Remember Your First Love

There’s an old saying which says, “The good is ever the enemy of the best.” It’s one of the devil’s oldest schemes.

The scripture tells us that we are not unaware of his schemes. Wherever God is at work, be certain that Satan is not far behind. The scripture tells us that he is our enemy who like a roaring lion is seeking whom he may devour.

Any cursory study of the New Testament will show that the devil employs many tactics as he tries to thwart the work of God. Whenever he can he tries to introduce false doctrine into the church. Where this does not work he introduces schisms and division, knowing that a house divided against itself cannot stand. With a nasty tool chest full of things like gossip, jealously, suspicion and pride, he causes God’s people to take their eyes off of Jesus and His commandments and causes them instead to focus on earthly things which have no eternal value. When God’s people refuse to allow sin in their midst Satan often brings difficulties against the church, all in an effort to discourage and dishearten God’s people.

When these tactics are not completely successful there is another tool he uses to stop the forward progress of a particular church or congregation. It is perhaps the most insidious tool, because it is masked behind the façade of success. When he cannot deceive us, divide us or daunt us what he will often do is divert us. The fervour we once had for Jesus is replaced with an acceptance of things as they are. Satan wants us to become so satisfied with where we are, with what we are doing and with what we have accomplished, that instead of maintaining a red hot passion for Christ, we would lose our zeal for Christ; replacing a once consuming internal passion with a complacency that is content with the religious status quo.

The text I am looking at for this post paints a picture of a church; A picture of individual Christians who somewhere along the way allowed the good to replace the best in their spiritual lives. This text is a prophetic word, it is a preventative word, it is a prescriptive word. God does not want us to become like Ephesus.

Could you please open your Bible to Revelation 2:1-7.

1. Christ commends them

The City of Ephesus was mighty and majestic. It was a center of tourism and trade. Four major trade routes went through this city, making it somewhat cosmopolitan in the ancient world. It was a wealthy city and yet a very pagan city, as it was home to the largest temple in the ancient world, the pagan temple of Artemis.

Acts 20 gives us background on this church where it tells us that Paul had preached among them for three years. We also have the book of Ephesians to help us understand the profound degree to which they had been taught the truth. They understood who they were in Christ, how to walk with Christ and how to engage in spiritual warfare. Their problem was not their failure to understand good doctrine, their problem was not that they lacked perseverance. This church existed during one of the most difficult times in all of Christian history. Beginning in 54 A.D. with the emperor Nero, there was widespread persecution of Christians. The Ephesian church had refused to bow the knee to Caesar and had stood firm in the midst of persecution.

So here in verses 1-3 Christ commends them.

The church at Ephesus was not idle. On the contrary they were very busy working for the Lord. Their calendar was full. They were busy for God.

And not only were they busy for the Lord. They took a strong stand against heresy. They were well grounded in the word. No doubt their pastor was an expository preacher, giving them clear application points to every sermon. They had withstood many trials and troubles and not fainted. Outwardly everything looked great.

And for these good things Christ commends them. Nothing goes unnoticed by God. He knows all that we do. But there is a powerful insight to be learned here. Mere works are not enough to please the Lord. He wants more than outward compliance. What Jesus wants is a heart that is changed. That is why after commending them in verses 2&3 he counsels them in verses 4&5.

Look at verse 4. “But I have this against you, that you have lost your first love.”

2. Christ Counsels them

He counsels them to return to their first love; to keep Jesus first in their hearts.

They had started out strong, but over time things had begun to change. A generation had come and gone since Paul had preached to them. While they had remained faithful to the word of God, and had endured hardship, something was lacking. They had lost their passion. The fervour for Christ, the passionate love that had motivated them and burned within their hearts had given way to a mechanical orthodoxy, a ritualistic form of service that lacked enthusiasm and zeal.

What happens when we lose our first love? What happens when the passion we once had for Christ is replaced by pride or by self-righteousness, or by a mechanical form of Christianity that contains all the externals but lacks the internal passion the once stirred our hearts and moved us to love for Christ?

We focus on the form instead of the substance of our faith

• We become infatuated with knowledge instead of holiness. Personal holiness is no longer our quest, we become convinced that knowledge is what makes us holy, thus knowledge, something we can attain for ourselves, replaces God’s Presence and Lordship in our life, something we cannot do for ourselves. What we know becomes more important than what we are.
• We become comfortable with the Holy instead of being in awe of it. The sense of awe the Isaiah had when he was in the Presence of God, is gone from us, and we become like the sons of Samuel who had lost their respect for the holiness of God.
• We lose our evangelistic zeal and see the world as our enemy instead of our mission field. This causes us to become more concerned with the comfort of the saints than with the salvation of the lost. This Then we become inwardly directed instead of outwardly directed.
• We become insensitive to the Holy Spirit, and thus become dulled to the small besetting sins that distract us. When we are passionately in love with Jesus, we are sensitive to grieving His Spirit, but when we become cold, we lose that sensitivity. Gossip, pride, jealously, bitterness, and a host of other ungodly things, little things are allowed to dwell within us, because we are insensitive to how much these things displease God.
• We become content with what we are instead of being driven to become more like Christ. The passion for becoming more like Christ is diminished. Instead of comparing ourselves to Jesus, we begin to compare ourselves against one another, always reasoning within ourselves that as long as we are better than so and so, we’re ok. This attitude leads to self-righteousness.
• We allow other things to sit on the throne of our lives, and relegate Christ to a lesser place of importance. Mind you, we still give lip service to Christ as Lord, but in our hearts, other things reign. It may be success, it may be power, pride, prestige or pleasure, the good life and all its comforts but something else sits on the throne of our lives.
• We begin to love something or someone more than we love Christ. This is the bottom line. We become dispassionate and cool in our relationship with Christ. What kind of relationship do you think Stephen, the first martyr for the faith had? Do you think it was a formal, ritualistic relationship, just going through the motions but lacking fervor and zeal? That’s not the kind of relationship that causes someone to die for Jesus. What kind of relationship do you think Paul had with Jesus? When he was beaten and left for dead, when he was in prison and knew he was to be executed?

Compare that with the kind of relationship we have with Jesus today. We find little or no time for Him on a daily basis. Doing the very basics like opening the Word and praying can be a chore. We are often unwilling to be inconvenienced for Jesus. Then we wonder why we not sensed the Presence of God in our lives for a long time?

It is a dangerous thing to go through the motions of Christianity without a passionate love for Christ.

• It teaches our children a distorted lesson on what it means to be a Christian. And this coldness has a tendency to become self-perpetuating.
• It causes us to become content with less than God’s best, denying us the true riches of our life in Christ.

But the church at Ephesus refused to heed His counsel. They decided to disregard what Christ has told them, and there are consequences.

Look at verses 5-7

3. Christ Cautions them.

If they don’t repent, if they don’t return to their first love, He will remove the fire of His Spirit from their midst.

Oh, we will still have our programmes, our busy schedule and all the externals. We may still be able to attract new people with clever how-to sermons but the power of God will be missing. God will take His hand off of the church and leave us to go through the motions. What a tragic picture this paints for us: A group of people going through the motions of Christianity, without the living God in their midst. Could there be anything more empty or sad?

What ever happened to the church at Ephesus? Today the ruins of that ancient city lie under the murk and mire of a swamp. The church at Ephesus died, and the city died around it.

He who has ears let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.