“But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.” (Revelation 2:20, ESV)
In the Old Testament, Jezebel was a queen known for sinful behavior. She worshipped idols. She was corrupt. She oppressed and murdered people of God, especially prophets. She used her political power to pollute the faith with sinful and evil ideologies. God punished her greatly.
In the time of the New Testament, John of Patmos was given visions of the end times. He wrote down these visions in what we know today as the book of Revelation. In Revelation 2, John is told by the “Son of Man” to issue important messages to seven churches (Revelation 1:9-11). One of those churches, Thyatira, was warned about a sinful woman in the congregation. Her name was also Jezebel. We do not know for certain if her actual name was Jezebel or if she was given that nickname by John because she acted like the Old Testament Jezebel. What we do know is that she was causing sin to break out in the congregation.
What sin was named by the Son of Man in the case of Jezebel? It was the sin of tolerance…. for the congregation tolerated this sinful woman to continue her evil ways and yet remain an influential church member. Revelation 2:20, our scripture for today, tells the story. Here, the Son of Man says, “This I have against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.” Thus, the congregation was sinning by allowing Jezebel to bring her evil ways into the church. By doing so, she was corrupting the church and evil was growing among the faithful.
In today’s world, we hear a whole lot about “tolerance”. In June, groups celebrate “tolerance and diversity” during “Pride Month”. Even the White House had a big celebration during the second week of June in 2023. President Biden put Pride flags front and center at the White House, moving the American flag aside to make room. Mainstream media celebrated the White House’s statements about the wonderful acceptance of LGBTQ with tolerance and inclusion and diversity and understanding. At that gathering at the White House, trans-gender women and men took off their shirts to reveal the scars of surgeries used to change their gender. The president smiled as pictures were taken of the event. It was all done to promote “tolerance” among people who believed that “Pride Month” is a great value to American culture.
The danger with tolerance of anything and everything is that at some point, when sin and evil are accepted with tolerance, you end up promoting the sin and evil that can permeate these celebrations. Now, for example, Pride Month has devolved into not a time of respect for people who are different but a promotion of the trans-gender lifestyle with a demand that people accept whatever lifestyle is popular at the moment.
Along with the “tolerance” movements, we have seen problems mushrooming all over the globe. Kids in elementary schools are having sex-change operations at an alarming rate. Young children are being placed on puberty-blocking drugs to help them “change” their gender. Teachers are claiming that the scriptures are wrong.. God did not make people “male and female” as Genesis 1:27 states. They claim that there are hundreds of genders. All this over-emphasis on tolerance and a rejection of godly values has led to the largest suicide rate among teens in history, with transgender teens hit hard. And, studies show that more than fifty percent of young girls are taking anti-depressants to cope with all the “tolerance” they see. School boards are removing Bibles from libraries, citing the Bibles are full of intolerance. Books promoting gender transitions and gender ideology have been added to these same libraries.
When you “tolerate” sin in the church, the world is corrupted. When you quietly “tolerate” sinful living in your world without nary a word of complaint, soon it comes back to corrupt the church with evil. While businesses are blessed by governments for “tolerance” in their accepting of alternate lifestyles, these same businesses and governments express disdain and intolerance for godly beliefs and worship.
This scripture does not suggest that you should be intolerant and judgmental of anyone who doesn’t believe what you do. This scripture is warning you against practicing tolerance toward sinful practices in your presence or your church. It won’t take long before those sinful practices come home to roost.
Chuck Colson gave this insight into the matter: “I believe that we do face a crisis in Western culture, and that it presents the greatest threat to civilization since the barbarians invaded Rome. I believe that today in the West, and particularly in America, the new barbarians are all around us. We have bred them in our families and trained them in our classrooms. They inhabit our legislatures, our courts, our film studios, and our churches. Most of them are attractive and pleasant: their ideas are persuasive and subtle. Yet these men and women threaten our most cherished institutions and our very character as a people. Today’s barbarians are ladies and gentlemen. Yet behind their pleasant, civilized veneer lurks an unpleasant intolerance that threatens the very processes of pluralism and freedom they claim to defend.” (6,000 Plus Illustrations for Communicating Biblical Truths)
The more that Christians express “toleration” for sinful behavior in the church and around them, there will come a time when persecution against God and godly people will be the inevitable result. “Tolerance” is a virtue. When Jesus saw the adulterous woman about to be stoned, HE stopped her potential murder with the phrase, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 8:7). In the case of Jezebel and her sinful behavior in Thyatira, “tolerance” may also be evil. You need to work out with God where to draw the line.
In the time of the New Testament, John of Patmos was given visions of the end times. He wrote down these visions in what we know today as the book of Revelation. In Revelation 2, John is told by the “Son of Man” to issue important messages to seven churches (Revelation 1:9-11). One of those churches, Thyatira, was warned about a sinful woman in the congregation. Her name was also Jezebel. We do not know for certain if her actual name was Jezebel or if she was given that nickname by John because she acted like the Old Testament Jezebel. What we do know is that she was causing sin to break out in the congregation.
What sin was named by the Son of Man in the case of Jezebel? It was the sin of tolerance…. for the congregation tolerated this sinful woman to continue her evil ways and yet remain an influential church member. Revelation 2:20, our scripture for today, tells the story. Here, the Son of Man says, “This I have against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.” Thus, the congregation was sinning by allowing Jezebel to bring her evil ways into the church. By doing so, she was corrupting the church and evil was growing among the faithful.
In today’s world, we hear a whole lot about “tolerance”. In June, groups celebrate “tolerance and diversity” during “Pride Month”. Even the White House had a big celebration during the second week of June in 2023. President Biden put Pride flags front and center at the White House, moving the American flag aside to make room. Mainstream media celebrated the White House’s statements about the wonderful acceptance of LGBTQ with tolerance and inclusion and diversity and understanding. At that gathering at the White House, trans-gender women and men took off their shirts to reveal the scars of surgeries used to change their gender. The president smiled as pictures were taken of the event. It was all done to promote “tolerance” among people who believed that “Pride Month” is a great value to American culture.
The danger with tolerance of anything and everything is that at some point, when sin and evil are accepted with tolerance, you end up promoting the sin and evil that can permeate these celebrations. Now, for example, Pride Month has devolved into not a time of respect for people who are different but a promotion of the trans-gender lifestyle with a demand that people accept whatever lifestyle is popular at the moment.
Along with the “tolerance” movements, we have seen problems mushrooming all over the globe. Kids in elementary schools are having sex-change operations at an alarming rate. Young children are being placed on puberty-blocking drugs to help them “change” their gender. Teachers are claiming that the scriptures are wrong.. God did not make people “male and female” as Genesis 1:27 states. They claim that there are hundreds of genders. All this over-emphasis on tolerance and a rejection of godly values has led to the largest suicide rate among teens in history, with transgender teens hit hard. And, studies show that more than fifty percent of young girls are taking anti-depressants to cope with all the “tolerance” they see. School boards are removing Bibles from libraries, citing the Bibles are full of intolerance. Books promoting gender transitions and gender ideology have been added to these same libraries.
When you “tolerate” sin in the church, the world is corrupted. When you quietly “tolerate” sinful living in your world without nary a word of complaint, soon it comes back to corrupt the church with evil. While businesses are blessed by governments for “tolerance” in their accepting of alternate lifestyles, these same businesses and governments express disdain and intolerance for godly beliefs and worship.
This scripture does not suggest that you should be intolerant and judgmental of anyone who doesn’t believe what you do. This scripture is warning you against practicing tolerance toward sinful practices in your presence or your church. It won’t take long before those sinful practices come home to roost.
Chuck Colson gave this insight into the matter: “I believe that we do face a crisis in Western culture, and that it presents the greatest threat to civilization since the barbarians invaded Rome. I believe that today in the West, and particularly in America, the new barbarians are all around us. We have bred them in our families and trained them in our classrooms. They inhabit our legislatures, our courts, our film studios, and our churches. Most of them are attractive and pleasant: their ideas are persuasive and subtle. Yet these men and women threaten our most cherished institutions and our very character as a people. Today’s barbarians are ladies and gentlemen. Yet behind their pleasant, civilized veneer lurks an unpleasant intolerance that threatens the very processes of pluralism and freedom they claim to defend.” (6,000 Plus Illustrations for Communicating Biblical Truths)
The more that Christians express “toleration” for sinful behavior in the church and around them, there will come a time when persecution against God and godly people will be the inevitable result. “Tolerance” is a virtue. When Jesus saw the adulterous woman about to be stoned, HE stopped her potential murder with the phrase, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 8:7). In the case of Jezebel and her sinful behavior in Thyatira, “tolerance” may also be evil. You need to work out with God where to draw the line.