Cross Examined 4 | Caught in Compromise

"And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, 'These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword... I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.... He who overcomes... I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.'" (Revelation 2:12-17)

When compromise is healthy and when it is deadly—Jesus examines a faithful church that quietly made peace with the world.

Compromise: Essential, Then Dangerous

Compromise is an essential component in every marriage. Married couples know this, and so does anyone who has sat across the table from a car dealer. I love when the person across the counter says, "I just can't do that." I always think, "Sure you can."

About six years ago my wife and I were buying our first house, which meant buying many first things—washing machine, dryer, refrigerator. At a local hardware store I found a refrigerator on clearance for $699. I walked in with $500 cash, and when the salesman asked if he could help, I said, "Yes—I want this refrigerator for $500." He said, "I just can't do that." We went back and forth, got nowhere, and started to leave. By the time we reached the front, a manager called out, "Sir, wait one second—I think we can get you that refrigerator for $500." I said, "I thought you might be able to."

Concessions can be made in retail—Dave Ramsey says so, and it works. And in marriage, the first year is almost entirely about identifying impasses and making compromises. Some are small—which way you turn the glasses, how you squeeze the toothpaste. Some feel big—which way the toilet paper goes. (A manufacturer's survey found 80% of Americans say it goes over the top, so that's the right way.) Over years of marriage counseling, the issue of compromise comes up again and again, where both sides give a little to further the relationship.

So compromise is essential in certain areas. But there are areas of life where compromise is completely unacceptable—and not only unacceptable but dangerous. That is exactly the situation in the church at Pergamos.

The City of Pergamos

This letter begins as each of the seven letters does: the Lord Jesus addresses "the angel of the church"—whether an angelic being over the church or the pastor, we don't know. We have seen Ephesus and Smyrna; now we come to Pergamos. On a map of modern-day Turkey, ancient Asia Minor, these cities follow a loop many believe was a postal route. Pergamos lay about a hundred miles north of Ephesus, twenty miles inland from the Aegean Sea.

When Jesus sends this letter around A.D. 90-96, Pergamos had stood for three to four hundred years and had long been the capital of the Roman province of Asia. It was the first Roman city to establish worship of the Caesars, building a temple to the emperor in 29 B.C. The empire saw Caesar not merely as a politician but as divine. If you would simply offer incense once a year and say, "Caesar is lord," you were then free to worship however you wished. But the early Christians could not say it, because Jesus is Lord—and so they invited persecution.

The city was full of paganism—temples to Zeus, Athena, and Bacchus, the god of drunkenness and debauchery. It was also a great seat of intellect, home to a famous university and a library of more than 200,000 hand-copied parchment volumes; the word "parchment" itself is tied to the city's name. (That library was later given to Cleopatra as a wedding present by Mark Antony.) Into this mix of paganism and intellectualism, a small gathering of Jesus-followers was planted, likely during Paul's ministry in Ephesus (Acts 18-19), where for two years "all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord" (Acts 19:10).

A Mixed Marriage

Interestingly, the Greek word gamos means marriage, and the prefix in "Pergamos" speaks of a mixed marriage. That is exactly what was happening in this church. With no apostolic oversight recorded, the surrounding worship of Bacchus, Athena, Zeus, and Caesar began to seep in. As often happens, the culture around the church crept into the church.

Jesus Is Not Weak

Each letter follows the same outline—the "rap sheet"—beginning with the revelation of Jesus. He introduces Himself as "He who has the sharp two-edged sword." If Jesus contacted you and introduced Himself as the one holding an unsheathed, sharp two-edged sword, there might be a problem. In modern terms: "He who holds the unholstered gun, the hammer back." It is heavy, even frightening imagery—perhaps some of the most frightening of Jesus in all of Scripture.

What is this sword? Revelation 1:16 says, "out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword." Revelation 19:15 shows what He does with it at His coming: "Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations." And Hebrews 4:12 says, "The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit... and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The word of God judges not only outward expressions but the inward heart.

This brings us to our first point: Jesus is not weak. Many people hold only one picture of Him—gentle Jesus, meek and mild, the suffering servant, merciful and kind. All of that is true, and at His first coming He did come meek and lowly, riding on a donkey. But the Bible describes a second coming that does not look like that at all—triumphant, on a white horse, in power and great glory, with a sword from His mouth to strike the rebellious nations.

And notice: here in Revelation 2, before He strikes the nations in chapter 19, He uses the same language to His own church. "I am He who has the sharp two-edged sword." Church, the next time you are drawn by temptation, I hope this picture comes to mind. Some will say, "He would never do that to His church"—but it is to His church that He speaks these words. A pastor once said, "Fear is good office work for repentance." There is a reverence and fear of Jesus that the American church today lacks, because our picture of Him is imbalanced. Fittingly, the last book of Scripture makes sure we remember: yes, He is merciful and gracious, but He will by no means clear the guilty.

True Faith Is Not Fragile

The commendation comes in verse 13: "I know your works." Jesus knows what is going on in His church because He walks in the midst of the lampstands (Revelation 1; 2:1). He is not far off and uninterested; He is intimately involved.

He adds, "I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is." He knew their conditions, temptations, and hardships. Though Satan operates throughout the whole world, apparently Pergamos was a seat of his power, a stronghold. Commentators disagree on what exactly the throne was—the temple of Zeus, the massive throne-like altar of Pergamum (now in a Berlin museum), the imperial cult, or the temple of Asclepius, the god of healing whose symbol is the snake-wrapped staff. In that temple the sick would lie on the floor while tens of thousands of non-venomous snakes crawled over them to "diffuse" healing power. If that is not satanic, I don't know what is.

I would simply take it as written: Satan has an established seat of power somewhere in the world, sometimes in several places at once, and at that time it was Pergamos. Many wrongly think Satan's headquarters is hell—but that is where he will be incarcerated. For now his dominion is here, and he prowls like a roaring lion. Yet in the very seat of his power sat a church with faith in Jesus.

This is encouraging: true faith is not fragile. "You hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith." Even in Satan's base of operations, they stood strong. And though I am not calling universities the throne of Satan, I am saying this: you can sit in a seat of intellectual growth that is largely anti-Christian today and still have solid faith in Jesus. The church at Pergamos proves it can be done.

True Faith Is Faithful

"...even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr." Read "martyr" as "witness"—the Greek martus means witness, but so many witnesses were killed for their faith that the word came to mean one killed for belief. We don't know for certain who Antipas was; some say the pastor, some an influential leader. Tradition holds he was placed inside a hollow brass bull and roasted over fire while the church watched—yet they still believed.

This gives us point three: true faith is faithful. You can believe true things about Jesus and not be faithful, but you cannot have true faith and not be faithful. True faith moves us toward faithfulness; our faith is proven true by how we live. Notice the personal language: "My name," "My faith," "My faithful martyr." Jesus takes His church personally.

The Indictment: Balaam and the Nicolaitans

"But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam." This is a mixed marriage—they believed in Jesus but held onto something else.

The story is in Numbers 22-25. As Israel approached the Promised Land through Moab, King Balak feared this great multitude and hired the prophet-for-hire Balaam to curse them, knowing "whom you curse is cursed." Each time Balaam asked, God said he could only speak what God told him. On the way, God sent an angel with a drawn sword; Balaam's donkey saw it and turned aside, and when Balaam beat the donkey, the Lord opened its mouth to rebuke him—and opened Balaam's eyes to see the angel.

Three times Balaam was taken to a mountaintop to curse Israel, and three times he could only bless them. But wanting his money, Balaam gave Balak a plan: send in the Moabite women to seduce the men of Israel, draw them into marriage and idolatry, and Israel's own God would turn against them. It worked—24,000 Israelite men died under the Lord's curse because of their compromise.

At Pergamos, Jesus says some still hold that doctrine. It doesn't yet say they were practicing idolatry and immorality—that comes next time, at Thyatira—but what we hold to shapes how we live. "Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." To Ephesus He commended hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans (2:6); to Pergamos He condemns holding their doctrine.

True Faithfulness Is Hard

Point four: true faithfulness is hard. It has been said it is easier to die for Jesus than to live faithfully for Him. We can't ask the martyrs, but we know it is not easy to live faithfully in a counter-Christian culture. These believers confessed Jesus even when it meant persecution—yet they were sidelining certain things, holding on to a quiet compromise, the bride of Christ flirting with what the Lord hated.

This is worth grappling with. Some here today kind of believe in Jesus, with one foot in the things of Christ, while holding on to things moving them toward immorality and idolatry. These things are sneaky and take many forms. A church in a counter-Christian culture is constantly bombarded by what tries to get in. As Paul warned Corinth, "a little leaven leavens the whole lump"—sin in the dough permeates and destroys.

Peter writes, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith" (1 Peter 5:8-9). Pergamos dropped its guard right in the seat of Satan's power. So we need a gut check with God: "Is there any area of my life that is compromise—where I'm holding on to faith but also holding on to immorality, pornography, drunkenness, debauchery, anger, hate—anything the Lord hates?" Even a pattern of thinking that mulls over things against God is still sin. Faithfulness is not measured by church attendance, service, or giving—good as those are—but by how we live before God from Sunday to Sunday in honesty, integrity, and self-control. And that is not easy.

The Summons: Repent

The summons in verse 16 is one word: "Repent." Point five: true faithfulness begins with repentance. It doesn't end there, but it begins there. You can be certain God will work in the penitent heart, "for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).

"Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth." Many in the church pray, "Lord, come quickly" (Revelation 22). But some of you secretly hope He tarries because things in your life aren't right. The "them" He will fight are those holding the doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans. The Lord knows who they are—like the tares sown among the wheat, He knows.

We picture ourselves on Jesus' side, but consider Joshua at Jericho. He met a man in full battle array with a drawn sword and asked, "Are You for us or for our adversaries?" The answer: "No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." The real question is not whether He is on our side, but whether we are with Him. Joshua fell and worshiped, and was told to remove his sandals, for the place was holy. That one was Jesus—and that picture of Him with the sword in His hand is the picture we need to hold.

The Promise to the Overcomer

It does not end with the summons, but with the promise. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat."

In Exodus 16, when Israel was starving in the wilderness, God sent bread from heaven. They asked, "Manna?"—literally, "What is it?" Moses said, "Eat it." For forty years God gave them daily bread. In John 6, Jesus declares, "I am the bread of life... I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh." To eat is to come to Him and believe. He says, "Return, and I will give of Myself."

"And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it." Someone always asks what was written on the stone—I don't know, and if I did, the verse would say "no one knows except Pastor Miles." But it doesn't. In the Greco-Roman world the white stone carried meanings: victors in the games received a white stone with their name, entitling them to lifelong provision; white stones also served as tickets of admission to festivals and assemblies. At the very least, then, the promise is access and provision for eternity.

How do you overcome? "Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:4-5). Come to Him, believe in Him, be born again—and whoever is born again overcomes.

So Jesus' call to a compromised church drifting toward sin is to become an overcomer through Him—more than a conqueror. "Repent, and I will make you overcome." It is a challenging word for us in a culture constantly tempting us to compromise. And it begins not with an action but with a thought carried in the heart. If it's there—repent.

Closing Prayer

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer.

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