Tuesday is for Discussion
Thirty years before, the apostle Paul commended the church at Ephesus for its great love.
- “your love for all the saints” (1:15)
- “an incorruptible love” (6:24)
But just 30 years later, Jesus diagnosed the soul of the ancient church in Ephesus and gave a heart-breaking assessment of the same church. You can read about it in the book of Revelation 2:1-7.
“But this I have against you, you have abandoned the love you had at first.”
Revelation 2:4, ESV
It doesn’t take long for love to cool.
How many couples have declared undying, “incorruptible” love on their wedding day only “to abandon the love they had at first” and find themselves in divorce court two years later? It happens.
And it happens in our relationship with God.
The reasons it happens are as varied as the people who lose their first love. But the remedy is what I’m interested in. It is what Jesus is interested in as well. However you lost your first love for Christ and His Church Jesus knows the way back. Read verse 5.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
Revelation 2:6, ESV
Three non-negotiables:
- Remember — sit down and reflect on what your love for Jesus was like when you first believed. Think hard about it. Recall how far you have fallen away from that first passion when the torch of your love burned bright.
. - Repent — grieve over your fall from that first-love passion and turn from every behavior that has entangled your heart.
. - Do the works you did at first — that’s part of remembering too. Remember how you read the Bible, how you prayed, how you grieved over sin, how you loved your brothers and sisters in Christ, how you talked about being forgiven to everyone you knew? Yeah, those works. Do them again. Let obedience fuel your passion
That’s not my word. That’s Jesus’s word to you on the day you read this and every day that you read this text in Revelation 2.
And that’s a good word for those who have had their love for their spouse grow cold and lifeless as well.
