Commentary: So why did Jesus hate the Doctrine of the Nicolaitians? Sometimes they are called Antinomians a group of people within the church holding a false doctrine opposing Christ! They believed they could freely participate in sin because by grace the law of God no longer applies? So what did Jesus say in John 14:15? Jesus said if you love me keep my Commandments! To honor God is to keep his Commandments! Jesus never broke the law! He was Lord of the Sabbath! We have all broken his Commandments for all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God! His love for us in suffering and dying on the Cross for our sin through love for us makes us understand that our breaking his Commandments caused his great suffering and death because of us! So in his love he has forgiven us of our sin and the breaking of God’s Laws so we want to keep his Commandments so not to crucify him again! We ask Jesus to forgive us all our violations of the law and sin against God and man! Even though none of us can keep his commandments his love for us enables us to be sensitive to sin and to repent of any sin past, present or future! Grace is God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves! We can sin by ourselves and to do this violates the very purpose Jesus came to redeem us! He has removed our guilt and to do the same sin that caused our guilt is blasphemy against the will and purposes of God and his redemptive sacrifice on our behalf! Jesus said the two greatest Commandments is to love God and man! To reject his law is to reject his love because he paid the price of death the penalty for sin that we have initiated against God and man! Forgiveness of sin cannot be a license to sin again under the false ideology of grace! Grace is God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves! We cannot save ourselves only God has done this for us! To sin again against this grace is separation from God and his love forever! James & Hamsa Sasse.
Tag: nicolaitians
Who Are They? Revelation 2:6
Who are the Nicolaitians? The word in the Greek means the conqueror of the people! Specifically in the Church of God! They are only referred to twice in the Book of Revelation. Both the church at Ephesus and the Church at Pergamos had the same problem! (Verse 2:15). The Nicolaitians were Bishops and prelates of the church gaining a triumphal victory over the laity! This is the very sin that brought forth the Reformation! It is mostly responsible for all our denominational and non-denominational churches around the world! The Nicolaitians compelled and forced church members to submit to the arbitrary dominion of men who have become the ones which the eternal hates! The Apostle Peter warned us that those who are leaders among God’s people must not dominate the faith of others but rather exhort them to do right! (1 Peter 5:1-3). The Nicolaitians are people in the church who have established a hierarchy of power and dominion under a government of ecclesiastical rulers! Comment: Yes! God hates these folks! Correction is very different from condemnation! We take the word disciple from the word discipline. Jesus used the techniques of correction and commendation very effectively! We as parents either tend to over correct and under commend or over commend and under correct! Everything I do cannot be right and everything I do cannot be wrong! That is why I need a Savior! My experience in ministry over the past 45 years has shown me people do not like to submit to authority! This is the nature of Satan! Most people will submit to authority if commended and corrected in love! However some will never! Hell is reserved for these folks! Why will some never submit? Because they want to replace God! This explains why the world is a war! War on God! Jesus asked the churches at Ephesus and Pergamos to repent! Sunday our Pastor Oscar Cope made an important point to us in his sermon! He said that the beginning of repentance is the end of judgment! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com