The Church of God at Ephesus seemed to be the ideal church: in a city famous for its historic pagan worship they were very active, had endured many things, were doctrinally sound, took a strong stand against wrong, and continued to be enthusiastic (Revelation 2:2-3). But something vital was missing, and the Lord Jesus exposed it to them: the believers had together abandoned their ‘first love’. It wasn’t something that had simply been lost along the way, but rather service for the Lord appears to have been consciously placed ahead of love, devotion and fellowship with him. It’s possible that their love for each other had also been neglected.
Like Jesus’ friend Martha, we can be so busy working for him that we have no time to love him (Luke 10:38-42). And perhaps that incident with Martha and Mary gives us a clue about how to recapture our first love: to spend time in Christ’s presence, listening to him, in communion with him and learning that labour is no substitute for love.
If God convicts us, we can remember how things used to be in our relationship with Christ.
For Martha and the Church in Ephesus, the mistake was choosing service for Christ over relationship with him. If we live in a performance-oriented culture, that can be a real challenge. Opportunities and responsibilities face us – work, studies, relationships – many of which are entirely legitimate, but can nevertheless lead us to abandon our priority love for Christ.
And then there is a multitude of other distractions. Would I be wrong to suggest that visual and online media could be at the top of any list? How easy it is to set aside my love for Christ by giving priority to the contents of my phone! I have personally made a conscious choice to continue to use a paper Bible and to switch my phone to silent when I read and study God’s Word.
The challenge came to the Church at Ephesus: remember, repent and repeat! If God convicts us (as an individual or as a church) with a sense that we’ve moved away from our first love, we can remember how things used to be in our relationship with Christ; and then he calls on us to repent, to recognize our condition as wrong, and to accept and move toward a new and right path in its place; and then repeat those basic disciplines of fellowship and abiding in the Lord.
Rosemary Johnston, The Church of God in Leigh
