Revelation 2:24

But to you I say, to the rest that are in Thyatira, as many as have not this teaching, who know not the deep things of Satan, as they are wont to say; I cast upon you none other burden.

The rest ... "For the first time in these epistles, we meet with those who are spoken of as the rest, who are carefully distinguished from the great body of professing believers. The world had penetrated the church."[87]

Who know not the deep things of Satan ... There seems to be some doubt about what, exactly, is meant here. The problem was stated thus by Plummer:

Did they call their doctrine "deep things," which the Lord here enlarges to "deep things of Satan," in order to declare its true nature? Or did they themselves call their knowledge "the deep things of Satan," which they fathomed in order to prove their mastery over them?[88]

Plummer thought it was the former, but Lenski believed it was the latter. It could have been either. If the former, the Lord here exposed their "deep things" as really being of the devil; and, if the latter, the deviates were reasoning as some do even today, who say that in order to triumph over evil one must practice evil. "To probe the depths of Satan, one must go down into these depths ... the folly and fallacy of such reasoning are obvious."[89]

I cast upon you no other burden ... "The very language of Acts 15:28 is echoed in this";[90] and it seems possible, at least, that there is here "an allusion to the Jerusalem concordat of the early church which is recommended tacitly as a safe, wise rule of conduct."[91] Lenski, however, rejected this view, thinking that the reference is to the fact that "heretical opposition is always felt as a weight or burden that necessitates more strength to hold fast what we have."[92] It does not seem to this writer that the two viewpoints are necessarily opposed to each other.

[87] Charles H. Roberson, op. cit., p. 24.

[88] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 66.

[89] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 120.

[90] F. F. Bruce, op. cit., p. 639.

[91] James Moffatt, op. cit., p. 362.

[92] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 121.