2:5. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen.—“Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly, whilst ye were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.”—Heb. 10:32, 33. And repent, and do the first works.—“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.”—Heb. 10:35. Or else I will come unto thee [quickly], and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.—The nominal church was in grave danger of being disowned and rejected. “By far the larger proportion were not consecrated to death, not of the Royal Priesthood, but merely Levites, doing the service of the Sanctuary, but not _sacrificing_.”—T. 118. 2:6. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes.—“Conquerors of the people”—the clergy.—Rev. 2:15. Which I also hate.—When the Lord’s people hate the idea of a class that seeks to be “lords over God’s heritage” (1 Pet. 5:2, 3), they hate something that the Lord hates. 2:7. He that hath an ear.—To receive and understand the voice of God through His Word.—Matthew 11:15; 13:9, 43; Rev. 13:9. Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.—“If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept [observed, ‘heard’] My saying, they will keep yours also.”—John 15:20. To him that overcometh.—See 1 John 2:13, 14. Will I give to eat of the tree of life.—“All the trees in Eden were trees of life, and the overcomers of the Gospel Age shall have full liberty to partake of ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ when the knowledge will be of benefit to them, and not bring a curse.”—Z. ’16‐346. Which is in the [midst of the] Paradise of God.—“Paradise, the garden of God, was applicable as a name to the Garden of Eden, in which our first parents resided while they were still in harmony with God, before their disobedience; and the same term is Scripturally applied as a name to the new earth when restitution blessings shall, during our Lord’s Second Presence (the Millennium), have brought it to perfection as the fit abode of those who, under Divine favor, shall then prove worthy of life everlasting. It is this same Paradise of the future on this earth that our Lord referred to when addressing the penitent thief, and that is elsewhere referred to as ‘the third heaven’—‘new heavens and a new earth.’ (2 Cor. 12:2, 4; 2 Pet. 3:13.)”—Z. ’01‐198.