Revelation 2:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Again one may see the Son bearing in Himself these distinguishing properties of the Father. He is adorned with the same good things with which the One who begot Him is seen to be adorned.

Therefore God and the Father manifestly bears all things in Himself and beholds all things without hindrance. Likewise He sees the hearts and reins (Ps 7:10; Rev 2:23). For this reason He says, "Who is this who hides counsel from Me?" (Job 38:2).

And again: "I am a God who draws near, says the Lord, and not a God from afar. Can anyone hide himself from Me in secret places?" (Jer 23:23). By what he has said, Paul testifies that all this also belongs to the Son.

Then Paul calls the Word of the living Father living, because the Father is Life itself. So also the Word is by nature Life.

Let it seem to a man that what he has done should appear less shameful and criminal in the eyes of men. Yet he could not hide and flee from God the Judge, when the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms: "Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book all the days were written" (Ps 138:16).

And again: "Man looks on the face, but the Lord looks on the heart" (1 Kgs 16:7). The Lord Himself also reminds and forewarns of this, saying: "All the Churches shall know that I am He who searches the hearts and reins."

He sees even what is hidden. He beholds the secret and concealed. No one can be hidden from the eyes of God, who says: "Am I a God near at hand ... and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places, so that I shall not see him?" (Jer 23:23-24).

He sees the dispositions of each heart. He will judge not by works alone, but also by our words and thoughts. Before Him are manifest the thoughts and desires that arise in the hidden depths of the heart.

Our deeds and words can be noticed by men. But what spirit they bear within them, and what we wish to achieve by them, is known only to Him who sees what a man thinks and what he rejoices in. Why is it said that the One who punishes fornication and idolatry, that is, manifest sins, knows the hidden things? Is it not because these crimes can also be contained in the least of sins? "You destroy," He says, "everyone who departs from You" (Ps 72:27). Having heard this, the Apostle John concluded his discourse on false brethren with these words: "Children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 Jn 5:21).

Almost nine hundred years before Christ, the impious Ahab reigned in Israel. In his days idolatry reached an extreme degree. He was married to Jezebel, daughter of the king of Sidon, a corrupt woman with a malicious heart. She slew all the prophets of God in the kingdom of Israel.

She introduced public acts of fornication among the people and deceived them with various forms of sorcery. To establish seductive groves and pagan abominations, she maintained five hundred false prophets at her own expense.

In the Apocalypse, under the name Jezebel, there is depicted a heresy that corrupted the minds of the simple people and pretended to have the gift of prophecy. But Jezebel was thrown from the window of her palace, trampled by horses, and eaten by dogs.

The subject of the universal judgment will be not only human deeds, but even the most hidden thoughts. For the Lord will come, "who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts; and then each one's praise will come from God" (1 Cor 4:5).

Yet it is not good that the Church of Thyatira submitted to the influence of some false prophetess. The Lord calls her Jezebel, probably because this prophetess also drew Christians into fornication and the eating of meat sacrificed to idols. In the same way Queen Jezebel had formerly drawn the kingdom of Israel into these things.

Let this prophetess and her followers not think that God approves her actions because He does not punish her. He does this only to give her time to repent.

Since she still will not repent, the Lord will cast her sick upon the very bed on which she committed fornication. Those who committed fornication with her He will cast into great tribulation.

Did the holy Theologian really wish to say that God sees the inner parts of the human body? Certainly not. By this the holy writer wishes to express that the All-seeing One sees the most hidden movements of the heart and our most secret feelings.