Jesus’ Letter to Ephesus (Pt. 2)

How hateful are you? Is that a strong point? Is this an area that needs improving? On a scale of 1-10 how does your hatred compare to Jesus’ hate?

Hater’s Gonna Hate

It is striking how Jesus rebukes Ephesus for their lack of love, yet commends them for their hatred. Yeah, see for your self:

“I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first…Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

Rev. 2:4&6

How ironic that Jesus would so strongly rebuke a church for lagging in love, yet praises their hatred. This caused me to sit back when I first noticed it, but what I understood as I thought about it more is that my shock at the fact that Jesus not only hates but praises the church at Ephesus for hating, is due to a lacking of my understanding of God.

God hates sin.

• “The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.” (Psa. 5:5)
• “The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.” (Psa. 11:5)
• “The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.” (Prov. 8:13)

If we are shocked that Jesus would praise the act of hate, and align himself with it, it may be because we need to readjust our view of God.

We see clearly from both Psalm 5 & 11 that God does in fact hate. If we argue that “God is love” and therefore he cannot hate, that is a false conclusion. If someone loves human life they will hate murder. It is natural and coherent to hate that which opposes or threatens that which you love. God loves that which is true and good, therefore it is to be expected that the Bible should say he hates evil and deceit.

At Ephesus the hatred is directed at the “works of the Nicolaitans”. Neither history nor the New Testament gives much information about this group. We can speculate by what arrises later regarding Pergamum that the “works of the Nicolaitans” involved idolatry and sexual immorality, if so it would make sense that Jesus would express his hatred of those things.

In our churches we need to be both on guard against and on the look out for idolatry and sexual immorality, and to have no toleration for them. This should be where we as churches have a reputation of hate: hatred of sin.

Idolatry is anything that has a weight in our lives more than God. It is that thing that presses or pulls us in a direction with a god like force. The god of passion, greed, lust, ambition, selfishness, arrogance, gluttony. These pull and press us on to many sins which are fruits of those things. One of those sins that seem to be in view with connection to the Nicolaitans is sexual immorality.

Your Church

What has a god-like weight on the church you attend?

• New ministry trends
• Tradition, or things being done a certain way because they have been so
• The desire for unity without a balance of desire for truth
• The over emphasis of one doctrine (election, end times, family, music) to the neglect of others

Note that these are all very subtle. We want to try new ministry approaches that may be more effective. As for traditions, they can be beneficial guard rails against fallacy. Unity is good and beneficial. Doctrines need to be studied.

However, these things can be the beginnings of if not outright idolatry in a church. Both the trends and the traditions of churches need to be checked against the scriptures. Ask: Do we have a biblical basis for doing “X” as we have been doing for decades? Is the new church activity or the new part of the Sunday worship derived from the Bible? Is unity sought with a neglect of doctrinal truth? Is unity more important than doctrinal distinctives?

Amid your church are there strongholds of the god of greed or gluttony, arrogance or ambition, strife or sexual immorality.

Sexual immorality was likely a specific sin that the Nicolaitans were associated with, making them the objects of hatred by the church and Christ. Is your church on guard against as well as on alert for sexual immorality. In a time when every week a story arises of a pastor’s moral failure regarding sexuality, are you praying for him? Is this a topic that is presented biblically in the churches’ teaching? Are the mature men of the church speaking into the lives of the young men who have smart phones in their pockets (aka porn portals).

Is your church actively affirming biblical teaching on God’s design for sexuality, while graciously and tactfully opposing sexual immorality in the church? Is there the turning of the blind eye from a specific circumstance in the membership that no one wants to talk about? Is there immoral activity by an elder or pastor that the church wishes to brush over so that they don’t have a “mess”?

No matter how awkward or “messy” the conversations or actions may get let us remember that Jesus hates sexual immorality, and commends Ephesus for their hatred of it. In a culture where sexual immorality is more and more embraced and praised we must see to it that we are holding true to the values of our Savior and also hate sexual immorality.

Let us be in prayer against these things, as well as asking God to grow our hatred for the idolatry of our own hearts and church. May he guard our perspective on sexuality to align with the Bible, as we reject the cultural norm. May we love what Jesus loves and hate what he hates.