The Sword of Truth
Jesus's Oracle to the Church at Pergamum
And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: Thus says the one having the sharp two-edged sword. I know where you are living, where the throne of Satan is, and you are holding to my name and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was put to death before you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you: You have there (some) holding to the teaching of Balaam who was counseling Barak to throw a scandal before the sons of Israel to eat idol meat and to fornicate. So also you have (some) holding to the teaching of the Nikolaitans likewise. Therefore, repent! But if not, I am coming quickly and warring with them with the sword of my mouth. The one who has an ear, let him listen what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give him the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone written a new name which no one knows except the one receiving it. Revelation 2:12-17
During seminary—the year was 1987—I purchased, read, marked up and annotated Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, The Cost of Discipleship; though now yellowed at the edges the small green volume still sits on a shelf alongside my other Sermon on the Mount books. At the top of the back cover is a quote from the book in all caps: “WHEN CHRIST CALLS A MAN HE BIDS HIM COME AND DIE.”
I’m not sure at the time that I was ready to read the book—although I readily agreed with its summons to follow Jesus’s radical commands in the Sermon on the Mount, I was already caught up in a type of Christian legalism that soaked up his call to fervent obedience (perhaps like the church at Ephesus).
I had no notion of cheap grace.
I hardly knew what grace was.
But Bonhoeffer wrote his book in a context of received Lutheran doctrine that focused on God’s grace alone for salvation with the resultant comfort and even apathy he saw in the German church as Hitler rose to power.
The German church needed those words then, and I expect we could say the same today for much of the American church.
Only years later did I actually experience the true grace of God apart from my own slavish efforts to please God.
And only at that point did I began to realize what cheap grace was, because the temptation was to rest in God’s grace only, no matter what my actions were.
Of course that is the tight-rope that preachers must walk: speak pure grace to those who need it, but summon to faithful obedience those whose faith has lagged in apathy, or who see faith as a “ticket to heaven.”
The church at Pergamum had a combination of those determined to follow Jesus to death on one hand, but also those willing to listen to cheap grace preachers and perhaps to act out their teachings.
In this oracle Jesus had words for both.
Let’s take a look.
(continued)
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1. Opening:
And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
Pergamum was an ancient city in what is today western Turkey and situated sixty-eight miles north of Smyrna. Its importance in first century Roman Asia came from its emperor cult and its temple to Zeus, as well as a Roman court tribunal—any of which may be the reason for the “throne of Satan” reference.
Pergamum was akin to Smyrna in importance, but more so for its governmental authority.
The church there was likely founded by missionaries of Paul when he was in Ephesus years earlier (and he may have visited there).
2. Jesus introduces the oracle:
Thus says the one having the the sharp two-edged sword.
With these words, Jesus once again drew from the vision of himself to John in Revelation 1:16.
This phrase could be translated “holding the sharp two-edged sword,” but in the vision and in verse 16 of this oracle the sword comes from Jesus’s mouth.
This sword (which Jesus “makes war” with) is the sword of God’s truth that cuts through all human lies, deception, and falsehood.
Because of the heretical teachings in the Pergamene church, Jesus chose here to wield that sword.
3. Praise:
I know where you are living, where the throne of Satan is, and you are holding to my name and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was put to death before you, where Satan dwells.
We don’t know who Antipas was, but he was executed for his faithful witness (Greek martyr) to Jesus—maybe by refusing to participate in emperor worship.
That horrific event did not dissuade the Christians of Pergamum from their faith, despite the danger posed for them.
They refused to deny Jesus just like Antipas.
No matter the other issues in that church, their faith in Jesus was strong, and Jesus praises them for that steadfastness.
4. A Critique:
But I have a few things against you: You have there (some) holding to the teaching of Balaam who was counseling Barak to throw a scandal before the sons of Israel to eat idol meat and to fornicate. So also you have (some) holding to the teaching of the Nikolaitans likewise.
Although this critique sounds complicated to us, Jesus was actually quite direct and simple.
The Nikolaitans (whoever they were) were teaching some sort of theology that allowed for any behavior in light of the grace and forgiveness through Jesus.
Jesus invoked to the Balaam story in the book of Numbers as an analogy to the Nikolaitans. The Lord did not allow Balaam to curse Israel, so Balaam told Barak, king of Moab, how to make the Israelites stumble with women and idolatry—and it worked.
Jesus had already praised the Ephesian church for rejecting Nikolaitan theology.
Paul addressed this type of theology in Romans 6 and Galatians 5: in both places he said there is never a justification for sin based on the abundance of God’s grace.
The Nikolaitans were throwing the “scandal” or “stumbling block” of testing God’s forgiveness and grace through participating in idolatry and practices outside of holy morality (“fornication” is a general term usually referring to sexual expressions outside of marriage).
“All of this is ok! If is it wrong, you are already forgiven. So indulge away!” they might have said.
The practical end was (and is) that Christians could simply merge into their pagan culture and not be singled out for their radically different faith and lifestyle of holiness.
This is akin to the “cheap grace” that Dietrich Bonhoeffer referred to.
Those who bought into this type of teaching were like some at Corinth a few years before who allowed or participated in such practices out of “freedom.” Paul dissented.
And Paul told the Galatians, “do not let your freedom [in Christ and from sin] become an opportunity to indulge in the flesh” (Galatians 5:13).
Jesus affirmed the teachings of Paul (and John) to those at Pergamum by bringing this “freedom to do anything” theology into the light and declaring it opposed to the true gospel of freedom.
The gospel is what frees us from being enslaved to our fleshly desires.
We are instead freed to live for God and to seek his desires and his kingdom.
(cont.)
5. Call to Repent:
Therefore, repent! But if not, I am coming quickly and warring with them with the sword of my mouth.
Jesus called the church of Pergamum—at least those under the sway of the Nikilaitans—to repent or change their mind (Greek metanoēson) and thus their beliefs and actions (just as he called the Ephesians to do and later the church of Sardis).
What is most interesting here is the action that Jesus promised if they didn’t: “I am coming quickly and warring with them with the sword of my mouth!”
War and sword sound like violent words and if they were physical they would be.
But Jesus spoke of the piercing, incisive word of the gospel that changes lives, and the implied insistence that he would not stop speaking the truth of the gospel.
As long as they erred, the words of the gospel would say: Look what you are doing! Repent! Follow Jesus to the cross! Doing otherwise—continuing to act in the ways you are— is spitting on his gracious act of taking your sin upon himself.
The sharp two-edged sword from Jesus’s mouth would divide the church at Pergamum and cut away that part that kept the church from following the way of the cross—unless those who were not following that way recognized their error and repented.
These words are difficult for so many churches today in the era of seeker-sensitive worship and preaching that goes out of its way not to offend—not too far removed from the easy gospel of the Nikolaitans.
But Jesus’s words have no compromise.
To prepare for trials ahead, the church must focus fully on Jesus and not on the culture around. Otherwise when the trials come, our sandy foundation will wash away and with it our lax faith.
6. Call to Listen:
The one who has an ear, let him listen what the Spirit says to the churches.
The bolded words are the third phrase of this sentence repeated for every church (I covered the first two phrases in the past two posts). Though each oracle is addressed to the angel of a single church, the phrase “to the churches” indicates that each oracle is intended for all of the churches.
There is nothing secret here and every church is liable to the same issues as every other church.
Likewise, the rewards promised to one church are promised to all.
This very notion puts the lie to those who argue that the seven churches represent various time periods in church history. No, they refer to every church in every time period, including today.
7. The Rewards
To the one who conquers I will give him the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone written a new name which no one knows except the one receiving it.
I have not mentioned it in previous posts, but “the one who conquers (Greek nikōn or nikōnti) is in the present or durative tense, with the notion of “the one who keeps on conquering.” The idea is not the end-point of conquering but the daily actions of conquering sin and Satan and the temptations of life.
I point this out because of the rewards: the hidden manna and a white stone.
Both of these images are spiritual rewards, but the first is easier to understand, since manna was well-known as the food for the Israelites in the wilderness.
The hidden manna is God’s provision for everything you or I might go through in the wilderness journey of life.
Every single day God supplies us with what we need to endure the day—only God and the believer knows what those needs truly are and day in and day out he furnishes what we require to live for him.
The white stone is a bit more obscure to us, but not to the hearers.
White stones were used for “yes,” votes in an election, or in a trial a vote for acquittal or “not guilty.” People also carried gemstone amulets, often white, with an inscription or perhaps an image of a god to protect them—not unlike the reason some today wear cross necklaces or “St. Christopher” necklaces.
The stone that Jesus would give was a spiritual stone with a spiritual name. That stone is akin to the giving of the Holy Spirit in Paul “as a pledge of our inheritance.” The stone with its name for the believer is that pledge or seal that God knows each of us personally and that when we stand before him he will recognize us as those covered and forgiven by Jesus’s blood.
Unlike the supposed magical quality of an amulet, the stone with a new name that Jesus gives is simply an assuring sign of his promised presence, help, and deliverance now and forever.
That is grace worth dying for.
Thanks for reading. See you later.
Note: There is no Audio Version this week because of computer problems.