New things have a special place in our lives. A new car, a new house, a new book, a new music release from our favorite musician—each of these things gets more of our attention than the things we’ve had for a while. We wash the new car and keep it clean inside. We carefully decorate the new house to make it our won. We read the new book eagerly, and listen to the new record over and over, drinking it all in.
But after a while, we begin to take the new thing for granted. The litter we’d carefully remove from the car now sits there for a day or two. The house ceases to be a wonderful place and just becomes where we live. We finish the book and put it on the shelf. And the record starts to get old after the tenth or so listen.
We move on, because the newness has gone.
When John recorded Jesus’ words to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2, that was the concern Jesus raised with the church. He had words of praise, but He also had a word of warning. He accused the church of forsaking their first love.
Observing the way evangelicals are relating to our world, it has to be asked: Have we forsaken our first love?
Words of Praise
Jesus begins His letter to the Ephesians with a claim as to who He is. He is the One who holds the seven stars and walks amid the seven lampstands. In the final verse of Revelation 1, Jesus identifies the star as the angel of the church, while the lampstand is the church itself. What, exactly, is the angel, though? There are those who insist the word translated “angel” means exactly what it says: an angel. Some suggest that it means the guardian angel of a particular church.
Others believe the word translated as “angel” should more accurately be translated “messenger.” If this is the case, then the stars represent either an elder or a specific messenger to the church.
Another interpretation is that the “angel” is the ideal of the church. The stars represent what the churches should be or are expected to be. If that is the case, then the star would represent the membership of the church.
The fact that Jesus holds the stars in His hand suggest that the relationship between Jesus and the star is a guardian position. Jesus’ hold suggests His protection and the church’s security in His hold. It also depicts Jesus’ ultimate control of the church, being the head Paul writes about in Colossians 1:17-18a: “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the Church.”
Whether the star is a literal angel, an elder or messenger, or the ideal church, the point is that Jesus has control and protection for the church, and His walking among the lampstands reminds us that His lordship over the churches is one of activity and personal involvement.
Having established Who He Is, Jesus then gives a word of praise to the Ephesians. Jesus praises their hard work and perseverance in the faith. And He lauds their determination to stand firm in the true doctrine of the faith. “I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles, but are not, and have found them false” (Revelation 2:2).
The testing of those who profess to speak for Jesus is a lesson Jesus stressed during His earthly ministry, from the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Matthew 7:15-20), and the people in Berea were noted for their commitment to study the Bible when Paul preached to them in order to determine whether his message was true or not (cf. Acts 17:10-13). Paul instructed the Thessalonians to “Test everything. Hold to the good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21) in regard to prophecy and preaching.
And it’s right that the church should be ever vigilant in protecting the message of Christ and the Bible. We have certain standards to maintain, and we must be careful to not let someone hijack the message for any reason, even if we may agree with the intent of the messenger.
Jesus’ praise for the Ephesians in insisting that those who professed to speak for Him were consistent with His entire message, not just a small sliver of it.
Forsaking the First Love
Having praised the church for its commitment to doctrinal purity, Jesus then warns it against an equal danger from a different perspective. In their zeal for doctrinal integrity, the church has replaced love for zeal.
Who is the first love? The first love is God Himself. God demonstrates His love by the sending of Christ for salvation (cf. John 3:16, Romans 5:6-11, 1 John 4:7-21), and Jesus taught that the greatest commandment was to love God with our entire being—with all our heart and all our soul and with all our string and with all our mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves (cf. Luke 10:25-37). Our first love, then, must be God Himself.
By the forsaking of our love, the suggestion is that the Ephesians have come to define their relationship with God as having the right doctrine, not the relationship that God wants with us. And that misapplication of what it means to be in fellowship with God no doubt extended to the way they were relating to those around them as well. Think of Saul on the road to Damascus—having such a zeal for God’s law that he was unable to realize that his persecution of the church was the persecution of Christ Himself. Saul was committed to the law more than he was committed to knowing God (cf. Philippians 3:2-11).
Jesus’ solution for the Ephesians is to call them to remember where they came from and to repent and return to relational living with God and others. The failure to do so is the death of the church.
What Does it Mean for Us Today?
There are those who believe the letters to the churches in Revelation speak only to the “dispensation” that each of the churches represents. I disagree with that interpretation. I believe God inspired the Bible to speak to each person from the moment it was written until Christ returns and brings the need for the Bible to an end. Towards that end, we need to see what God is saying to us in this short passage of Revelation 2:1-7.
First, it is right that we be on our guard to protect and preserve the message of Christ we call the Gospel. It is imperative that we maintain the integrity of the Word by insisting that those who profess to speak on Christ’s behalf are actually living it out in his or her own life as well as possible. This is the case whether the professed speaker is a minister, a professor, a teacher or a politician or celebrity. Just because someone references Christ in their speeches doesn’t make them followers of Christ. We must look not only at what they say but how they live. Do they demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit, because Jesus tells us by their fruit we will know true prophets and messengers sent from Him.
Second, it means that we need to keep things in proper perspective. Our love for God must be demonstrated in the way we relate to other people. The Golden Rule is a valid one, and it reflects the Sermon on the Mount in one simple and profound statement. We must let our love for God been seen in the way we demonstrate our compassion toward those who are not like us, but are radically different from us, whether in lifestyle, beliefs or politics. God’s love extends to all people, and we can do no less.
Conclusion
It’s easy in our world to define things by rules and regulations. It’s far more convenient to see things through the particular colored glasses of our own tenets of faith.
As keepers of the faith, we owe it to our faith that we live it out through our love for God and others, and that we preserve the message by demonstrating living for God in our daily lives.
Look at the lives of those we hold up as examples of God’s word in our world. Are they really living out the message, or are they just mouthing the words of faith without demonstrating the relationship with Christ? Such a person needs to be rejected and warned to repent and turn to the true meaning of being a follower of Christ.
Jesus’ words to the Ephesians are words for us today, and Jesus tells us the wise person is the one who not only hears His words, but also puts them into practice, while the foolish person only hears Jesus’ teachings without putting them into practice(cf. Luke 6:46-49).
Be wise in 2020.
© 2020 Glynn Beaty