Revelation Chapter Two, The Nicolaitans

Revelation 2:6 “But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

This verse leads us to a point of both curiosity and controversy: the Nicolaitans. Almost no evidence exists about this sect or cult that Christ condemns in this passage in Revelation. Some link the sect to Nicolas, the Gentile convert from Antioch, Acts 6:5. But no such connection can honestly be made.

The term means, “overcomers of the people.” It is undoubtedly linked back to the false apostles the Ephesian church tested and found liars in Revelation 2:2. Verse 6 gives the context that their deeds betrayed their true character and so the Ephesian church rejected them. The deeds of this sect become doctrine in Pergamos, Revelation 2:15. The sect has apparently been accepted there, and their doctrine leavened the church, which Christ our Lord hates. If we consider what is being said in these few verses, we may piece together a little of what the Nicolaitans represent, and what went wrong in Ephesus while they combated this error.

The early leaders of the church (Clement, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus) referenced this doctrine as people who professed Christ while living licentiously. Since Ignatius was a teacher during and after John’s death, he was a contemporary of the apostle, which gives some credence to this concept. Of course, licentiousness is where we derive the term License from. The opposite pole of Legalism is License, or the freedom to live hedonistically since our sins are forgiven and we cannot be condemned for them. Or worse, we are sinlessly perfected in the here and now, incapable of sin so that no matter what we do after conversion we cannot sin. Scripture debunks both of these heretical teachings as patently and absurdly false.

John writes twice that if we refuse to acknowledge that a Christian may sin we deceive ourselves, do not practice the truth, and name God a liar, 1 John 1:8, 10. Then what do we do with the verse that says, “Whoever is born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God,” 1 John 3:9. We know from 1 John 3:6 that John references Christ’s command to abide in Him from John chapter 15. Verse 6 clarifies that while we abide in Christ we do not sin; that is, we do not practice sin. Not that we are incapable of it, but positionally we choose through virtue of the Holy Spirit’s leading power to refrain because we are in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. John then says that whoever practices sin has neither seen God nor knows Him. This indicates a lifestyle choice of willfully sinning after learning the truth. This is not an aberration where I lie or cheat or steal, am condemned by my conscience and repent; it is a hardening of the conscience as I use God’s vindication of my position as a vapid excuse to indulge in hedonism.

Verse 9 talks about a believer’s eternal position in Christ through the eyes of God the Father. In Christ we do not sin. The burden and curse of sin has been removed from the believer and placed on Jesus our Lord. He died with sin to liberate mankind so we have freedom in Him; not the freedom to sin further, but freedom from sin’s penalty and power, to live for Him; something we are incapable of in our fallen, unredeemed state. Verse 6, which focuses on abiding in Him, refers to sanctification versus carnality. Verse 9, since it focuses on the rebirth (whoever has been born of God) deals with our position as children of God. The Father, by virtue of what the Son has done on our behalf, sees us as sinless as Christ, since He sees the Son in us. Now if this inspires you to abandon personal holiness and to indulge in wanton sin, then you may want to seriously consider if you have honestly understood the gospel that was preached to you, or if that gospel was the true message of salvation.

Moving on, the Ephesian church, while attempting to combat the error of these false teachers, appears to have succumbed to the doctrinal deviation the Galatian church suffered: Legalism. Legalism holds up the mirror of Christian duty as the honest reflection of whether or not one is saved. There are rules and laws and obligations; if one is constantly mired in busywork assigned by one’s church they may feel comfortable that they are saved; if one becomes idle and stagnates, producing no works, there is cause to fear. Legalism tends to harm the believer in one of two ways. The first is that only truly productive Christians are genuinely saved, by whatever standard the church deems as productive. This means that any paltry assurance the church offers only goes so far as your ability to endlessly engage in works to demonstrate you believe. The second is that whether you engage or stagnate, there is always the lingering fear that you have not done enough or been enough to merit being considered one of the saints. This fallacy is entrenched in the fact that one’s faith resides not in Christ, but in the meritorious works we do in His name. In other words, salvation becomes a system of works rather than God’s grace, and it is a work in progress since ceasing indicates lack of faith and therefore a lack of salvific grace.

It may have been that, in order to fight the leaven of License, Ephesus went in the opposite direction and was censured for it. Works are not necessarily evidence of salvation. Works are the outcome of salvation. They are the fruit of the Spirit; they occur naturally because our nature has been changed by the rebirth. An apple tree remains an apple tree, even when it is barren; the more bountiful apple tree may benefit others more abundantly, but it is no less or no more of an apple tree than the sterile one beside it, which benefits no one. Paul warned that a believer would lose their works if they built on the wrong foundation, but they remain saved, because salvation has nothing to do with one’s works, 1 Corinthians 3:15. 

The Nicolaitans may also be referenced by the false prophetess of Thyatira, Jezebel, Revelation 2:20. Whereas Ephesus purged these false teachers, Pergamos accepted them and Thyatira (potentially) elevated them to some level of eminence. The sexual immorality she teaches would fall in line with the doctrine of License. In any event, the Nicolaiatans’ deeds and doctrine were hated by Jesus, and we may know that the spirit of that sect or cult thrives today within the church. We, like Ephesus, should take heed.