Layover: Pergamos

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write…. ‘You hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith…. But I have few things against you, because you have there some who hold to the teaching of Balaam” (Revelation 2:12-15).

“Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to B. L. Airways, where we will continue on our flight to Philadelphia. We have already made a couple stops on the way…and we have four more before our arrival at our final destination.

“We are now preparing for a landing in Pergamos. This city was the primary one in the area of Asia that was taken over by Rome in 133 B. C. It was known for the worship of Asklepios, signified by a snake, and Zeus, also called The Savior. The people were obsessed with images of serpents. Another interesting fact—Pergamos was considered to have been the originating site of parchment paper.

“We hope you find your stay in Pergamos…enlightening.”

Pergamos was a difficult city for Christians to live in. It may not have had the high levels of persecution which was found in Smyrna, but problems abounded nonetheless. Politics and paganism were so closely aligned that it brought an enormous amount of pressure on Christians to compromise.

Particularly, a problem arose which Scripture calls Nicolaitanism, which is tied to “the teaching of Balaam.” What exactly Nicolaitanism is has been the subject of many debates. One thing is certain, though—it is similar to something Balaam did in the Old Testament. If we look at what Scripture says regarding Balaam, we may understand what was going on in the church in Pergamos.

Many of us may recall hearing the amazing story of Balaam’s donkey, who stopped in the middle of the road because he saw an angel blocking the way, then talked to Balaam. In this account, Balaam was asked to pronounce a curse on Israel, but after experiencing God, blessed them instead. Where he was initially reluctant, he then appeared to have learned a lesson.

We discover in Numbers 31, however, that Balaam actually worked to turn the people away from the Lord, seducing them into idolatry and other abominations. He may have said the right things when he blessed Israel, but his heart was not in it. He actually sought to destroy them from within through corruption.

Apparently, this is what was going on in the church of Pergamos. Some from within the church were causing God’s people to stumble. Christians were being deceived by falsehoods.

An obvious lesson can be drawn from this and applied to our own churches today. We are not to simply sit in the pews of our church, passively taking in whatever is being preached. We need to discern whether or not messages delivered by a given preacher are truth by studying Scripture for ourselves during our own private devotional times. It’s our God-given responsibility.

What we need to realize, though, is that falsehood not only comes from without, but it especially comes from within. There is a place deep inside us—or maybe not so deep after all—where we actually desire sin. The part of us that Scripture calls “the flesh” wants to disobey God, and wants to do what we want to do.

We may not want to admit it, but there is a part of us that wants to listen to the lies we speak to ourselves. Maybe these lies originate from media or coworkers, or wherever. But, then we internalize it…even if it’s subconsciously. It then awakens like a bear stirred from his hibernation. Lies that have been dormant inside us start to bellow, and we listen to these abhorrent lies.

Christians love to blame everything on the Devil, and pass everything off on him. This is not wholly accurate, though. Though he is certainly the author of all sin, we cannot simply say, “The Devil made me do it” in ever situation. After all, deceit often comes from within; we want to do things that are wrong. We need to take responsibility for the thoughts we think and the actions we perform, because God is going to hold us accountable.

The way to prevent falling prey to deceiving ourselves is the same as listening to a preacher’s message. We need to get into the Bible. We are to guard ourselves against deceit, no matter where it originates, through the reading of God’s Word. The better we know its contents, the less likely we are to be led astray, even by our own thoughts.

The tongue is deceitful, to be sure. You can make the case that our internal tongues are even more deceitful because our thoughts lack the natural restraints we have when we audibly speak. No matter how powerful our tongue is, though, Jesus has a sword that fights falsehoods and conquers them. His speech, that was mighty enough to make dry ground spring forth from water during Creation, is certainly strong enough to defeat false speech from others, or from ourselves. Let us fit our mouths and our minds with the bit that attaches to the reins of Christ. He will never lead us astray.

Ladies and gentlemen…we hope you enjoyed the third leg of our journey. Our next destination, to which we will arrive in one month, is Thyatira.

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