Have you left your first love?
Jesus told the church in Ephesus: “I have against you that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, lest I come to you soon and remove your lampstand from its place, if you do not repent” (Revelation 2:4 and 5).
What did he mean? A common interpretation is that He was saying that these Christians had gone astray. Their fire had gone out and if they did not repent and deal with Jesus again, they were in danger of losing their salvation. Is that really his message to this church?
Well, first of all, they definitely hadn’t become lazy or lazy. Jesus praised them for many things, e.g.
- His works (that is, the many and different ways they served him)
- Your job (that is, the hard work put in those various works)
- His patience in suffering in the face of persecution.
- Their doctrinal stability (they tested the self-proclaimed apostles and expelled them from the church when they found out they were false)
- They hated the works of the Nicolaitans (early church leaders say this was a practice started by a man named Nicholas who said it was okay for other men to marry his wife, sparking a practice of wife sharing)
Jesus praised them for all these things. They were obviously not wayward, apathetic, or devoid of good works. So what was the problem?
We love because he loved us first
Jesus rebuked the church for leaving their first love. The Greek word for ‘first’ is prototypes, means first in order, first in time, as in the beginning, etc. The same word is used in the next verse, Rev.2:5, with respect to works. This is the key. When they left their first love they left their first works.
Notice, Jesus never said to stop doing works or serving him. They did not, as we have just seen. The problem is not that they stopped doing works, but that their motivates by making them had changed.
When we were first saved, what characterized our early works? Speaking for myself, I was so overwhelmed by God’s love for me in Christ that I couldn’t do enough for Him. Just the fact that He saved me was amazing; but then to think that He would actually include me in his purposes on earth just amazed me. My response was: “Where do I sign up? What can I do? Here I am, send me!”
I did not have to be bribed to do good deeds, nor was I manipulated by guilt or fear. My first works were the fruit of my first love. This is authentic Christianity. The apostle John says, “In this consists love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10). That is all! That is the love of God in its most extravagant manifestation. That is why we must never lose the true meaning of the Cross. At Calvary, God’s just judgment due to me because of my sins fell on his own beloved Son of his. Here is love.
Then he says in the next verse, “Beloved, if God loved us like this, we too must love one another” (1 John 4:11). Our love and our works are a response to his love for us.
Christianity of first love vs mercenary Christianity
The more revelation we get of the depth, breadth, and height of God’s love for us, the more we will want to live for His glory. Everything we do will be in response to this incredible love. We will experience the Christianity of first love. But if we miss this, we will end up with a mercenary Christianity. Everything we do for God will be an attempt to exchange our works for his benefits and blessings.
And isn’t that what happened today? Here is an obvious example. In many churches, before the offering is received each week, the congregation is prepared with a twenty minute manipulative talk on ‘giving’. “You will be hurt if you do and cursed if you don’t!” “Sow a seed for your financial harvest!”
This shows us, 1) what the speaker really thinks about God. He doesn’t want to hurt you, but he can be bribed; 2) what the speaker thinks of the congregation. I know you don’t want to give to the Lord’s work, but he considers the benefits of doing so!
And so when we operate like this, just like the church in Ephesus, we have left our first love. Our motive is no longer love, but fear, greed, disbelief, etc.
Remember, this church was full of good works, but they were no longer the first works, that is, performed on the basis of first love. The message to this church was not:
- “Get busy or you will lose your salvation.” The lampstand is clearly not a symbol of a Christian, but of a local church (see Rev. 1:20). A church that has lost its first love becomes formal. It has an appearance of piety, but lacks reality. The glorious light of her love has ceased to shine. Such a church is not a good testimony to the world. Jesus can close such churches if he so desires.
- “Get busy and I’ll hurt you.” The fact is that He has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Everything that God wants to do for you and in you and through you has already been paid for. So why would you want to do anything for Jesus? For love. And that is pure Christianity!
“I love my master; I won’t go free!”
There is a beautiful illustration of this in the Bible. According to the Law, if an Israelite fell on hard times and lost all his possessions and property, he could, as a last resort, offer himself as a slave to a fellow Jew. However, he could only serve for a maximum of six years. In the seventh year he was to be released. But in some cases, the servant had been so well treated and hurt by his master that he didn’t want to leave him. He said to himself, “I love my master; I won’t go free. Who else would treat me so well? I want to serve him forever.” If that were the case, the master would pierce her ear and she would be his servant forever. He had gleefully promised, of his own free will, to live for his master for the rest of her life.
This is the difference between a serf and a serf. A servant says: “I serve my master.” A servant says: “I love my master!” He chooses to serve because he loves. He loves, because he has been very loved by his master.
Paul, Timothy, James, Peter, and Judas describe themselves as “servants of Christ.” Some struggle with this. They say that we are not servants but children. That’s true. Our status is that of children of God. But we are sons proud to serve. We serve, not because we have to, not to keep our place in our Father’s house, not even to receive some benefit or blessing. But simply because we love Him, who first loved us! Don’t lose your first love!
This message can be viewed in full on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q7H2wc0_w4&feature=youtu.be
