The Loveless Church in Ephesus

Revelation 2:1-7

Have you ever been surprised? Have you ever been rudely awakened or jolted out of sleep? Has anyone ever jumped out of a corner to scare you or has anything ever happened around you as you were driving a car that suddenly arrested your attention?

This happened to me when my wife and I were driving in the mountains on the Pennsylvania Turnpike early in our marriage. We were heading eastbound late at night and I was attempting to drive straight through to NYC. As you can imagine, I was getting tired and struggled to stay awake at the wheel. I was jolted out of my grogginess, however, when a massive tractor tire (at least 10 ft. in diameter) bounced off the tractor trailer bed in an adjacent lane in front of us. That tire could have demolished our car and taken our lives as it careened down the highway in front of us. Thankfully, it missed our car, leaving us unharmed but jolting me out of my mindless driving (which was a good thing).

Some Background on the Church at Ephesus

Like me behind the wheel as a sleepy driver, the church at Ephesus needed something to jolt them out of their regular routine. This was a church with 30-50 yrs. of history under their belt.

• They had begun well, under the discipleship and teaching ministry of Aquila and Priscilla, then especially the apostle Paul (Acts 19-20).
• Through the years, other influential men like Timothy (Paul’s apprentice) and the Apostle John had also served them as pastors, not to mention other unnamed men who served them, too.
• Even the mother of Jesus, Mary herself, had spent her final years as an elderly widow in their congregation.
• During Paul’s ministry to this church, Luke tells us that they were so effective at what they were doing that “all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 19:10). They had a rich heritage for sure.

This church was situated in a pagan city called Ephesus. Next to Rome, this was one of the largest, most influential cities in the Roman Empire at that time. It was a hub for commerce and economic activity, was a major tourist attraction, and featured the Temple of Diana (Artemis), one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

As such an influential, active city, this location was strategic, but it was also challenging. Believers faced constant pressure to let down their guard in an attempt to get along with people, keep their jobs, prosper financially, and avoid being persecuted for their faith. In addition, they also faced constant temptations to tolerate or even practice immorality as a way of life and to participate in pagan social and religious functions just to get along.

A Personal Introduction from Christ

To open this letter, Christ introduced himself in a twofold way, as the one holding the seven stars in his right hand and walking among the seven golden lampstands (Rev 2:1). We know what these images represent because Christ revealed their meaning to John before (Rev 1:20). The lampstands represent the seven churches in Asia Minor who would receive personalized messages from John here in Revelation. The angels are the seven men who would deliver and read these messages to the churches.

By introducing himself this way to the church at Ephesus, Christ confirmed the importance this message to them.

• The messenger who would bring this message to them would do so with Christ’s authority and protection.
• He would share insights and instructions drawn from Christ’s all-knowing (omniscient), ever-present (omnipresent) view and would not speak from a distant, secondhand perspective, but from up-close observation.

This would be an official message that required serious attention and a heartfelt response.

A Positive Assessment of the Church’s Spiritual Condition

Christ made some positive observations about this church which we may summarize as faithfulness or diligence. To emphasize this evaluation, Christ used repeated two key words, labor and patience (Rev 2:2-3).

• Labor refers to difficult, painful, uncomfortable work.
• Patience refers to endurance through hard things over a long period of time.

The church had endured harmful teachings and hurtful people.

Through what trials did they persevere? They apparently encountered a barrage of influential people who were either immoral and unethical in behavior (“evil”) or were dishonest and unbiblical in teaching (“liars”). By using plural references here, we get the impression that this church endured multiple (not isolated) encounters with such people, a challenge that Paul had warned them would happen (Acts 20:29-31).

When a church experiences wave after wave of harmful teachings and hurtful people, its members can experience emotional and spiritual fatigue. To “become weary” means to “become fatigued, grow weary, or lose heart.” It describes what happens when a person loses motivation to keep on working towards a particular goal.

To the credit of the believers at Ephesus, they pushed forward out of respect to Christ and refused to give up.

• When yet another person encouraged ungodly values among them, they refused to go along.
• When yet another person promoted unbiblical teaching, they tested and rejected their teaching.

They especially hated the influence of the Nicolaitans.

Though Christ spoke in general terms without calling out these bad influencers by name, he did mention one of them (a group of them) by name – the Nicolaitans (Rev 2:6). In doing so, he commended the church for hating the actions of these people. Hate refers to feelings of strong disgust and a resolve to reject this influence, as both the church at Ephesus and Christ himself were strongly opposed to the teachings of these people.

Whomever these people were, we know their influence was more widespread, at least in Asia Minor, since they had also infiltrated the church at Pergamos (Rev 2:15). So, what do we know about them?

Some focus on the word, which may combine nikao (“to conquer”) and laos (“people”), giving a meaning of something like “conquering the people.” This approach often associates the Nicolaitans with what they claim is third era of church history that began when Constantine officialized Christianity and paved the way for Roman Catholicism. In this view, Nicolaitanism foreshadows when the Catholic hierarchical system, governed by the pope, cardinals, etc. would lord their political authority over churches.

This view is unlikely. Historical records show that Nicolaitans were an actual sect with first-century influence, so Christ is using their name for historical not subliminal reasons. He was describing something that the church at Ephesus faced firsthand, not some phenomenon that would occur two centuries later. Furthermore, to extract a meaning like “conquering the people” from this word is a speculative approach without strong evidence and does not follow a good Bible study method.

A better, more likely answer relies on both the testimony of early church leaders and additional details about this group supplied by Christ’s message to the church at Pergamos (Rev 2:14-15). Numerous early church leaders (including Irenaeus who was one generation removed from the apostle John and had contact with Polycarp, one of John’s disciples) connect this group of Nicolaitans to Nicolas, one of the original deacons (Acts 6:5). Some say that he defected from Christianity, while others say that he remained faithful, but some of his followers defected and propagated false teaching.

In either case, we learn more about what the teachings of this group from Christ’s message to the church at Pergamos. In that message, he equated the Old Testament (OT) teachings of Balaam to the first-century teachings of the Nicolaitans (Rev 2:14-15). Balaam had taught people to merge biblical Judaism with pagan practices such as idolatry and immorality. So, Nicolaitanism appears to have been a first-century equivalent to this lax, sensual, and syncretistic approach to life as an opposite extreme to legalism.

We should detest syncretism (ecumenicalism) and sensuality.

Both in the OT and New Testament (NT), God consistently pairs idolatry and immorality as hallmarks of paganism, of life apart from faith in and loyalty to the one, true God.[1] Paul, for instance, denounced these things strongly to the church at Corinth decades before John wrote Revelation (1 Cor 6:15-18; 10:19-28). Irenaeus said that the Nicolaitans “lived lives of unrestrained indulgence,” and Clement of Alexandria said that they “abandon themselves to pleasure like goats … leading a life of self-indulgence.”[2]

People who suggest that Christians should integrate with other religions and be open to all forms of sexual expression in the name of Christian liberty and love may seem thoughtful and progressive, but they undermine the Christian faith and message. Like the church at Ephesus, we should strongly oppose any such influences in our church.

A Negative Assessment of the Church’s Spiritual Condition

The church at Ephesus encourages us today to remain faithful in resisting the recurring pressures we face to accept false doctrines and relax our moral values. Even so, Christ also gave them a negative critique. “Nevertheless I have this against you,” he said, “that you have left your first love” (Rev 2:4). The word left may also be translated as abandoned and portrays departing from a former position, so from what had they departed?

They had abandoned love as their underlying motive.

By the time John delivered this message to Ephesus, the church there had become a second-generation congregation. Thirty to forty years had passed since when Paul had originally served them (Acts 19-20). Since that time, other men had served as their pastors, including Paul’s apprentice Timothy, followed by John the Apostle himself. They had also received a letter to them from Paul during his imprisonment in Rome.

From what Christ said about them here in Revelation, they had remained true to their doctrine and morality from one generation of members to the next. Even so, Christ was still concerned about their spiritual health. How could a church so determined to maintain their godly morals and sound doctrine still fail to please Christ? By doing these things without love as their underlying motive.

Perhaps we should recall what Paul taught the church at Corinth about love, that without love as our underlying motive, whatever we do, no matter how noble, amounts to nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3). Better yet, however, perhaps we should recognize how strongly Paul emphasized love in his previous letter to the church at Ephesus, a letter that explained God’s purpose for the church in this present age, to reveal the glory of God to men and angels (Eph 3:21).

In this letter, Paul had taught the church sound doctrine and encouraged a moral lifestyle, yet he had also emphasized the importance of love as an underlying motive for all their conduct and doctrine. In fact, love appears 19 times in 14 verses throughout Ephesians.

In the doctrinal section of this letter (Eph 1-3), here’s what Paul had taught the church at Ephesus about love:

• Paul taught that God has chosen us before the foundation of the world to be “holy and without blame before him in love” (Eph 1:4).
• He heard they had stayed faithful to Christ and had “love for all the saints” (Eph 1:15).
• He taught that we have been saved not because we deserve to be so, but because of God’s “great love with which he loved us” (Eph 2:4).
• Paul prayed for them to be “rooted and grounded in love” (Eph 3:17).
• He also wanted them to “know the love of Christ which passes knowledge” (Eph 3:19).

Then in the practical section of this letter (Eph 4-6), here’s what he taught the church about the centrality of love in their ministries and lives.

• They were supposed to “bear with one another in love” (Eph 4:2).
• They were supposed to “speak the truth in love” (Eph 4:15).
• Whatever they did for the church and one another was to be done in love (Eph 4:16).
• They were to “walk in love” just as Christ loved us in a sacrificial way (Eph 5:2).
• Husbands were supposed to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Eph 5:25).
• They were also supposed to love their wives as they love their own bodies (Eph 5:28).
• They were also supposed to love their wives as they love themselves (Eph 5:33).
• Paul closed hoping they would practice their faith with love (Eph 6:23).
• He also prayed they would have grace to love the Lord with sincerity (Eph 6:24).

Perhaps it’s appropriate to point out that the word sincerity, which was Paul’s final word to the church in this letter, means “immortal” or “unceasing.” Both the NET and NIV interprets this as “undying love,” which is an appropriate translation.

With this background in mind, we see the significance of Christ’s criticism given to this church through John some decades later. Though they had diligently pressed on from one generation to the next, resisting false teachings and temptations to immorality, they had done so with their hands and their head, but not with their heart.

Christ urged them to remember, repent, and repeat.

This failure was no minor problem, as evidenced by the urgent warning Christ gave to them (Rev 2:6). Since they had wandered away from love as their underlying motive for doctrine and morality, he urged them to remember, repent, and repeat.

• Remember their original motivations of love for God and for one another.
• Repent (reverse course and turn back) to this original motive.
• Repeat (or do) things the way they used to do them, out of love and true devotion rather than mere dogged determination.

If the believers in the church at Ephesus (or any other church for that matter) refused to return to love as their true motive for life and service, then Christ warned that he would act quickly to “remove your lampstand from its place” (Rev 2:6). As believers and as a church, God intends for us to shine the light of his glory into the spiritually darkened world around us. A loveless church, no matter how diligent, fails to accomplish this mission and therefore risks being removed from commission entirely. Such a church risks shutting its doors and removing its place in the circle of churches forever.

By recognizing their hatred of the Nicolaitan influence after he gave this warning, Christ reminds us all that he deeply appreciates our stand for sound doctrine and godly morals. To emphasize love as our underlying motive in life and ministry should not cause us to abandon our loyalty to truth and morality. Persevering for the truth and exhibiting Christian love are not competing ideas. Yet though they are one and equally important, one without the other is futile and of no lasting value.

A Promise of Personal Blessing

In conclusion, Christ urges every believer with working ears to pay attention to the message he gave to the church at Ephesus (Rev 2:7). This was a private message with all Christians and every church in mind.

Those who persevere in love are true believers.

Those who hear this message and respond with increased love will give evidence of their genuine faith in Christ. They will persevere to the end of this life and overcome the many spiritual challenges they have faced – whether the challenge of discerning and resisting false doctrine, the challenge of resisting immorality, or the challenge of maintain the right position with the right disposition, with love as their underlying motive.

These true followers of Christ will suffer much in this life, including the temptation to stop living and serving in love. Yet in the end, they will be richly rewarded for they will be given free access by God “to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” (Rev 2:7).

God gives true believers access to the tree of life.

This tree of life reminds us of the tree by a similar name in the original Garden of Eden, which Adam and Eve were forbidden from eating because it would have confirmed them in their sinful condition forever due to its immortal, life-giving effects (Gen 2:9; 3:22). We find a similar tree mentioned in Rev 22:2, 14 in the New Heaven and Earth that we will inhabit for eternity, yet here we find no inhibitions by God about sharing its fruit with us.

This tree also stands in contrast to the local pagan custom of the “tree shrine.” This custom featured a tree that grew in the middle of an enclosed garden in the Temple of Diana (or Artemis) that loomed over that city (one of the seven ancient wonders of the world).[3] Approaching this tree was believed to provide some sort of healing for criminals, yet this healing was temporary and had negative effects on the city at large. This tree of life, by contrast, is not in this world but in the next and will provide endless healing with no negative side effects, only positive.

God gives true believers access his personal paradise.

Its location, in the “paradise of God,” borrows a word from the Persian language to describe the massive, large-scale pleasure gardens that ancient Persian kings built for themselves. True believers (“those who overcome”) however will enjoy everlasting pleasure in the presence of God, which will permeate the New Heaven and Earth that he will make and that will endure forever. John will say much more about this New Creation in Rev 21-22. Needless to say, learning to resist temptations to immorality and lowered moral values, the overtures of false teachings and ecumenicalism, and perhaps most difficult of all, the danger of failing to do all of these things with love as our underlying motive, such struggles will be richly rewarded when we finally overcome at last.

Key Takeaways

Recognize the authority of God’s Word.

If a pastor or teacher gives a biblical message, we should receive and respond to that message as being from Christ himself. What’s more, we should rely on Christ’s protection whenever we give a message from God’s Word, no matter how difficult or unpopular that message may be to receive, such as this message to the church at Ephesus. It’s safe to assume that this church believed they were doing well for they worked hard to take a stand for Christ. So, it must have been difficult to hear that they were failing.

Be aware of Christ’s personal presence.

It’s too easy to go through the motions and forget that Christ is present with us at all times. It’s easier to stand for truth and morality when we know that Christ is walking among us, providing us with constant accountability and observation and also with his backing and protection. When we’re aware of Christ’s presence, we’re also more apt to live and serve with love for God as our underlying motive.

Don’t let the challenges of sound doctrine and moral living wear you out.

We may hope for a year when everything goes well, when everyone is happy, when the church grows steadily and no one leaves, and when nothing bad or difficult happens, but this is never been guaranteed. That life we yearn for exists in eternity, in the paradise of God around the tree of life. Only there will our challenges cease, our tears dry up, and our temptations fade away forever. Only there will true love come naturally with no threat of waning. Until then, we must lean firmly on the grace of God to enable us to press on.

Hate what God hates and love what God loves.

Notice that Christ and the church at Ephesus hated the actions, influence, and teachings of the Nicolaitans but not the Nicolaitans themselves. In our hatred of all that is wrong, let us not fail to love the people for whom Christ died. In maintaining this mature, Christlike balance, we may win people over from false doctrine and sensual living, not by accepting their teachings and lifestyles, but by representing the truth in a loving way.

Do all things with love for Christ as your underlying motive.

As a church and as individual believers, we should be active in worship and service and in resisting false teachings and immorality, yet in all that these things we should do them out of love for Christ and not mere duty. Believers who serve Christ out of duty alone offer no light in the end and such churches deserve to be shut down.

A church cannot resolve this problem, when it develops, at the macro level, though a Bible study like this can help. A church can only resolve this problem at the micro level, one person and member at a time. If you find yourself doing what you do as a Christian without that love for Christ that once motivated your life, worship, and service before, then remember what that was like, acknowledge that you’ve strayed away from that motivation of love, and get back to doing what Christians do out of love for Christ once again.

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[1] Robert Thomas, Revelation 1-7: An Exegetical Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 1992), 191.
[2] John MacArthur Jr., Revelation 1-11, MacArthur NT Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 1999), 61.
[3] Paige Patterson, Revelation, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 39, New American Commentary (Nashville: B&H, 2012), 90.