12. First love…
Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first.
Revelations 2:4
These words are strong and imply that the church at Ephesus, to whom they were addressed, was in a mess. Yet, when we read the preceding description of the church we find the opposite.
They were people who performed good stuff, they worked hard, they persevered. They didn’t tolerate the bad guys. They had endured tough times in Jesus’ name. They kept on keeping on and didn’t grow weary. Tick, tick, tick – this church was fairly buzzing. Any church would be proud of a record like this.
So, what’s the problem? Today’s verse sums it up – they are no longer operating out of the first love they had for God and for others. Without that love they are a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthian 13:1).
When we start to live our lives without God’s love as the driver, we depend on our own resources and, inevitably, we fail. Look at the Pharisees and the Sadducees (Matthew 23: 13-39). Without the love of God, they were like white-washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean (Matthew 23:27).
Like these people and the members of the Ephesian church, we can go through the paces, do all the right things, look good on the outside. But without God’s love living in our hearts we are decaying on the inside. And look at what John says (recording the words of Jesus in his vision) to the church at Ephesus – repent or your lampstand will be removed. These are, as I said before, strong words. God is not going to pussyfoot around with his church. We are the church and we are his hands and feet on earth. We must always perform his work from his love and not in our own strength.
Today, I encourage you to look inside yourself as I also need to do. Are we motivated out of love or a desire to just do the right thing? Does God inhabit our very souls? My prayer for you and for myself is that God’s love, our first love, will continue to spring up from within us and pervade every part of our lives today and always. Amen.
I leave you, at the end of this journal, with these words from an old hymn:
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
(The Love of God, Frederick L Lehman)
Prayer: Lord, thank You for loving me first. Forgive me for letting my love grow cold. Help me return to the passion, joy, and intimacy I once had with you. Restore my first love and keep my heart burning for you always.
Amen
Action: Check out your plans for today. Consider how you will complete these plans – under your own steam or through God’s love? Spend some time praying for God to restore your first love – for him.
Journal your thoughts…
