12th-18th October 2026
I’ve often reflected over the past number of years about the constant attack on truthfulness as we watch and listen and often ask the question, ‘Is that really true?’. How do we know if what we read or hear is authentic and true as opposed to tainted and misleading? It’s a challenge for all of us, living in a world where ‘fake news’ seems to be the constant and long-established places of accepted truth are now doubted.
It’s encouraging to be reminded that God’s word is truth, a lamp for our feet and light on our path (Psalm 119:105).
The letter to the church in Thyatira presents us with a challenge: how do we continue growing in love without losing our hold upon truth? Following Jesus in Thyatira was not straightforward. The city’s trade guilds played an important part in working and social life. Their gatherings were often connected with meals honouring pagan gods and practices in which Christians could not easily participate. Refusing to become involved could affect a person’s friendships, reputation and livelihood.
Jesus knew the pressures these believers faced. He commended their love, faith, service and perseverance. He also recognised that they were doing more than they had done at first. There was genuine spiritual growth within this church.
Yet something was seriously wrong. The church was tolerating teaching which encouraged people to compromise with the values and practices of the surrounding culture. The name Jezebel recalls the Old Testament queen who led God’s people into idolatry. Whether this was the teacher’s actual name or a description of her influence, people were being led away from faithful obedience to Jesus.
Perhaps the church was reluctant to challenge this teaching because it wanted to appear accepting and loving. Yet love which remains silent while people are being drawn away from Jesus is not true love. This is such a challenge for us as a church family!
Jesus introduces himself as the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. He sees clearly and stands with complete authority. Nothing within our lives or our church is hidden from him.
Yet his words are full of grace. Jesus gives time to repent, encourages those who have remained faithful and calls them to hold on until he comes. His purpose is not simply to expose what is wrong but to bring his people back. Here we see his heart of love, compassion and longsuffering for his people. No wonder he is seen as the good shepherd who looks after his sheep!
This week invites us to consider where we are growing, what we may be tolerating that we need to address and how we can hold love and truth together in a world that is subtle at making us compromise on what we know is true from God’s word.
Written by David Mairs
MONDAY
Faithful in a Compromising Culture
To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
Revelation 2:18–19
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:1–2 (NIV)
The believers in Thyatira faced pressures which affected everyday life. Remaining faithful to Jesus could mean being excluded from activities connected with their work and community.
Our circumstances are different, but we also feel pressure to conform. We may be tempted to remain silent, adjust our convictions or separate our Sunday faith from the decisions we make during the week in our workplace, homes and among friends.
Faithfulness does not mean withdrawing from the world around us. It means living within it while allowing Jesus, rather than our culture, to shape our values and choices.
Pause and Reflect
Where do you feel the greatest pressure to fit in or compromise what you believe?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me to recognise the pressures which shape my thinking and choices. Give me wisdom to live well among those around me while remaining faithful to Jesus. Keep me from allowing the values of the world to determine how I live. Help me to allow the truth of your word to be the main influence in my life. Amen.
TUESDAY
The One Who Sees Clearly
To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
Revelation 2:18
I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
Daniel 10:5–6
Jesus introduces himself as the Son of God. His blazing eyes remind us that he sees beyond outward appearances, while his feet like burnished bronze speak of strength and authority.
We can become skilled at managing how others see us. People may notice our activity, service and outward faithfulness without knowing what is happening beneath the surface. Jesus sees what is good, but he also sees the attitudes, motives and compromises that others may never notice. This may feel uncomfortable, but the one who sees us completely is also the one who loves us with an everlasting love and constantly calls us back to himself.
Pause and Reflect
Is there something beneath the surface of your life that you need to bring honestly before Jesus today?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you that you know me completely. Help me to recognise and accept this truth. Give me the courage to be honest about what is happening within me. Reveal anything I have tried to hide, excuse or ignore, and lead me back into a closer, intimate and personal walk with Jesus. Amen.
WEDNESDAY
A Fruitful and Growing Church
I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
Revelation 2:19
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:4–5 (NIV)
Jesus commended the believers in Thyatira for their love, faith, service and perseverance. He also recognised that they were doing more than they had done at first. Their faith was continuing to grow.
This gives us a helpful picture of a fruitful church. Fruitfulness is more than increased activity, larger gatherings or fuller programmes. It is seen when love deepens, faith strengthens, service continues and God’s people become more like Jesus.
Spiritual growth is not always dramatic. It often appears in greater patience, quieter faithfulness and a willingness to continue serving when life is difficult.
Pause and Reflect
Where can you see evidence that God has been growing your love, faith or perseverance?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for the ways you continue to work within us. Deepen our love, strengthen our faith and help us to serve with patience and perseverance. Make us a fruitful church whose life increasingly reflects the character of Jesus. Amen.
THURSDAY
When Tolerance Becomes Compromise
Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.
Revelation 2:20
Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.
1 Kings 16:30–33 (NIV)
The church in Thyatira tolerated teaching which was leading people into compromise. Perhaps challenging it felt difficult or appeared unloving. Christian maturity does not mean treating every disagreement as dangerous. Yet neither does it mean remaining silent when people are being led away from Jesus.
Love and truth are not enemies. Truth without love can become harsh, but love without truth can leave people trapped in what harms them. Jesus calls his church to show genuine love while holding firmly to what is true.
Pause and Reflect
Is there something you have begun to accept which is gradually drawing you away from Jesus?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, give me wisdom to recognise what is false or harmful. Keep me from becoming harsh or judgemental but also keep me from accepting compromise because it feels easier. Help me to reflect the grace and truth of Jesus and apply his wisdom into my own life. Amen.
FRIDAY
Time to Repent
I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.
Revelation 2:21–23
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:23–24 (NIV)
Jesus gave time for repentance. His patience was not indifference; it was an expression of mercy.
We can mistake the absence of immediate consequences for God’s approval. We continue along the same path and assume that everything must be all right. Yet God’s patience gives us an opportunity to recognise what is wrong and turn back.
Jesus searches our hearts and minds. He sees not only what we do but the motives and desires beneath our actions. Repentance begins when we stop excusing ourselves, become honest before him and change direction, back towards him.
Pause and Reflect
Is God giving you time to acknowledge something and respond differently?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for your patience and kindness towards me. Search my heart and reveal anything that needs to change. Forgive me for the compromises I have excused and give me the humility and courage to turn back to you again. Amen.
SATURDAY
Hold On
Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’
Revelation 2:24–25
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23
Not everyone in Thyatira had accepted the false teaching. To those who had remained faithful, Jesus gave a simple instruction: continue holding firmly to what they already had.
There are times when following Jesus involves significant change. At other times, faithfulness means continuing to trust, obey and remain steady. We may feel pressure to chase something new or impressive, but the Christian life is often sustained through familiar practices: listening to God’s word, praying, gathering with his people and choosing obedience one day at a time.
Pause and Reflect
What truth, practice or commitment do you particularly need to hold on to?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me to hold firmly to the hope I have in Jesus. When I feel tired, distracted or drawn towards compromise, keep me grounded in your word. Give me the perseverance to remain faithful until Jesus comes again or I go to be with him. Amen.
SUNDAY
Sharing His Victory
To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations, that one ‘will rule them with an iron sceptre and will dash them to pieces like pottery’ just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give that one the morning star. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 2:26–29
I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”
Psalm 2:7–9
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
Revelation 22:12–16
Jesus promises that those who remain faithful will share in his authority over the nations and receive the Morning Star. This authority is not permission to dominate others. It means sharing in the final victory and reign of Jesus, when everything opposed to God will be overcome and all that is broken will be put right. A time when we will sing with hearts restored!
Revelation later identifies Jesus himself as the Morning Star. Our final reward is therefore not simply authority, recognition or a place in God’s kingdom. It is Jesus himself. We will share his victory and enjoy his presence forever.
Pause and Reflect
How does the promise of sharing Christ’s victory and receiving Christ himself encourage you to remain faithful?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you that Jesus has overcome and that his kingdom will never end. Help me to remain faithful when compromise appears easier. Keep my eyes fixed upon Jesus, the author and finisher of my story, knowing that my greatest hope and eternal reward are found in him. Amen.