In this message we shall consider the remaining aspects of the degradation of the church.
Although the church in Ephesus had many virtues, it was degraded because it had left its first love. In Revelation 2:4 the Lord said, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” The Greek word for “first” here is the same as the word translated “best” in Luke 15:22. Our first love toward the Lord must be the best love for Him. The church in Ephesus had left this best love toward the Lord.
The church as the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23) is a matter of life; as the new man (Eph. 2:15), it is a matter of the person of Christ; and as the bride of Christ (John 3:29), it is a matter of love. The first epistle to the Ephesians tells us that for the church life we need to be strengthened in our inner man that Christ may make His home in our hearts, that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:16-19); and that it is for the church life that grace is with all them who love the Lord Jesus (Eph. 6:24). Now the second epistle to the Ephesians reveals that the degradation of the church begins with our leaving the first love toward the Lord. Nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord. The church in Ephesus had good works, labored for the Lord, endured suffering, and tried the false apostles, but she left her first love toward the Lord.
We in the local churches today must be warned of the possibility of losing our first love for the Lord. We may work and labor for the Lord and we may be pure doctrinally and correct scripturally, yet not have the first love for the Lord. Once we have fallen from our first love, our degradation has begun. We may remain the same in everything else-in work, in labor, and in other things-but we are degraded because we have left our first love.
In Revelation 2:6 the Lord refers to “the works of the Nicolaitans,” which He hates. The works of the Nicolaitans refer to a hierarchy among the saints in which some set themselves to rule over others. This brings into being the so-called clergy and laity. In the church of Ephesus there was not the doctrine, the teaching, of the Nicolaitans. This was to develop later. But there were the works and activities of the Nicolaitans, that is, there was some type of clergy and laity.
The word “Nicolaitans” is an equivalent of the Greek word nikolaitai, the root of which is nikolaos, composed of two Greek words-niko and laos. Niko means conquer or above others. Laos means common people, secular people, or laity. So nikolaos means conquering the common people, climbing above the laity. Nicolaitans, then, must refer to a group who esteem themselves higher than the common believers. This was undoubtedly the hierarchy formed and established by Catholicism and Protestantism. The Lord hates the works of these Nicolaitans, and we must hate what the Lord hates.
God in His economy intended that all His people be priests to serve Him directly. In Exodus 19:6 God ordained the children of Israel to become “a kingdom of priests.” This means that God wanted them all to be priests. However, because of the worship of the golden calf (Exo. 32:1-6), they lost the priesthood, and only the tribe of Levi, because of their faithfulness to God, was chosen to replace the whole nation of Israel as priests to God (Exo. 32:25-29; Deut. 33:8-10). Hence, there was a mediatorial class between God and the children of Israel. This became a strong system in Judaism. In the New Testament God has returned to His original intention according to His economy in that He has made all believers in Christ priests (Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9). But at the end of the initial church, even in the first century, the Nicolaitans intervened as the mediatorial class to spoil God’s economy. According to church history, this became a system adopted by the Roman Catholic Church and was also retained by the Protestant churches. Today in the Roman Catholic Church there is the priestly system, in the state churches there is the clerical system, and in the independent churches there is the pastoral system. All these are a mediatorial class, spoiling the universal priesthood of all believers. Thus, there are two distinct classes-the clergy and the laity. But in the proper church life there should be neither clergy nor laity; all believers should be the priests of God. Because the mediatorial class destroys the universal priesthood in God’s economy, the Lord hates it.
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