Have You Lost Your Original – First – Love For Christ?

The Book of Revelation is many times avoided in our reading and study of the Bible. In many instances it's contents are misunderstood and rarely given a second thought but many miss the special blessing that it affords to those that read and keep the things written in it – Rev 1:3. There are tremendous age-old truths found no where else but in this blessed Book.

The Book opens with a vision of the Lord to John the Revelator's eyes – an awesome and heavenly picture of the likeness of Christ. He is magnificent and His Glory manifested in a picture of the Lord among His churches. A picture relevant for us also today as well.

Then the Lord tells John to write the things he is about to see in a book and send it to the seven churches in Asia. It must be noted that our Lord was not writing about church ages to come as some have come to believe but more so a sampling of the types of churches of that time and also a foreshadow of the types of people and churches yet to come – in our day. The letter to the churches reflected a spiritual barometer of their "religiousity" then and also now. We must understand what the Lord was conveying to John and how this applies to our churches and our lives right here in 2016.

The first church that Jesus addressed was the Church of Ephesus. Ephesus was a major Greek city that become Romanized and very prosperous. It was known for its pagan worship in the Temple of (Diana) or Artemis and it being one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Apostle Paul started a church there and spent many years teaching and spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ among the Ephesians. This first letter called out the worshipers at this church in light of where they were in the Lord. He applauded them for their hard work and perseverance and the exposure of wicked men. They endured many hard things for His name and did not grow weary – Rev 2:2-3 (KJV).

But wait just a moment there was a problem...

(Please take some time to let this sink into your spirit and how it may apply to your relationship with the Lord.)

The Lord exclaimed – "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." – Rev 2:4 

Let me see if I get this… The Lord God Almighty said something was very wrong!

They were hard working, did the right things, exposed evil and didn't grow tired in His name. Could this be the same as some of our "best" Christian churches and lives today?

They lost their first love!  How can this be? They were so busy in the mechanical things that churches do – meetings, dramas, skits, simulcasts, rallies, assemblies, conferences, etc, that they lost what it really meant to love the Lord their God.

Recall as it is written: "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." – Matt 22:37 (KJV). This is hard-hitting for us today as it was in their time! Consider your situation, are you "doing" all the seemingly right visual things, enduring a lot but have lost your focus on who it's all for? Have you lost what it means to really love the Lord with all your heart?

What's really stunning is what He says to the church next. They must repent!

They must recognize the changes that have morphed or decomposed their faith from when they first became saved. In other words, they have to change their attitudes, religious habits, lose their religious veneer, get rid of the robo-movements of just going to church, and lose the ritualness of their faith. They must return to their original salvation experience – their first love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in doing so repent of their complacent apathy towards their Savior. This is a tough hard-hitting punch to many of our pleasure-laden, easy going, Gospeless churches, Christians and ministries today.  Most focus on themselves and what they can do but many times with an internal-only self-righteous core. But look again at what the Lord says:

"Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." -Rev 2:5 (KJV)

Did you grasp that losing your first love in the Lord requires you to repent – to turn back to the works you did at first or He'll pull His candlestick (His light from your presence)?

In loving and believing in your Savior with all fervor and purity of heart. We must be grieved at our sin to the point of Godly sorrow.

We must be ashamed of those things that separates us from His presence – greed, idolatry, compromise, lusts, pride. For if we don't or refuse to see and repent (amend our ways) as professing Christians, then He will remove the candlestick or light of His presence from us – our lives and our churches. Again this is hard-hitting and should shake us to the core of our faith. Please remember that this is the Lord God Almighty saying this as John pens it.   

Ok, here's the bottom line. Has your faith (and my faith) become old, crusty, stale, mundane, full of ritual and empty of real loving faith in Christ?

Do you attend worship services just to fill in the weekly "I was there" square? Do you when away from peers, friends, pastors read your Bible for understanding because of your sincere love of the Lord? Are you unwavering and uncompromising in your walk with the Lord?

Folks, these are some serious things for all of us to consider in our relationship with the Lord. Yes, our hope is in the Lord but He does require certain things of us if we want to be called Christians and be with Him for eternity one day.

I have some friends that say I am too hard, too much without love, too much Bible thumping – I say just the opposite! It's in love that I speak the things that are hushed-hushed in our contemporary love-only based churches today. I give people the whole Gospel truth even if it offends some. I wonder how many have ever read John 6:50-63?

The Lord God says these things to the Ephesian church and as well to us today with a severe, unedited, unadulterated threatening that should not be overlooked, swept under the church carpet or avoided in our lives whatsoever. We cannot afford to slight the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives by snuffing Him out with our own wisdom and what we think He should mean or say.

So where are you at today? Robotic in your faith or with a real firm absolute love of the Lord your God?

 

-BPWatcher, Internet Preacher and Bible Prophecy Watchman

THE KING IS COMING – ARE YOU READY TO MEET HIM?