Revelation 2:19 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I know thy works Of piety and mercy; and charity Or love, rather. How different a character is this from that of the angel of the church at Ephesus! The latter could not bear the wicked, and hated the works of the Nicolaitanes; but he had left his first love and first works. The former retained his first love, and had more and more works, but bore with the wicked; did not withstand them with becoming vehemence. Mixed characters both; yet the latter, not the former, is reproved for his fall, and commanded to repent. And service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works Love is shown, exercised, and improved, by serving God and our neighbour: so is faith by patience and good works. And the last to be more than the first Greater and better. Very far art thou from that declining state of religion of which I have had reason elsewhere to complain.