In the last devotion, we looked at Ephesus’ commendation. This devotional reading looks at its condemnation.
Nuggets
- Our love for Jesus is supposed to grow as we navigate the Sanctification Road, not diminish.
- Remembering is a big part of repentance.
- God will not allow some churches to continue if they are not following Him.
- We must overcome sin and love God to gain eternal life.
The Messianic congregation at Ephesus had gotten a pretty good commendation from Audio Man. They were patiently enduring in the works that God had given them. They were able to discern who were false witnesses.
Unfortunately, next came a really big condemnation.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Letters to the Congregations series
Ephesus’s Condemnation
“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 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. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Rev. 4-6 ESV)
Our love for Jesus is supposed to grow as we navigate the Sanctification Road, not diminish.
Abandoned the First Love
Let’s take out the first qualifier and look strictly at the love part.
Maybe the Messianic congregation at Ephesus had lost the worship part of their worship. They were going through the motions, looking like they were praising God.
But they wanted to worship the way they wanted to worship, not as God commanded them. They wanted to call the shots.
This passage reads like the Ephesians had been converted and were growing in their faith. Then, something happened. They had fallen from where they were — the ?≥ part.
We can’t let our love diminish. That allows Satan to get a foothold into our lives. He is going to be like a dog on a bone trying to get us to deny Jesus.
We don’t want that.
The Ephesians were doctrinally sound, but they had a heart problem.
Decay
I’ve always heard that they abandoned their first love. I wonder if it was more of a decay.
I think our relationship with God suffers from decay instead of abandonment because, many times, we don’t make a conscious decision to give up our relationship with God. Instead, we let it slip away. We may not even be aware that we are losing it.
I say decay because they were still working to expand His kingdom. The problem was that the Ephesians, in essence, were going through the motions.
Mackennal put it this way. He wrote, “‘I know thy works’ — that is, thine achievements; not thy desires and purposes and aspirations, not even thy doings, but thy deeds.”
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We can’t just float along basking in God’s love and doing nothing. We can’t just do the Mathew 25 to-do list.
The acts are important. The mindset is more important.
Mind of Christ
When we don’t have the mind of Christ, we are false disciples. It is our submission to Christ that brings us salvation and makes us disciples.
Anything other than having the mind of Christ makes us goats masquerading as sheep.
Our motivation must be to love and worship God. We must have Christ’s attitude.
Serving while not Submitting
Ephesus had lost its first love. They had lost the knowledge of their need to repent. Their prayer life was gone, and their faith was anemic.
The thing is, though, the Messianic congregation at Ephesus was still serving. Most of us would think it is a good thing.
But is it? If we aren’t serving God with passion, are we really serving God? Hasn’t our love for Him diminished?
We can’t have the action without the love for God and expect Him to honor it – and vice versa.
Worse yet, if we aren’t serving God, are we really leading others to Christ? Could we as disciples be leading them away from God?
Think about it. I’ve generally thought about losing our first love as losing the joy that we have at conversion.
But losing our love for Christ is much more critical. We are to put God as priority #1.
Rogers told us why that diminishing love is so devastating. He wrote, “Love is the fruit of all other graces of the Christian combined. If this decays, the whole work of grace in the soul is on the decline.”
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According to the greatest commandment, loving God is the priority. “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mk. 12: 30 ESV).
If our first love is to be God and we’ve lost that, what does that say for our salvation?
But then losing our first love could mean we’ve gotten the first and second commandments switched. The second commandment is “… ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ …” (Mk. 12: 31 ESV).
Yes, we are to do good works. We were made for that (Eph. 2: 10).
But sanctification isn’t about doing the work. It is about becoming a mature disciple.
As we mature, we have to fulfill our marching orders. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations …” (Mt. 28: 19 ESV).
We have to make sure our good works are God’s good works. We can’t love others by only addressing their physical needs.
As disciples of Christ, we have to love others by addressing their spiritual needs while addressing their physical needs. Ignoring that would mean we have lost the love of Christ.
God is more interested in our inward transformation than in our outward actions. He doesn’t want our duty — He wants our love.
Alexander said something interesting. Elaine-speak: our first love includes when we gain understanding of spiritual things when we pass from darkness into light. A light bulb comes on, and we begin to see God as He is.
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We can’t lose that desire to continue learning about God. We have to seek His presence so that He can reveal Himself to us.
If we fail in love, we fail in everything. Jesus takes offense at this failure.
Remember from Where You Have Fallen
Remembering is a big part of repentance.
I can’t help but think that the Ephesians were blindsided by this letter. They probably thought everything was great, and they were doing exactly what they should be doing.
Then, Audio Man told the Ephesians to remember. Something wasn’t right. They had to consider the past.
But then, being told to remember happens a lot in God’s Word. “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old” (Ps. 77: 11 ESV).
We tend to see this as remembering the initial joy of salvation. I see that.
But I think the Ephesians were supposed to remember back to when God was their priority. Initially, we try very hard to learn God’s ways and Will and be obedient.
We can’t lose that.
We also have to be very careful that we do not become complacent in our faith. We must never stop growing. We must never rely on tradition.
I think it is more than this, though. We’ve talked a lot about making conscious decisions. Remembering is a conscious decision to revisit the past — good or bad.
The Ephesians would mostly be looking at good because Audio Man had commended them. They — as do us — can’t shy away from looking at where and why we took a turn for the worst.
It is a self-evaluation of former actions and motivations at a previous time.
Remembering is back to choosing God and choosing to change what is needed to bring us closer to having His character.
Repent
The emphasis here is on repent. It says twice to repent.
Yes, even disciples have to repent. We continue to sin. We need to continue to repent.
Remembering does us no good if we do not turn from our sinful ways. Sometimes, God does require us to quickly repent.
Turning from our sinful ways means that the purpose for our lives changes. We are no longer to follow the worldview’s standards. We are to follow God’s laws and commandments.
In this passage, there was a specified command to which they were to return. They were to go back to their first love at conversion.
Remove Your Lamp Stand
God will not allow some churches to continue if they are not following Him.
Audio Man gave them a big threat. But it wasn’t just an idle threat — it was a promise. Jesus would not have said, “… I will come to you …” (Rev. 2: 5 ESV) if this was an idle threat.
If they didn’t shape up, their lamp stand would be removed — they would no longer be a Messianic congregation. This was not a threat that the Ephesians wanted Jesus to follow through on.
Crosby brought up a good point. Yes, they had a very good commendation. But they were still sent to the principal’s office.
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That commendation didn’t save them.
We can’t expect our obedience in one area to negate the fact that we are sinning in another. Jesus wants a total, pure disciple.
Remember, we are talking about the Church as a whole, not individual disciples. The Church had to repent.
How many times do we focus on church-wide repentance? On church sins rather than individual sins? Not often.
That is really distressing since God has been telling Pastor Steve for two years that the Church is missing Jesus. We as churches are ignorant about and indifferent to Him.
Are we as a church willing to evaluate ourselves so that we can make the changes needed? Or do we want things to remain the same — even if they aren’t aligned with what God requires?
Does that mean the churches may close their doors? Maybe. If it is not a church serving God, it is serving Satan.
Still, they may remain open and be goats masquerading as sheep.
Works of the Nicolaitans
Bible scholars don’t really know who the Nicolaitans were.
They were probably trying to establish a priestly order or sect. Since Jesus said He hated their works, they were probably trying to build their own kingdom rather than expand God’s.
It sounds to me that the Nicolaitans were trying the give the Pharisees a run for their money.
We get so convinced that we have interpreted God’s Word correctly that we refuse to be open to any other interpretation. (That is why there are so many denominations and so many churches within the denomination.)
Part of the problem with that is we refuse to grow in grace and knowledge when we become know-it-alls.
Closing
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (Rev. 2: 7 ESV)
We must overcome sin and love God to gain eternal life.
Let Him Hear
Jesus, while here on earth, made the hearing ears statement. Paul said we had to see with the eyes of our hearts (Eph. 1: 18), but we also have to hear with the ears of our hearts.
What we are hearing is God’s truths. We not only have to hear God’s Word, but we also have to listen and implement it into our lives.
Our response should be to hear, listen, and obey.
To the One Who Conquers
Audio Man closed the letter to the Messianic congregation at Ephesus with a great encouragement. Overcome and get your first love back, and you will eat from the tree of life. Overcome and you will be rewarded with eternity in Heaven.
What do we think of when we hear the word overcome? To me, it is a pitched battle that we may have won by the skin of our teeth. It was a hard-fought war that took our focus and determination.
We are celebrating with shouts of joy.
What we cannot forget is that we were not the one to overcome. Jesus is.
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16: 33 ESV).
People talk about hell being here on earth. In a way, that is true. The enemy – Satan – is imitated here.
That is why we are in a battle in this life. We need the armor of God for protection.
So, don’t miss the significance of the word overcome. Our spiritual lives — therefore our physical lives — are not meant to be a walk in the park. We are to expect persecution, not a rose garden.
We need to get our armor on and gear up for a fight.
The Tree of Life
Those who overcome will receive the tree of life as their reward.
Think about the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve had sinned, God was concerned that they would eat from the tree of life (Gen. 3: 22-23 ESV).
What changed from God not wanting mankind to eat from the tree to mankind being rewarded with eating from the tree? In between, mankind had ABCDed and overcame sin through believing in Jesus.
It is okay for mankind to live forever once we have accepted the payment for our sins. We will no longer be impure creatures when we receive our new bodies. We will be in perfect fellowship with God.
Also, it shows how God’s plans always come to fruition. He sets the path, and it happens regardless of how many centuries the fullness of His time takes.
Is eating the tree of life symbolic or is it the menu for the feast at the marriage of the Bridegroom (Rev. 19: 6-10)? I don’t know. That is above my pay grade.
It could be symbolic. It is promising eternal life.
I really doubt it is a literal eat-me thing. Yes, we are going to be participants in the feast, which will probably have an element of “eating.”
But I am not sure how that fits in with the twinkling of an eye (I Cor. 15: 51-55 ESV). It may just be about timing. I think everything is going to happen simultaneously. But then, the wedding feast might go on for days.
Making the Connections
Overcoming isn’t easy. Think about it.
Mitchell said something great. He wrote, “Within the body hides the true man, who, with the hand of his free choice, reaches out for the supreme object of life; and, by the voice of his will, summons all his powers to the contest.”
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Overcoming isn’t easy. Think about it.
Mitchell said something great. He wrote, “Within the body hides the true man, who, with the hand of his free choice, reaches out for the supreme object of life; and, by the voice of his will, summons all his powers to the contest.”
Resource
We’re talking about our inward being — our true selves that we keep hidden from everyone else. This is the one who holds our moral being.
A lot of times, isn’t that where the most challenges attack? Yeah, Satan likes our sinful actions. He much more wants us to be sinful beings.
But just as we can’t see God, we can’t see Satan. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6: 12 ESV).
And we think the life of a disciple should be a piece of cake? Yeah, right (said in my sarcastic voice).
- Satan is dangerous and deadly.
- He uses other people as well as demons in his battle with us.
- The fight is over principles.
Only with the help of Jesus can we overcome. It isn’t about us. It is about Him.
How Do We Apply This?
- Don’t fail in love because then we fail in everything.
- Realize loss of freshness in our relationship with God does not necessarily mean we have lost our first love.
- Engage in self-sacrifice to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus.
- Be rooted and grounded in Jesus’ love.
- Don’t neglect meditation, self-examination, and private prayer as those are ways in which we lose our first love.
- Grow our faith instead of being selfish.
- Don’t be a Pharisee and interpret God’s Word our way instead of His.
- Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy.
- Be afraid of our churches losing their lamp stands.
- Meet the condition to receiving the tree of life — overcoming.
- Hate the sin and love the sinner.
Make double sure our hatred is of the sin and not the sinner. - Make sure we hate all sin, even our pet sins.
- Hear, listen, believe, submit to, and obey God’s revelations.
Resources
Father God. Help us get back our first love. We want to go back to putting You as our priority. Amen.
What do you think?
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