Revelation 2:4: Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Jesus and His Word
They had lost that intense and enthusiastic devotion to the person of Christ. It is difficult for us to sense the state to which the Holy Spirit had brought this church. He had brought the believers in Ephesus into an intimate and personal relationship to Jesus Christ. He had brought them to the place where they could say to the Lord, “We love you.” This may seem like a very unimportant thing to us today, but their love for the Lord was very important to Christ. He was saying to the Ephesians, “You are leaving your best love.” They hadn’t quite departed from that love, but they were on the way. It is difficult for us in this cold, skeptical, cynical, and indifferent day in which we live to understand this. The world has intruded into the church to such an extent that it is hard for us to conceive of the intense, enthusiastic devotion the early church gave to the person of Christ. The early church first went off the track not in their doctrine but in their personal relationship to Jesus Christ. 1
Jesus and His Ways
- Jesus, please forgive me, for I have wandered from that abiding fellowship with You. – “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.” Jeremiah 2:2
- Jesus, please forgive me, for I have been cold hearted towards you. – “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:12
- Jesus, please forgive me, for I have failed to move forward in faith. – “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14
Jesus and His Work
A loveless life is a life that is no longer in love with Jesus. – TWEET IT
Jesus and His Promise
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13
1. McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible Commentary: The Prophecy (Revelation 1-5) (electronic ed., Vol. 58, pp. 67–68).
