“I know where you live” Revelation 2:13
It is so comforting for Christians to know that God knows everything about the area we live in. He knows our neighbours. He knows the hoods and the goods! He knows the local authorities and the decisions they make that affect our day to day lives. He knows the government of the countries we live in and all the laws and bylaws that govern our land.
In Jesus’ letter to the church at Pergamum, He stated that He knew where they lived and that it was a city where Satan reigned and sin was rampant. It was a city full of pagan temples, and there was the famous altar to Zeus within its walls. He commended them for staying faithful to their trust in Him, even when one of their members, a man named Antipas was martyred.
But Jesus also gave them a warning; a reminder to hold fast to the teaching of His Word, rather than accepting the prevailing view of the society they lived in. Sexual sin is one of the greatest weapons Satan uses in his war against God’s people, and Jesus was reminding them of this fact. In Numbers 22 we read the record of Balaam, a pagan priest, who had been summoned to pronounce a curse on God’s people. But he couldn’t. Man cannot curse what God has blessed. Take courage in that. But he did advise how to remove God’s people from under God’s blessing and that was through sexual sin. He advised that beautiful young pagan women should be sent to the young men of Israel to seduce them. By violating the sexual ethics that God gave for Israel’s purity, they came out from under His blessing and judgement had to fall. This was the situation in Pergamum and is the situation in our world today; sexual sin leads to a broken relationship with God.
Jesus warned this church about the teaching of the Nicolaitans. These were people within the church who taught that Christians should and could be involved in all that society said was right. They could join in pagan festivals and accept the social norms. There are those in today’s church that say the same thing. They are modern Nicolaitans, encouraging God’s people to do what everyone else is doing, while still calling themselves Christians. They go against clear Biblical teaching on morality and how to worship God. Jesus told this church to repent of these things, and He says the same to us today.
Jesus then uses the symbolism of a white stone with a new name engraved upon it to show the promise He has for those who repent. In ancient courts, black stones were used to pronounce an accused person guilty. White ones pronounced them innocent. Jesus was saying to the church in Pergamum, and to us today, that when we repent of all our sins, He gives us a white stone to declare that we are no longer guilty, but are considered sinless in His sight. I don’t know what the name written on the stone is, but I like to imagine that it says, You Are Mine!
Let those who really want to know God, listen to what Jesus is saying to us by His Spirit through His Word.