Hold On, Fight 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 NIV

Hold on to Jesus. Not Jesus and something else. Just Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him (John 14:6). There is no extra hidden mystery except what we find in God's word, the Bible. The Bible is all about Jesus Christ. 

The church in Thyatira was a good church, serving and persevering. But, they kind of let in a prophetess, Jezebel, who was miss leading people. She apparently misled them with so-called deep mysteries which were really just sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols. Anything that is "Jesus and" is not from God. Some may be harmless and some may be straight up malignant, but concerning our salvation, Jesus is the only way. 

Holding on to Christ is not simply hunkering down until Jesus comes again. When Paul talked about standing your ground in Christ in Ephesians chapter six he was describing spiritual warfare. You don't just have a shield of faith, you have the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. To me that implies that I don't just take a shot from the enemy, you strike back with the word of God. That is why John says, "To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations" (Revelation 2:26). Doing the will of God, loving in Jesus' name, battling against the attacks of the enemy, is spiritual warfare. Hold on, fight on in Jesus' name.