We live in a day and in a culture where the highest goods are things such as “tolerance,” “peace,” “harmony,” “political correctness,” and certainly “compromise.” There is really no socially acceptable platform given anymore for the church, or individual believers, to stand up and say “Thus Says the Lord.” Indeed this is the culture of compromise. It is a day and time where the absolute truth of God is drowned out and other, louder voices get the attention.
Compromise has always been a temptation for the church. In Revelation 2:12-17 the Lord addresses the church at Pergamos as they were guilty of making compromises in order to maintain peace and harmony. The influences of worldliness were all around. The city had a magnificent alter to Zeus, was the seat/center of an emperor worship cult, was a place of culture and learning with a massive library second only to the great library of Alexandria, Egypt, and had a shrine to Asclepius who was the god of healing. Striving to live for Jesus Christ in that environment had to be exceedingly difficult, but certainly not impossible.
The church was tolerating some of its membership holding to what the Lord calls “The Doctrine of Balaam.” Balaam was nothing more than a prophet for hire (Num. 22-25). Fearful of the Israelites because of what they had done to their enemies the Amorites, Balak King of Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel. After trying 3 times unsuccessfully, Balaam came up with a new plan. This new plan was to corrupt the Israelites by teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the men. He would try to get them to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of sexual immorality. He plotted to use Moabite women to lure these men into ungodly behavior. The theory was that this sinful behavior would destroy Israel’s spiritual power. Like the Israelites of long before, the church at Pergamos was also allowing a mixing of sin with the church which was to remain pure. Also, some at Pergamos were following the teachings of the Nicolaitans who also taught that Christians could participate in pagan rituals, particularly sexual ones. Consequently, their power and strength were greatly diminished. Peter wrote of those who would follow the error of the Balaamites in 2 Pet. 2:15-16 saying “They have forsaken the right way and gone astray; following the way of Balaam the son of Beor; who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.”
In 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 Paul strongly warns the church to not mix and thereby become influenced by the world. He writes “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? ‘For you are the temple of the living God.’ As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.’” Sadly, a significant number at the Pergamos church believed a person could attend pagan feasts, engage in debauchery, and sexual immorality and still be a part of Christ’s church! Sin among its membership was taking away the inherent power of the church.
In our day and age, the church has significantly diminished power. I am convinced this is because of its many compromises with sin. I wonder, on almost any church’s membership rolls, how many persons are living decidedly worldly lives, perhaps even engaging in grievous types of sin. How many drug users, alcoholics, pornography viewers, adulterers and adulteresses, thieves, homosexuals, those living together out of wedlock, etc. might there be? Also, how many speak with curse words, gossip, slander, regularly view filth on television and in movies, and otherwise live for themselves with little or no thought/concern for God or His Word. Yet the church of today, desperate for members, looks the other way. Church discipline is a thing of the past. The church has overwhelmingly lost its moral authority in this world and therefore its power to truly influence. Statistics show the rate of engagement in sinful behavior is no different than that of the world at large. This was the heart of the problem at Pergamos. There were two groups of people 1) Those engaging in grievously sinful behavior and 2) Those, perhaps not engaging in, but ultimatelydoing nothing about those people who were engaging in such behavior.
Satan loves to fool churches into thinking that tolerating sin is a good thing. If the church were to rise up and take stronger stands against everything from outward, overt acts of sin to slothfulness among its membership, Satan knows it would have a huge impact on the outworking of power seen through the church. Therefore he hopes for the apple cart to not be upset.
The ultimate answer for the church at Pergamos, as well as the church of the 21st century is simply “repentance.” When used in Scripture, the word “repent” describes a change of mind that results in a change of behavior. In the modern culture compromise is applauded, but we are told that “the angels in Heaven rejoice when a sinner comes to “repentance.”
In Christ,
Dr. Allen Raynor, Pastor
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