Ephesus was a wealthy, prosperous, magnificent city, famous for its great temple of Diana. For many years, it was the center of commerce in Asia. It was connected to all the major cities of Asia Minor by well-maintained roads. And its harbor accommodated the largest ships of the day. The temple of Diana in Ephesus was a museum, a treasure house, and a place of refuge for criminals. That pagan temple provided employment for artisans and silver smiths, who made and sold little shrines, religious trinkets, and statues.
Paul came to Ephesus and preached the gospel there for over three years (Acts 18-20). Multitudes were converted by the grace of God. A gospel church was established. And that church at Ephesus became a lighthouse for truth, zealously devoted to Christ. But now more than forty years had passed. Another generation had arisen. The church at Ephesus still walked in the truth. The gospel of Christ was still proclaimed from her pulpit. But something desperately evil had taken place. The Lord Jesus Christ discovered a fault in the church. The pastor did not discern this fault. And the people were unaware of it. But Christ saw it, and this is what he wrote – "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." Our Lord takes great delight in first love – Jer. 2:1-2.
Now this letter was not written to the church at Ephesus alone, but to all the churches of Christ (v. 7). It is written to you and it is written to me. Let every pastor, every church, and every believer examine himself, and ask God to give him ears to hear and a heart to obey the word of Christ to his church. Is there in you and in me a decaying of love for Christ?
There Was Much In The Church At Ephesus To Be Commended (vv. 2,3,6).
Our dear Savior always deals with his people in love, kindness, and tenderness. When there is a stern reproof to be given, he cushions it with a kind word of commendation and encouragement. It would be a blessed thing to have our Savior give us such a laudable commendation as he gave the church at Ephesus. Read what the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, says to these Ephesian believers. "I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil; and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars; and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted… this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate." Here Christ commands his church at Ephesus for eight things. Blessed is that man and blessed is that church in which such commendable characteristics of grace are found.
1. "I know thy works" – These were not idle believers. Their faith was practical. By works of obedience to God by works of charity to men, and by works of devotion to Christ, the people of God at Ephesus demonstrated their faith. They not only professed faith, they practiced faith. Their works were known and accepted by Christ.
2. The Lord also said, "I know thy labor" – They put themselves whole-heartedly into their work. They zealously, anxiously went about serving the cause of Christ in their generation with all their might. The Ephesians were not lazy, loitering, listless people. They seized every opportunity to serve their Savior. And they did it willingly.
3. Then the Savior says, "I know thy patience" – There are many who labor, and labor well; but they do not labor long. They do not preserve in the work. After a while they faint and fall by the wayside. Not these people! This church had labored steadily, in the midst of great hardship, for over forty years. It had thrown all its energies into the gospel of Christ, not in spasms, but in continual, unabated zeal for the glory of God.
4. Again, Christ commends the church at Ephesus for its intense adherence to gospel truth – " I know how thou canst not bear them which are evil." This church had an intense hatred for evil, both in doctrine and in practice. They loved truth, doctrinal truth and truth in practice.
5. The Lord goes on to say, "I know thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars." They knew the difference between truth and error. When they heard a Judaizer, an Arminian, a legalist, or a free-willer preaching another gospel, another Jesus, and another Spirit, their blood boiled. They denounced all such pretentious preachers as liars, deceivers and wicked men.
6. The church of Ephesus patiently bore reproach and persecution for Christ's sake. The Savior said, "I know how thou hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored." In the teeth of opposition, they stood firm. In the midst of Christ's enemies, they boldly confessed him. In the face of hardship, trial, persecution, and imprisonment, these believers at Ephesus confidently served their Master.
7. And the Son of God commends their rare faithfulness and perseverance. "I know thou hast not fainted." They never flagged! They never faltered! They never quit! These men and women at Ephesus were rare people.
8. One other matter of commendation was their hatred of the Nicolaitones. "I know that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate." The Nicolaitones were a sect, which had arisen in the church of an antinomian spirit. They contended that since we are saved by grace and free from the law, nothing was evil. They made every excuse for lewdness and licentiousness. All true believers, like these Ephesians, and like Christ himself, despise those who promote ungodliness in the name of grace.
Yet, this church at Ephesus had one serious flow, one dreadfully evil weakness which, if it were not corrected, would end in utter ruin. The Lord Jesus Christ says, "Nevertheless" (though you are orthodox, zealous, patient, persevering, uncompromising, and upright in all your ways) "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love."
Proposition:Love that is not fed with fellowship and communion soon decays into something worse than indifference: It decays into presumption and ingratitude.
Divisions:Obviously, our Lord is not talking about believers who once loved him, but somehow ceased to love him. True love can never be quenched. Any who cease to love Christ never truly loved Christ at all. Love for Christ is a gift of grace that can never be taken away, lost, or destroyed. Yet, God's people do sometimes leave their first love. Through indolence, neglect of Christ, and the care of this world the heat and fervor of our love for Christ abates and the exercise of love toward him diminishes.
Let me stir our memories a little, and see if there are not yet some burning coals which will break out into a flame with a little stirring. Go back with me to the place where we first met the Savior. Go back to Mt. Calvary, where the Lord Jesus Christ first appeared to you, bleeding upon the cross as your Substitute. I remember how he spoke to my heart and said, "I am thy salvation. I have redeemed you. All your sins are forgiven washed away in this fountain of blood." Immediately, I fell in love with him, I would gladly have done it. In fact, he did ask it, and I laid all at his feet most gladly. I think I could have used the language of Samuel Rutherford in those days with honesty and could have said to Christ, "Oh, my Lord, if there were a broad hell betwixt me and thee, if I could not get at thee except by wading through it, I would not think twice, but I would plunge through it all, if I might embrace thee and call thee mine." It is that love, that first reckless, careless, uninhibited, unrestrained love, that I am afraid we have in measure left.
A. That First Love Caused Us To Earnestly And Zealously Confess Christ To Men.
B. That First Love Inspired Our Hearts To Almost Unceasing Prayer, Praise, And Communion.C. That First Love For Christ Made His Word Our Most Delightful Treasure.
D. That First Love Made The House Of God, The Ministry Of The Word, And The Fellowship Of God's Saints The Most Important And Most Joyful Things In The World To Us.
E. That First Love Caused Us To Do The Will of God With Unquestioning Faith and Unhesitating Obedience.
Do you remember how it was then, when your heart was still burning with those coals from off the altar? But now we are more refined. Now we are more settled. Now we are more learned, more mature, more cold, more dead, more useless!
II. What happened? Where did we go wrong? How Did We Lose Our First Love?
Rarely, if ever, does this decline in love begin with some climatic event. It gradually steals over our hearts and suffocates us by degrees. But the cause of the decline is not hard to find. If we will be honest with ourselves we will find, I am sure, that any decay from our first love comes from three sources.
A. Our Love Decays Whenever We Willfully Neglect Christ (Song. 5:2-6).
Now let the preacher be honest and preach honestly to himself. One of my most besetting sins is the neglect of Christ, the neglect of sweet communion with my Savior. I am not a lazy man. Give me something to do for Christ, for the good of his church, for the furtherance of the gospel, and I will immediately put myself into the work. But I am not, I shamefully confess, nearly as quick to open my heart to communion with Christ. Yet, love to Christ very much depends upon nearness to Christ. It is just like the planets and the sun. Some of the planets are as hot as fire. Others are as cold as ice. Some move very slowly around the sun. Others move in rapid orbits. Why? Because some are near the sun and others are far, far away. So it is with us. If we live near Christ, we cannot help loving him. The heart that lives nearest Christ in sweet communion is most aflame with love for Christ.
B. Another Thing That Causes Our Love To Decay Is The Love of The World – (Matt. 13:22).
There are few, few men who increase in riches and increase in grace at the same time. Of all the temptations to which God's people are exposed in this world, this is the most dangerous, because it is the most subtle. Too much of the world is an evil encumbrance to any man.
C. The Third Thing Which Causes Our Love For Christ To Decline Is Our Carnal Tendency Toward Presumption, Self-Confidence, And Self-Righteousness – "Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion" (Amos 6:1).
When a man begins to think much of himself, he will think little of Christ. Presumption destroys perseverance. Self-confidence destroys faith. And self-righteousness destroys love.
III. What Can We Do To Regain Our First Love?I sound this word of warning to us all. If we belong to Christ, though we decline in love to him, his love toward us will never decline; and because he loves us he will chasten us and cause us to return to him – Song. 5:6-7). If we do not return to Christ, If our hearts do not again glow with love for him, if our decline is a permanent decline, it is because our love for him is a fake, a pretense, a sham profession, and no more. My soul, do not be presumptuous here!
If you would return to your Savior and regain that first love, the Lord Jesus here gives you three words of instruction.
A. Remember! "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen."
Repent as you did at the first. Repent of the evil you have done to Christ in leaving your first love.
1. Repent of your shameful neglect of your Savior.
2. Repent of your sinful love of the world (Col. 3:1-3).
3. Repent of your proud presumption, self-confidence, and self-righteousness.
That is just another way of saying, "Return to the Lord." Return to the place where first you met Christ. Return to the foot of the cross. Bathe your sin-sick soul again in the precious blood of Christ.
1. As at the first, trust Christ.
2. As at the first, let your soul be ravished with his love, and look on him until your heart breaks with love for him again. "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love." (Song 5:8).
Now, in order to stir up our hearts to return to him and regain that first love, our Savior gives us a warning and a promise.
1. The warning is this – If you do not remember, repent, and return to me, "I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place." (v. 5).
2. The promise is this – "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." (v. 7).
Those who lose their first love fall, but those who regain their first love are made to stand. And that love is fed and nourished by Christ himself, both now upon this earth and forever in heaven's glory.
If I could have anything on earth I might desire, I would choose to have nothing but love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and to do nothing but that which is for his sake and that which is done out of love for him. Oh, may God the Holy Spirit now fill my heart and yours with love for Christ. Amen.
*