But there is more to the letter, so you read on. And then it hits you. The words leap out at you from the page. Your short-lived joy suddenly turns to astonishment as you read, "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love." Left our first love; how could He possibly say that?! We’ve poured our heart and our soul into the ministry of this church (or organization). Doesn’t He see? Attendance is up! Giving is up! False teachers are being regularly refuted and skewered! We’ve become a purpose driven church for heaven’s sake! Doesn’t He understand how well things are going? What does He mean when He says, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen." I didn’t know we had fallen! We aren’t falling, we’re growing! And what does He mean by "repent.? What are we supposed to repent for? And what’s this "remove your lampstand" business? It sounds like I just got voted off the island in some Survivor episode and now somebody is going to snuff out my torch!

Now you know how the leadership of the Church at Ephesus must have felt when they received this very letter from the Apostle John in Revelation 2:1-7. History records that the Church at Ephesus never did repent, and the Church there eventually died out along with the city, both of which are now uninhabited ruins. And therein lies a story of a Church that replaced intimacy with work.

Now, in order to tell this story without getting lost in its details, here’s what I want to do. I want to do it by making several "Observations" and then elaborate on them. Hopefully this will work!

Observation # 1: Jesus knows our situation, and always comes to us in a way that is unique to us.

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: (2:1)

Ephesus was a church with a rich apostolic history (We’re talking serious apostolic pedigree here!). The Apostle Paul had personally planted this church (Acts 19) spending nearly 3 years there. Church history tells us that the Apostle John lived there in his later years as the Bishop of Ephesus. Their heritage as an apostolic church was rich and deep. No wonder they had no tolerance for self-proclaimed false apostles. And no wonder Jesus introduced Himself as the One Who walks among "the seven golden lampstands". Their identity as a "lampstand" (especially an "apostolic" lampstand) was important to them. It was their heritage. But past heritage does not guarantee present or future blessing, and our heritage can become a hindrance if it causes us to love our lampstand more than we love Jesus. And the Lord Jesus knew this about the Ephesians, just as He knows each of our situations. He knows what each of us loves and what’s important to us. He knows our history, our heritage and our hopes better than we do. So he always comes to us in a way that uniquely speaks to each of us and to our situation, whatever it may be.

Observation # 2: Jesus knows what we are "doing" - He knows our "deeds"

The word "deeds" (Greek: ergon) occurs 13 times in the letters to the 7 churches, making it (along with "repent" which occurs 8 times in seven letters) one of the most important words used to describe the seven churches of Asia. The truth here is simple yet profound. Jesus knows our deeds, our work. He sees what we are doing. None of it escapes His notice. The "deeds" of the Ephesians included toil & perseverance, refusal to endure evil men and testing false apostles. All good things. And Jesus knew it. But there was more. And this was one of those times when "more was less," and that was the problem.

Observation # 3: It isn’t enough to "work hard" for Jesus, even when we’re doing good things

This passage begins with "toil which results in weariness" and ends with the "weariness that comes from toil". The word rendered "toil" (Greek: kopon) describes a striking or beating, hence, toil which results in weariness. It’s related to the word translated "grown weary" (Greek: kopiao) which means to grow weary through toil. Not to put too fine a point on this, these were hard working people. And they weren’t just "working hard" They were "persevering." The Greek word (hupomone) communicates a sense of "abiding under". The idea is "patience which grows only in trials." It is patience under pressure. They were not just doing good work, they were doing it under extreme pressure. What exactly were they doing? To put it in contemporary terms, the Ephesians were "the Bible Answer Man" of the first century (a good thing?), unwilling and unable "to put up with" evil men. They were taking "self proclaimed" apostles, putting them to the test (peiradzo), and discovering them to be false (pseudo - "false" or "liars"). False apostles and false doctrine didn’t stand a chance in the Church of Ephesus.

Observation # 4: In The Kingdom of God, first things must always come first.

"But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." (2:4-6)

Yeah, I know that sounds redundant (philosophers have a fancy word for it: a "tautology" - the needless repetition of a phrase or word - don’t you feel blessed to know that?!). Where else would "first things" come - second? But sometimes it is the simple but critical redundancies of life which we overlook. The Ephesian Christians were working hard with toil and perseverance at things which, on their best day, should rank no higher than third on their priority list. And this wasn’t their best day. This was the day when Jesus paid them a visit and revealed to them that they had fallen - dramatically - they had left their first love. But what’s that all about?

We aren’t told, so we have to ask whether or not Scripture has anything to say about the idea of a first love. The good news is, yes, it does. Jesus Himself defined "first love" in Matthew 22:34-40:

The word translated "foremost" in the above passage (Greek: prote) is the same word rendered "first" in Revelation 2: 4. Could it be so simple? Could it be that to leave our first love means that we: 1) have stop loving God with all our heart, mind, soul & strength, 2) have stopped loving our neighbor as ourselves, and 3) have replaced intimacy with God and love for others with "works". Could it be that the Ephesians had failed to keep the two greatest commandments (according do Jesus, Who was now admonishing them) and had become overly focused on those works which, as I said, even on a good day, should rank no higher than third on their priority list? It appears so.

(O, by the way, I’m not going to deal with the Nicolaitans here. They get extensively treated when Jesus speaks to the Church at Pergamum. For now, let’s just agree that anything the Risen Christ "hates" is probably something we want to avoid!)

Observation # 5: Just as there is a "first love," so there are "first deeds"

I’m not going to spend a bunch of time commenting on the command to "repent." It’s eight occurrences in the letters to the seven churches of Asia make it one of the dominant themes in Jesus’ messages. Want to get back to where you should be in your relationship with God? It’s really pretty simple: Repent. Turn away from whatever it is that has stolen your gaze and distracted your attention, and get your heart refocused on Jesus. As part of that repentance Jesus tells the Ephesian Church to "do the first deeds" (literal Greek rendering). But, like the issue of "first love" the command begs a question: What are the "first deeds"? Does Scripture say? Well, yes, I think so. I believe I found the answer in John 6:28-29:

The Jews who were questioning Jesus in John Chapter 6 had a defective understanding of Jesus and the Kingdom of God. They wanted to make Jesus King so He could set up the Kingdom, vanquish the Romans and give them endless supply of fish and bread (apparently, this was the only "lesson" they had taken away from the feeding of the five thousand earlier in Chapter 6). They mis-understood what it meant to "do the work of God" (a similar problem to that in Ephesus). Jesus confronted this misunderstanding by juxtaposing two competing concepts: "believing" versus "working." The first and greatest "work" (yep, same Greek word for "deed" - ergon - as in Revelation 2) any of us will ever do is to simply "believe." The point is simple, clear and profound: in spite of all our "hard work," all of our "deeds," there are no substitutes for faith and love; the "first deeds" and the "first love".

Observation # 6: God knows how to "shake us up"

I don’t know about you, but this whole "or else" business raises a question in my mind. Why would the Lord Jesus be so "hard" on Christians and Churches who were working so hard and persevering under such difficult circumstances? To us, somehow it just doesn’t seem "fair." Know what I mean? The problem is that life in the Kingdom of God isn’t about "fairness" in human terms. Life in the Kingdom of God is about faith, hope and love expressed and manifested in a life of sacrificial obedience and service to the King. We live, serve and perform for an "Audience of One." The Ephesian Christians appear (unbeknownst to them) to have lost their faith and their love, which means they were probably on the verge of losing their hope, too (the blessed hope of the Lord’s return and the future hope of eternal life). Can that happen? You tell me. I am personally appalled by the number of "former-pastors-turned-atheists" who dot the religious landscape - like the one who recently appeared on the local TV news in his police chaplains uniform. A former denominational pastor, he was suing the city because the Police Chaplaincy was "too overtly Christian" - apparently unlike himself. Is it remotely possible that the genesis of such declines can be traced to a church like that of Ephesus where "good works for God" had replaced intimacy and love toward God?

Jesus frames His rebuke of the Ephesians in terms which touched what mattered most to the Ephesians - the removal of their lampstand. As we noted earlier, for the Ephesians their "lampstand" was very important to them. They were proud of their heritage as an "apostolic lampstand," their identity as a "church," which is why Jesus threatened it. The word "remove" (Greek: kino) can mean either "to shake" or "to remove". When our heritage (our "lampstand") becomes our hindrance, Jesus has no choice but to "shake" it (even remove it, if necessary). Repentance, whether personal or corporate, is how we avoid God having to "shake us up".

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God." (2:7)

Finally, the word "churches" (plural) tells me that this message wasn’t intended only for the Church at Ephesus, or the Church of the 1^st Century (as some "historical fulfillment" teachers maintain). Rather, it is a message to the Church of God in every age - and that includes you and me. Good works for God can never replace either intimacy with God or love for Him. If we in the house church movement are to "become known" for anything, let it be for our passion and love for, and our intimacy with, God. Let the vicious rumor spread like a virus, that we passionately love our God and King more than we love our lampstand.