To Encourage You

Revelation 2:1-4 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: . . . I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

How many things in life begin well but end poorly? How many marriages are like this? How many good intentions never get off the ground? How many worthwhile projects have a promising and exciting start but then fizzle in the end? How many friendships aren’t what they once were? 

For whatever reason, things creep in or crop up that lead to problems, and if those problems aren’t dealt with, however small at first, they can grow to take on a life of their own.  And so what began well can fade or even end in very negative ways. This extends to our spiritual condition as well. Any person who is a Christian was, in the beginning, in love with Christ. He or she was awestruck that the God of all the universe had come to earth as a man and suffered and died to set them free from sin. We loved Him “because He first loved us” (1 John 14:19). And as John tells us (as he addresses believers as the “beloved”) “if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another”(1 John 4:11” Sadly, however, that love can cool over time – never from God’s side of the equation, but from ours. 

This was the problem with the Ephesian church to whom this same apostle John wrote in his words above. And ultimately, as with any other Scriptures, these weren’t just John’s words, they were God’s. With this warning to this prominent first century church, God warns all churches – and all believers within those churches – that we can follow the Ephesians’ sad example and abandon our first love. 

So how does this happen? How can our hearts cool towards the One Who loved us like no other, Who, “while we were still sinners . . . died for us” (Romans 5:8)?  Well, like in any human relationship, love, if not nurtured and attended to, can cool. As a person becomes more focused on himself or herself and less focused on others around them, then love for those other persons can cool, as self-centeredness is the very antithesis for love. If we don’t spend time nurturing relationships by communication and acts that demonstrate that we care about someone other than ourselves, then love will slowly but surely cool. And if we redirect our love to other things, or worse, if we commit adultery and violate the exclusive nature of love between spouses, then our first love with the “wife (or husband) of (our) youth” (Proverbs 5:18), can be destroyed. 

And so it is with Christ. If we stop communicating with Him by failing to pray and spend time in His Word, there is only one reason – we love other things more. Our love for those other things, be it our hobbies, our material possessions, or even our family and friends, will begin to lessen our love for God. Sadly, as our love for God diminishes, the quality of our love for others will fade as well. Again, we love (others) because Christ first loved us. As we understand the love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace He has toward us, we will inevitably show love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace toward others. It’s almost inevitable – as is the opposite. 

You see, throughout Scripture God’s love for the church and for Christians within the church is likened to a husband’s love for his wife (see Ephesians 6:22-33). It’s an exclusive type of love. It’s a love that isn’t to be shared with another, no matter what. But just as a strong love of one spouse for another will show itself in the love of each spouse towards a rich and deep love for their children, a love of a believer for their Lord will show itself in a great love for His children as well. 

So, how’s your love relationship with the Lord? Is it like it was at first – or has it cooled, for one reason or another? Are you loving Him above everything else, or has another person – or thing – taken His rightful place? As Jesus told us in John 15 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” But then He follows that with these words about His commands: “These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” 

Love for Christ: it will show itself in obedience to His commands, and when we obey His commands, we will have the greatest love we can possibly have for anyone else as well. Again, as Jesus told us, the greatest command, the one that sums up all the others, is this one: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). 

May God help us to never abandon our first love.