Revelation 2:14

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14 But [alla] I have [echo] a few things [oligos] against [kata] thee, [sou] because [hoti] thou hast [echo] there [ekei] them that hold [krateo] the doctrine [didache] of Balaam, [Balaam] who [hos] taught [en] [didasko] Balac [Balak] to cast [ballo] a stumblingblock [skandalon] before [enopion] the children [huios] of Israel, [Israel] to eat [phago] things sacrificed unto idols, [eidolothuton] and [kai] to commit fornication. [porneuo]    KJV-Interlinear

14 'But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality.    NASB

To some degree, the church in Pergamum has remained faithful to Christ.This is obvious since some of the Christians were martyred for their refusal of worshiping the emperor.They could have easily compromised their beliefs in order to save their lives.  After all, what would be the big deal of making a bow or two, to an idol?

However, they held to their beliefs and paid the ultimate price, and for that they were commended by Christ for their faithfulness.

But, there were those who did not have such virtuous principles. They preferred to compromise with their surroundings, rather than trust and obey Christ.And unfortunately this is the general state of Christianity even in our current day.

There are many who profess to love Jesus, who profess to be good Christians, who know the language, even quote scripture and have their favorite verses, but do not commit their life to what they say.  These are the ones who are full of smoke, air, puffed up with nothing inside, as we studied yesterday.  All talk and no substance.

People compromise their Christian faith, with their preference for whatever it is that entertains them, or occupies their time in life. They are in effect, wasting their life away on nothing activities.  You will find a lot of this type of activity on the internet in many of the social chat or friendship or whatever, venues, or watching television, or whatever.

And who is it that they all pursue really?  It is Balaam and Balak from the Old Testament, and in the next verse, from the New Testament, the example will be the Nicolaitans.These all represent the compromise that people make with the world, at the expense of their spiritual mandates and principles.

One thing you should note.  Far too many take lightly of Biblical principles, and do not see the harm they are doing when they simply ignore Gods mandates. They do not take the spiritual life seriously.  It is not real in their minds.  Not as real as the temporal and physical world around them.And since lightning does not strike immediately when they do what they do, then Gods rules are easy to ignore.

However, Christ does not take lightly to those who sweep away their errors as unimportant nothings.  Christ holds against them who are indifferent toward their spiritual dysfunction, and one day that infamous sword we studied the other day, will enter into their empty smoke filled lives, and then ….. well, it won’t be pretty, and it won’t be a happy scene, but most likely will be one of those ‘What did I do?’ things.

The story of Balaam is found in Num. 22-25.  In short, Balaam was a prophet for hire.  He would do anything for money, as it were.Balak, the King of Moab, was afraid of the Israelites because of what they did to the Amorites, so he hired Balaam to curse the Israelites. 

Balaam tried three times and failed.  So he came up with another plan.  He was going to get women (lots of them) from Moab to go to the Israelites and get the women to entice the Israelite men and even influence them with their own Moab religion.  That succeeded to some extent.  The idea was that the Israelites would compromise their own beliefs and thus handicap their faith and obedience toward God, and that would cause their downfall.

The plan in theory was a good one and in reality would work, because when people turn away from God, and by that they turn to other things that occupy their attention, rather than on the spiritual things that should be a part of their daily lives, then they would stall their own spiritual life and actually halt it permanently.

Anything that causes you to be distracted from your daily study, and this applies to most folks, will result in your being disobedient toward God, even though you think you are a godly person.After all, why can’t one pursue life and then go to church on Sunday or holidays or whenever, and have both lives?

And that answers is, that you cannot.  You cannot have a carefree virtually do nothing life, and please God, even if you think that you are pleasing Him.

There is only one way to please God (only one way), and that is to fulfill your obligation to grow up to spiritual maturity.  And there is only one way to do that, and that is to engage in that day in and day out, boring read the Bible study, and read it again, and learn, and do the things that you should do in order to actually learn, and grow up.

Hummm. Not as much fun as sending flowers and hearts and typing little verses and like this and like that, and basically doing nothing that promotes your spiritual state.

‘Oh!’ But you say, ‘I’m not worshipping idols and bowing to icons and leading a life of lascivious sex.’

And ‘Oh!’  But I say, ‘But you are.’

The pattern of spiritual distraction, regardless of what it may be, yields the same result - failure in your spiritual life.

Some will heed and change the pattern of their life, and some won’t.In which category will you put your life, all of your life?

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