Listen!
“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.” -Revelation 2:17a (emphasis mine)
Each of the 7 letters in Revelation 2 and 3 include this call to listen (hear, NIV) meaning to understand and obey. The plural (churches) reminds us that while each letter is for a church in a moment in history, there is something helpful and heedful for us in what the Spirit is saying. In Pergamum, this stands out to us because the problem in the church was that they had been listening, but to the wrong sources. The syncretism that had taken hold in some of the church members was due to them listening to the dominate voices in the culture around them. Sadly, as these compromises took hold in the church, the leaders of the church failed to speak out against them and take a stand for a “Jesus only” position. The result was that not only had heresy made its way into the church, it was being discounted as unharmful. Practically this meant that some had gone astray, and others were following down the same destructive path without even a warning from church leaders. While we may not be able to pinpoint with full certainty what the nature of the heresy was, it is safe to say that it did not fit with the truth in Jesus. We can know this because of the vision of Himself with which He greets the church and the nature of His actions if the church doesn’t repent.
Syncretism hasn’t disappeared from the church in the almost 2,000 years since Jesus inspired John to write the Pergamum congregation. It has new expressions but, we shouldn’t be fooled by the novelty. Many churches are compromised because they’ve given away the truth for something less ‘offensive’ in any number of arenas. Still others have become overly committed to causes or campaigns or candidates (insert your political affiliation or pet project here) which have left them compromised as well. And that is where this mess gets messier, because very few of us haven’t fallen prey to this ancient trap of the compromise within. And while most of us are glad to point out someone else’s error in going too far in a direction we particularly are against; few are brave and bold enough to point out the closer to home compromise that has ensnared. And this is WHY the call is to listen. To hear the Spirit. To obey His voice. He teaches us the truth. Not just the truth my ‘liberal’ (if you are conservative) or ‘conservative’ (if you are liberal) fellow Christian needs but the truth as I need to hear it. We cannot take a bold stand for the truth of Jesus until we’ve dealt with the compromise in ourselves. By God’s grace, you have some people in your life who will help you with the compromises which have made their way into your followership of Jesus. But in addition to and beyond the voice of any human being, we must tune our ear to hear Jesus via the Holy Spirit. He will teach us if we are willing students. He will convict us if we are willing to repent. May it be that we grow as listeners who are obedient hearers of God’s voice. If we do not learn to listen, the alternatives are bleak.