Revelation 2:15 is a warning from the risen Christ to the church in Pergamum. It points out that some believers there had adopted a teaching associated with the Nicolaitans, a group whose beliefs and practices John’s letter treats as a serious departure from faithful devotion to Jesus. The words are spoken by Jesus himself, in the second of seven letters dictated to churches in Asia Minor, and they are addressed to the local congregation in the city of Pergamum.
So you also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans likewise.
Revelation 2:15 (WEB)
What Revelation 2:15 Means
The verse begins with “So you also,” linking the Nicolaitans to the teaching just mentioned, that of Balaam. Jesus is saying that the Pergamum church has a problem parallel to an older one: people inside the community are drawn toward a way of living that accommodates the surrounding pagan culture, including its idol feasts and sexual immorality. The word “likewise” signals that this is not a separate issue but the same kind of compromise in a new form.
The verse describes the matter as something people “hold to,” which suggests a teaching they have accepted and found persuasive, not merely a single lapse. Jesus does not here say what the Nicolaitan teaching exactly contained, so readers should be careful not to claim more certainty than the text gives. What it does promise is that Christ sees the situation clearly and is not indifferent to it.
What the verse does not do is describe the fate of those individuals in detail. It stands as a rebuke within a larger letter that also contains encouragement and a call to repentance in the verses that follow. Read in isolation it can sound harsher than its setting intends.
The Context of Revelation 2:15
The book of Revelation is traditionally attributed to the apostle John, written while he was exiled on the island of Patmos, and it is addressed to seven real congregations in the Roman province of Asia. Its literary form is apocalyptic prophecy, full of symbol and vision, but the letters in chapters 2 and 3 are direct and pastoral in tone. Pergamum was a prominent city with a major temple and a strong civic life tied to the imperial cult, which made public association with pagan feasts a real social pressure.
Just before verse 15, Jesus commends the church for holding firmly to his name even when a faithful witness named Antipas was killed among them. Just after, in verse 16, he calls for repentance and warns of war against those who persist. This means verse 15 sits between praise and a call to change, so it reads as a correction offered out of loyalty rather than as a verdict of rejection. That setting matters for how the verse is heard.
Key Phrases in Revelation 2:15
Romans 12:2
Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
(WEB)
Paul urges believers not to be conformed to the pattern of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. It sheds light on Revelation 2:15 by describing the same tension between faithful living and accommodation to surrounding culture, and by pointing to the inner renewal that resists it.
1 Corinthians 10:21
You can’t both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can’t both partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.
(WEB)
Paul states that believers cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. This connects directly to the concern about eating food sacrificed to idols in Revelation 2:14 and 15, showing that the issue was a recurring pastoral question in the early church.
A Short Prayer From Revelation 2:15
Lord Jesus, you see clearly where we have grown comfortable with things that pull us away from you. Thank you that your correction comes from love and that you call your people back rather than abandoning them. Show me where I have quietly accepted ideas or habits that do not honor you, and give me the courage to turn from them. Help me hold firmly to your name in the ordinary places of my week, and let my loyalty to you be clear to the people around me. Amen.
