Revelation 2:12-29
During the time of Smyrna, ten great persecutions in succession could not get the better of the Christian faith. On the contrary, as someone wrote, "the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the Church." So Satan switches to another tactic: Pergamos (v. 13). What violence could not achieve, favour from the authorities would achieve. In the year 312, in the reign of the emperor Constantine, Christianity was adopted as the state religion. Many may have seen this as a great triumph for the truth, but instead it favoured slackness, worldliness and the introduction of many false doctrines (vv. 14, 15).
At Thyatira, a church which goes on right to the end, the evil went one step further. These are the dark times of the Middle Ages, compared here with the evil reign of Ahab whose wife, Jezebel, encouraged him to do evil (1 Kings 21:25). The Church was tired of being a stranger down here. It wanted to rule. We know the political role which the papacy has always wanted to play. However, the dominion for which this Church at Thyatira strived so arrogantly has been promised to those whom it oppressed, tortured and burned at the stake . . . but who are the real overcomers. They will reign with the One who is coming as the Morning Star.