Revelation 2:1 says, “To the messenger of the church in Ephesus write: These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.” Each of these seven epistles begins with a description of the speaker. Before the Lord says anything to the churches, He declares who He is. In the first epistle, the Lord declares that He is the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand and who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. These two items prove that the Lord is so normal, genuine, and proper. He cares for the churches by holding the leading ones in His right hand and by walking among all the churches. The messengers of the churches, the spiritual ones, signified by the shining stars, who bear the responsibility of the testimony of Jesus, are held in the right hand of the Lord, and the Lord is walking in the midst of the churches, signified by the seven golden lampstands. What a wonderful scene! While the Lord is sitting at the right hand of God as our High Priest interceding for us, the churches (Heb. 7:25), He is holding the messengers of the churches and is walking in the midst of the churches to care for them.
The word Ephesus in Greek means desirable. This signifies that the initial church at its end was still desirable to the Lord; the Lord still had much expectation in her.
Let us now consider the virtues of the church in Ephesus. Firstly, she did many works for the Lord. The church in Ephesus was neither idle nor sloppy; she was quite good in working for the Lord.
This church not only worked for the Lord but also labored for Him (vv. 2-3). We must differentiate between work and labor. Labor is higher than work. While work is ordinary, labor is special. Those who worked full time on our meeting hall in Anaheim not only worked—they labored. If we had hired a contractor and had used union workers, they would have worked without laboring.
The church in Ephesus also had the virtue of endurance. This means that the church was afflicted and endured suffering.
The Lord said to the church in Ephesus, “You cannot bear evil men” (v. 2). The word men is not found in the Greek. I believe that the Lord’s word here regarding evil includes two things—evil men and evil matters. The church in Ephesus did not tolerate anyone or anything evil. It certainly was a good church.
The Lord also said, “You have tried those who call themselves apostles and are not, and have found them to be false” (v. 2). This church was very discerning, trying the false apostles and rejecting them. They discerned that the self-assumed apostles were false. Throughout the generations, there have been self-appointed apostles. This is also true today.
In 2:6 the Lord said, “But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” The church in Ephesus hated what the Lord hates—the works of the Nicolaitans. As far as virtues were concerned, this church was good, pure, right, and normal.
The Lord hates the works of the Nicolaitans. If you want to understand what the works of the Nicolaitans are, read Brother Nee’s book, The Orthodoxy of the Church. 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 in 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 hierarchy 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 of people who esteem themselves higher than the common believers. This was undoubtedly the hierarchy followed and established by Catholicism and Protestantism. The Lord hates the works, the behavior, 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 be “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 (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.
In Acts 6:5 among the seven serving ones was one named Nikolaos (Gk.). There is no trace in church history that this Nikolaos is the first of the Nicolaitans.