Useful Bible Studies > Revelation Commentary > chapter 2
One powerful woman in the church at Thyatira had persuaded many people to join her in wrong and evil acts. Such wicked behaviour deserves a severe punishment, but Christ’s kindness to that woman was great. He did not punish her immediately; instead, he waited. He gave her an opportunity to repent, that is, to turn back to God.
The woman should have been very grateful to God for that opportunity. She should have been humble in front of God; she should have confessed her evil deeds to him. She should have stopped her wrong activities and she should have urged everyone else to stop too. In other words, there should have been a complete change in her attitudes and behaviour. God would forgive her and she would be serving him properly.
It is very sad that this woman chose not to repent. That made her activities even worse. Perhaps originally she was acting foolishly; she did not realise that her actions were wrong. Now, however, she was clearly doing these things on purpose. God had given her an opportunity to repent, but she did not want to do it.
In that way too, she was very much like the Jezebel of the Old Testament (the first part of the Bible). Her husband King Ahab was an extremely wicked man. However, even Ahab made himself humble in front of God on one occasion, and God showed kindness to him (1 Kings 21:20-29). Jezebel was responsible for many of Ahab’s evil acts, but she never repented. Even on the day of her death, she was still proud (2 Kings 9:30).
Next part: A judgement against people who are not loyal to God (Revelation 2:22)
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© 2016, Keith Simons.