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The practice of the Nicolaitans was also a problem in Pergamum as it was for the Ephesian church. These were people who also encouraged compromise with the rotten food of the society around them. A little compromise here, a little compromise there, and soon the church looked no different than the world. This group of Nicolaitans could have been the same group as those who followed the teachings of Balaam. Etymologically the meanings of the names are similar, “to overcome or consume the people.”108 Both compromised with the world and ate the rotten food of the society.

      What is rotten food around us today? In our societies, we also face the danger of compromise. Whenever we desire the rotten food of the world rather than the Bread of Life, we compromise. There is the rotten food of sexual perversion, a sin we oftentimes do not take seriously anymore. There is the rotten food of greed and materialism. Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and money.” There is the rotten food of bitterness and revenge. Jesus said, “It is mine to avenge. I will repay.” He said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” He said, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave you gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” There is also the rotten food of pride and selfishness.

How can we avoid this rotten food? Jesus commanded the church in Pergamum to repent. If not, Jesus would come soon to make war109 against them. This is similar to the breath of his mouth in 2 Thessalonians with which the antichrist and false prophet will be defeated. The judgment of Jesus from the witness of his word and voice is final.

      Rotten food is easy to smell, especially when we know the real thing and how pleasant it is. We must seek, therefore, to know the real thing. We must study the word and spend time with Jesus. The more we know the Bread of Life, the quicker we will be at sniffing out the rotten food of the world. Rotten food must be thrown out immediately or it will spoil what is good. Ephesians 5:3 says, “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.”

      I learned an Arabic word when I was with my mother in Florida several years ago. The word is samek and it refers to an awful smell. My mother and my Aunt smelled something bad in the refrigerator and they looked and looked to find out where the bad smell was coming from. I think Arabs have a more acute smell, because I really couldn’t smell anything. They looked a long time, over several days (every time they opened the refrigerator, they would complain of samek). They never did find it! But the effort they went to in order to rid the refrigerator of that bad smell is the same kind of effort we need to rid our lives of the rotten food of the world.

      Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added to you.” He said again in Matthew 7:7–8, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” And again, in response to Satan’s temptation to turn the stones into bread in Matthew 4, Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” We must seek the Living bread, the Bread of Life, to be our daily sustenance and our focus, our priority and our vision.

Jesus promised the church in Pergamum, “To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna.” Hidden manna is a reference to the Exodus story and the manna from heaven. It could also be a reference to Jesus, the Bread of Life, the Manna sent from God in John 6. The manna is contrasted with the idolatrous food. The Israelites should have trusted in God’s provision at the time of Balaam and not partaken in the idolatrous feast. So also, the church in Pergamum.110 Why is the manna called “hidden” manna? It is possible that this is a reference to the story in 2 Maccabees 2:4–7 when Jeremiah took the pot of manna that was placed in the ark as a memorial for future generations and hid it underground in Mt. Nebo before the destruction of the temple. This was an apocryphal story. But a story that may have been familiar to the church in the first century. Jesus must continue to be our provider, our supplier, our sustainer, and our satisfaction from heaven.

Jesus also promised a white stone to the overcoming church. White stones were given to those who were especially invited to a feast, like a wedding invitation (see Revelation 19 and the wedding supper of the Lamb). The “new name” on the white stone is a mark of genuine membership in the community, an identity deeper still than our new name/status in Christ, without which we could not enter into the kingdom of God.111 Isaiah 62:2 says, “The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.” This stone was white because of the righteousness of the saints who refused to participate in the Balaam cult of idolatry and sexual immorality.

      Conclusion

      Seeking Jesus means seeking him in prayer (alone and with others), seeking him in fellowship with other believers, seeking him as we communicate the message of the gospel and the testimony of our changed lives to neighbors, family, and friends, seeking him Sunday through Sunday, and guarding our ears and our hearts and our eyes against the unholy, rotten food of the world. We will then not fear the sword in his mouth. We will stand before him as one accepted and righteous.

      Jesus said in John 6:27, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” The people asked Jesus, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus simply said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” It is those who believe in the Bread from Heaven and seek him that will be given a new name—this secret name known only to God and to us when we get to Heaven. When we seek the Bread of Life for our forgiveness and salvation, we are presented the stone of invitation to the wedding banquet. We are free to enter before God because of Jesus.

102. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, 95.

103. Beale, The Book of Revelation, 246. Aune also lists possible meanings for Satan’s throne as the judge’s bench or tribunal where the proconsul sat to judge or Satan’s throne as the center of Christian persecution, though he leans toward the latter—Aune, Revelation 1–5, 182–84.

104. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, 96; Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John, 46. See also Johnson, Hebrews through Revelation, 440.

105. τὴν πίστιν μου is the objective genitive, which could be translated “faith in me” (Beale, The Book of Revelation, 246). This suggests something of the church’s solidarity with the faithfulness of Jesus (Thomas and Macchia, Revelation, 100), though Thomas calls it a possessive genitive, as it would refer to Jesus’ faithfulness.

106. From the word πορνεῦσαι, where we get the English word “pornography”.

107. Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John, 48. See also Osborne, Revelation, 145 who writes that it is probable that literal promiscuity is in view, similar to the libertinism of 1 John.

108. Beale, The Book of Revelation, 251.

109. The

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