“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’ (Revelation 2.1-7 ESV)
Allow me to let you in on a marriage counselor’s perspective for a moment. Imagine you and your spouse show up to your couples session here at CCC. The atmosphere is tense, as you have been arguing and not getting along for a while. In fact, in over 15 years of marriage, you can’t remember a more difficult time. And you struggle to see a way forward at all.
One of the many things your marriage counselor might be thinking is: “how do I get these people to go back to their first love?” That’s important because a key problem is that both of you to some extent have wandered from the intimacy and warmth of when you first met. Finding a roadmap back to that is part of what your counselor will help you with.
Interestingly, the solution is much the same for those of us who have been wandering away from Jesus (Christ does liken His relationship with the church as a marriage after all). The Puritan divines called this backsliding, but wandering doesn’t have to be sound so severe. It could also mean getting burned out, disillusioned with church, or just becoming too busy with our daily lives that we forget about Jesus.
And that is how Jesus describes it in Revelation 2: “I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” That’s a hard word. But it’s a good word because it gives us a roadmap for how to get back to Him. We are to remember and repent.
But what does this look like? Well, my hypothesis is that the remedy to the ailment is contained in the rest of this little letter to Ephesus. I think there are at least three things Jesus urges on us that, if applied, can warm our hearts back to our first love.
First, Jesus sees and honors our hard work.
Not to oversimply how this letter may have been received, but imagine if the first thing you hear Jesus say to you after years of silence is “you’re doing a good job.” How affirming and encouraging would that be? And that’s exactly what Jesus does. The Greek here indicates a level of work that teeters on exhaustion, and I’m sure many of you feel this way.
This gets more personal when we realize that Jesus sees all the unseen moments of faithfulness that no one else sees. To the ministry leader who patiently sits with the sick or shows up for hard pastoral cases, Jesus sees. To the mom at home taking care of kids in what feels like a thankless job, Jesus sees. To the person making widgets all day at the widget factory, Jesus sees. To the one who faithfully handles money with integrity, Jesus sees. To the one who upholds orthodoxy and opposes evil, Jesus sees. To the caregivers, Jesus sees. And to all who serve faithfully wherever, Jesus sees.
How often do you actually think and remember that? That although good works do not save us, our Lord still sees and treasures up our service to Him and does not forget. Remember this, and perhaps it will warm your heart a bit.
Second, Jesus loves us enough to challenge us.
This of course is the heart of the letter to the Ephesians. The reality is that we can be so focused on working to advance the gospel that we actually forget the gospel. Perhaps it feels paradoxical, but the best thing Jesus can do is to challenge us and call us to change.
But that’s not really strange, is it? We know that in our most intimate relationships, challenge to change is always present. Our parents called us to better behavior as children because they loved us, and our spouses challenge us to grow because they love us. So when we feel the sting of conviction, that’s not a bad thing. So sit with Jesus’ challenge for just a little bit.
Third, Jesus gives us a reason to keep going.
At my church I occasionally coordinate our congregational prayer time, where we pray for the specific needs of our congregation, city, and world. Do you know what? Every Sunday’s prayer is very similar. The same people are struggling with the same sickness or disadvantages. The same problems that Columbia has always had are still around. The same wars and brokenness keep on happening. So how do you keep on going every day in the face of all this darkness and discouragement?
Well, Jesus encourages us to look up, or to look forward as it were. To the one who keeps on going, Jesus promises the ultimate reward: to eat of the tree of life and to be with Him in glory forever. Sometimes I think we forget that simple truth in our day-to-day lives. But perhaps to give us a fresh taste of this, we can meditate a bit on Isaiah’s prophecy about what this will look like:
“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Is. 25.6-9).
So are you discouraged this week? Take some time to look up and look forward.
In the end, warming one’s heart to a first love is always a complex process. There’s probably more that could be said that could be helpful to you. But for starters, if you find yourself in need of this encouragement, take a few moments this week to mediate on the three things Jesus provides for us in this letter. It just might keep you from losing your religion.