Revelation 2:23

And I will kill her children unto death. And the churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts. By the reins he wants us to understand the very perpetrated wickedness of physical lust, because the seed of human conception comes …

And her children into death. Here he calls the posterity and works of the woman her children, threatening them with not the momentary death of the body but the eternal death of the soul.

And I will give to each of you according to your works. Therefore, our works and words can be known to men, but only He who sees knows what each one thinks, what each one desires, and where each one wishes to arrive through them. …

And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches minds and hearts. In minds, he signifies desires; in hearts, thoughts.

And I will kill her children - Those which she hath born in adultery, and them whom she hath seduced. With death - This expression denotes death by the plague, or by some manifest stroke of God's hand. Probably the remarkable vengeance taken on her children was the token of the certainty of all the rest.

And I will kill her children with death,....

(3.) Their faith, which was the grace that actuated all the rest, both their charity and their service. (4.) Their patience; for those that are most charitable to others, most diligent in their places, and most faithful, must yet expect to meet with that which will exercise their patience.

(2.) His impartial justice, in giving every one according to his work, that the name of Christians should be no protection, their churches should be no sanctuaries for sin and sinners.

And I will kill her children with death - A strong Hebraistic mode of expression, meaning that he would certainly destroy them. It has been made a question whether the word “children” here is to be taken literally or figuratively. The word itself would admit of either interpretation; and there is nothing in the connection by which its meaning here can be determined.

So palpably shall God's hand be seen in the judgment on Thyatira, that the whole Church shall recognize it as God's doing. I am he--the "I" is strongly emphatical: "that it is I am He who," &c. searcheth . . . hearts--God's peculiar attribute is given to Christ.

And I will kill her children with death - “That is, I will certainly destroy her offspring and memory, and thereby ruin her designs. Jezebel’s two sons, being both kings were both slain; and after that, all the seventy sons of Ahab; (2Ki 10:1); in all which the hand of God was very visible. In the same manner God predicts the destruction of the heretics and heresies referred to; see Rev 2:16. It should seem by the expression, I am he which searcheth the reins and the hearts, that these heretics lurked about, and sowed their pernicious doctrines secretly. But our Savior tells them that it was in vain, for he had power to bring their deeds to light, having that Divine power of searching into the Evilly and affections of men; and hereby he would show both them and us that he is, according to his title, The Son of God; and hath such eyes to pry into their actions, that, like a fire, they will search into every thing, and burn up the chaff which cannot stand his trial; so that the depths of Satan, mentioned in the next verse, to which this alludes, (Christ assuming here this title purposely) shall avail nothing to those who think by their secret craft to undermine the Christian religion; he will not only bring to light, but baffle all their evil intentions. See Rev 17:9.