In John’s description of Jesus Christ as he saw him on the island, John had already noted that “his eyes were like a flame of fire” (Revelation 1:14; see commentary on this verse). The point was not that flames were coming from Jesus’ eyes, but rather that those eyes held your attention so that you could scarcely look away. As they held your attention, they, as it were, penetrated through you and into your inner secrets so as to discover exactly what you thought and what made you tick. It’s why Jesus can say in Revelation 2:23 that he “searches mind and heart.”
18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.