Revelation 2:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The Nicolaitans were people who called themselves Gnostics, that is, rational ones, while Christians called them Borborians, that is, marshy or miry ones. The founder of the Nicolaitans was Nicholas the deacon, a proselyte from Antioch.

They speculated much about wisdom and virtue. They thought one should be affable, courteous to all, and try to please others, even while dealing with pagans.

Why then, to please them, should one not eat things sacrificed to idols? Why be so strict regarding the female sex?

Nature herself, they said, by planting in us various inclinations and impulses, thereby imposed on us the law of enjoying their fruits, so long as strength and health allow.

Why, these unfortunate men cried, blinded by the marsh lights of natural reason, yet imagining themselves great minds, should sensuality not be counted a consequence of age?

Why not pardon this vice in youth, as though there were a lawful season for passions and disorders?

This false teaching is an abomination before the Lord. Whoever wishes to be a true Christian must deny himself even many permitted things, so that he may subdue his passions and become master over flesh and blood.

It remains for each of us to consider whether there are Nicolaitans even now, perhaps under another name. He must ask whether he himself loves these heretics or hates them, not them, of course, but their works.

For the more a Christian sees the falsehood of their belief, the more he must be contrite. He must have more love for his erring brothers and more zeal to draw them from the mire of errors.

He must do this more by the example of his life than by disputes and debates at numerous conferences.

To those who overcome temptations and passions, the Lord promises to grant the eating of the fruit from the tree of life.

"But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate" (Rev 2:6). The Nicolaitans were heretics of the apostolic age. They were a branch of the Gnostics, marked in practical life by corruption.

Besides St. John the Theologian, the Apostles Peter and Jude also rebuke the Nicolaitans for corruption (2 Pet 2:1 ff.; Jude 4).

"To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God" (Rev 2:7). This tree in the heavenly paradise of God is the Lord Jesus Christ.

To eat the fruit of this tree is communion with the Godhead, or, what is the same, eternal blessedness. Eden's paradise with the tree of life (Gen 2:9; 3:22) served only as a type of the heavenly paradise (Lk 23:43).

These Nicolaitans formed a heretical sect already in apostolic times. It traced its origin to Nicholas, one of the first deacons in the Church of Jerusalem (Acts 6:5), who taught that the flesh must be παραχρήσθαι, that is, mortified.

But since this same word could also mean abuse, there appeared people who appealed to Nicholas's authority and gave themselves over to dissipation, in order thereby to extinguish their passions.

In Ephesus, as is clear from this passage of the Apocalypse, the Nicolaitans chiefly showed themselves from this latter, practical side. Consequently, they were especially dangerous for simple believers.

If these believers still regarded their actions with hatred, then one could hope that the call to first love would not be left unheeded by them.

To stir the Ephesians' attention still more, the Lord speaks to them, or more precisely to those capable of understanding His words, "he who has an ear."

Instead of the earthly pleasures that the Nicolaitans permitted their followers, He will give to those who overcome the temptations of sensuality a higher food.

Like the fruit of the tree of life, this food will supply the lack of vitality that appeared among the Ephesians through the failing of their first love.