The Mirror of Influence

Focus Statement

Not everything that shines is light.

Christ’s eyes of fire see through the glitter,

calling us to hold fast to what is real

and true when charm tries to take love’s place.

Point of Relation

Even in the Church, voices compete for our hearts.

Some are loud, certain, persuasive;

they promise stability if we’ll just stop asking questions.

They turn every difference into a battlefield.

But truth rarely shouts.

It moves quiet, steady,

through the ones who still care enough to love when it costs them.

I’ve personally have seen what happens

when a congregation mistakes appeasement and volume for vision—

when fear dresses itself as faith,

and kindness gets passed over for callousness.

Yet I’ve also seen the whisper of Christ rise through the noise,

reminding us that influence without compassion is only control,

and control is never the way of God.

Things to Consider

Influence doesn’t always look like power;

sometimes it looks like belonging.

It comes wrapped in friendship, in habit,

in the quiet pull to fit in.

Even the best intentions can drift when the loudest voices keep talking.

Before we turn to the Bible, it’s worth asking…

what shapes us most: the noise around us, or the truth within us?

What Scripture Says

The message to Thyatira begins with fire—

Christ’s eyes that see through performance,

and feet that hold steady when everything else shifts.

He names their goodness first:

love, faith, service, endurance.

This is a living church.

But even healthy fruit can hide a worm.

Influence has slipped in dressed like revelation—

confident, spiritual, persuasive.

Revelation speaks in picture-language,

so the letter uses “Jezebel” as a nickname borrowed from Israel’s story—a

queen who tried to fuse worship with empire.

Here it works as shorthand for teaching that charms people into compromise.

It is not a license to target women; it is a warning about any voice—

male or female—that uses God-talk to control.

The Church has too often twisted this verse to wound women;

Christ’s eyes of fire instead pierce misuse of power.

Thyatira’s daily life made the pull strong:

to work and belong, you went along.

That’s how compromise comes—

not by renouncing God,

but by slowly accommodating what keeps you accepted.

Christ’s word cuts through the comfort and calls the faithful to hold fast—

to keep what is real when imitation feels safer.

The warning is sharp, and so is the promise:

what you cling to in love, you will share in his life.

What This Means for You

Faithfulness isn’t about getting it all right—

it’s about keeping our focus on God’s truth.

We’re all shaped by the voices we trust,

and sometimes the loudest ones sound the most convincing.

Christ’s gaze cuts through that noise,

not to shame but to free.

To hold fast is to stay rooted in love when imitation feels easier.

What This Means for Us

The Church’s strength isn’t volume—it’s love.

Influence without compassion turns to control,

and control has no place in Christ’s body.

Let us hold fast to love that frees, not flatters,

and be a light the world can trust. Amen? Amen.