Have we LEFT our ‘FIRST LOVE’?
December
25 Bible Reading: Revelation Chapters 1-3
Have we LEFT our ‘FIRST LOVE’?
"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:...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.'” (Rev 2:1, 4-5)
When Apostle
John started writing the ‘revelation of Jesus Christ’ while on exile in the
island of Patmos (1:9), he was commissioned to write ‘the things he saw, the
things that are and the things that will take place’ (1:19). Among ‘the things that are’, the Lord Jesus
wanted to speak about the true condition
of the seven churches in Asia (1:11b) and exhort
them to overcome their liability
in order to receive the reward that Jesus would give them one day.
The church
of Ephesus was started by Apostle Paul in A.D. 53 (Acts 19:1-10) who stayed
there for three years in order to warn the believers ‘night and day with tears’ (Acts 20:31). This church further
enjoyed the ministries of Priscilla/Aquila, Apollos and Timothy (1 Tim. 1:3).
In fact, they were fervent in their faith and love as evidenced from Paul’s
writing to them from his prison cell in about A.D. 62 (Eph. 1:15-16). We can
also note that Apostle John continued as an Elder in that church in Ephesus and
wrote three epistles (1, 2, 3 John) that centered on love. However, about thirty years later, God revealed their true current state – ‘they had left their first love’.
Why is love so important to God? The best answer to this is because
God’s essence is love: God IS love (1
John 4:8b). Love is greater than anything
else in our lives and it never fails
(1 Cor. 13). Love is the core objective
of the new (John 13:34) and the great (Matt. 22:36-40) commandment that
Jesus has given us. We lie to God
when we say that we love God and hate other people (1 John 4:20). God
expects us to love Him and other people as His children!
What is meant by first love? Jeremiah 2:2 describes it
beautifully as follows: 'thus says the
Lord: "I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the
wilderness, in a land not sown." It is that fervent, passionate love felt by either an engaged or newly wedded
couple. The wise man Agur finds it too wonderful to explain it as he describes
it as ‘the way of a man with a virgin’
(Prov. 30:19). This is the kind of love Jesus has for us and expects us to have
in return.
However, many of us have left our ‘first love’. We had it at one stage of our life journey,
but when we examine ourselves today we will soon realize that we have ‘left our first love’ somewhere along
the way. We have lost our fervency in
worship that displays our love to God and we are lukewarm (Rev. 3:15-16) in
our relationship with God. We fail to
obey the commands that Jesus has given us (John 14:15). We are
hyper-critical on the faults of other people, as we disregard what Apostle
Peter has told us: 'and above all things
have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of
sins"' (1 Peter 4:8). Our lack-luster love is a fulfillment of the
end-time prophecy (Matt. 24:12) as well.
