Only hold on to what you have until I come. To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery’— just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give him the morning star. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Rev. 2:26-29)

Here is the promise to the faithful at Thyatira. They had already displayed endurance and good works. Jesus praised them for their love and faith but again a warning came because of their tolerance for someone in the church who was misleading the faithful. Jesus called the woman Jezebel which suggests that she was a ruthless manipulator of people who led believers into idolatry and immorality. She apparently taught these things under the guise of a deeper spirituality that she undoubtedly attributed to deep revelations from the Spirit but Jesus declared that her teachings were from Satan.

Sometimes the Achilles heal of faithful churches is that they tolerate people in their midst who create division, dissension, and lead others into sins that are framed as “freedom in Christ.” The church’s first call is to love others and to refrain from a self-righteous judgmentalism. Because of that it is often hard for church leaders to confront sin because they feel as if they are “judging.” As soon as the church begins to challenge a “member” about questionable actions, teachings, or life style the person who has been challenged often begins to quote verses about love, acceptance and judge not lest ye be judged. Too often church leaders back off as soon as those cards are played.

To be sure, the church needs to instruct those who are immature, encourage the discouraged, and have patience with the weak. But a time comes when repentance must be demanded. When the actions of the person are consistently hurtful to the church or to individual members of the church and the offender is clearly not acting out of ignorance but willfully, then church discipline is called for.

God is gracious towards sins of ignorance and even weakness but not toward willful and rebellious sin. Jesus calls on the church at Thyatira to continue to persevere and to do good works but to also step up and deal with the woman Jezebel who is leading others into sin and knows it. To be fully aligned with the Father means that we deal first with any unholiness in our own lives but that we also confront sin in others when it is willful and destructive. Jesus was quite gentle and understanding with the woman caught in adultery and the Samaritan woman at the well even though their lives were full of sin. Their sin came out of weakness and brokenness not arrogance and rebellion. However, the Pharisees and teachers of the law were another matter. Jesus responded to their arrogance and rebellion with confrontation and warnings. To be like Jesus, there will be times when we must do the same thing.

For those at Thyatira who responded to the command of Jesus and who remained faithful to the end, he promised great authority and rule over the nations. The same promise comes to us. We can understand the promise in two ways. Of course, we can look to the millennium and see that those who are faithful now will be given places of authority and rulership over nations during Christ’s thousand-year reign. But since we are already seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (See Eph.2:6) we can understand is promise in an additional way.

We are already ruling with Jesus and affecting nations and people through the authority we already carry and express in prayers, declarations, righteous works, justice and evangelism. Remember David’s prophetic words, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession” (Ps 2:8). As we align ourselves with the Father now by continuing to do good, love others, live by faith and confront evil we assure ourselves a place of honor and authority in the millennium but also increase our authority even now as we rule with Christ in the present. Jesus promises authority – not just a little but enough to dash rebellious nations to pieces as with an iron scepter.

Not only that, but Jesus said he will give us the Morning Star. In Revelation 22:16, Jesus identifies himself as the Morning Star. As always, Jesus promises to give us more of himself, more of his presence, and more of his Spirit as we align ourselves with his will – not just now but eternally. When we sync our hearts with the heart of Jesus, we grow closer to Him. As he shines like the Morning Star we too will shine like stars in the heavens in the same way that the face of Moses carried the glory of God when he came off the mountain. Jesus will give us himself but also will impart glory to those who love him so that they too can impart his glory to others.   Nothing the world can offer can compare to being in his presence.