It Starts Small

Our scripture today is a rebuke Jesus gave to the church at Pergamum. Some of the members followed the example of Balaam by introducing moral corruption into the church. We learn about Balaam in Numbers 22-25. The quick version is King Balak offered Balaam a huge amount of money to curse Israel. Balaam discovered that he could not command God to curse His people. So the king offered even more money, but God commanded Balaam to bless Israel instead. Eventually, Balaam advised the king to send prostitutes to the people of Israel to intermarry with the Israelites so the false beliefs would intermarry with them and get them to commit idolatry. Spoiler alert!! It works.

Paul teaches us that the bride of Christ should be pure and devoted to Him.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. ²⁷ He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Ephesians 5:25-28

¹⁴ Do everything without grumbling and arguing, ¹⁵ so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world,

Philippians 2:14-15

Some of the members of the church at Pergamum succumbed to Balaam’s sins by marrying unbelievers and engaging in idolatry. The Bible clearly prohibits the marriage or partnerships of a believer and an unbeliever.

¹⁴ Do not be yoked together with those who do not believe. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

2 Corinthians 6:14

God’s Word is also very clear on idolitry:

²¹ Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

1 John 5:21

Besides falling into the sins of Balaam, they also introduced some of the Nicolaitan teachings into the mix. We learned while studying Ephesus, that Jesus hated their teachings of compromise.

Jesus gives a very stern command: REPENT!

Jesus was asking the believers and us to take a good look within our hearts and evaluate false doctrine and beliefs. To repent from the practice of it and turn to Him. Jesus says, I am coming and when I do, there will be no more time to repent, so repent now. Jesus will judge all we are with the sword of His mouth and the Word of God!

God has no tolerance for false doctrine and immorality within the body of Christ. Anyone who tries to marry biblical teaching with corrupt doctrine along with immoral living will learn the hard way that it does not mix! They place themselves under swift chastisement at the hands of Jesus, the head of the church. Instead of rebuking the moral and spiritual darkness, they allowed the false teaching to fester in the assembly. False teaching has a greater capacity to do damage to a church within than anything on the outside.

The same is true within our own hearts.