April 8: A DEADLY COMBINATION

“But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold to the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.” Revelation 2:14-15

So here is a divided congregation. Just after the positive appraisal of Jesus to the faithful ones at Pergamos, He points out a sad reality in the church. There are false teachers, instruments of Satan, who are introducing error among church members. God loves people so very much, and that is exactly why He hates for error to be mixed into His pure doctrine of salvation. The mixing of truth and error is a deadly combination that adds up to confusion and deception, causing many people to be lost.

Jesus, in referring to the well-known disaster that Balaam had facilitated upon the children of Israel, while stating, “Thus you also have….Nicolaitans” is indicating strong similarities between the two. Balaam’s incident was in the distant past, and had resulted in 24,000 deaths, the largest single loss of the era (see Numbers 25:9). In mentioning this, Jesus intended to gain their full attention regarding spiritual danger, immediately making a connection to the current influx of the Nicolaitans.

Some common themes between Balaam’s strategy and the Nicolaitans include the notion that one can be saved while rejecting the commandments of God; also, there was (and still is today) the idea that what we do with our bodies doesn’t matter. When the enemy of our souls succeeds in placing compromised leaders in the church, the end result is entire churches that are guided into apostasy. A few things is a few things too many for Jesus to have against us. The pure gospel that saves and transforms souls says: Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1:22)

Does living by faith mean tossing aside God’s law? No way! Paul addresses this idea clearly: Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law! (Romans 3:31)

Those who advocated compromise sought to persuade their fellow Christians that there was nothing wrong in conforming to the world’s standards in order to escape persecution. But, if there is a sincere desire to obey God, such a one is supplied with divine power — it is called grace! — to carry it out. He is calling us to be holy, set apart. His purposes are greater and go farther than we fully comprehend this side of heaven. For now, it is sufficient to trust the leading of His Holy Spirit who will never lead us astray.

…that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:4