Hebrews 4:11-12 (NIV) 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Revelation 2:12-17a (NIV) 12 “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives. 14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
In the hands of Christ, the sword brings not a judgment of destruction, but of healing. Judgment not to condemn, but to save. The sword in His hands is used like a scalpel to cut away that which is false and illusionary. This is the way the judgment of Christ works.
The church in Pergamum was under pressure to join with the rest of the population in worshipping the Emperor. The church had resisted the pressure even to the point of remaining true to Christ when one of their own was killed by mob frenzy against their faith. They had resisted the pressure from the outside, but the church had lost its love for truth and were failing to test spirits to see if they were of God. They were allowing false teaching to be spread among the people. The church in Pergamum remained faithful, but their faith was being eroded from beneath them by tolerance of false teaching.
The Nicolaitans have long since vanished from the scene, but they left behind the assumption that “if I believe it that makes it so.” We call this subjectism. To repent is to recognize that in our aversion to narrow minded dogmatism we may have given up the search for truth. We have accepted uncritically the religion of our society and/or settled for the comfortable faith of subjectism. To repent is to become aware that it is important for our beliefs to correspond to reality. To repent is to continually measure what we believe against the Word of God in Scripture. It is essential that we hear with clarity the voice of Scripture and learn to distinguish that voice from all other voices that ring in our ears. It is important that we expose our lives to the power of the Word to open our eyes to see the truth about ourselves, our neighbors, our community, and our world. Christians should be tender hearted and tough minded so we might confront the world with the same truth that has confronted us.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope October 28, 1984
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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