How is our Early Love Doing?
But I have this against you: you have lost your early love. (Revelati0n 2:4 NEB)
Rev. 2:1-7; Isa. 55:7, Jer. 2:2; Mal. 3:7; Mt. 24:12; Lk. 15:20; Acts 20:17-38
What Is God Saying?
The seven church letters of Revelation appear in an order that indicates a messenger was to make a journey around a circular route to the most important cities of Asia Minor. Ephesus was first; the hub of that province's social and political life. Today its great amphitheater, the site of the Temple of Diana of the Ephesians, and the imposing ruins bear witness to its affluence and vitality. It was also a place of great importance to the Church. Paul preached Christ to Jews and Greeks in Ephesus for three continuous years. In some respects, his long ministry there evoked more personal concern and involvement than anywhere else (Acts 20: 17-38). It was, indeed, a busy church in a strategic center.
Christ spoke in praise of their good works. They toiled with patient endurance and defended the faith against false teachers, but with time, a whole new generation had come. They were becoming so absorbed with the business of being a church, that they forgot to love. In all their commendable faithfulness, they had slipped into the dangerous error of Church as usual for the sake of the Church. The zealous love, the early love, the basic reason for its being, love for God and others, was missing. They were busy but missing the point—love.
How Does This Apply To Us?
Business as usual tends to make us more aware of the mechanics of Church perpetuation than of the Church's need to give of itself by reaching out in love. The same message of Revelation to the Church at Ephesus may need to be given to the Church today. Do we love Jesus with the same enthusiasm and joy, the same devotion and loyalty, with the same prompt and willing obedience to His commands, with the same desire to share the Good News with others we had when He first captured our hearts?
Pray With Me
Lord of my new life's morning, when did it happen? When did my desire for Your presence and my faith in Your love fade into the light of common day? Was it when I took Your pardon as a privilege I could claim without the price of repentance? Was it when I grew over-familiar with Your words until they no longer convicted me? Was it when I became unwilling to let love's commands awaken me to costly obedience? Was it when the world had me walking in time with its empty demands? Was it when I no longer wanted to climb out of the comfortable ruts of an easy life?
Lord, even as I search for the answer, return to my heart and be the answer. You were welcome once. As the sun returns to fill the earth with the glory that is morning, so, Son of Righteousness, return to my heart. I have opened it from within by the key of repentance. Let the dawn of my early love for You return that, even in the high noon of much care and busyness, I may live in the calmness and joy of Your nearness. Let the dawn of my early love for You return and remain.
In the name of Him who loved and still loves His own to the end, Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen.
Moving On In The Life of Prayer
Paul's message to the Church at Ephesus concludes with an appeal, ‘Pray at all times in the Spirit’ (Eph 6.18). That is the way to maintain the joy and power of our First Love. First Love is renewed and nourished, as water restores a wilted plant, when we pray in the Spirit. Our Lord's love shows the way. Our love shows we understand.
