The Church That Compromises the Truth

Compromise and accommodation were the identifying markers. They attempted to serve God but in the process allowed the prevailing cultural norms to shape both their thinking and their lifestyles. They had neglected the truth of Romans 12:2, which says, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” They had forgotten the warning of James 4:4, which says,

Adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.

Pergamum means “thoroughly married.” Here was a church thoroughly married to the world. Satan could not defeat this church with a frontal assault from without, so he revised his strategy and fostered friendly accommodation from within and with deadly success. The congregation was welcoming and affirming to the sexually immoral. On the contrary, we must not compromise our morality. It will destroy our witness and invite the judgment of God.

Some at Pergamum hold the name of Jesus. Some at Pergamum hold the name of Balaam. Some at Pergamum hold the name of the Nicolaitans.

We met the Nicolaitans at Ephesus in 2:6. The Ephesian church rejected them. The Pergamum church embraced them. The teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans are closely related if not identical. Immorality and idolatry were distinctive characteristics of these false teachers as well. Theologically they were antinomians, libertines. Doctrine mattered little and behavior mattered even less. With each passing day the distinction between this church and the world become more blurred and less clear. The lifestyle of one was barely distinguishable from the other. Worldliness, compromise, and tolerance had rushed into this church like a flood, and she was on the verge of drowning.

What an apt description of the church in the Western world today! What a gross misunderstanding of grace and the gospel we suffer from today.

REVELATION 2:16

Compromise is one of Satan’s favorite and most effective weapons. This is so for at least four reasons:

What is the antidote, the cure, to such compromise? Jesus provides a twofold remedy that He sets before the church He loves and has set free from their sins by His blood (1:5).

The words of Christ are clear and direct: “Therefore repent!” This is a word of command from the exalted and glorified Lord Jesus. Exhibit contrition of heart, confess your sin, and change your ways (Levy, “Church Compromised,” 21). It is time for a 180-degree turn. The imperative notes the urgency of the command. Do not delay! Do it now! There is no need or time to debate, dialogue, or declare a moratorium on what God thinks and how we should respond. His Word is not up for discussion.

Swindoll puts it well in what Christ expected of His church:

In concrete terms, Christ demanded that the Pergamum Christians amend their attitudes regarding the Balaamites and the Nicolaitans, that they take the necessary actions to remove those false teachings from their midst. The compromise had to end. Christ’s call for repentance included a warning for those who refused. If the faithful remnant refused to change their lackadaisical policies and if the wicked minority continued their libertine practices, Christ would discipline them. He would come swiftly, waging war against them with the double-edged sword—His just discipline as the righteous Judge. (Insights, 54)

These words lead us to our second application:

A failure to repent would result in a swift and serious response from Christ. First, “I will come to you quickly” (NIV, “soon”). Second, “I will . . . fight against them with the sword of My mouth” (see 1:16; 2:12). Christ fighting His church: I can think of no sadder image in the whole Bible as it relates to the Christian community. When Jesus addresses the whole church in Revelation 2–3, He says, “You.” Here He says He would fight against “them.” So this was a group of interlopers within the church that He would deal with in judgment, not those who were faithful.

The weapon of His war would be His Word, “the sword of My mouth.” His Word is the one certain source of eternal truth. His Word and only His Word sets the standard for God’s people. Antipas, the faithful witness, felt the sword of Rome. The compromisers in Pergamum will feel the sword of Christ! John MacArthur puts it well:

The church cannot tolerate evil in any form. To the boastful Corinthians, proudly tolerating a man guilty of incest, Paul wrote, “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened” (1 Cor. 5:6-7). Sinning believers should be made to feel miserable in the fellowship and worship of the church by being confronted powerfully with the Word of God. Neither is the goal of the church to provide an environment where unbelievers feel comfortable; it is to be a place where they can hear the truth and be convicted of their sins so as to be saved (Rom. 10:13-17). Gently (cf. 2 Tim. 2:24-26), lovingly, graciously, yet firmly, unbelievers need to be confronted with the reality of their sin and God’s gracious provision through the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Error will never be suppressed by compromising with it. Today’s nonconfrontive church is largely repeating the error of the Pergamum church on a grand scale, and faces the judgment of the Lord of the church. (Revelation 1–11, 90)

REVELATION 2:17

A threefold challenge, or promise, is given to this church if they repent and endure in faithfulness to Christ and observe all that He has “commanded” (Matt 28:20). Now they need ears to “listen.” They need to remember the “Spirit of God” is speaking. This is a word for this church and every church (“the churches”).

To the “victor” He promises “hidden manna.” Manna was the food supernaturally supplied to the Israelites during the exodus and wilderness wanderings. Mounce notes:

The idea of hidden manna reflects a Jewish tradition that the pot of manna that was placed in the ark for a memorial to future generations (Exod. 16:32-34; see Heb. 9:4) was taken by Jeremiah at the time of the destruction of Solomon’s temple (sixth century B.C.) and hidden underground in Mt. Nebo (2 Macc. 2:4-7). . . . In the context of the letter to Pergamum it alludes to the proper and heavenly food of spiritual Israel in contrast to the unclean food supplied by the Balaamites. While the promise is primarily eschatological, it is not without immediate application for a persecuted people. (Revelation, 82)

Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, will graciously feed His people the spiritual food they need for eternal nourishment. After all, He is the true “bread of life” (John 6:35,48-51).

Jesus says secondly through the Spirit by the pen of John, “I will also give him a white stone.” The exact meaning and significance of the white stone is elusive. Mounce says there are a dozen or more possibilities (Revelation, 82). Perhaps John was intentionally vague. Perhaps it was the stone of acquittal at a trial (versus the black stone of guilt and condemnation). Maybe it was the stone of acceptance or entrance when one presented oneself at a banquet. Maybe there is a connection to a stone in the breastplate of the high priest or to the Urim (Exod 28:30). Perhaps it symbolizes the victory of our faith in Christ (Beale, Revelation, 252–53; also Mounce, Revelation, 82–83). The bottom line is, it points to acceptance and victory in Christ our high priest, Christ our righteousness. He gives us the white stone. It is His gift never to be taken away.

On the stone is a “new name . . . that no one knows except the one who receives it.” The new name on the stone points to the end-time supper in which intimate fellowship with the risen Lord occurs. This is seen by looking to Revelation 3:12, which suggests that the name in 2:17 refers to “the name of My God and the name of the city of My God—the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God—and My new name.” All of these names “refer to the intimate eschatological presence of God and Christ with his people, as expressed most clearly by 22:3-4” (Beale, Revelation, 253): “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His slaves will serve Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.”

As commentator Greg Beale explains,

To receive the “new name” (2:17) is to receive Jesus’ victorious, kingly “name . . . no one knows except himself” (19:12-16). Nevertheless, he reveals and imparts it only to his people in an escalated manner at the end of each one’s life and fully at the conclusion of history (so 3:12). 2:17 and 19:12 seem to develop the similar thought from Luke 10:22: “all things have been given to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and to whomever the Son wills to reveal” (see also Luke 10:17). (Revelation, 254)

Beale explains the significance of this knowledge as follows:

In the ancient world and the Old Testament, to know someone’s name, especially that of God, often meant to enter into an intimate relationship with that person and to share in the person’s character or power. To be given a new name was an indication of a new status. . . . Therefore, believers’ reception of this name represents their final reward of consummate identification and unity with the intimate, end-time presence and power of Christ in his kingdom and under his sovereign authority. . . . [T]he “new name” is a mark of genuine membership in the community of the redeemed, without which entry into the eternal “city of God” is impossible. It stands in contrast to the satanic “name” that unbelievers receive, which identifies them with the character of the devil and with the ungodly “city of man.” (Revelation, 254–55)

There are many points of application in this text. I want to highlight one that is particularly relevant in my own American context.

There is always a grave danger in wedding God to government. The gospel and the government must always be kept distinct and separated. Further, it is lethal to the clarity and purity of the gospel to confuse it with national devotion and pride. Patriotic services may or may not have a place when the bride of Christ gathers to worship her Bridegroom and King. But this much is clear: If we become more moved and teary eyed over our flag and “America the Beautiful” than we do the cross of Christ and “Amazing Grace,” something is seriously wrong. Ultimately we must remind ourselves again and again that our hope is in Calvary’s hill not Capitol Hill. We must remember that an idol is often a good thing turned into a God thing. There is nothing wrong with loving America (or one’s home country). There is everything wrong in worshiping her, even if it is done unintentionally. There is no room for confusion or compromise here. Remember, Christ and only Christ says, “I will be your food now and in eternity. I will be your entrance into heaven as your home. I will give you My name that can never be taken away.” What the culture, government, and world offer does not compare. Hold on to His name because He is holding on to you. Do not deny the faith because He will not deny you.