First Love: Its Importance to the Church

In 26 years of reading the Bible, I never noticed that the church in Ephesus was only rebuked for one thing in the Book of Revelation (2:1-7). Outside of leaving their first love, they receive only commendations, no condemnation.

Think about that. Doesn't it seem like a church that has left its first love would have a lot of other things wrong with it? Not Ephesus. They're commended by Jesus himself for their deeds, their labor, their patience, and their intolerance for evil. Then they're commended a second time for their patience and labor as well as for their perseverance in labor. All of this is brought up before Jesus brings up the one thing he has against them.

They left their first love.

Again, think about that. They labored for Christ. They were patient in tribulation, but impatient with those that stood against Christ. They kept going when the going was hard. All this they did while forgetting their first love.

How important is this? How much mercy and forbearance would Jesus show them for their faithfulness even though they had left their first love? Jesus told them, “Repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your candlestick from its place, unless you repent” (2:5).

Is this fair? This is quite a judgment. According to Rev. 1:20 the candlestick represented their church. Jesus intended to remove their status as a church of God—or maybe even separate them or drive them away—if they did not repent. And this is people who are doing good works!

Since the days of Martin Luther, Protestants have tended to use the doctrine of salvation by faith alone as justification for their lack of commitment and lack of good works. When we do this, we are using this doctrine falsely. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9), and it is only those who actually practice righteousness who are righteous (1 Jn. 3:7). About these things we are told not to be deceived.

However, the apostles talked about the justification that is by faith for a reason. God is not interested in our religious works apart from Christ. God has highly exalted Christ and made him to be the head over all things in heaven and on earth. His eternal intention is to sum up all things in Christ. In the ages to come, he wants to show the exceeding riches of his grace in Christ Jesus, not the exceeding greatness of righteousness that we've drummed up on our own. That righteousness is like filthy rags to him. It's meaningless.

It is very easy for any one of us to read the Bible for the sake of reading the Bible. It is very easy for any one of us to pray for the sake of saying that we prayed. We easily become people who attend Christian meetings because that is what we ought to do. When this happens we have lost the fervor of the love for Christ that puts in meetings, in the Scriptures, and in prayer because we want to know Christ. God is not interested in our fulfilling of our religious duties. God is interested in our love for Christ. He is interested in our exaltation of the Son. God believes—whether we agree or not—that he gave sufficient time in history for we human beings to learn that our righteousness is not sufficient. We are not a righteous people; we are a needy people, desperate for his grace.

In Philippians 3:8 Paul says that he counts all things loss and suffered the loss of all things. Why did he do this? Not because it was his religious duty. He was willing to be in need, but he was also willing to abound. He says that just a chapter later in Philippians 4:11-12. He suffered the loss of all things because of the superiority of knowing Jesus Christ. Knowing Christ is superior to everything, and so Paul was willing to suffer the loss of all things to know him.

Let us learn from the Ephesians. Let us keep our eyes on Christ. Let us strive, as Paul did, for just one thing: to know Him. Let our suffering be a partaking in his suffering. Let our dying be an entering into his death. Let our rising up from the dead be a rising up into his life. Let our power be his power in us, fully under his control, that we might truly be members of his body, joined to one another as servants of a common Lord, united in his life and in his body, not united in religious convictions except where those convictions come from him.

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