Welcome to Pergamum
Near the end of the first century, the last survivor of Jesus’ original disciples, St. John, had a series of visions while imprisoned on the island of Patmos. He sat down and recorded them in the book of Revelation. In the first of his visions, he recorded a series of letters from Jesus to seven key churches in Asia Minor. Each of these congregations was facing a specific challenge and needed a word of encouragement and/or exhortation which, if not heeded, would have dire consequences for the church.
In Revelation 2:12-17, the third of these letters was addressed to the church at Pegamum:
“Write to the angel of the church in Pergamum: Thus says the one who has the sharp, double-edged sword: 13 I know[f] where you live—where Satan’s throne is. Yet you are holding on to my name and did not deny your faith in me,[g] even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness who was put to death among you, where Satan lives. 14 But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block[h] in front of the Israelites: to eat meat sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. 15 In the same way, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.[i] 16 So repent! Otherwise, I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna.[j] I will also give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name is inscribed that no one knows except the one who receives it.
There is today uncertainty over the exact nature of the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans. Balaam, of course, was the seer hired by King Balak of Moab to curse Israel in Numbers 22, but over the course of the next 3 chapters, he ended up blessing Israel instead. It is thought that, between Numbers 24 and 25, Balaam suggested to the king of Moab that, if they couldn’t curse Israel, then they should absorb Israel into themselves by seducing Israelite men with Moabite women, inviting them to sacrifices for the Moabite gods. Eventually, the Israelites would align themselves with the Moabites’ god and the Moabites.
Similarly, scholars generally agree that the teachings of the Nicolaitans revolved around an abuse of Christian liberty. They suggest that their main idea was that, because we are saved by grace and our physical bodies will eventually be replaced with glorified bodies, Christians are free to do as they please. In fact, more sin leads to more grace, and since more grace is better than less grace, more sin is better! Consequently, the Pergamenian Christians would hop into bed with anyone because it meant nothing except more grace, and Jesus dictated this letter to warn them what would happen if they straighten up and fly right.
The thing about these situations is that neither of them started full-blown. The Israelites in Numbers 25 did not just suddenly drop their commitment to God to join the Moabites, and the Christ followers at Pergamum did not abruptly embrace free love. In fact, the people of God rarely stumble into such moral crises in one day.
No, they reach these inflection points after weeks, months, and even years of tiny steps in the wrong direction. Each of these incremental compromises seemed at the time to be trivial. Many of them were even rationalized as natural progressions of faith: if you really believe this, then this must be okay.
This week, many Christians have expressed outrage at a social media post from the president of the United States. They wonder how we have suddenly reached the point where our national leader would do such things. However, I would offer two observations:
First, there was nothing sudden about it. We started down this path decades ago when we started accepting the lesser of two evils rather than dwelling upon whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).
Second, the president’s social media post is not nearly as concerning to me as the spiritual condition of the American church. Even today, there are Christ-followers who dismiss the president’s behavior as no big deal. There are Christ-followers who defend the president’s behavior. There are even Christ-followers who embrace the president’s behavior.
The American church today is at an inflection point not unlike that faced by the Pergamenian Christians in Revelation 2. Step by step, we have compromised until we have awakened this week to find ourselves in bed with the enemy. Instead of gasping in outrage at what some political leader did, however, we must recognize this moment as a letter from Jesus. As he said in verse 14, “I have a few things against you,” and our response must be nothing less than what he prescribed in verse 16: “So repent!”
Because the alternative is not great. In Numbers 25, Moses was commanded to publicly execute the leaders of Israel who brought Moabite women into their beds, and a plague swept the nation, killing 24,000 Israelites. In Revelation 2:16, Jesus warned that, if the Pergamenian Christians did not repent, Jesus himself would “come to [them] quickly and fight against them with the sword of [his] mouth.” It was an allusion to the description of Jesus as John saw him in his vision in Revelation 1, but it was also a foreshadowing of Revelation 19:21 where the returning Jesus “killed with the sword that came from [his] mouth” the rest who opposed God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us repent for all of the ways in which we have compromised our faith, but what does that look like? In Revelation 2:17, Jesus offered only one option: conquer rather than compromise. Of course, the conquest Jesus prescribed was not earthly. Rather, it was the same conquest Paul described in Romans 8. There, the apostle described the battle raging between “the mindset of the flesh” and “the mindset of the Spirit.” The former is described as “death” (6), “hostile to God” (7) and utterly unable to please God (8). The latter is described as “life and peace” (6) flowing from righteousness (10) and leading to a new vitality even in our mortal bodies (11). Paul exhorted the Romans that, because of what Christ did for us on the cross, “we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh” (12) and so must “put to death the deeds of the body” (13). He realized this was not easy, but he pronounced that between our efforts the love of Christ, “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (37).
Moreover, Jesus promised through John in vs 17 that, if we will commit ourselves to conquer sin in our lives rather than compromise with it, then he will provide us with three things. First, he will give us “some of the hidden manna.” Manna, of course, was what sustained Israel after they left Egypt. Let us trust that God will sustain us with “hidden manna” even if we are not aligned with the powers of this world. Second, he will give us “a white stone.” In the first century, jurors in a criminal trial would cast their votes using stones. White meant innocent. Let us trust that, if we will commit to righteousness, Jesus will pick up the slack and make us truly innocent. Finally, he will give us “a new name” inscribed on the white stone. In the Old Testament, names were changed to signify a radical transformation of their character. Let us trust that, if we will conquer rather than compromise, Jesus will complete the work of transforming us into new creations made in his likeness.
Indeed, let our goal be nothing short of absolute Christlikeness.