Commentary - Revelation 2:12-17

Bird's-eye view

In this third letter to the seven churches, the Lord Jesus Christ addresses the saints in Pergamum, a church that was holding fast in the face of intense, overt persecution, but which was simultaneously tolerating cancerous sin and false teaching within its own ranks. This is the letter to the compromising church. Jesus commends them for their courage, for not denying His name even when one of their own, Antipas, was martyred in their city, a place Jesus calls "Satan's throne." But this commendation is immediately followed by a sharp rebuke. They were allowing the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans to fester in their midst, doctrines that promoted eating food sacrificed to idols and committing sexual immorality. In short, they were trying to be faithful to Christ while maintaining a peace treaty with the world. Jesus calls them to repent of this tolerance, threatening to come and make war against the false teachers with the sword of His mouth. The letter concludes with glorious promises for the one who overcomes this temptation to compromise: hidden manna, a white stone, and a new, intimate name from Christ Himself.

The central lesson for Pergamum, and for us, is that faithfulness to Christ involves more than just enduring external opposition. It also requires the internal fortitude to practice church discipline and maintain doctrinal purity. A church can be orthodox in its formal confession and courageous under fire, and yet still be under divine judgment for tolerating what God hates. The world's assault on the church comes in two forms: persecution and seduction. Pergamum was withstanding the first but succumbing to the second.

Outline

Context In Revelation

The letter to Pergamum is the third of seven, following Ephesus (the loveless church) and Smyrna (the persecuted church). There is a logical progression here. Ephesus was commended for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans, but Pergamum is rebuked for tolerating their teaching. Smyrna was facing a fiery trial of external persecution, and Pergamum was also located in a center of satanic opposition. But where Smyrna's trial was purely external, Pergamum's was both external and internal. The pressure from the outside was immense, but the greater danger was the cancer on the inside. This letter sets the stage for the next, to Thyatira, where the problem of tolerance gets even worse, with the church allowing a false prophetess to actively teach and seduce God's people. Pergamum represents a critical tipping point: the moment a faithful, persecuted church begins to allow the world's thinking to establish a beachhead within its own membership.

Key Issues

The Compromising Church

Every church lives in a particular place, and that place has a spiritual temperature. The saints in Pergamum lived in a furnace. It was a major center for the imperial cult, the worship of the Roman emperor, and it boasted a massive altar to Zeus. It was a city steeped in paganism and hostile to the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ. For this, Jesus commends them. They didn't buckle under the pressure. But the devil is a strategist. If he cannot break down the front door with a battering ram, he will send a seducer to knock politely at the back door. The great danger for any church that has learned to withstand persecution is to grow careless about corruption. The teaching of Balaam is the strategy of internal corruption. If you cannot curse God's people from the outside, then teach them how to compromise on the inside. Teach them how to blend in, how to accommodate their faith to the surrounding culture, particularly in the areas of worship (idolatry) and life (immorality). This is the perennial temptation of the church, and it is the central issue Christ addresses here.

Verse by Verse Commentary

12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: This is what the One who has the sharp two-edged sword says:

Each of the seven letters begins with Christ identifying Himself with a characteristic drawn from the vision in chapter 1. Here, He is the one who wields the sharp two-edged sword. In the first chapter, this sword was coming out of His mouth. This identifies the sword as the Word of God (Eph 6:17; Heb 4:12). It is a weapon that cuts both ways. It is the instrument of salvation for those who repent, cutting away sin and falsehood. And it is the instrument of judgment for those who persist in rebellion. For a church that is tolerating false teaching, this is a pointed and ominous introduction. Christ is reminding them at the outset that He is the one who defines truth and executes judgment, and He does so by His Word.

13 ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

Jesus begins with commendation, and it is a significant one. He says, "I know where you dwell." He is not an absentee landlord. He understands their circumstances perfectly. They live "where Satan's throne is." This likely refers to the high concentration of pagan worship in Pergamum, particularly the imperial cult which demanded ultimate allegiance to Caesar. To confess "Jesus is Lord" in that city was to confess "Caesar is not," which was treason. In this hostile territory, they held fast to His name and did not deny the faith. They had even produced a martyr, Antipas, a faithful witness who was killed right there among them. Jesus honors this man, giving him the same titles He claims for Himself in chapter 1: witness and faithful. This church had paid a high price for its loyalty to Christ, and Jesus sees and commends it.

14 But I have a few things against you, that 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 sexual immorality.

After the commendation comes the indictment. "But I have a few things against you." The problem was not a lack of courage, but a lack of discipline. They were tolerating false teachers in their midst. Jesus identifies their doctrine as "the teaching of Balaam." To understand this, we have to go back to the book of Numbers. The prophet Balaam was hired by King Balak to curse Israel, but God would not let him (Num 22-24). So Balaam, off the record, gave Balak a different strategy: if you can't curse them, corrupt them. He taught Balak to use Moabite women to seduce the men of Israel into sexual sin and idolatry at Baal-peor (Num 25; 31:16). This is precisely what was happening in Pergamum. False teachers were telling Christians it was acceptable to participate in the local trade guilds, whose feasts invariably involved eating meat that had been sacrificed to a pagan god and often included ritual prostitution. It was a doctrine of accommodation, a way to be a Christian without offending the world or hurting your business prospects.

15 So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Jesus explicitly connects this teaching of Balaam to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Ephesus was praised for hating their deeds (Rev 2:6), but Pergamum was tolerating their doctrine. It is very likely that these are not two separate heresies, but rather two names for the same essential error. The teaching of Balaam is the Old Testament prototype for the Nicolaitan heresy. Both taught a form of antinomianism, a liberty that was actually a license to sin. They created a false distinction between the "spiritual" life and the "physical" life, arguing that what you did with your body did not affect your standing with God. This allowed Christians to participate in the pagan social and economic life of the city without a bad conscience. It was a theology designed to eliminate the offense of the cross and make peace with a pagan culture.

16 Therefore repent. But if not, I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.

The command is direct and non-negotiable: "Repent." And the repentance required was not just that the false teachers should repent of their teaching, but that the church leadership should repent of their tolerance. They had to stop putting up with it. They had to exercise church discipline. The alternative is stark. If the church refuses to wield the sword of the Word in discipline, then Christ Himself will come and wield it in judgment. Notice the specific target: "I will make war against them," that is, against the false teachers. But when a king makes war within a city, the whole city feels the effects. Christ's coming in judgment against the heretics would be a terrifying ordeal for the entire congregation that harbored them.

17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’

As with all the letters, this one ends with a call to hear and a promise to the overcomer. The one who "overcomes" here is the one who resists the temptation to compromise, who refuses the tainted meat of the idol feasts and remains faithful to Christ alone. To him, Jesus makes three promises. First, "hidden manna." The false teachers offered the meat of pagan feasts; Christ offers true spiritual nourishment, fellowship with Himself, which is hidden from the world. Second, a "white stone." In ancient courts, a white stone was used for acquittal. This is a stone of vindication, of acceptance, of being declared righteous by the ultimate Judge. Third, a "new name." The world gives us labels and identities. But Christ gives the overcomer a new name, a name of intimate love and personal identity that is known only to Christ and the believer. It is the ultimate promise of a personal, secure, and vindicated relationship with the King.

Application

The church in Pergamum is a mirror for much of the modern American church. We live where Satan's throne is; that is, we live in a culture that is deeply and institutionally hostile to the lordship of Christ. And many of our churches, to their credit, have held fast. They have not buckled on certain key doctrinal issues in the face of immense cultural pressure. But at the same time, we have become masters of compromise and tolerance in other areas. We tolerate the teaching of Balaam every time we allow worldly pragmatism to dictate our church's mission, or when we adjust our sexual ethics to be more palatable to the spirit of the age.

We have Nicolaitans in our midst whenever we have teachers who tell us that we can love Jesus with our "spirit" while giving our bodies, our money, and our children's education over to the world's systems. The call to us is the same as it was to Pergamum: Repent. Repent of our cowardice. Repent of our desire to be liked by the world. Repent of our failure to exercise biblical church discipline against those who would lead the flock astray. The choice is a stark one. Either we will take up the sword of the Word and clean our own house, or Christ will come and do it for us. And that is a terrifying prospect.

But the promises are glorious. If we overcome, if we choose the offense of the gospel over the friendship of the world, Christ promises us what the world can never offer. Not the fleeting pleasure of a pagan feast, but the deep satisfaction of the hidden manna. Not the fickle approval of the crowd, but the final acquittal of the white stone. Not a reputation among men, but a new name known and loved by the King of kings. That is a trade worth making every time.