NOTES for Rev 2:15-16

In the address to the church in Pergamum, the teaching of the Nicolaitans is mentioned again, which Jesus equates with the defense of immorality and idolatry. As can be seen, following this teaching could render meaningless even the exploit of confession and martyrdom, examples of which were known to the church in Pergamum. Little is known today about the Nicolaitans and their teaching. Judging by the few testimonies that have reached us, one has to think that its supporters, judging by the name, followers of some "teacher" named Nicholas, about whom no information has been preserved except his name, tried to establish for Christians a kind of peculiar "right to sin." Evidently they believed that sin, as an inevitable evil, was not subject to condemnation, just as natural evil, such as natural disasters, is not subject to it. More than that: proceeding from faith that by His death on the cross the Savior had redeemed all sins, they evidently believed that now sin had ceased to be an obstacle in spiritual life. After all, it no longer has power over a person, and therefore, the Nicolaitans evidently thought, one can now sin calmly, being sure that one will not have to deal with the consequences of the sin committed.

In practice such a position led to the justification of sin, elevated into a principle. Of course, with such an approach spiritual life completely degraded and was distorted: the difference between sin and righteousness disappeared, and with it the Torah and the very concept of the path of righteousness as the path into the Kingdom lost their meaning. Of course, everyone has to sin one way or another; there are no sinless people in the world. But following the Torah presupposes repentance for the sin committed, while the path proposed by the Nicolaitans presupposed its justification, which, unlike repentance and subsequent conversion, required no spiritual work, but only a special kind of intellectual agility needed to substantiate the inevitability of sin and the meaninglessness of any efforts to resist it. It is no surprise that Jesus calls the church in Pergamum to a new conversion: the justification of sin spreading in a church environment can spiritually kill any community. And only a complete rejection of attempts at such justification opens the road into the Kingdom for those who walk.