The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

have not been willing fully to face, and for which the remedy has therefore not been
found. . . .
"What is the test, then, of 'first love'? Not 'work'--activity in outward service; this they had
at Ephesus; not even 'labor,' for this too they had; no, nor yet 'endurance'--though a more
manifest sign than either [of the above] of Divine power in the soul. Not zeal against evil,
nor boldness to examine and refuse the highest pretensions [of those who claimed
apostleship]; not suffering even for Christ's name, and that unwearied. All this is good and
acceptable to God, and the Ephesians had it all, and yet says the Lord, 'I have against thee
that thou hast left thy first love.'
"What, then, is the test of first love? It is in the complete satisfaction of the heart by its
object. We know what power often there is in a new thing to take possession of one for the
time being. And in first love, it is characteristic that it engrosses the subject of it. The Lord
claims again and again the power to give this complete satisfaction of heart to His people."
The deeds of the Nicolaitans
One special evil is mentioned by the Savior as existing in Ephesus, or at least seeking to
gain a foothold there, which the Ephesian Church resisted, even to the extent of hating it.
It is specially singled out by the Savior, and words of commendation are given to this
Church for hating it. His words are: "But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the
Nicolaitans, which I also hate."--Verse 6.
There is quite a general agreement among expositors concerning what Nicolaitanism is. It
is interesting to observe that it was a thing that started in Ephesus in practice, and
afterwards embodied itself in theory; and finally in Pergamos it is mentioned as becoming
a feature of doctrine, and the Savior thus again expresses Himself concerning it: "So in like
manner thou hast also those holding the teaching [doctrine] of the Nicolaitans." (Rev. 2:15.)
It has been forcefully described as "something which put down the people [of God],
superseded them in their rights, and set them aside; for this is the plain import of the
name, which Christ gives it, and the names which are divinely given are always exactly
descriptive of the things or persons that receive them. We also know from the Scriptures
and from the common representations of all ecclesiastical historians that the Church was
hardly founded until it began to be troubled with the lordly pretensions and doings of
arrogant men in violation of the common priesthood of believers, and settling upon
ministers the attributes and prerogatives of a magisterial order against which Peter, Paul,
and John were moved to declare their apostolic condemnation, but which grew
nevertheless and presently became fixed upon the [professed] Church as a part of its
essential system. We know that there is to this day a certain teaching and claim and
practice in the largest part of the professed Church according to which a certain order
severs itself entirely from the laity, assumes the right and titles of priesthood, asserts
superiority and authority over the rest in spiritual matters, denies the right of any one,
whatever his gifts or graces, to teach or preach in the Church, who has not been regularly
initiated into the mysterious puissance of its own self-constituted circle, and puts forward