How does the Lord respond to churches that blend biblical truth with the sensibilities of the world? To answer this question, we can simply look to Revelation 2:12–17, where Christ personally speaks to the church in Pergamum about their compromise with the world.

Last time, we learned that even though this church was surrounded by both Greek and Roman paganism, certain believers there remained uncompromising (Revelation 2:13). But whatever faithfulness was found in Pergamum did not ultimately protect the church from “friendship with the world” (James 4:4).

After a brief word of praise, Christ’s letter pivots back to judgment: “But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans” (Revelation 2:14–15).

In spite of the church’s faithfulness to the gospel, some were engaging in idolatry. Remember that in the ancient world, there was no distinction between the sacred and the secular. Religion was not an isolated part of life; it set the course for the culture. Virtually all aspects of society were intertwined with temple rituals, festivals, and celebrations. Just like post-Exodus Israel falling back into idolatry, some in the church at Pergamum were venturing back to the habits of paganism. And they were encouraging others in the church to do the same.

How do we know that? The Lord singles out those “who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel” (v. 14). This is a reference to Numbers 22–25 and Israel’s conflict with Moab. Balak was the king of Moab. He had heard of Israel’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt. Scripture tells us he “saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. . . . and Moab was in dread of the sons of Israel” (Numbers 22:2–3). Balak knew about the God of the Israelites, and he was terrified of what his new neighbors could potentially do to him and his nation.

So Balak sent for Balaam, a notorious prophet-for-hire and supposed sorcerer, to put a curse on Israel for him. Balaam made three attempts to curse Israel, but the Lord stifled him each time, instead using his mouth to bless Israel. So Balaam developed another strategy: If he couldn’t curse Israel, he would corrupt them. Numbers 25:1–2 says, “While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods” (see also Numbers 31:16). Balaam persuaded the women of Moab to intermarry with the men of Israel, pulling those men into the idolatrous, immoral culture of Moab. They went back to eating things sacrificed to idols, back to the perverse sexual immorality of idolatry. They were coaxed back into the paganism they had escaped in Egypt, seduced into a blasphemous union with Satan. “So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry against Israel” (Numbers 25:3). This was a severe and widespread spiritual betrayal. The Lord’s chastening included the slaughter of 24,000 men of Israel (Numbers 25:9).

That was the “teaching of Balaam” that some in the church at Pergamum held to—they were throwing the same seductive stumbling block in front of the believers there. The Lord had delivered these men and women from the vile corruptions of pagan idolatry. Now others in the church were inviting them to slip back into their old, immoral habits. No doubt some in the Pergamum church were falling to these sirens of Satan’s culture. Practically speaking, that meant some in the church were attending pagan feasts, taking part in the perverse debauchery, and then coming to church. In his second epistle, Peter delivers a scathing condemnation against “those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires” (2 Peter 2:10) and attempt to lure believers back into similar wickedness. Peter writes further,

They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. (vv. 13–15)

These corrupters of the faithful took pleasure in their deception as they lured believers back into the bondage of sin.

That wasn’t the only corrupting influence in the Pergamum church. The Lord also notes, “You also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans” (Revelation 2:15). As mentioned earlier, we don’t know specifically what the Nicolaitans taught. Some of the early church fathers indicated that they lived lives of unchecked indulgence, likely tied to the immorality of paganism. That would make them fitting companions to the Balaamists, and a significant threat to the purity of the believers at Pergamum. Whatever their specific heresies were, we know the Lord hated their deeds (Revelation 2:6), as well as their presence and influence in the Pergamum church.

And that’s really the worst part of it all—that these vile heretics and deceivers were allowed to remain in the church unaddressed and unabated. Christ writes that the Pergamum believers “have there some” (v. 14); “you also have some” (v. 15). While the church held fast to Christ’s name and did not deny the faith, they were doing an abysmal job of guarding the flock of God. They sat and watched while wolves made off with the sheep.

Put another way, the church at Pergamum was living out the sinful absurdity of Paul’s warning to the Corinthians.

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you.” (2 Corinthians 6:14–17)

Pergamum had failed to separate thoroughly from the unbelieving world; they had settled for compromise. As we saw, they faithfully held the line on doctrine, but not when it came to holiness. They ought to have heeded the exhortation of the apostle James, written to shake careless church members just like these from their apathetic slumber: “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Pergamum’s friendship with the world was costing it dearly, as precious believers drifted back into the habits of their former lives.

This is a serious and increasingly common characteristic of many churches today. Not enough believers live as “aliens and strangers” in this world. As a result, they’re unable to “abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). We need to remember that it is the calling of the church to sever whatever tethers this world and its values still have on our hearts. We need to fight daily to break the habits of our former lives, training ourselves to hate our once-cherished sins. John had already given the church precisely that admonition in his first epistle:

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15–17)

Too many churches today give no indication that the world is passing away. They’re consumed with the culture, ignorant to the corrupting influences they routinely invite into their midst, or unmoved by the threat they represent. Countless churches—including many of the largest and most influential evangelical megachurches—are enthralled with themed messages based not on Scripture but on various icons of worldly entertainment: popular movies, television series, hit songs, or even the celebrities who have popularized those things. There’s even a Wikipedia entry explaining the term U2charist, “a communion service, or Eucharist, accompanied by U2 songs in lieu of traditional hymns.” One popular church—by most accounts the third-largest evangelical church in America, with more than 30,000 members—devotes a month each summer to a series called “At the Movies.” The music, message, and campus decorations are all carefully coordinated to feature themes and messages drawn from whatever Hollywood blockbuster they have chosen to highlight. A few years ago, a different—but similarly influential—megachurch famously opened their Easter service with a rendition of AC/DC’s rock anthem “Highway to Hell.” Examples similar to those abound on YouTube and other forums on the internet where church leaders discuss church-growth methodology.

The medium has indeed become the message. We live in a time exactly like the apostle Paul foretold, when church members “will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3–4).

Just like Pergamum, the modern church’s easy familiarity with the world has left it open to the compromises that corrupt. Also like Pergamum, it puts the church in the path of judgment from the Lord Himself.

And as we will see next time, the only hope for Pergamum is also the only hope for the compromising church today.

(Adapted from Christ's Call to Reform the Church)