And unto the church in Thyatira write: These things saith the Son of God, Who hath eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass. Revelation 2:18
One of the significant things about the letters to the seven Assemblies in Asia, as dictated by the Lord Jesus to John, is that they describe a period of the history of Christianity. The letter to Thyatira was the longest of the seven letters. And the period of history that it describes is also the longest, the thousand years between 500 and 1500. The meaning of names in the Bible is often significant and this is certainly true of the Assembly in Thyatira. The name means ‘cemetery on a hill’. And that is as good a description as you can find for so-called Christendom during the dark ages. The city of Thyatira, in addition to its morbid name, was also known for its dying trade, particularly for producing dyes and material of purple. These two things tell us much about the city, and the Assembly that functioned there. They also provide us with a warning about things to avoid in our own Assemblies.
If we examine the state of Christianity during the middle ages, we find a pitiful state of departure from the Word of God, from the preaching of the Gospel, and from the character of the New Testament Assemblies. The Romish church had become large and powerful, wealthy and arrogant, cruel and careless, and as dead as the occupants of a cemetery. No wonder the Lord chose Thyatira as representative of that time period. Although elevated high on the hill of its own importance, the church – apart from tiny and repressed remnants – was nothing more than a congregation of cadavers. As we see such a pathetic departure, we need to be warned that our own Assemblies are but humble gatherings of the Lord’s people and must never be lifted up with pride in ourselves or what we have done. if we ever lose sight of our own unimportance, we might become lifted up and dead like the Assembly in Thyatira.
Purple was important to people in those early days. Because so many garments were homemade and very plain, the ability to have beautiful garments in a beautiful colour was treasured. But purple became a colour associated with the wealthy, and in the book of Revelation, purple is often applied to the entity identified as Babylon and identifiable as Roman Catholicism. Even today, Rome is one of the world’s wealthiest organizations, including its vast properties, its collections of art and other treasures, and its stranglehold on the purses of its adherents. The apostle Paul often warned about the dangers of riches, urging believers not to allow wealth to be a trap to make their testimony ineffective. The Assembly in Thyatira, and certain not Rome, failed to heed those warnings. Today, we find ourselves in a society that is affluent, and we must admit that our affluence has a harmful effect on our testimony.
The period of history identified by Thyatira was a bad time. We can avoid a bad time by avoiding those things of which Thyatira spoke. -Jim MacIntosh