"But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.”
(Revelation 2:14-15)
Though we don’t have a group known as Nicolaitans today, their great grandchildren remain among us. We see strains of the Nicolaitans in multiplied churches that allow unchristian behavior to go on among their membership without seeking to discipline wayward members. Immorality, unethical practices, lying, unfaithfulness, and all manner of compromise with the world take place without even a hint of addressing it. “Oh, we don’t to hurt anyone’s feelings,” churches demur. “We’re all sinners; we’re not to be judgmental,” they say. “We don’t want to lose them or their friends; the church is about adding not subtracting,” they explain. Yet to all of this the Lord of the Church stands in holy opposition. The corporate witness of the church, the singular testimony that a particular congregation portrays of the power of the gospel must be consistent with Christ’s purpose for His church. That’s why Jesus Christ instituted the practice of discipline in the church (Matthew 18). Together, we are to have such high regard for the church as the body of Christ that we refuse to tolerate the kind of behavior among our members that shame the gospel of Christ and reproach our Lord’s good name.
(Phil A. Newton)
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