You have left your first love

Revelation 2:1-7 NASB

"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:
  ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;  and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.  ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.  ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent.  ‘Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.  ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’

My thoughts -

The church in Ephesus sounds like a pretty intense place. They are known by their deeds. They are known by their perseverance. They are known by their endurance. They are positioned in a culture in which they are a minority religion and yet they take a prophetic stand against that culture and its gods. They call out and expose false prophets. They have no tolerance for other believers who compromise their principles to avoid persecution. Theirs is not a watered down faith. Theirs is not a faith that fears persecution or even death. Theirs is a faith that takes a stand no matter what the cost and refuses to bow down to culture.

There's a lot to be said for that. Though the church in America (and particularly in the Bible Belt) dominates the religious landscape we make concessions to culture all the time. We water things down to have more appeal. You won't find too many pastors demanding that their congregants sell all they have and give to the poor. We'd rather you just give your ten percent. On most issues the church is more than happy to "meet you where you are" and have you feel nice and comfortable so that you're willing to come back next week. We won't challenge you. Not much. We won't challenge culture. Not much. If we make things too challenging then we might not make payroll.

That's obviously a cynical overgeneralization. The point here is that the church in Ephesus had no consideration for cultural concerns and no patience for those who did. I think most churches would envy their freedom in this area, though probably not the level of persecution that would inevitably follow. This is an intense place. This is an intense church. And yet, they're doing it wrong.

How can that be? They are known by their deeds, their perseverance, their endurance, and their inability to.compromise to culture. Theirs is a powerful ministry. It is producing fruit. What could they be doing wrong?

They have left their first love.

What does that mean? It is a pretty open, ambiguous statement. What is their first love and how have they left it?

When asked about what the most important commandment is Jesus responded that it is to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He followed that up by saying that it is also to love your neighbor as yourself. These two are tied together. They are inseparable. Not even Jesus can separate them. The love of God is the love of neighbor. We show that we love God by loving others.

This is our first love. This is the most important thing that we can be doing. This is what Jesus said all of the law could be summed up as. This is what Paul said that, if we are not doing it we are nothing, no matter how beautiful our prayers and praise, how much faith, how much service, how much sacrifice, how much dedication we have.

Somewhere along the lines this vibrant, important, alive, and uncompromising church left this love behind. And they need to repent or be removed. They need to rekindle this lost love or they are nothing.

We can't compete with this church on works. We can't compete with it on a prophetic witness to a culture that is hostile to the gospel. We can't compete with it on faith, hope, perseverance and endurance in the face of persecution. And yet even this church is not off the hook when it comes to love. They must repent and return to their first love.

May we never forget this and may we never turn from ours. If we do may we repent. May they know we are Christians by our love. Not by our works or our words, though they are important. By our love.