Here is one more word of praise, perhaps to soften the severity of the censure in verse 5.

Yet this you have: “But you have this in your favor,” “This, however, is to your credit,” “But I will praise you for this,” or “Here is a good thing that you are doing.”

You hate the works of the Nicolaitans: they also appear in 2.15, in the letter to Pergamum. The word means “the followers of Nicolaus,” but there is no way of deciding who this Nicolaus was, if indeed he was a real person and not a fictitious character. Aside from what is said about the Nicolaitans here and in 2.14-15 (and perhaps in 2.20, 24), there is no precise information on their origin or activities. Most commentators see them as Gnostic teachers who, on the basis of their doctrine that the material and spiritual realms are completely separate, taught that immoral conduct does not affect the spiritual life. Hate may be expressed as “despise,” “not like to look at,” or idiomatically in some languages as “heart is not warm towards.” Here the works, as in the other instances (verses 2, 5), mean everything they do and are.

Which I also hate: it is well to have this come at the end, to make for the proper emphasis. Good News Translation “as much as I do” is a possible way of making the comparison.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .