“But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”

This verse offers another commendation from the Lord, the Ephesian church hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans. 

But this you have

Jesus offers another commendation to the Ephesian church. He praises people for hating something.

that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans

Some people in the church at Ephesus were following Nicholas, a religious sect leader. This sect was located in Ephesus and Pergamum (Re 2:6). The Lord accuses them of laxity about eating food sacrificed to idols and sexual license (Re 2:20). This may have been incipient libertine Gnosticism. Gnostics believed in indulging the body. They thought that the body was evil and should be satiated and thus advocated sexual promiscuity.

The sins of the Nicolaitans included eating food sacrificed to idols, which involved sexual immorality. Revelation equates this kind of sin with the teachings of Balaam, who led Israel into idol worship and immorality. 

Some Christians in Ephesus compromised with paganism. Since all commercial trade was under the patronage of pagan deities, business people joined trade guilds to do business—these unions endangered Christianity. Second-generation Christians developed comfortable accommodation with pagans that their fathers would never allow. Jesus commends the Ephesian church for opposing compromise with these trade guilds.

Jezebel may have been a local leader of the Nicolaitans (Re 2:14,15). Jesus gave her “time to repent” (Re 2:21). He brought her to the point of sickness and death (Re 2:22, 23). Jezebel was also the name of King Ahab’s infamous wife (1 Kings 16:28-19:3; 2 Kings 9:22-37). She introduced harlotry to Israel. John uses her persona to warn the church against compromise with immoral paganism.

Much of the social life of the first century revolved around pagan temples. The temples had the best bars and restaurants. These temples had temple prostitutes that men enjoyed as an act of worship. As you can see, paganism was popular.

which I also hate

We do not often think of Jesus as hating someone. This is because our society characterizes Him as a glorified wimp. Obviously, Jesus is neither prissy nor weak. Jesus hates that which hurts. If we love people, then we appreciate principles that help people. If we love passionately, then we must hate passionately the principles that hurt others. However, we must distinguish between hating a concept and hating a person. The belief of the Nicolaitans was unrestrained indulgence. Jesus hates unrestrained indulgence because He knows that it will hurt people.

Principle:

True love for the Lord involves hate.

Application:

Our society does not hesitate to lower its standards or indulge in unvarnished sin. It has no sense of shame or rebuke for such sin. Christians move in this society. If we buy into the values of our culture, we compromise Christ and Christianity. Christians must differentiate themselves from this society and its values.

It is not enough to dislike the sins of society. We must “hate” those sins. We hate that which distorts and counterfeits the truth.

This principle flies in the face of North American society’s central value—tolerance. Jesus does not compromise with the values of this world. Our society is rigorously nonjudgmental, but Jesus asserts that we are to be judgmental (not in the sense of judging motives). “Live and let live” has no biblical value.

We all make judgments; we are afraid to admit we do. Jesus calls for open criticism of the behavior of this world. Even more, He calls for us to “hate” the values of this world. Yet, Christians watch sexually charged TV shows with no sense of “hate” at all.

How is your “hate” doing? Are you exercising it?