Letters to the Seven Churches: Study for LentExemplo

Examine What You Tolerate at Home: The Churches at Pergamum & Thyatira 

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What person or persons do you love so little that, instead of getting involved in the mess of their lives, you turn a blind eye to their sin?

A high school student from our church told me that the musicians on the worship team were often hungover Sunday mornings when they got on stage. I had noticed that as soon as the group of college students finished playing, they left the building and only returned to play a closing song. Them not staying for the sermon bothered me...but, hungover from a night of drinking? This took my frustration with them to a whole new level.

“Do other people know about this?” I asked the teenager, whose grandfather was an elder at the church.

“I guess so,” he said. “They don’t hide it.”

“Why are they allowed to keep playing?” was my next question.

“They’re the best musicians we have,” he replied. “Without them, the music sounds really bad.”

What should I have done next? Or, to make it more personal, what do you do when the lifestyle of someone in your sphere of influence doesn’t line up with their claim to follow Christ? 

Jesus' letters to the churches at Pergamum and Thyatira address this very issue. As you read them (Revelation 2:12- 29) pay close attention to what He asks the churches to do.

Personal Reflection

The cultural pressure on the churches at Pergamum and Thyatira was extreme. To their credit, they didn’t renounce their faith. Christ recognizes them for their courage and perseverance. However, in the eyes of the One who “searches hearts and minds,” they fell short. They were strong before a hostile world, but weak when it came to dealing with sin inside the church.          

1. What does Jesus tell these churches to do?        
2. What does Jesus say He is going to do?        
3. The practices Jesus denounces were culturally acceptable, even required, activities that Christ followers needed to eradicate from their lives: idol worship and sexual immorality (Acts 15:29).     

• What does the culture around you encourage as sources of well-being, control, satisfaction, or happiness?     
• How does the biblical view of sexual activity differ from what is culturally acceptable?     
• What cultural idols or sexual sins are hard for you to resist?     
• What sins are you aware of in your home or church family that feel too complex to confront?

Watch video:

Discuss  

• What is something you want to remember from the video?        
• How does what you have learned from the book of Revelation encourage you to persevere in your relationship with God?

Take Away
What sin do I tolerate within the body of Christ? That is the big question these two letters ask us to face. That straightforward question raises other, more complex, questions: How do I know what is actually sin? What does it look like not to tolerate sin? What am I supposed to do about the sin if I don’t have a position of formal leadership? Jesus' descriptions of Himself in these two letters and His promises to the overcomers give us some clues.    

“These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword” (Revelation 2:12). 

The way Jesus presents Himself to the church at Pergamum reminds us that God’s Word is our tool to distinguish sin from cultural ideas and personal preferences. 

When it came to the musicians at my church, there was an obvious incongruence between playing worship songs and a lifestyle of partying and drunkenness. But what reasons did the church leadership give to the musicians when they “disciplined” them and told them they could no longer play? I don’t know because I didn’t love them enough to get involved. The leaders could have taken the easy way out and based their criticism on superficial things, like showing up late or missing practice. If they did not allow Scripture to guide the conversation to what a life of worship and godliness looks like, they missed out on the power there. “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” (Hebrews 4:12).        

• Where in the Bible do you find teaching or guidance about the culturally acceptable idols or perspective on sexuality that you identified in question #3 above?

“These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.” (Revelation 2:18) 

The way Jesus presents Himself to the church at Thyatira reminds us that Jesus is a consuming fire. The firestorm refines His people and destroys the sinful (Malachi 3:2; 4:1). When we tolerate sin instead of getting involved, we act like spectators at a blaze instead of firefighters. Firefighters can’t always save the people in danger, but they risk everything to try. And they do all they can to contain the destruction so it doesn’t spread. 

I don’t know what would have happened if I had loved the musicians enough to invite them over to my house to hear their stories. It might not have changed anything. Maybe it would have. At the very least, I would have shown the high school student that I was willing to get involved in messy lives instead of just being an onlooker. The thing about onlookers, they stay safe and clean but they don’t grow. They don’t develop the wisdom needed to be given authority over the nations (Revelation 2:26). Only those who get involved in the mess of the world like Jesus did truly reflect His love and so shine in the darkness like the morning star.         

• Who is Jesus inviting you to love enough to get involved in their messy life?      
• What is one thing you want to remember from this devotional?      
• What does this mean for your life this week?

— Annette Gulick