Fred Markert on authority over the nations being linked to tolerating spirit of Jezebel.

jj