Intolerant Love

Revelation 2:18-29 The Church at Thyatira

Logan and the Wasp's nest

Logan and the Wasp's nest.

Last year about this time we were out in my front yard, as a family. I think we were weeding out front and Logan backs up against the fence. Next thing I know he is screaming, panicked, in hysterics... Just screaming. And all around him, swarming... wasps. Up tucked in the underside of a 2x4 on the fence was a huge wasps nest and he had backed right into it.

Okay... Few things make a man act like a little girl than wasps and bees. There is one surefire move against a wasp Dancing around on one foot swinging arms down.

One wasp makes you nervous, but you will usually tough it out. "I'm not afraid of that wasp." Two you start to think about moving. Three you probably are moving. If there are like seven wasps, I am just running away. Seven wasps are like a little air force.

Now there are at least 10,000 wasps swarming around my son, but numbers are meaningless, that's my boy, right. So I run into the swarm, grab my boy and get him and the rest of the family inside. Mommy has the screaming crying boy. And now, I have a job to do.

The wasps have to pay.

I will not tolerate things attacking my son. If I had to go in unarmed I would have. I was the intolerant warrior, remover of wasps nests. I didn't have to go in empty handed because they make these spray bottles that shoot out insta-wasp killer poison stuff from 20 feet away. I grab two cans... and attack. Everywhere I see movement. I get closer, I jump back, I spray that stuff all over, I soak the nest, I get in close and karate kick the nest and I was victorious.

You know I showed Logan that pile of wasps and the smashed wasps nest, because my son cannot be afraid of living in our house, of standing in our front yard. That is a safe place, and it is my job to be sure it really is safe place.

Can love require intolerance

We have a word that could be writ large across our culture. Tolerance. 9 times out of 10, tolerance is a good thing. But when something is attacking my child... could it be that that is not the time for tolerance?

People, there are metaphorical wasps attacking our children. Also, our metaphorical children... Also us...

But Christians are supposed to be always loving, right? We are supposed to tolerate, to accept, to encourage... Is there ever a time when love requires intolerance?

God

18 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

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, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations — 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’ —just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Okay, what is going on here?

Thyatira

Thyatira was a small city, famous for dyes, organized by guilds. Still famous for dyes, still run by the dye guild in Turkey today. Then you were a part of a guild, who each owned their own section of squares of the city, or you were starving. There were no other options. And the guilds competed to see who could throw the biggest feast in honor of Apollo, patron God of the city. It isn't hard to imagine that ditching all the feasts meant angering all the guilds which meant losing all the jobs which meant living on Ramen noodles. Huge economic pressure to partake in these feasts, even though they were acts of worship to another God.

Jezebel

Who is the Jezebel? Well, she seems to be the leader of the group called the Nicolaitans. Perhaps you remember from last month when I preaching about the city of Pergamum. This was a group who bowed to economic, political and religious pressure to participate in the pagan festivals: eating food sacrificed to idols and apparently partaking in temple prostitution. Idolatry and immorality. But, we can only assumed they argued, it is all okay because Jesus forgives our sins. But what is the truth? Sin always enslaves. There is no compromise with sin.

So Jezebel is at the heart of this heresy. And it is unlikely that Jezebel is the real name of this false prophet, but Jezebel was a familiar historical figure who corrupted and led God's people astray in the same way as this Jezebel at Thyatira. It would be like my calling someone a Hitler: I am condemning them for evil behavior like that of Hitler.

So Jezebel was a foreign wife of King Ahab.

King Ahab, king of Samaria, the Northern Kingdom of Israel, was out hunting a white whale...

She brought her religion with her, worshiping Baal. For decades she engaged in a program of dismantling and destroying Yahweh worship and promoting her own Baal worship. She had all the prophets of Yahweh destroyed, only Elijah escaped. She lied and schemed and manipulated, growing in influence with King Ahab, then Ahab's son, then grandson.

Remember the story when Elijah stood up to the prophets of Baal? Called to God and God sent down his fire, burning up the sacrifice and completely defeating all the prophets of Baal. After that incredible victory, Elijah flees to the wilderness... because he's afraid of Jezebel!

So this is the woman behind one of Israel's most evil kings, famous for leading God's people into idolatry and immorality. It is, therefore, not a compliment to be called Jezebel. I assume that wasn't her real name because that should have been a HUGE red flag.

So this Jezebel joins the church at Thyatira and she is one of them, a Christian. She is among them, it says. And at some point she decides she is a prophet, one who speaks on behalf of God. And she understands the "deep things of God," which our passage says "really, the deep things of Satan" and begins preaching that Christians can partake in these temple feasts complete with temple prostitutes. Idolatry and immorality, but it is all okay, God says so!

This was a popular message among the church and she gained followers. Not just in Thyatira, either, but it spread to Pergamum and was influential out towards surrounding cities like Ephesus! There was huge economic and social pressure to take part in these things, Jezebel says that God says it is okay, so let's do it!

Judgment

Jesus says NO! That is not okay, never was, never will be. And we read language judgment that makes us cringe.

21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

She has had her chance to repent, chance over! I will make her sick... no, I will cast her, throw her on a bed of suffering... pestilence, death sentence really. Those who followed her into sin will suffer with her, though they too will have a chance to repent. Here's the part that really makes us cringe. I will strike her children dead.

Now it is possible, I think even probable, that children here means children of her sin, disciples or those who followed her into sin and didn't repent. A follow-up to those who "commit adultery with her." But I also recognize that I (and probably most scholars) prefer that reading because the other sounds like quite the overreaction. But really the whole thing sounds awfully judgmental! Come on, Jesus, cut them some slack!

I don't think we understand the seriousness of the situation. I know for a fact that we don't hate sin like God hates sin. We agree that it is bad, that it is wrong, but we don't have the heart reaction that Jesus seems to have here.

Where did the church go wrong?

We know that was Thyatira's take. What did the church do? Tolerance. They tolerated her. They left her alone. She was one of them, presumably, and she had her little theory about idolatry and immorality. Who is she hurting? So she calls herself a prophet, claiming to speak for God... just leave her alone...

She teaches a bit, okay, some people are buying into her nonsense. But who is she hurting?

EVERYBODY! SHE IS HURTING EVERYBODY!

Look, you don't stand back while your son is being savaged by angry wasps! You don't tolerate the destruction and corruption of the people you love! What is that? It isn't love, to sit there and call it tolerance!

You never use a band-aid where surgery is required. False teaching in the church that leads to idolatry and immorality is a cancer. You don't tolerate cancer, you cut it out. Or you zap it with radiation. You shrink it with drugs. You get rid of it.

WWJD? We know in this case, bring some redemptive judgment. Jesus is going after Jezebel and her posse like I went after those wasps. REPENT OR DIE. Leave my children alone.

This is a case where love required intolerance. Principle: when false teaching corrupts the church, love requires intolerance.

Balance

But, remember, remember, remember, that it is love that is requiring the intolerance.

Ephesus had the intolerance part down, but forgot love.

Human beings can't wait to judge others. Many are quick to condemn, quick to point out others faults. That is fun. That is what gossip is all about, right? Are you telling me that I am supposed to find out and judge the faults of others?

Remember love first, judgment of sin comes in the context of love. Ephesus hated the teachings of the Nicolaitans, and that was good. But they forgot love. If you forget love, you missed the whole boat. In fact, Jesus says to Ephesus, I will remove your lampstand. The church that has forgotten how to love isn't a church.

Perhaps that is why Jesus gives these words to those in Thyatira who haven't succumbed to Jezebel. Verse 24:

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, 25 except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

Jesus says that because He is already stepping in with that redemptive judgment. He is cleaning house. But he has this against the church, that they tolerated her and her teaching in the first place.

If you can't act in love, if you can't honestly say that you love Jezebel and this is the best thing for her and the church... the just "hold on to what you have until I come."

But real love, strong love, true love, love that cares for the well-being of another, the kind of love Jesus has, has to be intolerant to that which will destroy. There comes a time when love requires intolerance.

See, the love comes first. And when you are sure what the loving thing to do is, then you act. Quite often the loving thing to do is tolerance, that is why we think of that word so positively. God is infinitely patient with our mistakes. He is full of grace, he is merciful, he is tolerant in that sense. We are to be tolerant of others mistakes. We are to be tolerant of sinners outside the church. Sinners are going to sin, don't be suprised.

When false teaching corrupts the church, love requires intolerance. That is why Jesus comes in with his judgment. Not because he hates Jezebel: he loves Jezebel and has already given her the chance to repent. Not because he hates those who follow her into idolatry and immorality, it says "unless they repent," they will have their chance. But because He loves the church and the persons in the church too much to stand idly by while they are put back in the chains of slavery! He loves them too much to watch a cancer eat them up, standing by and calling it "tolerance."

In Thyatira, love required intolerance. If the church, especially the elders and pastors of that church wouldn't step up, Jesus would... and did, I assume.

You

There is a time when love requires intolerance. You are likely to face those times. These are not rare events.

When false teaching corrupts the church, love requires intolerance. That has happened in this church in the past. Pastor has interceded on behalf of the church. Love required intolerance.

False teachers abound today, it is just that most of them find their own building eventually... or their own TV show... but I have little doubt it will try to find root here at Next Step Church again. We are a lot like the church at Thyatira. Jesus knows our love, he knows our faith, our serving and our perseverance. Jesus loves our church, that's what I think.

When Jezebel comes knocking next year or the year after that, looking for a place that will tolerate her sin and sinful teaching... we know that love requires intolerance. When Jezebel comes knocking, Jezebel goes packing. In love, lovingly packing, of course.

Are there other times when love requires intolerance? I tread carefully here, because I am tiptoeing a little beyond our text. The text is clear, when false teaching corrupts the church, love requires intolerance.

What about when unrepentant sin corrupts our family?

Sometimes "false teaching" might just be the example someone is setting before others.

What about when false teaching corrupts our government? Our schools?

When love requires it... Not when I feel like being intolerant. Not when you don't like something, or someone rubs you the wrong way, or just because you disagree. When love requires it. When to sit back and stay silent would be the corruption and destruction of something you love. When love requires intolerance, bring redemptive judgment. That is what Jesus did in Thyatira, right? In fact, that is what he brings to all seven churches in Revelation, a word of redemptive judgment.

We

The church at Thyatira had so much going for it: love, faith, perseverance, service, and they were growing in these things. Just this one thing, they were "tolerant" to a fault.

But imagine a church with all that love, faith, perseverance, service, growing in faith, and unafraid to confront and reject false teaching wherever it threatens the community of faith.

Imagine a people who have learned to love people and hate sin.

They know when love requires tolerance. Most of the time.

They know when love requires intolerance. Some of the time.

They have captured and reflected the heart of God, to love people and hate sin.

Someone who has truly reflected the heart of Jesus.

Perhaps that is why, at the end here, Jesus offers his own inheritance, quoting Psalm 2:8. Authority over the nations

26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations — 27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’ —just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give that one the morning star. 29 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

That is a terrifying responsibility, but Jesus believes that His people can rise to the occasion. He believes that His people, that we, could be that wise and that loving. That we could reflect His heart. That we could love people and hate sin. Love people enough to hate sin.

Let us not ever find ourselves standing idly by when love requires intolerance.

God, break my heart for what breaks yours. May I love people as you love. May I see the destructiveness the corruption of sin. Break my heart for what breaks yours. Give us the courage, the wisdom, the Godly love for your church and your people.