So has thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. Revelation 2:15
Have you ever been to a service at the Church of the Nicolaitanes? Me neither. You won’t find any Nicolaitanes around today. In fact, scholars disagree about who the Nicolaitanes were, although Eusebius, one of the early Christian writers, indicates that the sect was short-lived. Some say this group included followers of Nicolas, one of the first seven deacons appointed by the apostles in the early Jerusalem Assembly. They claim Nicolas taught that Christians could live a very indulgent and immoral lifestyle. If so, we can understand why the Lord Jesus would hate that teaching. Others claim the Nicolaitanes’ doctrine promoted the establishment of a clerical system to control the people, as opposed to the elders or overseers to shepherd the people as taught in the Scriptures. This departure from God’s order in His Assemblies would also be a doctrine that the Lord Jesus would hate, even as He hates it among the denominations today. But we are not sure just what the Nicolaitanes taught. The lesson here is that we should not tolerate anything that the Lord Jesus hates.
A quiet older brother in one of the Assemblies not far away noticed something strange in the prayers of another brother. He mentioned it to those on the Assembly oversight, who had a chat with the other brother. It turns out that the man actually believed that the Lord Jesus, in becoming a man, could have sinned. Their quick action in correcting this error prevented it from becoming a problem to others in the Assembly. One thing that must always be accurate in the Assembly is the doctrine concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. This is paramount, because if we deviate from what the Word of God says about Him, everything else will fall apart. The precious truths about our Lord and Saviour must be preserved and upheld at all costs.
The Lord Jesus Himself gave us the initial charter for His Assembly in Matthew 18:20. It follows that He appreciates those who follow the pattern He has given us, and will hate any teaching that goes against that pattern. For example, we must gather in His Name alone, and those who gather to other names would do so in violation of our Lord’s desire and command. He has also established proper order in His Assemblies in terms of the different roles of men and women, concerning our behaviour, and regarding the different meetings of the Assembly. He appreciates when that order is observed, and it must be disappointing to Him when the ideas of men take precedence over the direction of the Word of God.
Why would we ever want to bring anything that our Lord hates into His Assembly just to please the tastes of people? After all, it is His Assembly. -Jim MacIntosh