not only are we supposed to be ministering and loving one another, but also those outside the church. This begins with a genuine love for Jesus, not only a doctrinal love, but a love that impacts our actions, a love that is real and relational. Christianity is not just a set of dos and don’ts or a series of rituals and creeds. Christianity, as the name suggests, is at the core about a relationship with Christ.
There are too many people who can quote Bible verses and give out statements of faith, but who have no love or compassion in their lives. One theologian has said (I don’t remember who), “The glum, sour faces of many Christians . . . They give the impression that, instead of coming from the Father’s joyful banquet, they have just come from the Sheriff who has auctioned off their sins and now are sorry they can’t get them back again.” In Philemon, Paul reminds us that our good doctrine of Jesus can actually be encouraged by our right love for others. He says to Philemon, “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ” (Philemon 4–6). The love we have for one another and for the world will instruct our understanding of Jesus.
Without love, a congregation ceases to be the church, and so Jesus warned against the removal of the lampstand. I’m going to close you down if you don’t start loving me and loving one another, he’s saying. In Hot Springs, Arkansas, there’s a place called Morris Antique Mall. Nothing on the inside distinguishes this antique store from dozens like it in Hot Springs. There is a musty smell and dusty relics of years gone by. But if you look closely at the outside of the Morris Antique Mall, you’ll see something that makes it distinct: before it was an antique store, it was a church building. Like the church that became the Morris Antique Mall is no longer there, neither is the congregation in Ephesus.
Jesus shifted the rebuke back to a closing word of encouragement for this congregation. The opening phrase of verse 6, ἀλλὰ τοῦτο ἔχεις (alla touto ekseis), is a way of saying, “But this you have that you are doing well.” The Ephesian church could not tolerate the works of the Nicolaitans. They hated their works, just as Jesus did. The Nicolaitans allowed for compromise and went beyond what was allowed in the apostolic letter to the Gentile churches from Acts 15:29. They taught that some degree of pagan temple participation was acceptable, even compromising with the prohibition of burning incense to the image of the emperor.92
What would Jesus say of the modern church concerning moral purity? Are we not taking part in the practices of groups similar to the Nicolaitans? We would be quick to say that we have nothing to do with those kinds of groups. But what of the world have we allowed to creep into our homes and into our churches? If there is, at times, no statistical difference between the people outside of the church and the people inside of the church in regards to ethical standards and moral purity, that speaks a lot to our moral condition and how much we have allowed ourselves to offer sacrifices at our modern-day altars of the emperor, the materialism and self-absorption and obsession with achievement.
Our problem in evangelical churches is not so much that we don’t teach the right things (though this is becoming an increasingly disturbing issue), but that we don’t live out that which we teach. Parents must be willing to take strong stands on these issues. And their children must be willing to accept them. We must remember that Jesus is the one who walks among us. He holds his churches in his right hand. He knows our deeds. We must, therefore, put off the practices of the Nicolaitans of our generation and refuse to be influenced by them. Jesus hates their deeds. We must also hate their deeds.
In our churches today, there must be a combination of doctrine, love, and purity. Only these three combined will make an impact in our world. People will not be able to call into question our message, because the purity of our lives will prove our message is true. But our message needs to be acted out in love. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another.” 2 Corinthians 5:14 says, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died.” If there is no doctrine but love and purity, you come across as a liberal philanthropist who believes that many roads lead to God and thus denies the glory that is only due Jesus (see 1:9–20).
If there is no love, but doctrine and purity, like in the Ephesian church, you come across as cold and uncompassionate with no heart relationship with God. There are many religious people in the world (like ascetics) who may be teaching the right things but have no relationship with Jesus.
If there is no purity, but love and doctrine, then your life denies the words that come from your mouth (see 1 Timothy 4:12–16). The Apostle Paul said to Timothy that these kinds of people have a “form of godliness but deny its power.” We can talk about the power of Jesus all we want, but if it is not displayed in changing our lives, then our message is like smoke. It burns for a while, but then fades away.
Conclusion
Jesus closes this admonition to the church in Ephesus with a promise to those who overcome or obey the words of Jesus, as he does in each case of each letter to the churches. To the church in Ephesus, he promises that they would be given the opportunity to eat from the tree of life in God’s paradise. The word for “paradise” in Greek is transliterated as “paradise” in English. This was originally a Persian word, describing an enclosed garden or park that took on religious connotations. It is God’s paradise here, pointing to the new heavens and the new earth of 21:1–22:5 and establishing a contrast with the temple of Artemis that promised an earthly paradise, but didn’t last.93 A paradise prepared by God, owned by God (possessive genitive), and a paradise where God dwells.
In this paradise is the tree of life. The tree of life recalls the tree in the Garden of Eden, which was placed in the middle. Adam and Eve were barred from the tree because of their sin. The faithful who overcome (in their perseverance against false prophets and in their remembrance of love) will be given the privilege to eat from this tree. Ladd aptly writes, “Love and loyalty to Christ will conquer fear of suffering and death.”94 No longer distant from the tree of life, the faithful will have continued access to it.
And for those who have the ears to hear, they will hear the admonitions of Jesus. This phrase was used by Jesus in the synoptic gospels (see Matthew 13:9–17, 43; see also Ezekiel 3:27; 12:2). It is Jesus who speaks, and it is the Spirit who speaks. There is no contradiction here. The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ who interprets the voice of Christ. Throughout Revelation, there is an intimate association between the Spirit of Christ and Christ, as in the rest of the New Testament.95
78. Aune, Revelation 1–5, 110. Beale calls the letters “prophetic messages” rather than epistles—Beale, The Book of Revelation, 225.
79. Beale, The Book of Revelation, 227.
80. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, 84.
81. Aune, Revelation 1–5, 131.
82. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary, 2002–2223.
83. See Arnold, Ephesians (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament Series, 483–493.
84. Beale, The Book of Revelation, 229.