Lent Day 15: I must be ONE, You must be ONE, the Letter to the Church at Thyatira

“Let’s talk about sex baby, let’s talk about you and me, let’s talk about all the good things and 

all the bad things that may be, let’s talk about sex.” Salt ‘N Pepa

Well, not completely, but there may be a bit.

The church in Thyatira (2:18-29) is a church that has deeds, they have love and faith, they have service and perseverance, and they have grown to be doing more than they did at first, unlike the church at Ephesus. All of this is right and good, but unfortunately it is not the last word.

The church in Thyatira loves a whore. She is a woman who claims to be a prophetess, but instead leads people into sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols*. This fake prophet has been given a chance to turn away from her current life choices, i.e. repent, as we all have, but has decided to keep walking the path she is already on. Because of that a lot of bad things will happen to her and her children and the people who follow her.

So what?

Well, I think that much like the previous letter to Pergamum was about unity in the church; the letter to Thyatira is about unity of the person. You see our faith must affect our souls and our bodies, or at least it must begin to. I say begin to, because following Jesus is a journey I am further along the path then when I started but I am nowhere near the end of the journey, life wise nor sin wise.

I say that the letter is about unity of the person because it is the same church that does the positive stuff as it is that does the negative ones.  And the same is true of me and you. We follow the path and do our best but we still have the stinking thorns in our sides that Paul did (2 Corinthians 12).

Or if you prefer, our spirits are willing but our flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41, Mark 14:38)

You see it’s not really about sex at all; it is about trying to be one. Admitting that we’re not, but continuing to work on it.

Peace and Love,
Pastor K

*I have to admit that I don’t understand the whole dust up about eating food sacrificed to idols, I thought that had been taken care of back in 1 Corinthians 8, where Paul seems to say that the only reason to not eat such meat is if it causes a weaker Christian to stumble. Perhaps even the 1st Century church had a lot of voices that said a lot of different things, much like the current one.