Will You Rock the Boat? | Daily Devotion
“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Pergamum. This is the message from the one with the sharp two-edged sword:
13 “I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me. You refused to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan’s city.
14 “But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. 15 In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching. 16 Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.
Revelation 2:12-17 NLT
To the church in Pergamum, Jesus reminds them He is the One with the sharp two-edged sword. He is the Word made flesh. He is Truth. He is the authority regarding right versus wrong and He enacts divine judgment.
The Word of God cuts into a person’s innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for who we really are—Hebrews 4:12. It “teaches us what is true and makes us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right” – 2 Timothy 3:16 NLT. It draws us to repentance—Acts 3:19 and reminds us of God’s grace—Ephesians 2:8-9. The Word is powerful. It is alive!
Here, Jesus applauds the church in Pergamum for their loyalty and faithfulness even though they lived in a city where the great throne of Satan was located and they refused to deny Jesus Christ, even when a fellow Christian, a faithful witness, was martyred—Revelation 2:13. Most of the believers in this church did hold fast to the truth; however, some believed false doctrine and the church allowed it—Revelation 2:14-15, Numbers 22-25. They did not confront sin.
Thus, Jesus states His complaint against them was their allowance of false teaching similar to Balaam. For money, Balaam created a method for Balak, the king of Moab, to persuade and manipulate the Israelites to sin by way of idolatry and sexual immorality to bring God’s judgment upon the Israelites – Revelation 2:14. Thus, they lured the Israelites away from a pure devotion to Jesus Christ so that the Israelites would experience judgment. The Israelites were manipulated.
Thus, this false teaching that they refused to correct encouraged the people to idolize and commit sexual immorality, breaking God’s ten commandments. The false teaching encouraged worldly behavior in the church – it encouraged carnality instead of denying one’s flesh, being filled with the Holy Spirit.
This false teaching not only brings on God’s divine judgment to all who turn away from Jesus and participate, but it causes a lot of destruction on mankind for many years – destruction that is difficult to fix or heal. It confuses people about Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is holy and pure and commands Christians to be loving to others. Sexual immorality is not an act of love, it is destructive to people’s heart, mind, soul, and body and has lasting negative effects.
Idolatry is a fixation on someone or something, placing this person or thing in the place of Jesus Christ as Savior. It is also found in people who place themselves in God’s shoes, believing they hold His authority to make decisions regarding God’s people. When actually, spiritual leaders seek God and listen to God regarding the people and make decisions according to what the Lord says to do. Idolatry also, has negative effects on the individual’s heart, mind, soul, and body as well as those surrounding them and negatively impacts livelihood by way of the decisions made. Destruction increases in the life and community, as decisions are made outside of the will of God – destruction does not decrease.
So, Jesus reminds them of the truth! You cannot compromise the truth to fit in with the world and think you are doing “ok” spiritually. It doesn’t work that way.
He calls the pastor of the church in Pergamum to repent of his sin of not rebuking false teaching, as this letter is written to the pastor. And Jesus goes on to state that if the pastor doesn’t repent, He will come upon them suddenly and fight against them with the sword of His mouth – which means, what God has already declared in His word regarding the judgment of idolatry and sexual immorality, will happen suddenly.
The church will be removed immediately by Christ, Himself.
Jesus is the head of the Christian church and thus, the teaching is to line up with truth, obeying God.
There is no place for sexual immorality or idolatry in the Christian church. Head pastors, specifically, are to rebuke it and remove it from the church they are called to steward.
Regarding religion, the world says, “What works for you is good and what works for me is good. All roads lead to heaven.” But that is wrong! God says the road to heaven is narrow—Matthew 7:13. There is only one way to the Father in heaven and that is through Jesus Christ—John 14:6. There are moral absolutes. See, the world not only wants you to tolerate and accept what they believe, but they want you to approve of it also! They want you to compromise your faith.
Today, are you compromising? Do you stand up for truth? Do you represent Jesus to an unrepentant world? Or do you try to live quietly and not “rock the boat”?
The church in Pergamum was compromising with the world and Jesus called them to repentance! Jesus will protect His church while holding people responsible for their sins—Revelation 2:16.
Today, do you need to repent?
After warning the church, Jesus encourages them with a couple blessings. To the person who overcomes they will receive hidden manna, which is Jesus Christ, our Living Bread—John 6:51. They will also receive a white stone. The stone could represent what the athletes were given when they won. This stone allowed them to enter the winner’s celebration after the games. This brings to mind the marriage supper believers will participate in, the victorious celebration to the one who overcomes—Revelation 19:7.
Prayer: Abba, thank You for Jesus Christ and His care for His church. We pray for all head pastors today, to correct the sins in their midst so that they do not face this type of judgment. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
