Revelation 2 - 6.10.26
Scripture
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. (Rev 2:4)
Observation
This is a part of Jesus’s message to the seven churches of Asia. Jesus is speaking to the church of Ephesus. It is as relevant to the church in the United States and to each one of us at Desert Streams, as it was to the church of Ephesus.
Jesus appreciates their walk with Him. He says, “I know everything you have done, including your hard work and how you have endured. I know you won't put up with anyone who is evil. When some people pretended to be apostles, you tested them and found out they were liars. You have endured and gone through hard times because of me, yet you have not given up.” (Rev: 2:1-3, CEV).
But they had one thing that they lacked. They had forsaken their first love. “You have left your first love” (Rev 2:4, NKJV). Jesus is not saying that they stopped loving Him. They still loved Him. But the intensity of their love had grown dim. The passion of their first love had faded.
Jesus urges them to repent. “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Rev 2:5).
Notice that Jesus is calling them to “do the things you did at first”, in order to return to their “first love”. Biblical love is a verb. It is not a warm fuzzy feeling that Hollywood portrays. Biblical love is a choice. You choose to love. Love is what you do. Feelings follow action.
Application
We love Him because He first loved us (1John 4:19). The first and the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all your soul and with all our mind (Matt 22:37-28). Let us check our hearts to see if we love the Lord as we did when we first got saved. Has our intensity of love for the Lord waned as time passed by? The Bible portrays the church as the bride of Jesus. The bride belongs to the bridegroom (John 3:29, NIV). That is the love that the Lord expects.
Our love for Jesus must be more than any other love in our life. Quoting Jesus’s words from Matthew 10:37, “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” If our love has waned, let us repent. Let us ask the Lord to restore love for Him in our heart.
Our love for God must reflect in our actions. If we love God, we will obey his commandments (John 14:15). Whoever loves God must also love his brother and sister (1 John 4:21). Whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen (1 John 4:20). If we love God, we will seek his kingdom first above all (Matt 6:33). If we love God, we will not conform to the pattern of this world, but will be transformed by the renewing of our mind by consuming the word of God (Rom 12:2). If we love God, prayer will truly be our priority. The Bible commands us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17). Jesus is our model, who valued prayer more than His own personal rest. He spent whole nights in prayer without sleep.
Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth (1 John 3:18).
Prayer
Father please help me to love you with the first love I had when I started following you. I repent of the times I have not given you the first place in my life, as I should have. Please help me, because I can do nothing without you (John 15:5). Please help me to judge myself so that I will not be judged (1 Cor 11:31). Please help me to love you with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind, and help me to love my neighbor as myself (Matt 22:37-28). Please help me to draw closer to you with prayer and fasting and walking in obedience, knowing that when I draw near to you, you will draw near to me (James 4:8). Help me to delight in your word and meditate on your word day and night (Ps 1:2). Help me to continually walk in your presence. One day in your courts is better than a thousand days elsewhere (Ps 84:10). Make my life a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to you (Rom 12:1). In Jesus’s name. Amen.
- Asha Chacko George
