Reading between the lines?
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Friday, December 10, 2021
Revelation 2:18-29 (Forward, p. 42) CEV p. 1297
We have this expression, ‘reading between the lines’, which has to do with looking for or discovering a meaning that is hidden or implied, but not spelled out explicitly. Sometimes it is quite possible to get a pretty good idea, a pretty accurate one, about what the meaning is, but sometimes not. Sometimes a good guess is the best that we can come up with. What we have in the book of Revelation is far worse than that, and today’s passage is no better. This short letter to the church at Thyatira contrasts two vague and undefined groups of people.
The first are those that are faithful and loyal and who hold fast to the correct or orthodox teaching that they received. They are known for their love, faith, service and patient endurance. Indeed, they have become even more ardent in their deeds for the faith now than at any previous time. Nevertheless, God does have one thing against them, namely that they have allowed for a compromising, evil presence in their midst, a mysterious and enigmatic figure called ‘Jezebel.’ Fortunately, they have not bought into her evil ways or followed her teaching, and so are not privy to her deepest, darkest secrets. Even so, the prophecy seems to imply, she should be removed, or at very least, opposed in some way. (That is what I take from the mention of ‘victory’ in verse 26). They are the ones who keep on obeying God even to the very end. But just what this group of people has done to earn God’s approval has never quite been spelled out. We are left with trying to ‘read between the lines’, to guess as best we can.
Over against this, we have this mysterious ‘Jezebel’ and her followers. Of course, this was the name of Ahab’s notorious and nasty queen (see 1 Kings 19:1,2; 21:1-26). Not only did she oppose the worship of Almighty God by killing His prophets and setting up her rival shrines, prophets and practices, but she also perverted justice and engineered the death of faithful people (such as Naboth). She was a thoroughly terrible and evil woman, and her name became the byword for all that is unsavoury and evil and wicked. So, whether this was her actual name or just an epithet we have no way of knowing. The mention of food offered to idols is straight forward enough (the apostle Paul deals with it at length in his letter to the Romans), but the ‘immoral things’ and the ‘deep secrets of Satan’ are left
undefined and unexplained. Presumably the people in Thyatira did have an idea of what was meant and were not left to ‘reading between the lines’ as we are.
So, what are we are to make of this? Certainly, we can imitate their love, their faith, their service and their patient endurance. And likewise, we can avoid obvious evil influences in our midst and refuse to be taken in by them or embrace them. And certainly, we can obey, abide by, the most definite of God’s orders. The difficulty then lies in the gray or more nebulous areas. How can we know for sure that something is evil, erroneous, dangerous or destructive? And how can we know definitely that something is or is not in the will of God? (Some things are pretty definite, but what about the rest?) The best that I can suggest is to read God’s word and abide in it, allowing it to percolate into our very being so that it becomes part of it, and likewise abiding in the presence of God. And then, to follow our consciences and whatever God seems to be saying to us. (We can always check this out with another older, mature believer if we are in doubt). Even so, our conclusions will not always be the same, person to person, and so we will just have to live with that, at least for now. Maybe it will become clearer further down the road. But, for now, we will just have to ‘read between the lines’ and trust the One who wrote those lines, to guide us into right way. Amen.
Forward notes: “I know your works—your love, faith, service, and patient endurance. I know that your last works are greater than the first” (verse 19).
“Years ago, I had a boyfriend who loved to tout the phrase, ‘It’s the journey, not the destination, that counts.’ Perhaps because he couldn’t seem to quote anything else, I took it upon myself to argue him wrong and prove my own counterargument right.
“Eventually (and, I should add, graciously on his part), we broke up. But when that happened, it also meant that I was free to admit how right he’d been the whole time. Whatever the arena, including the life of faith, it’s all about the journey. When I look at today’s passage in Revelation, I don’t think it was any different for John of Patmos.
“Yes, the past works of ‘love, faith, service, and patient endurance’ have been even ‘greater than the first’—but the journey’s not over yet, not for the audience then nor for us now. After all, it’s not about arriving at a particular
destination of a one-hit wonder love but about continuing to practice love. We love even when it’s hard, when it’s messy, when it feels impossible. We love because Christ first loved us.”
Moving Forward: “How are your last works greater than the first?
