12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.
13 “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practise sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’
Christ's complaint against His Church in Pergamos was that there were those that held the doctrine of Balaam. To understand this we need to turn to Numbers 22-24; 25:1-3, and 31:16. Balaam, it would seem, when he saw that God's people could not be cursed, sought to corrupt them by persuading them into a social alliance with Moab whereby they were enticed into idolatry and immorality. Their 'separation' was defiled, and they lost their pilgrim character as the chosen people of God. There is a solemn warning here for us today. Evangelicals have without doubt held the truth, and championed the Bible and the fundamentals of the faith, and often endured persecution and contempt because of their faithful witness. But the people who have so resolutely withstood all the attacks on the faith may be assailed in other ways. Is there not a danger today that they are being slowly and imperceptibly seduced by subtle forms of worldliness that are gradually sapping their vitality and robbing them of their pilgrim character. Modern man has sought out many inventions, and there are far more opportunities for being worldly now than in former generations. We must as Christians make up our minds about being pilgrims and strangers on the earth. We must learn the grace of doing without things and of living simple lives. The lesson of the first of these letters is 'losing our first love'. That is where Satan begins - he displaces Christ in our affections with the hankering for 'other things'. The simple, one-track life is possible only when the grand passion of our lives is Jesus Christ.