The Seven Churches of the 21st
Century
Pergamum: Tolerant of the World
Revelation 2:12-17
And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write;
These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with
two edges; I know thy works and where thou dwellest,
even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my
name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days
wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain
among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things
against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the
doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a
stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat
things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the
Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will
come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with
the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that
overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and
will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name
written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth
it.
The letter to the
church at Pergamos is an
important one; it marks a distinctive change, as we will
see later in the “Prophetic History.”
The Root of the Letter (v.
12)
And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write;
These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with
two edges;
Concerning
Christ
The picture of
Christ in view here comes from Revelation 1:16: “And he
had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth
went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as
the sun shineth in his strength.” This is, of course, a
direct reference to Christ being the “Word of God” (Jn.
1:1, 2, 14). Christ is no longer on this earth
physically but He is on this earth spiritually by way of
the indwelling Holy Spirit (Jn. 14:16-20). But our Lord
is present on this earth in another way, through the
presence of the written Word. Without Christ, the
“Bible” is just another book, for “bible” comes from
biblos, which simply means “a
book.” Without Christ, the Bible is at best only good
history and good ethics, but with Christ as the center,
the Bible becomes absolute and sufficient in its
authority and accuracy.
There is a reference
here to the sharp sword with two edges. This is,
of course, an obvious reference to the imagery in
Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of
the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart.” The first thing that
comes to our minds about a “two-edged” sword is that it
cuts both ways. This “two-edged” sword, therefore, has
two functions. First, it has a function that concerns
salvation; it has cut us loose from the bonds of sin and
death. Second, the sword has a function that concerns
judgment; it cuts down those who do not believe (see
Rev. 19:11, 15).
The only weapon that can combat Satan and all
error is this sword. That is why the Sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God, is the only offensive
weapon that is part of God’s armor in Ephesians 6. So,
the usage of the sword had
special significance to the church at Pergamum. As we’ll
see, this church had become “married” to the world; it
needed to be “cut loose” from the world else it be “cut
down” in judgment.
Concerning
the Church
The basic meaning of
“Pergamum” is “marriage.” As we’ll see, many in the
church had become tolerant of the world and had
compromised their standards and “married the
world.”
Prophetic
History
The “Prophetic
History” of the church at Pergamum is vivid indeed, so
vivid, in fact, that a second section on the subject
appears under “The Rebuke” of the letter. This church
pictures the period of Church History when the Church
and the state were united under the Roman emperor
Constantine and his successors (313-590). We shall deal
with this in detail
later.
Concerning
the City
Pergamos, the capitol of
Asia Minor, was located about forty-five miles north of
Smyrna, and like Ephesus and Smyrna, it was wealthy but
wicked. Actually, there were two forms of the word:
Pergamos (which is the feminine form) and Pergamum
(which is the neuter form). While both were used,
Pergamum was the most common.
Pergamum was the most
famous city in Asia Minor. One reason was it geography.
It was built on a tall tapering hill, which dominated
the valley of the River Caicus. Fifteen miles away the
Mediterranean could actually be seen from the top of the
hill. The great archeologist Sir William Ramsay
describes the city: “Beyond all other cities in Asia
Minor, it gives the traveler the impression of a royal
city, the home of authority; the rocky hill on which it
stands is so huge, and dominates the broad plain of the
Caicus so proudly and so boldly.”
While Pergamum had very
little commerce, it was famous for its educational
advancement. This fact is important to recognize for it
explains much about how they became tolerant of the
world. Education often brings arrogance and rejection of
God. While we certainly are not saying that education is
not important—it’s vital, in fact—rather when education
is divorced from Truth, God’s Truth, we become more
worldly and, humanistic.
Pergamum was famous
for its university and housed a library of some 200,000
volumes, which was second only to the library of
Alexandria. That many volumes isn’t much on today’s
standards, but it certainly was then. That library was
later moved to library of Alexandria, Egypt by Antony,
who gave it to Cleopatra to replace the part of the
library that had been burned in the uprising against
Caesar in 48 B.C. It was also in Pergamum that the art
of curing skins for writing was perfected; this material
was, of course, called “parchment.” In fact, the city
got its name from the Latin word for parchment,
pergamena. Commentator
William Barclay recounts a fascinating story
here:
In the ancient world
parchment was he pergamene
charta, the Pergamene sheet. . . . For many centuries
ancient rolls were written on papyrus, a substance made
of the pith of a very large bulrush which grows beside
the Nile. The pith was extracted, cut into strips,
pressed into sheets and smoothed. There emerged a
substance not unlike brown paper, and this was
universally used for writing. In the third century B.C.
a Pergamene king called Eumenes was very anxious to make
the library of the city supreme. In order to do so he
persuaded Aristophanes of Byzantium, the librarian at
Alexandria, to agree to leave Alexandria and come to
Pergamum. Ptolemy of Egypt, enraged at this seduction of
his outstanding scholar, promptly imprisoned
Aristophanes and by way of retaliation put an embargo on
the export of papyrus to Pergamum. Faced with this
situation, the scholars of Pergamum invented parchment
or vellum, which is made of the skins of beasts,
smoothed and polished. In fact parchment is a much
superior vehicle for writing and, although it did not do
so for many centuries, it in the end ousted papyrus
altogether as writing material.
In all that
advancement and glory, however, Pergamum was a
desperately wicked, pagan city, which was even worse
than Ephesus and Smyrna. While Ephesus was a great
political center, and Smyrna was a great commercial
center, Pergamum was a great religious
center. It was the religious
center of four pagan cults. It was the center of the
worship of Athena and Zeus. In honor of a dramatic
victory over Gauls about 240 B.C., a great altar to Zeus
was erected in front of the Temple of Athene. Standing
40 feet above Pergamum’s hill and one a projecting ledge
of rock, it looked like a great throne sitting on the
hillside. Rising from it was smoke from perpetual
sacrifices to Zeus. There was a magnificent sculpture
around the base that depicted the Battle of the Giants,
in which the gods of Greece were victorious over the
giants of the barbarians.
Pergamum was also the
center for the worship of the cult of Dionysius, the god
of wine (better known by the Roman name Bacchus). But
Pergamum was also the center of the worship of
Asclepias, the god of healing. The symbol for this god
was a snake entwined around a staff. We’ll see more
about this cult in a moment, but unfortunately this
symbol is still with us today as it is the symbol for
the medical profession.
With all that in mind, it
is easy to see that this city was a difficult atmosphere
for an effective Christian life and testimony. It was
surrounded by paganism, false philosophy, and human
thinking. This should remind us again that paganism
touched all seven of these historic churches and that it
touches the Church yet today. Like those seven, the
Church today is surrounded by paganism, and we have
become tolerant of it, even to the point of embracing,
as we will see in the Church at Thyatira.
The Regard of the Letter (v.
13)
I know thy works and where
thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou
holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even
in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr,
who was slain among you, where Satan
dwelleth.
This church, like Ephesus
and Smyrna, endured persecution, and the majority of the
church remained faithful. For this reason, the Lord
Jesus gave a three-fold regard.
“I Know
Where You Dwell.”
Our Lord uses a very
interesting word here for dwellest. The word that
is usually used in Scripture to picture the Christian in
the world is paroikeo, which means to be a
stranger, to dwell at a place only for a short time.
Peter, for example, uses the adjective form in I Peter
2:11, where he calls Christians “strangers
[paroikos] and pilgrims,” those who are temporary
dwellers in a foreign land. But our Lord uses another
word here, katoikeo, which
means the exact opposite, a fixed durable dwelling. It’s
used, for example, in Ephesians 3:17, where Paul prays
that, “That Christ may dwell in [our] hearts by faith,”
that is, that He might take up permanent residence by
His indwelling Spirit.
Why would our Lord use
this word? Why would He speak about the Christian taking
up permanent residence in the world when our attitude
should be that we are only strangers traveling through
this world on our journey towards Heaven? We submit that
His reason is to be an encouragement to stay put and
endure, to remain where we are and be faithful in
witness. While it might be easier to just go somewhere
else, here is a challenge to stand firm where we are.
Commentator William
Barclay tells the story of a girl who was converted in
an evangelistic campaign. She was already a reporter on
a secular newspaper, but the first thing she did after
her conversion was to get a new job on a small Christian
newspaper where she was surrounded by professing
Christians. Instead of staying put and being a faithful
witness, she ran away. What would have been the result
if early Christians had run away every time they were
met with difficult circumstances? How would the Gospel
have spread? The Christian life is not about running
away, rather it’s about standing firm; it’s not about
hiding, rather it’s about
heralding. Our Lord,
therefore, commends the Believers in Pergamum for their
staying where He could use them.
“You Hold
Fast My Name.”
These believers
lived where Satan’s seat (literally “throne,”
thronos) was. As one
commentator puts it, “In Smyrna it is a ‘synagogue of
Satan’ (2:9); in Pergamos it is the throne of Satan, his
base of operations.”[i] This term forever dispels
the silly notion that Satan currently dwells in Hell. On
the contrary, he “[goes] to and fro in the earth, and
[walks] up and down in it” (Job 1:7). And what is he
doing? He “walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (I
Pet. 5:8). He is “the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Satan is, indeed, alive and
well on planet earth.
While several
explanations have been offered for the meaning of this
term, perhaps the best is that it refers to the huge
temple of Asclepias (or Aesculapius), the god of
medicine and healing we referred to earlier. We say this
for two reasons. First, People came from all over
the ancient world to be healed in this temple. To be
healed, the person would lie on the floor of the temple
and wait to be touched by one of the many snakes (and
therefore the god himself) crawling inside the temple.
This is, therefore, a direct reference to Satan
being called a serpent (Gen. 3:1; Rev. 12:1).
Second, and even more significant, even in the
face of this pagan worship, the faithful believers in
Pergamum held on to Christ. This phrase, You hold
fast My name, therefore means, “You upheld Me as the
Savior.” This is especially significant in light of the
fact that and most common and famous title for Asclepias
was “Asclepias Soter,” that is, “Asclepias is Savior.”
The thought that a pagan god could be the savior of the
world would have horrified Christians, so they [held]
fast [His] name as the name that
saves.
Bible teacher Lehman
Strauss offers us this challenge:
Holding fast His name is
not the equivalent of carrying a card or wearing a medal
to show one belongs to some “holy name society.” Rather,
it is holding to the firm conviction that He is the Lord
Jesus Christ—“Lord” (Master), “Jesus” (Mediator),
“Christ” (Messiah).
Indeed, today we see
bumper stickers, T-shirts, pieces of jewelry, statues,
and every other kind of artificial symbol that
supposedly proclaims that we love the Lord. Such things
cheapen the Lord Jesus and His message. And in spite of
all that, the Church is miserably weak in its witness.
Why? Because real witness is accomplished through our
lives not artificial symbols. Our strongest witness is
not in symbols but in stature.
“You Did Not
Deny My Faith.”
This phrase means,
“You upheld My work as the only means of salvation.”
Again, we know there was persecution in Pergamum—at
least one person (Antipas) had been martyred. The
word martyr
is a transliteration of the Greek martus. The
original setting of this word “was clearly the legal
sphere,”[ii] just as today. The
witness gives solemn testimony to that which he knows
and gives evidence. What does a witness for Christ do?
He or she gives clear testimony and evidence of what
Christ does in the Believer’s life. It’s not just a
proclamation with the lips, but the evidence in
the life that a martyr
gives.
Through all their trials,
many of the Believer’s in Pergamum stayed faithful.
There were, in fact, some great men of the faith during
that era. There was, for example, Athanasius (296-372).
He was one of the chief defenders of the doctrine of the
Trinity against the heresy of Arianism. Arius, a parish
priest in Alexandria, taught that Jesus was not coequal
with God and was, in fact, a created being. For 46
years, Athanasius fought that heresy. The famed Church
historian Philip Schaff describes him as “one of the
purest, most imposing, and most venerable [personages]
in the history of the Church.”
The greatest name of
that era, of course, was Augustine (354-430).
Like Athanasius, he also fought heresy. One of his
greatest battles was again Pelagianism. Pelagius (c.
360-420), was a British monk and theologian. About 400
he postulated his ideas of how man is saved. He believed
each person has the same “free will” that Adam had and,
therefore, is able to choose good or evil for himself.
He said that this is possible because each person is
created separately and uncontaminated by Adam’s sin.
Sin, therefore, is a matter of will, not nature. It is just as easy for a man to choose good as
it is to choose evil. Why, then, is there so much sin we
must ask? Pelagius maintained that the reason is not a
corruption of the will by original sin, but rather by
the simple weakness of human flesh. He went on to teach
that since each person is created with perfect freedom
to do good or evil, a sinless life is possible, and
salvation can ultimately come from good works, although
the law, the Gospel, and divine nature greatly aid in
attaining salvation.
Augustine fought these
teachings and finally won out over them, although they
were modified into Semi-Pelagianism, the direct
forerunner of modern Arminianism. Augustine was the
first to systemize the doctrines of sin, grace,
election, and sovereignty. Basically he taught: (1) The
whole race fell in Adam, and that all men, therefore,
are depraved and spiritually dead by nature; (2)
Furthermore, the fall affected the will as well so that
it is not free to choose good toward God; (3) Christ
died for His people, God elected who He chose apart from
their own merits, and the Holy Spirit draws men to God.
We quickly admit that
Augustine was not without fault. Unfortunately, he
helped develop the doctrine of purgatory. He also put so
much stress on the sacraments that baptismal
regeneration and sacramental grace were the inevitable
conclusions. In spite of that, however, we owe much to
Augustine. He was, indeed, the forerunner of the truths
that the Reformation would latter champion.
So, the Church at Pergamum
did not deny the faith; it stood firmly for the Truth of
the Gospel. Sadly, however, it, like Augustine, was not
without fault.
The Rebuke of the Letter (vs.
14-15)
But I have a few things
against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the
doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a
stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat
things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the
Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.
The one key word for
understanding the problem in the church at Pergamum is
the word tolerance. What
emphasis this word receives in our world today! We hear
such statement as, “Let us be more tolerant,” “Let us
just ‘live and let live’,” and “Let us all be open
minded to whatever someone believes.” This tendency is
interesting in light of today’s emphasis on education.
Again, we are not discounting education, but education
has been lifted up to a god. It seems that the more
education one gets (that is, humanistic education), then
the more “tolerant” and “open minded” he becomes. That
is the way it went in Pergamum and the way it goes
today. The believers in Pergamum became tolerant of two
specific things.
Tolerant Of
The Doctrine Of Balaam
Prophetic
History
As we saw in our
last chapter, during the “Smyrnan Period” Satan tried to
destroy Christianity from without using a series
of ten periods of persecution under ten Roman emperors,
but he failed. Never daunted, however, Satan tried to
destroy God’s work from within. Scripture repeatedly warns of this (Acts 20:29-30; II Cor. 11:13; I
Tim. 1:3-7; II Pet. 2; II Jn. 7-11; Jude 4; etc.). A. C.
Gaebelein puts it well: “When the devil found that the
‘blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church’ he
stopped his work as the roaring lion and took on the
form of an angel of light.”[iii]
One of Satan’s great
attempts came in 313 when the Roman emperor Constantine
succeeded Diocletian (the worst of the Roman
persecutors). Constantine supposedly had a vision of a
fiery cross in the sky and a voice saying, “In this sign
conquer.” He wondered what this meant and was told that
this was the sign of the Christian religion. So, he took
this to mean that this God was calling him to be the
champion of this religion, and that if he obeyed, he
would become emperor of the world. Though we cannot view
Constantine as being a true believer, since he was never
weaned from the cult of Apollo and at times consulted
the pagan sooth-sayers (fortune tellers),[iv] he did, in fact,
become emperor of the “world” (i.e. the known world of
his day). He liberated all Christians and stopped all
persecution, although Christianity merely became one
more of the many religions of the empire.
As time went on,
however, Constantine discovered that Christians were
more trustworthy than his pagan subjects and were not
causing him constant problems as were the pagans. So, in
324 he ordered Christianity to be the one and only
religion of the empire. He threw all the pagans out of
the government, and filled every post with a Christian.
Our first reaction to that might be, “Oh, how
wonderful!” But in reality, this was the worst event to
occur in Church History, for in this way the Church was
“married” to the world. You see, it was at this time
that the Church stopped looking for the Second Coming of
Christ; it said, “Constantine’s empire must be Christ’s
kingdom.” Moreover, Christians had to
tolerate many pagan
superstitions and customs in order to get along with
priests who had become “Christian,” literally, at the
point of the sword. The effects of that unholy alliance
continued right up to the Reformation and, may we point
out, still continue today in many respects (as we’ll see
in later
studies).
The scene above was
exactly the scene in Pergamum. The Christians there
tolerated the doctrine of Balaam. Balaam’s story
appears in Numbers 22-25. Balaam was a prophet,
but his heart wasn’t really in the prophecies the Spirit
compelled him to utter, and he became what we might call
“a prophet for hire.” Balak, the king of Moab, offered
him money to curse Israel because he (Balak) was afraid
Israel was going to cross the Jordan and enter the
Promised Land. But God prevented Balaam from doing this
and even turned his intended curse into a blessing. So,
Balaam got another idea. He persuaded Balak to make
peace with Israel and send Moabite women into Israel’s
camp. As the old expression goes, “If you can’t beat
‘em, join ‘em.” In doing so, they were able to introduce
pagan idolatry, including fornication as part of
religious ritual, into the nation of Israel. All this
was introduced into the nation and into individual homes
through mixed marriages. Well, the plan worked
flawlessly. Because of this toleration and
compromise, 24,000 people died as a result of
God’s judgment (including Balaam, which certainly wasn’t
part of his plan, however). That was exactly
the picture in Pergamum. Those believers thought it was
all right to marry the lost pagans of the area; they
thought it was all right to tolerate the pagan religious practices.
The late Donald Gray
Barnhouse wrote these words concerning the church at
Pergamum: “Pergamum signifies a mixed marriage in the
most objectionable sense of the word, for it is the
marriage of the Church with the world.” We also read
these words by that great expositor, G. Campbell Morgan:
“The doctrine of Balaam broadly stated was . . . seeing
that they were the covenant people of God, they might
with safety indulge themselves in social intercourse
with their neighbors.” No, they didn’t join the
wicked practices of others, but they tolerated
them and thereby actually did
join through that complicity.
Dear Christian, we
can be assured that God will judge believers who
tolerate the world and
compromise with it.
Tolerant of
the Teaching of the Nicolaitans
This is closely related to
the doctrine of Balaam. Literally translated, verse 15
reads, “You also have some, who in the same way hold the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans.” We touched on this group
in our study of the church at Ephesus. The Ephesians
didn’t tolerate the Nicolaitans, but those at Pergamum
did. This sect was either founded by Nicolas (who is
mentioned in the list of the first deacons in the early
church, Acts 6:5), or by someone who merely perverted
something that Nicolas taught. Either way, as several
early Church Fathers concur, this sect had turned
“liberty” into “license.” They no doubt argued, “The Law
is done with. We now live in grace and liberty to do as
we will.” The result was self-indulgence and
uncleanness. Commentator William Barclay wells sums up
their teaching from those Church Fathers:
Irenaeus says of the
Nicolaitans that “they lived lives of unrestrained
indulgence” (Against Heresies, 1.26.3).
Hippolytus says that he was one of the seven and that
“he departed from correct doctrine, and was in the habit
of inculcating indifference of food and life”
(Refutation of Heresies, 7: 24). The Apostolic
Constitutions (6: 8) describe the Nicolaitans as
“shameless in uncleanness.” Clement of Alexandria says
they “abandon themselves to pleasure like goats . . .
leading a life of self-indulgence.” But he acquits
Nicolaus of all blame and says that they perverted his
saying “that the flesh must be abused.” Nicolaus meant
that the body must be kept under; the heretics perverted
it into meaning that the flesh can be used as
shamelessly as a man wishes (The
Miscellanies 2: 20). The
Nicolaitans obviously taught loose
living.
Obviously, anyone who
believes in such license is not a true Christian. Yet,
many Christians today, while not believing in “license,”
take liberty too far in thinking that it allows them to
do whatever they wish even if it stumbles another
Believer, which Paul denounces in I Corinthians
8:4-13.
Another possible
heresy of the Nicolaitans, however, is actually found in
its name. Nikao means “to conquer,” and
laos (from which we get the
English “laity”) means “the people.” The idea of the
word, then, is “rulers of the laity.” It is quite
possible that part of the heresy in Pergamum was the
dramatic dividing of the people from a newly created
priestly caste. That certainly bears out in Church
History, for it was during this time that the Roman
Catholic priesthood arose.
As mentioned
earlier, the ruling attitude in society today is
“tolerance.” “How dare we say
that something is wrong,” it is argued. I’ve been asked
by such objectors, “Who are you to say someone is
wrong?” My answer is always the same, “I’m nobody and
neither are you. I’m simply telling you what God says in
his Word.” We should appreciate commentator Kent Hughes
quite blunt but truthful
observation:
According to the
world, Christianity ought to be as broad and accepting
as possible. And the fact is that clergy who think in
this way, who baptize every form of sin as OK, become
the darlings of the media. A cultured accent, a
fuchsia-colored bishop’s shirt, and the urging to place
condoms in Gideon Bibles will get you a spot on Good
Morning, America. Our culture
loves the “open-minded,” nonjudgmental, “live and let
live” personality.[v]
William Hendrickson also
addresses another attitude of our day when he writes:
“One is not being ‘nice’ to a wicked man by endeavoring
to make him feel what a fine fellow he is. The cancerous
tumor must be removed, not humored.”[vi] Still the attitude
today is to address people’s “felt needs” and avoid even
mentioning sin.
The fact is,
however, that to be tolerant of sin is not only
to approve of sin—to overlook and sanction it—but
is even to be complicit in that sin, to actually
be an active participant. God does not want His children
to be tolerant but to be discerning. Back
in the 16th Century, John
Calvin preached these
words:
Most men and women
nowadays wink at all manner of evil and disorder, and
stop their ears at the things that they might ill heard,
and every man seeks to conceal his fellow’s wickedness,
men of men’s, and women of women’s. They might remedy a
great number of enormities that are committed, but they
would rather go and pollute their gowns and coats with
other people’s dung and filthiness, than expose their
vices. . . . The very way therefore for us to show in
practice and in good earnest that we belong to God and
are enlightened by His Holy Spirit and by His Word is to
expose things which otherwise would, as it were, lie
lurking a long time if we did not draw them into the
light.[vii]
Many today would
read that and think, “But that was centuries ago and is
just the old theology of a bunch of dead guys. We are
much more enlightened today.” But that was precisely
Calvin’s point. We are only “enlightened” if we love the
light and expose error to be error. Tolerance is not
enlightenment; it’s darkness. God
demands that we take a stand
for Truth, that we expose and rebuke
sin.
The errors in
Pergamum, therefore, graphically show how that church
was tolerant of the world and married to it. The
idea of “worldliness” has little meaning in the Church
today. Those who give it no thought are simply thinking
in the same ways that the world thinks and have the same
values as do unsaved people. Those who do give it some
thought often view it legalistically and teach that
worldliness is what we do or don’t do, such as playing
cards, going to a movie theatre, or women wearing pants.
But worldliness is not something we do, rather it
is something that we believe.
Outward behavior will certainly be an outworking of
this, but worldliness is an attitude, a mindset, a
philosophy. All men and women, even Christians, are in
one way or another dominated by the world. Why? Because
we are human, we are sinful. Only the Spirit of God can
give victory over this domination. How tragic it is when
Christians are dominated by the world.
Paul deals with this
explicitly in Romans 12:2: “And be not conformed to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Depending upon a
given context, “world” (kosmos) can mean several
things: earth, human race, etc. But in its some 188
occurrences, it usually speaks of the “world system” or
the “world order,” that is, the values, pleasures,
inclinations, philosophies, goals, drives, purposes,
attitudes, and actions of society. This system is
totally man-centered and is quite vivid in the
humanistic and relativistic society of
today. Ponder this contrast: Jesus’ words were, “Not My
will but Thine be done;” man’s words are, “Not
thy will, but Mine be done.”
As Martyn Lloyd-Jones put it, “They think as the world
thinks. They take their opinions ready-made from their
favourite newspaper. Their very appearance is controlled
by the world and its changing fashion.” In toehr words,
we just look at the world and do what it does. Even more
tragic is that we do the same thing in church ministry;
we do what appeals to people’s flesh but just slap the
label “Christian” on it to give it credibility. I John
2:15-17 strongly challenge us with what our attitude
should be to the the world system:
Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of
the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth
away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will
of God abideth for ever.
We repeat:
tolerance is a synonym for complicity. In legal terms, this is called “an accessory
after (or before) the fact.” While the Believers in
Pergamum remained loyal to Christ, their tolerance for
the sin of others made them guilty by association; they
were accessories after the fact.. The real seriousness
of the errors we see in Pergamum becomes apparent in our
next point.
The Requirement of the Letter
(v. 16)
Repent; or else I will
come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with
the sword of my mouth.
There was only one
thing that the Lord required of the church at Pergamum,
one strong command—repent! How vivid our
Lord is here! He doesn’t allow for any excuses. Today we
would rather say, “Oh, let’s just leave it alone; let
people live they way they want; it’s none of our
business.” No, our Lord says, repent or I will
come with the sword and cut
you to pieces.
Again, this word
means “to change the mind.” There is no other word that
could be more suitable than this one. Why? Because to be
separate from the world demands a drastic change of the
mind and attitude. Again, to be separate from the world
demands a drastic change in one’s values, priorities,
desires, purposes, motives, attitudes, and actions. This
separation from the world is one of the primary thrusts
of the Word of God. Besides the verse quoted earlier, we
should consider, “Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers: . . . come out from among them, and be
ye separate” (II Cor. 6:14, 17). James also declares,
“Friendship of the world is enmity with God” (Jas. 4:4).
In other words, to be a friend of the world is to be at
war with Christ.
In addition to these
verses, and others like them, we also see that
throughout the Old Testament the nation of Israel is
commanded to be separate from Gentile pollution,
separate from the status quo. What perfect
typology! Christians likewise are to be different. Many
today are scared to death to appear different from the
other people, but that is what it means to be a
Christian. We think differently, we act
differently, we evaluate things differently. Oh,
Dear Christian, may we be separate from this world
system, the twisted society in which we live. This does
not mean separation from contact with the
world but rather conformity to the world.
What consequences
did the Lord say would come if the believers at Pergamum
failed to repent? He declared, I will come unto
thee, which is not a reference to the Second Coming
but rather His coming to directly deal with sin, with
the sword of My mouth. Again, the Word of God is
likened to a sword, a sword of judgment.
To be graphic, combat with a sword often resulted in the hacking of a body into
pieces. Our Lord will do just that when it comes to
judging and punishing sin.
That is one of many
reasons that a strong preaching ministry is essential in
the local church. A pastor must proclaim the Truth,
teach, and expose sin; he must without compromise
preach, “Thus saith the Lord.” It is tragic that many
are not doing this today, often out of fear of
“offending someone.” But the Word of God does offend; It
pricks the heart when the heart is in rebellion.
May we repeat,
Christ will judge the sin of worldliness. The Balaamites
(followers of Balaam) were killed with the
sword (Num. 25:1-9), as was
Balaam (31:8). May we purge sin from our own lives
through self-examination (I Cor. 11:27-29; II Cor.
13:5-7) and from our churches through Biblical church
discipline (I Cor. 5). If we do not, Christ will
judge.
The Reassurance of the Letter
(v. 17)
He that hath an ear, let
him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him
that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna,
and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new
name written, which no man knoweth saving he that
receiveth it.
As in every letter, the
Lord appeals to anyone who will listen and obey, and He
promises here that He will give them two very special
blessings.
“Hidden
Manna”
We recall that the
nation of Israel was nourished with physical food while
in the wilderness. But here, because He is spoken of as
“Bread from Heaven” and “The Bread of Life” (Jn. 6),
Christ Himself is viewed as our spiritual food. We are
nourished by communion with Christ and His Word. Think
of it! This hidden manna is
God’s Word!
Dear Christian, what will
keep us from worldliness?—the Word of God and nothing
else. Most “Christian clichés” are somewhat shallow and
worthless, but one that says a lot is, “This Book will
keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this Book.”
Once again, that is why preaching is so important; we
need men who will feed God’s people with food that will
nourish them.
“A White
Stone and a New Name”
These words are
rather puzzling in our day, but they were easily
understood in John’s day. Upon the completion of a
trial, a prisoner was either given a while stone,
which meant acquittal, or a black stone, which meant
conviction. A white stone was also used for an
invitation to a feast, with the name of the
individual being written on
the stone. Both of these usages show a vivid parallel.
We’ve been acquitted of the quilt of our sin through the
justification we have in Christ, and we have a personal
invitation to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb (Rev.
19:6-9). HALLELUJAH!
There is a further
Truth here, however. Our Lord adds that this name
is a new name. One word translated new in the New
Testament is the Greek neos, which “refers to
something new in time, something that recently
has come into existence.” The one here, however, is
kainos, which “refers to something new in
quality,” as it would be
distinguished from something that is old and worn
out.[viii] This word
is used, for example, to refer to the “new tomb” in
which Joseph of Arimathea laid the body of Jesus (Matt.
27:60). It was not a new tomb that had recently
been hewn from the rock (neos), rather one that
had never been used and was therefore new in the sense
of quality. We also find kainos used elsewhere in
Revelation for a “new Jerusalem” (3:12); the “new
song” (5:9), the “new heavens and the new earth” (21:1),
and God “[making] all things new” (21:5). All these
things will be new quality
and unlike anything before them.
Another key verse
where kainos appears is II Corinthians 5:17:
“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new
[kainos] creature; old things are passed away;
behold all things are become new [kainos].” The
Christian is, therefore, a “new creature,” not
new in the sense of time—as in the date he
received Christ as Savior—rather new in
quality, a creature that has
never existed before, a creature with a new character
and new behavior.
One of the greatest
examples of this principle appears in Acts 19:8-10,
where we read that Paul encountered many “hardened”
(skleruno, to make
hard or stiff) hearts while
preaching the Gospel in the synagogue for three months.
But there were also those in Ephesus who believed. As we
alluded to in our study of Christ’s letter to Ephesus,
verses 18-20 recount that the Gospel turned Ephesus on
its ear. It changed that society. Those who were
involved in occult practices burned their books on
spells, sorcery, and other such things. Their life
change was dramatically demonstrated by the value of
those books. Today’s equivalent of 50,000 pieces of
silver would be hundreds of thousands of dollars. The
same thing happened in Thessalonica; the Believers there
“turned to God from idols to serve the living and true
God” (I Thes. 1:9). We’re reminded here of how even some
Christians today ignorantly dabble in such things as
horoscopes and Harry Potter, books that ought to be
burned.
Verses 23-29 go on to say
that believers no longer invested money in pagan
practices or paraphernalia, which was a devastating blow
to local commerce. Silversmiths were being driven out of
business because people no longer bought silver shrines
of Diana, which were household idols. Paul’s statement
that these were “no gods” at all and the stir churned up
by the silversmiths combined to trigger a riot. So
serious was the situation that there was the danger of
Diana worship being destroyed altogether.
That is what
the Gospel does. It changes lives. If one chooses to
call this “Lordship Salvation,” so be it, but the fact
is: true conversion means true change.
Christianity is not a creed, code, or a system of
ethics. Christianity is a life, a new reality
that comes when we trust Christ as Savior
and Lord.
The idea here in our
text, then, is that those who obey God are given a
name that is new in the sense that has it
has never existed before. It’s a unique name, a name
unlike any other name, a quality name. The practice of
giving someone a new name is found in both the secular
and Biblical world. The Roman Emperor Octavius, for
example, became Augustus, Abram became Abraham, Jacob
became Israel, and Saul became Paul. So what will that
new name be? We do not know.
That is one of the many great things we look forward to
in the Heaven that
awaits.
What we have seen in
this chapter sets the stage for what we will see in the
next. Instead of getting better, the situation got even
worse. As we’ll see, tolerance of the world
ultimately leads to embracing
the world. Dear Christian Friend, I encourage you not to
tolerate and marry the world. If you have, repent and
receive the marvelous blessings of the Lord, or else our
Lord will judge severely.
[ii] Brown, Vol. 3, p.
1039.
[v] Kent Hughes
(commenting on Eph. 5:11), Ephesians: The Mystery of
the Body of Christ (Wheaton, Illinois:
Crossway Books, 1990, Electronic edition, Logos Research
Systems).
[vi] William
Hendrickson, New Testament Commentary: Exposition of
Ephesians (Grand Rapids: Baker
Book House), p. 233.
[vii] John Calvin,
Sermons on the Epistle to the
Ephesians (Carlisle, PA: Banner
of Truth Trust, 1973, originally published in 1562), p.
529.
[viii] Trench, p. 233 (emphasis
in the
original).
