It Starts Small

After Jesus rebuked the church at Ephesus for being cold and forgetting their first love, he did give them one more praise. The church at Ephesus hated the Nicolaitan doctrine and so did Jesus.

The Greek word for hate is miseō and means to hate, pursue with hatred, detest.

What was it about their doctrine that made both Jesus and the church detest it? It was their deeds and behavior.

Nicolas means to conquer and subdue.

Irenaeus and Hippolytus were two elders of the church and they recorded many events that occurred. They recorded that the Nicolaitans were spiritual descendants of Nicolaus of Antioch. He was an ordained deacon and we find mention of him in the Bible:

This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch.

Acts 6:5

Nicolaus was a proselyte of Antioch. He was not a Jew but had converted from paganism to Judaism. A proselyte is a person who has converted from one opinion, religion, or party to another. He had previous dealings in the occult and had changed his “religion” a third time when he claimed to be a Christ follower. The conversion from paganism to Judaism and Judaism to Christianity would alienate him from both pagans and Jews. This tells us he was not afraid to embrace new ways of thinking.

Early church writings testify that Nicolaus taught a doctrine of compromise that implied you did not need to separate yourself from the occult as a Christ follower. Essentially he combined attributes from all three “religions” and intermingled them into a new doctrine.

The danger to new convers, new Christ followers, is that slipping in and out of paganism would have been a struggle. The entire city, friends, and family worshipped pagan gods. Nicolaus’ new doctrine would have been alluring to new Christ followers because they would not have to struggle. They could have their feet in both places.

Occultism was a major problem in all the early churches. We will find out as we talk about the church at Pergamos, the city was well known for very dark arts. Dark and sinister forms of occult took place in this city. Early church testimony believes that Nicolaus came from this city.

The “deeds and doctines” of these people were hated. WHat did they practice? They tied the wicked practices of occultism into the teachings of Christ. They believed you could have a foot in both places. It led to a weak version of salvation that was without power and conviction – it was a worldly defeat gospel.

They tolerated pagan practice and had a liberal view of sin. They did not understand the dangers or damages pagan practices. They would encourage their followers to stay connected to the world by engaging in worldly activities. Do what the world is doing.

This defeated their followers. Allowing sin and compromise drains the power and word at the cross. The evil fruit of the Nicolaitans doctrine encouraged worldly participation, lead people to indulge in sin and lowered God’s standards. This “religion” literally conquered the people. Remember the meaning of the name Nicolaus?

We read mention about them later on:

¹⁴ But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the Israelites: to eat meat sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. ¹⁵ In the same way, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Revelation 2:14-15

We will dive deeper into this rebuke by Jesus, but the story of Balaam, he enticed the Israelite men into sin by dangling the enemy’s women in front of them. He encouraged them to compromise the word of God and to adopt the world’s false religion.

Sounds pretty horrific? But does it?

This morning, let us take a good microscope sized look at our own lives? Are we living in compromise? What are we letting into our hearts, eyes, and ears that we know is of this world?