Looking the Other Way

"But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin...Repent of your sin or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth." 

Revelation 2:14, 16 (NLT)

The church in Pergamum was located in "the city where Satan has his throne". That could be almost any city in America today, with a few exceptions. In spite of that, they remained loyal to Christ, refusing to deny Him even when one of their own was martyred. God approves of shining His light in a dark place--it's a hard assignment though, to keep those evil influences out of the church. That was the problem at Pergamum--they allowed people into their church that thought it was okay to believe in Christ and not give up their sinful habits. They, in turn, were causing others in the church to sin.
Don't we see the same thing today? We are so afraid of offending people. Couples living together outside of marriage has almost become acceptable in the church. Dabbling in pornography, drinking, watching impure movies and television programs--all these things cause others to stumble. In his book, Messages on Revival, Vance Havner says, ,"We sin when we tolerate what God condemns and look some other way instead of dealing with it...Sometimes we become so sentimental about offending one person and so sorry for him that we risk the health of a whole church."  He also says that we do harm to the offender by tolerating their sin. We lead them to think they are right with God when they really face His judgment.
To paraphrase Jesus' message to Pergamum, and to us--Repent! If you don't take care of this problem, I will!