Context No. 3476 of 4322 · Revelation

Revelation 2:1-7: in context

1“To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write: “He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks among the seven golden lamp stands says these things: 2“I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can’t tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false. 3You have perseverance and have endured for my name’s sake, and have not grown weary. 4But I have this against you, that you left your first love. 5Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your lamp stand out of its place, unless you repent. 6But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of my God.

The risen Christ commends the church at Ephesus for much: their hard work, their patient endurance, their vigilance in testing and exposing false apostles. By every outward measure they were a strong, faithful, hardworking church, intolerant of evil and sound in their teaching.

And yet Christ has a grief with them: I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. For all their labor and orthodoxy, the fire of their first love for him had cooled. It is a searching word. It is possible to be busy, disciplined, and doctrinally sound, and yet to have lost the very heart of it all, love for Christ himself. And his remedy is tender: remember from where you have fallen, repent, and do the works you did at first, the things that love once moved you to do. What God wants is not merely our labor and our correctness but our love, and when love has cooled, the way back is to remember, turn, and return to the first works of love.

Has my love for Christ cooled beneath my activity and correctness, and if so, will I remember, repent, and return to the first works that love once moved me to do?

Sources

Revelation 2:4: "But I have this against you, that you left your first love."
Revelation 2:5: "Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works."
Revelation 2:7: "To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of my God."