You Have Left Your First Love

Revelation 2:1-7

“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: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. 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. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’

Jesus through John, His Jewish secretary, wrote seven different letters to the "ANGELS" of seven different churches.  To the ANGEL of the Church at Ephesus he wrote the above letter.  

Who is "the ANGEL" of this Church?  Angel in Greek, is the word, "Ángelos."  It can mean angle like an angel from heaven, but it simply means, "messenger."  Who is the "messenger" for each of these Churches?  The senior pastor.  These letters are not written to the rank and file; they are directed at the senior pastors of the Churches to encourage, admonishe and correct some wrong doctrines which were found in five of them.  The only two pastors who were not corrected were the ones at Smyrna and Philadelphia.

In the case of Ephesus, they had, as Jesus said, "left their first love."  What did He mean by that?  Was He saying that they needed to put God first and to love Him more, as most of us have heard preached AT US all of our lives?  Surprisingly, NO.

For some reason, man always feels the need to twist everything around to make it all about man, as if there's anything we can add to what Jesus has already done.  HELLO!!!  His work is FINISHED!  Jesus wasn't telling them they need to love Him more.  THEY FORGOT HE LOVED THEM FIRST."  That is what He meant by "FIRST LOVE."

He used to describe the Chuch this way:

I Thessalonians 1:3 "...remembering without ceasing your WORK OF FAITH, LABOR OF LOVE, AND PATIENCE OF HOPE in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father...."

Notice the words He left out of the verse in Revelation?  FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE.  Their works lacked faith; their labor lacked love and their patience lacked hope.  What He wanted that pastor to do was to turn once again and focus on The One Who "FIRST LOVED" him and teach it to his Church.  Then faith, hope and love would once again be found in their works, labor and patience!  These things become a "fruit" of being rooted and grounded in His love as opposed to a dead "work."

The spotlight isn't shining on you and me or on what we are doing or not doing.  Preachers are POINTING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.

Under the Old Covenant you were commanded to "love the LORD you God with all your heart, with all your and soul and with all your mind."  But has anybody done that!  Big fat NO!  We try only to fail MISERABLY!  So God took us OUT of he equation.

This is love under the new covenant:

I John 4:10
"In this is love, NOT that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to  be the propitiation for our sins."

You saw how God used to describe the Church in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 "...remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father". WHO first loved us?   JESUS! not the other way around.  Full consciousness of that one fact is what activates (energizes) faith, which comes by hearing--which causes  miracles to take place.  Focus on that!

Galatians 5:6
"For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but FAITH WHICH WORKETH BY LOVE."

The word for "worketh" above is the Greek word " energéo," from which we get the word  "energy."  Focusing on Jesus' love FOR us "ENERGIZES" the faith that creats miracles!  Want your faith to grow and energize miracles?  Focus on the love of Jesus FOR you!

How can we love God?  We love Him because HE FIRST LOVED US.  Jesus:  He is our FIRST LOVE.