Friday, January 26, 2018
“Write this letter to the angel of
the church in Pergamum. This is the
message from the one with the sharp two-edged sword: “I know that you live in the city where Satan
has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me. You refused to deny me even when Antipas, my
faithful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan’s city. “But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is
like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered
to idols and by committing sexual sin. In
a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same
teaching. Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight
against them with the sword of my mouth.
“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what
he is saying to the churches. To
everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden
away in heaven. And I will give to each
one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one
understands except the one who receives it.
Revelation 2:12-17(NLT)
The church at Pergamum was willing to suffer persecution for
the cause of Christ, and the message John was given to give to them was: you have been faithful! Yet, even with passive willingness to suffer,
the Lord wanted them to be pro-active in resisting the sinful influence of
unfaithful people. The Nicolaitans
brought a lack of discernment as well as a like for sexual perversity into the
life of the church, even teaching God’s people to participate. God informed them that this is intolerable
and they were doing nothing about it. He
told them to repent – which doesn’t simply mean a trip to the altar, a quick
prayer, and change nothing. It means to
change your behavior…and pronto!
Many of us who were raised in a culture that is
Christian-based were also taught to be nice.
Does this sound familiar: If
you don’t have something nice to say, say nothing!
The problem with that, measured against the LORD’s message to
the church at Pergamum, is saying nothing when
sinfulness is being taught to your children in Sunday School, or is being
flaunted by church members, accomplishes worse than nothing; saying nothing
validates behavior. He who is silent is
thought to consent!
Now, speaking-up, especially when it means confronting
another with what you perceive to be sinful behavior, is like walking in a
minefield. In a culture where even the
slightest offense can wind up in hate-crime court, the Christian must choose
carefully how to address issues; the bull-in-a-china-shop approach
isn’t effective!
So how do you speak up?
The heart of this matter is prayer, making certain of your intentions
and methods. Notice how Paul counseled
leaders in this respect:
Dear brothers
and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are
godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same
temptation yourself. Share each other’s
burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help
someone, you are only fooling yourself. You
are not that important. Galatians 6:1-3(NLT)
For You Today
The Golden Rule applies in speaking-up;
speak a word of kindness, steeped in truth, humility, and Godliness.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a
blessed day!
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