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Revelation 2:12-17







Lesson Focus

Jesus calls us to hold on to our faith as we seek to live in the world without succumbing to the temptation to serve other gods.


Lesson Outcomes

Through this lesson, students should:

  1. Understand the social setting of Pergamum

  2. Be encouraged to hold on to their faith in Jesus

  3. Be inspired to trust in God for their daily bread.

Catching Up on the Story

So far, we have looked into Jesus’ message to the church in Ephesus and Smyrna. Ephesus was faithful and diligent when it came to belief and doctrine. They tested every thought and teacher who came their way with new teachings. If ever a church had theologically dotted its “is” and crossed its “ts,” it was the Ephesians. While they were found to be doctrinally pure, they were not as loving as they had once been. They have lost their first love, and doctrinal purity without love leads to arrogance, legalism, and the creation of boundaries meant to keep others out. Jesus’ words were strong, but the possibility of repentance and persevering until the end was not lost for the Ephesians.


The church in Smyrna receives differs from the message to the Ephesians. In Smyrna, the actual cost of faithful discipleship was being born by the faithful. The price was social, economic, and life-threatening. Refusal to burn incense as an act of worship of the emperor and being unwilling to participate in the religious cults around which every guild revolved led to being seen as an “atheist,” a social outcast. With the social ostracizing came the loss of financial stability. Finally, faithful following in the way of Jesus could get you killed. For those in Smyrna, the cost of discipleship did not outweigh the reward for being faithful.

This week, we will turn our attention to Jesus’ message to the church in Pergamum.

The City of Pergamum

Pergamum was not as important a city as either Ephesus or Smyrna, yet it did have many things about which it could brag. Among Pergamum’s biggest brag was that it was the first city in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire allowed to build a temple to worship the emperor. It also became a judgment seat for the empire where it would dispense justice, often executing criminals. In a real way, Pergamum wielded the sword in the east for Rome (Daniels, 64). In addition to being a Roman center of administration, it hosted a great temple to Zeus and many other temples (Blount, 57).


The Faithful One

As with the other letters, Jesus makes his address to the angel of the church in Pergamum. This time, however, Jesus refers to himself as “him who has the sharp two-edged sword.” Keeping with the symbolic nature of John’s work, we can say two things about this identification.


First, the sharp two-edged sword comes from Jesus’ mouth in 1:16. The mouth is not where you would choose to hold a sword. The sword refers to the creative and judgmental power that belongs to Jesus by God and through the Spirit. Second, Jesus will not wield this sword in the same way the Romans would have used a sword. Jesus will not use coercive violence to judge the nations, but Jesus will ultimately judge them. Jesus uses this image to mock Roman power and authority. The Roman sword will not win the day.


After the salutation, he identifies Pergamum as “Satan’s throne.” Keeping in mind how John uses different symbols to represent the Roman Empire, “Satan’s throne” is likely not where Satan has set up shop. Instead, it refers to Pergamum being a seat of power and judgment for Rome. With Roman influence what it was, the Christians in Pergamum were severely pressured to participate in the everyday civic life of the city.


Even with the pressure, the Christians continued to hold fast to their faith in Jesus. It was common for Christians to be turned in to the authorities for punishment. If the Christians recanted and denied their faith in Jesus, they would likely be let go. The other option was to remain steadfast in their faith and face certain death.


This is what happened to Antipas. We do not know who Antipas was when he lived, or his arrest and execution circumstances. We know the most crucial fact about Antipas; he was killed because of his faithfulness to Jesus. The Christians in Pergamum remained faithful even in the aftermath of Antipas’ death.


Balaam and he Nicolaitans

Jesus’ commendation for the Pergamum Christians is short-lived, just one verse. In verse 14, Jesus charges some in Pergamum with holding on to the teachings of Balaam. Daniels argues that Balaam


…became the biblical prototype of a corrupt teacher who led believers into fatal compromise promise with the daughters of Moab. Apparently at Pergamum, some within the church were teaching that accommodation with the culture was the wisest political policy (Daniels, 65-66).

The story of Balaam, which can be found in Numbers 22-25, serves as a cautionary tale about accommodating to the world at large. There likely isn’t anyone named Balaam in Pergamum. Instead, Jesus may be referring to whoever was the leader of the Nicolaitans.


It appears that some of the Christians in Pergamum were behaving in a way that was opposite of those in Ephesus. Instead of keeping themselves pure, the Christians in Pergamum continued to participate in the civil and religious activities of the city so as to continue to enjoy the privileges of being accepted in society.


There was no separation of church and state or church and business in the ancient world. Each trade guild generally had a god or goddess that served as their patron god. Civic festivals and gatherings were part of the city’s social fabric and often entailed ritual animal sacrifice, religious prostitution, and general sexual promiscuity. Participating in such events was one way that a person could secure their place in the marketplace and society.

Eating food that had been sacrificed to pagan gods and sexual promiscuity are not stops along the journey of faith in Jesus. Likely, these Christians did not believe in the lordship of those pagan gods, but the fact doesn’t excuse their behavior; their participation was solely social and economic. Blount comments,


Unlike the believers in Smyrna, who apparently opted out of such activities and thereby impoverished themselves as a result, many believers in Pergamum wanted to participate, wanted to move up socially, and therefore wanted assurance that their behavior was not problematic. Balaam provided that assurance with his teachings (Blount, 59).

Assurance that their behavior was not problematic was not what they received. Rather, they are extended the opportunity to repent, to turn from those pagan practices toward Christ. Failure to repent will result in Jesus making “war against them with the sword of my mouth.” If the two-sided sword represents the creative and judgmental power of Jesus’ words, then Jesus is talking about his judgment of those who do not hold fast to the faith when Jesus returns.


Manna and Stones

Verse 17 rounds out the letter to the church in Pergamum in the same way as the others have, with a declaration of what they will receive if they remain faithful. Jesus declares that they will receive “hidden manna” and a “white stone.”

One of the biggest problems that the Pergamum Christians have is that they do not trust that God will care for them if they are faithful. The Pergamum Christians do not believe that God will provide for them and their families if they refuse to participate in their city’s civic and religious practices. They have failed to pray “and give us this day our daily bread” and mean it.


Manna, then, is symbolic of God’s faithful care for Israel as they made their way to the promised land. If the Christians in Pergamum are faithful, God will care for them as God cared for Israel. “The hidden manna was a stroke of rhetorical brilliance; to a people starved for idol food, he offered food delivered directly from the one true Lord and God (cf. Exod 16:31–35; Num 11:6–9; Deut 8:3, 16; Ps 78:24)” (Blount, 60). The white stone likely represents a token given to a person invited to a meal or banquet.


The empire can exclude those who do not profess their allegiance to its power, but Christ offers to the faithful the white stone (2:17), or tessera-most likely the ancient equivalent of a ticket of admission-as a token of eternal acceptance to and inclusion in his divine banquet (Daniels, 69).


So What?

Jesus’s message to the church in Pergamum is challenging to hear. The letter to the Ephesians was easier to hear because moving from legalism to love is a slightly easier move than the one those in Pergamum are asked to make.

For Pergamum, participating in the civic and religious life of the city was the price of doing business, making a living, and putting food on the table. Removing oneself from the social circles surrounding pagan temples and trade guilds was difficult as it required a radical shift in lifestyle.


If we’re honest and open to seeing it, we face the same challenges and temptations as Pergamum. What are the things we insist we must participate in but are oriented toward serving another god? Sure, we don’t have temples, and pagan religious festivals like ancient Pergamum did, but we do have shopping malls (Amazon, too) and giant sports stadiums, to name a few.


The festivals the malls put on are Black Friday and sales on every conceivable holiday. These festivals call us to participate in the greed and ravenous consumption associated with consumerism. The sports stadiums’ festivals are the Super Bowl, March Madness, the NBA Finals, and the World Series, which call us to sloth and gluttony as we lounge in our favorite chairs, stuffing our faces with chicken wings and tortilla chips.


Pilgrimages to these temples and participation in the festivals housed there are part of the price of doing business and remaining socially connected in today’s world. The question for the Pergamum Christians is the same as it is for us. What parts of society do we participate in that challenge our faithfulness to Jesus Christ?


Discussion Questions

Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.

  1. What does Jesus mean when he calls himself the one “who has the sharp two-edged sword” (verse 12)?

  2. Why would he address the Christians in Pergamum that way?

  3. Why would Jesus call Pergamum “where Satan’s throne is” (verse 13)?

  4. What does Jesus commend the church in Pergamum for doing?

  5. Read Numbers 22-25. Who was Balaam, and what did he do? Why would Jesus accuse them of holding on to Balaam’s teaching?

  6. Eating food sacrificed to idols and ritual prostitution, and general sexual promiscuity was part of the pagan religious festivals held in pagan temples. Trade guilds also generally had a patron god for their guild, and the temple was a place for guild meetings. Jesus seems to chastise some of the Christians in Pergamum for participating in those pagan practices. If they were to stop doing so, what might the ramification be for the church members in Pergamum?

  7. What does Jesus mean when he says that if they do not repent, he’ll come and make war against them with the sword of his mouth (Verse 16)?

  8. Manna is a reference to God’s care and provision for Israel as they made their way to the Promised Land. A white stone with a name inscribed on it was a common way of inviting a guest to a banquet. The stone would then be used as a token for admittance into the party. Why would Jesus say this would be the reward for their faithfulness (verse 17)?

  9. The behaviors the Christians in Pergamum are being warned about are behaviors that were part of the ordinary course of civic life. Not participating in those behaviors would have had disastrous social and financial consequences. What behaviors might we engage in that are a part of the normal course of life in America but which we might be judged for?