Tempter by an old worn out hooker.

By all the measurables the Christian community could not last long against Rome.  Rome destroyed and assimilated all her enemies.  The Christian faith with its high ideals, morals, and ethics could not last long against Rome.  Rome, for her part, was everything and offered everything a person could want.  There was almost no vice, experience, pleasure or indulgence that could not be had in the Roman Empire.  All that was demanded was loyalty to Rome and tolerance of the vices of others.    Rome was mighty with kings and peoples to do her bidding.  She boasted of her courts, transportation, education, philosophy, Pax Romania, power, regal pomp and her own eternal greatness.  What did the church have to offer compared to that?

As disciples it is easy to feel the same way today.  How can we stand up to the wealth, opulence, pleasure, and might of our culture?  What can a Sunday worship service do when compared with a day at Universal Studios or Disney?  Our gatherings seem so insignificant when compared to sporting events, concerts, or national political conventions.  How does reading of scripture and saying of prayers match up to the news and entertainment media?  All the while we are opposed in every way from being marginalized to outright persecution, in some parts of the world.  It is easy to feel the church, the community of disciples, is of no consequence in comparison to the power of this world.  Maybe we should pursue the path of power, the way of wealth, the influence of excitement.  These are all seductive.

In Revelation 17 we see the façade pulled off, the curtain pulled back and the true nature of Rome and the powers that oppose the church shown for what they are.  We see a harlot, a whore.  Please let’s not use polite euphemism for something this disgusting.  This is no young seductress.  Jewels do not keep us from seeing the ugliness.  She is drunk and if not for her ill-gotten wealth she would be sprawled out in a gutter, but she is rich with power, influence and money.  She hates the church the way a bitter, old, skanky slut hates a young, beautiful, virgin bride.  Her patron’s will soon turn on this nasty, sick, drunk whore.  

Do not envy the world’s wealth and power and pleasure anymore than you would envy an old whore just before her ruin.