But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. – Revelation 2:4
Nearly 50 years ago, a hit song by Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand lamented, “You don’t bring me flowers. You don’t sing me love songs. You hardly talk to me anymore.” They sang of an early love that was gone. Love in decline is not exclusive to couples. Fading love was a problem in the church in western Turkey at Ephesus. By the time they received their letter, the subject of today’s portion from Revelation, it had been forty years since the church there was founded. A new generation had taken leadership. God’s Word and His work were fading among them. The zeal and fervor of the early church had become feeble.
Biblical author and scholar Dr. Lehman Strauss wrote, “Love is the first essential in Christian character, and when it commences to decline, the soul begins to drift.“ The church had been commended for standing against false teachers and for their toil on behalf of the Gospel. But then, Jesus said, “I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Love abandoned would probably begin with failing to love one another, and end in falling out of love with Jesus. Like most who fall out of love, it happens little by little, inaction by inaction, until the commitment is gone, along with acts of devotion.
In verse 5, the people of Ephesus are told to remember what they had before. In the Greek, the grammatical emphasis denotes the continual action of remembering. Keep remembering. And repent, they were told. Make a U-turn. Get back to basics. Keep the main thing the main thing. If your love is not as urgent and deep as it once was, repent and return to the love that will not let you go, the love of God that is “greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.“ Pray for pastors and ministers across the nation to preach the whole truth of God’s love.
Today’s Verse: Revelation 2:4
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Revelation 2:1-7
2 “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.’
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
