ACC ~ Revelation 2 v23

GOD SEES INTO OUR MIND AND WILL. CYPRIAN: One will not escape and avoid God as his judge, for the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms, “Thine eyes have seen my imperfection and all will be written in thy book,” and again, “Man looks upon the face, but God upon the heart.” Let the Lord himself also forewarn and instruct you with these words: “And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the desires and hearts.” He perceives the concealed and the secret and considers the hidden, nor can anyone evade the eyes of God, who says, “Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off? Shall a man be hid in secret places and I not see him?” He sees the hearts and breasts of each one, and, when about to pass judgment not only on our deeds but also on our words and thoughts, he looks into the minds and the wills conceived in the very recess of a still closed heart. THE LAPSED 27.

SINNERS WILL DIE A SPIRITUAL DEATH. TYCONIUS: How is it that before God hands over adulterers to death the churches do not know that God is he who searches mind and heart? How is it that the church is said to know at the end of things and not at the beginning of her faith that God knows all secrets? When he said, “all the churches will know,” he was not saying that the church would know only after the event but that the church knows from faith. For the words “I will kill” do not refer to that death that is visible but to spiritual death. Just as his revenge on the mother specifically would become visible, so he here promises that among all the churches it would become clear that the children of the woman, that is, those born of the same spirit, were subject to spiritual death, although they were not [visibly] delivered over to it. David also made this distinction between the particular and the general when he fought Goliath. He said, “I will kill you and all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel.” … Then he adds the particular when he says, “And all this assembly will know that the Lord saves his people not with sword and spear.” He said “all this assembly” because there were persons there who doubted that David could prevail against Goliath. To be sure, there were also spiritual persons who believed that he would defeat [Goliath] in the name of God. Those among whom this event occurred in their presence saw with their own eyes, not by faith. However, through faith we see God at work today, not as they did but in a marvelous way. And so, as with Goliath we see the children of Jezebel, who do not want to be subject to the truth, punished with death. We recognize from the phraseology [of the text] itself that in her children the Lord signifies the woman’s posterity. For he threatened the mother with a temporal punishment that he might hand her over to eternal sorrows. However, he did not say, “I kill the children with the sword” but “I will slay them with death.” COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 2.23.

THE SINS OF FORNICATION AND IDOLATRY EXIST IN EVEN SMALL SINS. BEDE: Our works and our words may be made known to people, but what is their intention and what we wish to accomplish through them, only the Lord knows who sees what anyone thinks and in what he takes pleasure. And for what purpose is he who punishes fornication and idolatry, which are manifest sins, said to be one who knows hidden secrets, unless these sins are contained even in the least of transgressions? “You will destroy,” he says, “all who commit fornication from you.”And when he was discussing about false brothers, the same apostle John, who had heard this, ended by saying, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” EXPLANATION OF THE APOCALYPSE 2.23.

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