Revelation 2:19 “I Know All The Things You Do. ~ I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things.”

I KNOW ALL THE THINGS YOU DO! 

3.         The Commendation for Deeds or Works (Rev 2:19).[2]
E.  The Message to Thyatira: The Church That Is Compromising or Permissive, Revelation 2:18–29
1.   The recipients a.         The messenger of the church b.         The Thyatira churchDS1 2.   The speaker: Jesus	18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;
3.   The commendation for deeds or works a.         For Love & Faith b.         For Service & Perseverance c.         For Expanding Ministries	19 I know thy works and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first.
4.   The complaint: Allowing a Jezebel to teach a.         They tolerate a false prophetess b.         They tolerate false teaching, sexual immorality, & idolatry	20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. 21. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
5.   The warning: To the compromising & corrupt a.         To Jezebel: She will be cast into a bed of suffering	22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
b.         To Jezebel’s followers: The same fate c.         The purpose for the warning 1)   To honor Jesus 2)   To execute justice	23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
6.   The counsel: To the faithful a.         There will be no other burdens or demands made upon the faithful	24 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.
b.         They must hold fast	25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
7.   The promise: To the overcomers a.         They will be given authority & power over the nations	26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
b.         They will be given the Morning Star, Christ Himself	28 And I will give him the morning star. 29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.[3]

  

3. The Cognizance (Revelation 2:19)

“I Know (Thee) thy works and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first” (Revelation 2:19). There are at least a half dozen items here which Christ is cognizant of and mentioning them is a commendation to the church in Thyatira.

• Their deeds. “I Know Thy Works.” Christ is fully aware of all that we do. He knows the quality and quantity of our work.

• Their devotedness. “I Know Thy … Charity.” This church was a loving church. We could use a lot more love in our churches today. So many churches are filled with a grumbling and complaining spirit and lack much love. Ephesus had left its first love, but Thyatira had not.

• Their duty. “I Know Thy … Service.” The word translated “service” is translated as “ministry” nearly half the time in the KJV. In Scripture, it speaks of Christian service. The church had a good record of people serving the Lord in the church. This is not typical in many of the churches of our day, however.

• Their doctrine. “I Know Thy … Faith.” They had good doctrine. They believed in the Word of God.

• Their dedication. “I Know Thy … Patience.” They were dedicated people who did not quit if things got tiring and difficult, and inconvenient.

• Their development. “I Know Thy … Works; and the last to be more than the first” This denotes progress, development, and growth. Generally, it is just the opposite with many believers today—they use to do more than they do now.^[4] 

3 (Revelation 2:19) Church—Believers: there is the Commendation. Thyatira was a very active church, involved in all kinds of works for the Lord. And note: Christ says that He Knows all about their works for Him:

“I Know Thy Works and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first” (Rev 19).

1. There were works of love and service. These would include ministries that especially showed love. That is, ministries that concentrated on showing care and interest, concern, and provision. Such ministries would include …

·         evangelism: reaching out to the lost

·         the youth: growing and developing them

·         the adults

·         the senior adults

·         the college students

·         the needy

·         the orphans

·         the hungry

·         the homeless

·         the shut-ins

·         the foreigners

·         the prisoners

·         the poor

·         the single parent and child

2. There were works of faith and patient endurance. These would include ministries that demanded strong faith and endurance in order to carry them out. It would include …

·         lacking the money or personnel or space or some other resource, but believing God and sticking to it until the ministry was operating.

·         facing opposition but believing in God and going ahead and persevering in the ministry.

·         facing a difficult ministry such as visiting unbelievers or prisoners or derelicts or whatever, but trusting God and going ahead anyway.

·         being required to sacrifice time or money or possessions, but doing it because one believes in God.

·         being tired and weary and not wanting to participate in a particular ministry, but trusting God and going ahead and persevering in it.

·         feeling inadequate and incapable but accepting the challenge, believing in God, and enduring in the ministry.

3. There was even significant growth in the ministries of the church. The church grew and expanded. It reached out more and more. It was apparently as active as it could be, ministering to the community in every way that a church should, and it continued to grow.

Thought 1. Think of the kind of church being described: dynamic, vibrant, alive—meeting all the social needs of the community—having all the ministries that ranged all the way from a clothes and food closet over to reach out to the lost in a regular visitation program. The church was full of activity and energy and crowded with people. Yet, the church was a far cry from what it should have been. It was a compromising and corrupted church, and Christ knew that as well.

It was allowing a teacher to teach those who compromised with the world, and it was allowing the worldly to be baptized and accepted into the church without repenting and separating from the pleasures, possessions, and immoralities of the world. The church appeared to be the most alive and dynamic church in the area, but it was not—not to the Lord. To the Lord, the church was corrupt because of its compromise with the world; again, Christ knew that too. This will be the discussion of the next note.^[5] 

“I Know All The Things You Do—your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things.” ^{Revelation 2:19 NLT}

The believers in Thyatira were commended for their good deeds. Christ Sees All good deeds. He Knew of the believers’ love for one another (love that the Ephesian church had lost— Ephesians 2:4–5), their faith, their service, and their patient endurance. Christ was pleased to see their constant improvement in all of these things.^[6] 

I KNOW ALL THE THINGS YOU DO! 

The Attribute of Omniscience Refers to God’s Perfect Knowledge of Both Himself

And That Which He Has Created. 

The Bible portrays God’s knowledge as unlimited, comprehensive, and perfect in every way; God is omniscient (the Latin term scientia means “knowledge,” and the prefix omni- means “all”; hence omniscient means “all-knowing”). In contrast to our knowledge, which arises from the passive conformity of our minds to given truths or objects, God’s perfect knowledge follows from his active willing as the Creator of all. Consequently, God not only knows that which he wills but also that which he does not will. In other words, God knows all states of affairs, both actual and possible (what the Christian tradition often calls “middle knowledge”). 

We note from Scripture that God knows not just what is present (Ps 33:13–15) and past (Job 38:4–5), but also that which is to come (Ps 139:4; Isa 46:9–10; Matt 26:34). Moreover, God knows his creatures to a level of intimacy that is not possible amongst the creaturely themselves (Heb 4:13; Ps 139:1–3). In addition to God’s perfect knowledge of creation, Scripture also teaches that God knows himself in a unique fashion befitting his own Trinitarian life, as we see, for instance, in Jesus’ depiction of the relationship between the Son and the Father: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son” (Matt 11:27). 

The majority of Christian theologians have affirmed God’s omniscience, yet some have recently challenged the classical consensus. The motivation for such revision often comes from the perception that God’s perfect knowledge cannot be reconciled with the free actions of creatures. Hence, process theologians have argued that because God is bound to his creation in a relationship of mutual dependence, he cannot know what his free creatures will decide to do; the future is as surprising to God as it is to us. Similarly, open theists have argued that God’s ignorance of the future does not contradict his omniscience, for the simple fact that the future is unknowable. While such views raise important questions for our understanding of what omniscience should mean, most theologians consider them irreconcilable with the claims of Scripture, as partially noted above. 

Another question that is often raised regarding divine omniscience concerns the manner by which God knows all things, particularly the future. For instance, does God see the future, as one might by peering into a “crystal ball”—or indeed from some sort of atemporal “vantage point” in eternity—or does God know the future as a consequence of his willing it to be so? The first view leaves open the possibility that God’s knowledge is determined by the free actions of creatures, whilst the second view excludes this possibility. Many Wesleyan-Arminian theologians prefer the first option, as they are keen to highlight biblical material prioritizing the free will of the creature; many Reformed-Calvinistic theologians opt for the second perspective in deference to biblical themes emphasizing God’s sovereignty over his creation, including human faith. Both schools of thought would agree, however, that God’s knowledge of the creature must in some sense be different in kind from inter-creaturely knowledge, as God relates to creation as Creator, the one upon whom the creation depends for its existence. 

Passages

Key Verses

Ps 33:13–15; Ps 139:1–4; Job 21:22; Job 36:4; Is 46:9–10; Je 1:5; Mt 10:30; Heb 4:13

Additional Verses

Ge 6:5; 1 Ki 8:39; 2 Ch 16:9; Job 37:16; Ps 7:9; Ps 94:11; Ps 139:5–6; Pr 5:21; Pr 15:3; Je 17:10; Da 2:20–22; Mt 6:8; Mt 10:29–30; Jn 2:24–25; Ac 1:24; Ro 11:33

Recommended Resources

Systematic Theology (Sonderegger), 335–466.

Reformed Dogmatics (Bavinck), Vol. II, 192–207.

Systematic Theology (Hodge), Vol. I, 393–402.

Christian Theology (Erickson), 3rd ed., 245–47.

Institutes of Elenctic Theology (Turretin), Vol. I, 206–18.

No One Like Him: The Doctrine of God (Feinberg), 299–320.

Summa Theologiæ (Thomas Aquinas), Ia, qq.14–18.

Find more resources on God’s Omniscience

Related Topics

•           God’s Foreknowledge

•           God’s Wisdom

•           God’s Sovereignty over Creation

•           God’s Wisdom

•           God’s Foreknowledge

•           The Divine Decrees

•           Providence and Concursus

•           Creation ex nihilo

•           Human Will

See Also

•           God: Knowledge

Justin Stratis^[7] 

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 Revelation 2:19 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things.” ^[1] 

^[1] Tyndale House Publishers. 2015. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

^[2] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 1996. Revelation. The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.

^DS Deeper Study

^[3] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 1996. Revelation. The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.

^[4] Butler, John G. 2010. Analytical Bible Expositor: Revelation. Clinton, IA: LBC Publications.

^[5] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 1996. Revelation. The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.

^NLT Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

^[6] Barton, Bruce B. 2000. Revelation. Edited by Grant R. Osborne. Life Application Bible Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

^[7] Stratis, Justin. 2018. “God’s Omniscience.” In Lexham Survey of Theology, edited by Mark Ward, Jessica Parks, Brannon Ellis, and Todd Hains. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.