Saturday, November 5, 2022

 

Saturday, November 5, 2022


Psalms 15; 16

Nehemiah 13:15-31

Revelation 2:18-29


To the one who conquers I will also give the morning star.


We now come to the fourth church to whom Jesus writes: Thyatira. Little more than a military outpost to guard Pergamos, this city’s history was not as peaceful as Pergamum’s. Thyatira knew war, laying claim to the dubious honour of being originally populated by soldiers under Alexander the Great, and had been under Roman rule since c. 190 BC. With military obedience, the church has been praised by Jesus for its love, faith, service and patient endurance. But, like all our churches, false teachers had snuck in.


Where Jesus talks about “Jezebel”, He is probably referring to the historic Jezebel of 1 Kings 21:25-26, who urged her husband, King Ahab, to do what was evil in the eyes of the LORD. In this letter, Jesus hints about some of the specifics of the crimes of this particular Jezebel, but the telling phrase is “the deep things of Satan”. Here, Jesus is referring to an early form of the Gnostic heresy.


“Gnosis”, loosely translated as “knowledge”, expresses itself in the idea that we humans can participate in physical activities freely without causing damage to our soul. Jesus condemns this way of thinking, and tells us we are judged on the basis of what actions we take. This is because while our actions do not save us, they do display the inclination of our heart (Matt 7:15-20).


Perhaps the reason why sexual immorality comes up again and again as the most heinous crime is because of what great damage it does to the soul. Jesus taught that when a wife and husband wed, the two become one (Mark 10:8). This means that whenever two people engage in sexual activity, a part of each is transferred to the other (spiritually speaking). Therefore when a human has sex with someone else and then leaves them, they leave a part of themselves, too. This causes spiritual damage. It wounds the soul.


Our Lord Jesus is “incarnational”, from “incarnation”, which refers to the fact that at a certain point in space-time history, the Second Person of the Triune God came in human form: “God incarnate”, both God and man, perfectly each, with no division or mixing. It follows that our actions in the material world have consequences in the spiritual. To flip this to the positive, holy behaviour enriches the soul. Following the commandments of God is like All Bran for our spirit. The eyes are the window to the soul (Matt 6:22-23), Jesus teaches, encouraging us to feast our material senses on the good things of this universe that God has given us. Wholesome movies, intelligently-written books, good company and holy patterns of behaviour all fuel our spiritual growth, and keep us on the straight and narrow. And to those who remain faithful will be given the morning star, who is Jesus Himself.




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