THE CHURCH IN PERGAMOS
‘And to the angel of the Church in Pergamos write.’
The Church in Pergamos, with its constancy and self-devotion, and yet with the canker of grave moral and doctrinal evil, is surely typical of all communities, whether religious or civil, which are to a great extent in a sound and healthy condition, but are weakened and degraded by some deep-seated disease.
I. Take our modern English civilisation as a whole.—There is so much in it that is deserving of respect and admiration. But side by side with them are features to which none of us can shut our eyes, and which are of a very different character. As long as this side of our modern civilisation continues to be so dark and awful, can we really say that things are well with us, and that we have as a nation no reason to fear the Divine verdict? Is there not a very real and grim possibility of our fatally deceiving ourselves as to our standing as a people in the sight of Him ‘from Whom no secrets are hid’? Has the Judge before Whom ‘all the nations shall be gathered’ no cause for indignation—indignation stern and fierce—when such evils and shames are left by us to go on with no adequate effort to check them? These epistles, and not least this particular epistle to the Church in Pergamos, show us clearly that great virtues are not necessarily accepted by God as a set-off against gross sins. ‘I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth’ is ever his warning to those communities in which are found crying moral scandals; and in that ‘war’ all who have tolerated them must surely be to some extent fellow-sufferers with those who have actually committed them. ‘I will make war against them.’ The words ought to rouse us to strive with all our might against our sins and vices as a people, to stir us to clear out the various plague-spots in our cities or neighbourhoods, to eradicate the foul weeds which defile our national garden. We may not, we dare not, we cannot, let these things go on. We must make unceasing war upon them. We must make war upon them or God will make war upon us. ‘The wrath of God is revealed from heaven’—writes the Apostle to the Gentiles—‘against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down the truth in unrighteousness.’ Woe indeed to us if it be revealed against us.
II. Has not the Church in Pergamos also its counterpart in individual life?—Are not these Nicolaitans, these propagators of the iniquity of Balaam, these who taught evil and tempted into open sin, representative of the dark blots to be found in characters which are otherwise clean and pure? There are such blots—not the infirmities and frailties of the saint, but shameful illustrations of guilt—in the natures of only too many of us. ‘I have a few things against thee’ was the warning to the angel of the Pergamene Church; but those ‘few things’ were provocative of the Divine vengeance. May it not be no with ourselves, with our own souls?
III. ‘To him that overcometh.’—Yes, upon him that is victor over his sins and temptations, ‘the Giver of all good things’ bestows rewards beyond all thought. ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard’ the wondrous gifts which await those who are ‘more than conquerors’ through the strength of Him Who died and rose again.
—Rev. the Hon. W. E. Bowen.