The Loveless Church: “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write; ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.Revelation 2:1-5
Just like a marriage after many years can have a lack of love for it’s marriage vows of commitment, so can our relationship with Christ become a relationship that has truly gone dry and without life because their love for Christ is missing. Let me explain, To be a Christian today, like when Jesus walked the earth, is to love the Lord Jesus Christ, He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is He who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. . .”If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14:21,23) Once again Jesus emphasized the need for habitual practice of obedience to His commands as evidence of the believer’s love for Him and the Father. But here in our text, Jesus is warning the church at Ephesus, that their passion and fervor for Him had become cold, mechanical orthodoxy. Their doctrinal and moral purity, their undiminished zeal for truth, and their disciplined service were no substitute for the love for Christ they had forsaken. Remember therefore from where you have fallen–Just like a marriage after many years needs to be rekindled with the couples love for one another, remembering the early years of joyful love and memories of how much everything you did for eachother meant, so you or I must not out grow our love for the Lord in our lives. The need for praise and worship everyday often works best with the studying of His Word. We won’t lose our freedom to love one another when our love is entwined with Christ’s love. Remove your lampstand—The judgments of God are a consuming fire whereby He destroys to deliver, that God is a consuming fire is the greatest comfort to the saint, it is His love at work on those characteristics that are not true godliness that He removes from us in order to make us holy unto Himself. The church at Ephesus was being rebuked by God for leaving their first love, the Christians who stay near to God knows no burning, but the farther away from God the less of the evidence of God’s love is in the life of the believer, and more the fire of God burns him. What evidence does my life reveal that God is at work in me? What evidence do others see that God loves me? The answer to both of these questions in how I repent at the Lord’s rebuke of me. It is my sanctification that is at stake here. Am I willing to let go, and let God love me?
Beloved friend, Brokeness requires hard work, tears and commitment on a moment by moment basis. It requires saturating our heart and spirit with the Word of God, reminding ourselves again and again that God honors a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17) and that He has promised to empower us. By using our despair often as His best tool to clean out the grime in our hearts and create something new! Love boldly. Break easily, and give God nothing less than a pure heart, because He knows our hearts more intimately than we do ourselves. And let us commit our hearts, words, and patterns of behavior to honoring Christ in all things.
May the Lord bless your walk!