To the Church in Ephesus
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices 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 give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
My Understanding: The book of Revelation is “the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, wrote this letter (revelation) to the seven churches in the province of Asia, yet this revelation is for the church for all ages. The book of Revelation contained seven specific letters to the seven individual church congregations. The first letter is to the church in Ephesus.
Although John was the physical writer of the letters to the churches, it was Jesus Christ who was the true author, so these are the words of Jesus Christ, i.e. the very words of God Almighty. He is described here as the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands. We learn in chapter one that the seven stars are the angels (spirits) of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. However one might define the “angels” of these seven churches, the fact still remains that the letters were written to these specific congregations, yet they are applicable to the church of all ages. Jesus holds us, his church, in his hands, and he walks among us via his Holy Spirit who indwells the lives of individual believers in Jesus Christ.
What They Did Right
The letter began by praising the congregation for what they were doing right. This type of encouragement is vital to the life of the church, and to us, as individual followers of Christ, too. We can get discouraged if all we hear is what we are doing wrong. Yet, we must never be guilty of only concentrating on the positive, while ignoring what may seem to us to be the negative, because both praise and constructive criticism (exhortation) are necessary elements of edification and encouragement for the body of Christ. And, this church needed to hear, not only what they were doing right, but what they were doing wrong, so that they could repent of their error and could change, and could become who God intended them to be. And, that should always be the goal of this kind of exhortation – to restore our fellow believers to a right relationship with Jesus Christ, and to help them to be restored.
Jesus said he knew their deeds. And, he knows ours, too, though sometimes I think we don’t give that much thought. He knows everything we do, even the things we do in the dark (secret things). This congregation worked hard for the Lord. They demonstrated much perseverance. They did not tolerate wicked men. They tested those who claimed to be apostles, and found those that were not genuine to be false. They even endured hardships for the sake of the name of Christ, and they had not grown weary. Sounds pretty good, right? I mean, how much better could it get than this? - They don’t tolerate evil. They expose false teachers of the gospel. They work hard. They persevere, and even accept hardship for the name of Christ. And, they didn’t give up. So, what could be wrong with them?
What They Did Wrong
Looking at their example, it appears to me that we can do all the right things. We can work hard for the Lord. We can hang tough in trial. We can expose evil. And, we can even endure patiently, and yet still miss the mark. The “mark” for them was their heart-felt devotion to their first love. They had fallen short of it, and had forsaken their first love. So, what does it mean to forsake our first love? How can we know when we have missed the mark of this kind of pure devotion to Jesus Christ when it seems outwardly that we are doing all the right things? I believe we need to get a good picture of what a “first love” really is.
When I think of a “first love,” I think of that person whom we “fell in love” with when we were young, and perhaps is the one we ended up marrying. My true “first love” is the man I married. When Rick and I dated, he was the one I thought of when I got up in the morning, and was usually the one on my mind when I went to bed at night, other than the Lord. I wanted to share everything with him. He was the first one I wanted to tell everything to. We would talk for hours on the phone at night, and had the worst time saying, "Good night,” so that both of us could go to bed in our respective homes (we both lived with our respective parents). I wrote him notes every day and stuck them in his school mailbox, and he did the same for me. We could not bear it if we had to be apart from each other for days at a time. We took every advantage to be with each other as much as was possible. We shared common interests, and enjoyed doing things together. We sang together, played together, prayed together, and fellowshipped together with Christians at church and on campus. And, the happiest day of my life, other than when I met Jesus, was the day I walked down that isle and I became his wife, and he my husband, and we began our life together. And, this is the kind of relationship all of us should have with Jesus Christ. He is to be our “first love”.
Yet, this is not just how things should be between us and Jesus, as though we have the option to opt out of that part of our relationship with Christ. He told the church that they needed to repent, meaning Jesus saw this as a sin that they no longer treated him as though he was their “first love.” And, to repent of this sin meant for them to turn from the sin, and to go in the opposite direction, i.e. to go in the direction of redeveloping that love relationship with Jesus Christ. And, the only way that can happen is through spending time with him each day, by making him truly the Lord (boss; master) of our lives, by putting him first place (top priority) in our lives above all else, and to desire and to hunger after him, and after his word. And, included in this is that we need to obey everything he teaches us. The more we spend time at his feet, listening to him, and obeying him, the closer we will grow in our love relationship with him. And, this is not going to happen if we give him a token 5 or 10 minutes a day out of our busy schedules while we spend hours doing what we want to do. We have to consider him in everything we do, and desire to please him in all things, just like we would do with someone who was our “first love.”
Repent and Do
He told them to “repent,” i.e. to turn from their sin, and to do the things they did at first. Many people may get to the “repent” stage of their relationship with Jesus Christ, while others may have been taught that repentance is not necessary, and may not have even reached that point. Repentance and obedience to Christ are absolutely necessary for salvation. This is what it means to truly believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins so that we could go free from sin. Yet, even those who have repented may have only gotten as far as the “put off” part of their relationship with Jesus Christ, yet never moved to the “put on.” The scriptures teach, with regard to our salvation, that we are to put off the old sinful nature which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, we are to be made new (of the Holy Spirit of God) in the attitudes of our minds, and we are to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (see Ephesians 4:20-24). This is how we come to know Christ, and no other way. If this was not your experience, then maybe you don’t really know Christ. We need to not only repent of our old lives of sin, but we need to turn to walk in faithful obedience to Jesus Christ, and to live holy lives pleasing to God.
So, what were the things they did at first that they needed to do again? I suspect if we go back to the book of Acts we might learn what some of them were. The early church met daily from house to house and in the temple courts. They met together for the teaching of the word, for prayer, for the breaking of bread (fellowship/communion) and for true spiritual fellowship (not the kind of social activities we might call fellowship today). They shared with those who had need. They practiced hospitality. They were totally committed to their faith in Jesus Christ, and stood strong in their faith in the face of great opposition. They were committed to the sharing of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that others could come to know Christ, too. They bore the burdens of others. They confronted and restored those among them who had fallen prey to sin. Then, going into Romans and 1 Corinthians, and Ephesians, we learn how the body of Christ worked together as various parts within one body, but that each part had equal concern, one for another. They all had various spiritual gifts given them by the Holy Spirit of God, which they used for the mutual edification of one another, in order to help each other grow in their faith in Jesus Christ. Above all, they loved each other with an agape (God-like) love that willingly laid down their lives for each other, and they demonstrated their love for Jesus Christ by their obedience to his commands.
The situation with the Ephesian church was not peculiar to them, though. Christians have faced this kind of problem throughout church history, and the command that was given to them by Christ himself rings true for us, as well, today. If we are “guilty as charged” in having forsaken our “first love,” we need to, as well, turn from our sin and turn to walk in humble obedience to Jesus Christ in developing that love relationship with him, even if it is for the first time. If we do not repent, as the church, Jesus will remove our lampstand from its place. The lampstands were the churches themselves. Yet, a lampstand is also what holds the light (lamp) of the truth of the gospel. If we, as the church, are not being that light for the true gospel of Jesus Christ, then we have no purpose in continuing to exist. There may be varied interpretations as to what it means to remove the lampstand, but truly it is some kind of judgment against the church when they have lost favor with God, and thus they will cease to be effective as his true church in having the kind of spiritual impact on this world of ours that we, as the church, are supposed to have. Don’t take God for granted. He means business about sin, and he means business about the church being in a right relationship with Jesus Christ, and bearing much fruit for the gospel.
Jesus Christ ended all his letters to the churches with the words, “To him who overcomes,” or something similar, and then he said what the blessing of God would be for the overcomer. In most of these cases, the blessing is associated with our right to receive our eternal inheritance. Many, many scriptures throughout the New Testament speak of enduring, persevering, continuing, etc., as necessary elements of our eternal salvation. True commitments to Jesus Christ are those that last until the end. We cannot rely upon some decision we made at an altar as a child, or as a youth, to secure our eternal inheritance, if our profession of faith was not accompanied by enduring faith in Christ that was evidenced by genuine repentance, and obedience to Jesus Christ and to his commands. 1 John and the book of James speak much on this subject, in particular, but so do the writings of Paul and the other apostles. 1 John especially remarked how we cannot claim to know God, and yet live in continual sin, and think we have the hope of eternal life. So, if you have been relying upon some decision you made at some point in your life to accept Christ Jesus as Savior, but your life is one that does not reflect Christ’s presence in your life, I pray you will repent of your sins today and will turn to walk in faithful obedience to Jesus Christ today.
When in The Stillness / An Original Work / September 26, 2011
When in the stillness
Of this moment,
Speak to me, Lord,
I humbly pray.
Be my desire,
Set me on fire,
Teach me to love always.
Help me to walk in
Fellowship with You,
Listening to You;
Sit at Your feet.
Whisper Your words to me,
Oh, how gently,
Guiding me in Your truth.
While we are waiting
For Your blessing,
Lord, in our hearts
Be King today.
Help us to live for
You ev’ry moment,
List’ning to what You say.
May we not stray from
Your word within us,
Help us obey You,
Lord, in all things,
Walking each moment,
Lord, in Your presence,
Our off’rings to You bring.
Help us to love You,
Lord, our master;
Be an example
Of Your love,
Helping the hurting,
Lift up the fallen,
Showing them Your great love.
Teach them to love You,
Follow You always,
Bearing their cross and
Turning from sin;
Walking in daily
Fellowship with You,
Making You Lord and King.
http://youtu.be/MnTH6DW98EI
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