When Love Grows Cold

1 “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.’

Background

The Roman government exiled the apostle John to the aisle of Patmos, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

He was not there alone. On the Lord’s Day, John was filled with the Holy Spirit. The glorified Christ revealed himself to John.

In Revelation 1:19, Jesus commands, “Write therefore the things you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.”

John wrote what we call the Revelation or Apocalypse.

It is predominantly about things to come in the last days.

It begins with the things that are.

Chapters 2 and 3 record a series of letters Jesus sent to seven congregations in the Greco-Roman province of Asia Minor, southwestern Turkey today. The seven churches were Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

The first church addressed is Ephesus.

Located on the west coast of Asia Minor, a messenger traveling from Patmos would arrive at Ephesus first.

Moreover, Ephesus was the de facto capital of the province, because of its

economic strength,

diverse population,

cultural wealth, and

religious activities.

To visit Ephesus in the first century would be to visit Los Angeles or New York City today.

In Ephesus, there was a church started by Paul, led by Timothy, taught by Apollos, and served by Aquila and Priscilla.

Tradition claims John ministered in Ephesus before and after his exile. The church at Ephesus had an unrivaled legacy. But it did not rest on its laurels.

At the time of this letter, the church at Ephesus continued to have a dynamic ministry.

Yet it was on the verge of swift and severe judgment.

Verse 4 says, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

This letter was written to the church. But each member was responsible for his response. So was every member of the seven churches.

This letter was not written to us, but it was written for us. We are reading someone else’s mail.

Have you abandoned your first love?

Do you have everything but the main thing?

Here what the Spirit says to us through this love-note the Lord wrote to the church at Ephesus.

The Lord Commends the Loveless Church

Revelation 2:1 (ESV)

1 “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.

Not only was Ephesus

a center of business, religion, and civic life,

as well as the guardian (neokoros) of

The temple of Artemis, the mother goddess. The massive temple complex, itself one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, featured thousands of priests and priestesses as well as a booming business related to goddess worship.[1]

Emperor worship was also a dominant influence in Ephesus,

which was the leading center of the imperial cult in Asia Minor.

The Christians of Ephesus faced enormous social and financial pressure to participate in the worship of the emperor.

The city was also a center for occult and magical practices, [2]Ephesus was certainly a center of paganism in the first-century world.

This explains why Jesus commends the believers in Ephesus for standing strong for the truth of the faith and resisting the false teachers.

The letter begins with compliments, not criticism. Christ tells the church what’s right before he tells them what’s wrong.

Christ walks among the seven golden lampstands.

Jesus is walking in the midst of the churches. There reason is in the word “golden.” In scripture, golden symbolizes purity. Jesus walks among the golden lampstands to examine the purity of the church.

According to Revelation 1:20, the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Jesus is walking in the midst of the churches.

Christ Cares

Christ holds the seven stars in his right hand. In Revelation 1:16, John describes the glorified Christ: “In his right hand he held the seven stars. The seven stars are the seven angels or pastors of the seven churches. In Revelation 2:1,

Jesus “holds the seven stars in his right hand.” “Holds” means to firmly grip, indicating the authority Jesus exercises over the leadership of the church. The “right hand” is a place of strict accountability, strong protection, and strategic usefulness.

with divine authority. He is responsible for them, and they, like us, are accountable to Him.

Every church Jesus purchased with His own blood is dear to Him.

Christ Is There

John says, secondly, Christ “walks [present tense] among the seven gold lampstands.”

Our Lord walks about among His people, His church. He is no absentee landlord or disinterested deity. He is there, up close and personal, intimately present.

For contemporary believers, this promise remains. Christ is our sustainer and protector.

He is our vigilant watchman.

He sees what we do, hears what we say, and knows how we think and what is in our heart.

This brings great assurance. It also brings great accountability.[3]

Church growth experts teach the key to growth is to ask what guests see when they visit your church. Bu the real key is to ask what the Lord sees as he walks through the church.

What does Christ see in our worship services, Bible studies, prayer meetings?

What does Jesus see inner offices, boardrooms, and parking lots?

What does Jesu see when he follows us home from church?

In verse 2, the Lord declares, “I know.”

Jesus makes this statement to each of the seven churches.

He says it to us today. You can fool some people all the time. You can fool all people sometime. You can never fool Jesus.

Jesus knows us fully, perfectly, and completely.

The church is commended for its perseverance and discernment

Revelation 2:2–3 (ESV)

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.

The Ephesian church stands out for its works, its toil, and endurance. These Ephesian Christians did not only agree verbally with the Christian faith; they applied it practically to their everyday lives. Their works demonstrated the reality and concreteness of their commitment. They were characterized by perseverance and endurance, continuing to labor and work even in adverse circumstances.

The church is commended not only for its labor

but also for its spiritual discernment.

They didn’t suffer from naivete but refused to tolerate so-called Christians who participated in evil.

The Ephesian church carefully assessed those who claimed to be messengers of Christ, exposing those who were not truly his disciples.

They were also perceptive enough to identify behavioral deficiencies of false apostles.

In other words, it is likely these false apostles recommended living in a way contrary to the way of Christ. Neither their teaching nor their works was pleasing to God. This makes perfect sense, for doctrine and life, teaching and behavior, cannot ultimately be separated.

Their endurance is not merely an example of human strength and fortitude. On the contrary, they have endured for the sake of Jesus’ name.

The reference to Jesus’ name signifies his deity, focusing on his character and being. God is identified and recognized by his name, and thus invoking any other god is to profane and take God’s name in vain (cf. Ex. 20:7; Lev. 20:3; Deut. 6:13).

If believers endure for Jesus’ name, they esteem him as divine and assign him the same stature as God himself.[4]

The Lord Criticizes the Loveless Church

Revelation 2:4 (ESV)

4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

John says in his letter, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).

Abandoning one’s first love means, then, that one has strayed from both love of God and love of fellow believers. The two are inseparable.

The church at Ephesus was persistent and orthodox, but a hardness, a callousness had arisen in its ranks.

They needed a renewed fervency,

a renewed tenderness for the Lord

and for one another.

True orthodoxy is always warm, loving, and generous in spirit.[5]

To love the Lord is the main thing.

This church had everything but the main thing. They had not lost their first love.

They left, forsook, abandoned their first love.

It was not accidental or incidental. It was a willful act. it was intentional rebellion.

It was a deliberate betrayal.

But it did not take place all at once.

Little by little, the church drifted away until it abandoned its first love.

The Lord Corrects the Loveless Church

Revelation 2:5 (ESV)

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.

The Lord only had one thing against Ephesus. But it was so serious that he threatened to remove its lamp stand from its place, if they did not repent.

The church at Ephesus had fallen from the heights of devotion to Christ and needed to be restored.

The first step was to remember from where they had fallen

Repent. Matthew 22:37 records the Great Commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”

Love for God is our greatest spiritual duty. Love for Christ is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian.

To know the Lord is to love the Lord.

To allow love to grow cold is sin.

The church at Ephesus was in sin.

Jesus commanded them to remember and repent.

What is repentance?

It is a change of mind. It is to make a U-turn in your life. It is to acknowledge your way is wrong and God’s way is right.

Stop going your way and start going God’s way. To repent is to come back to God. This is what Jesus commands. Come back to God!

Love is more than emotion. Love is what you do. 1 John 3:18 says, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

and do the works you did at first.

What are the first works?

Jesus does not specify. He leaves it to you to fill in the blanks.

The first works are whatever you did when you loved Christ at first. Go back to the basics.

Pray. Read the Bible. Worship. Fellowship. Serve. Give. Witness.

It is easier to act your way into a feeling than to feel your way into an action. Do whatever it takes to get closer to the Lord.

remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Removing the lampstand means

the church will lose its status as a Christian church;

the light of Christ will no longer shine,

and the message of the gospel will no longer resound from a church that has lost its first love.

There are some things that True Love Hates

Revelation 2:6 (ESV)

6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

The Ephesian church is deficient in love, but the call to love must not be misconstrued. There are some things that true love hates, for evil must not be tolerated or excused. Jesus returns again to the discernment exercised by the Ephesian church. They are commended for hating the works of the Nicolaitans.

We are not told here what the works of the Nicolaitans are, and the matter is frustratingly obscure.

the Nicolaitans probably tolerated such things as sexual immorality and eating food offered to idols.

Perhaps they did this in the name of love and acceptance. But rather than falling for such wrongful compromise, the Ephesian believers followed Christ’s example (“… which I also hate”) and hated what the Nicolaitans were doing. Hate is not incompatible with love, if it is evil that is hated and rejected (cf. Ps. 139:21).[7]

In our apathy and boredom, we may hate nothing and confuse our apathy and tolerance with love,

falling into the errors of relativism and pluralism.

At the same time, the Ephesian church may have overreacted, so that their zeal for truth squelched love for God and for one another. [8]

An exhortation and A Promise

Revelation 2:7 (ESV)

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.’

In each letter to the seven churches, the Lord issues this call to hear. Then he gives a promise to those who heed his call.

He calls them “the one who conquers,” which means to prevail after a struggle.

The conqueror receives a reward.

John addressed and indeed to all churches of all time. The Spirit calls upon every church to conquer and overcome.

The call to overcome is near the end of each letter to the seven churches.

The call is momentous, for one must overcome in order to obtain eternal life.

Only those who overcome will receive the life that never ends.

It is not necessarily a literal garden or tree of life, for the new creation—the new Jerusalem—is described also as a city (Rev. 21:1–22:5). The tree of life and paradise signify eternal life and the joys granted to those who belong to God.

Response

Jesus Christ knows what is happening in the churches. He penetrates to the heart and knows if we have lost our first love for him and for fellow believers.

Faithful Christians must be orthodox in their theology and not tolerate evil.

Theological discernment is imperative for the health and growth of the church.

At the same time, we are called to endure and labor hard as believers. We are not promised a soft life.

Still, as we test and assess those who claim faith, we can lose the love that first animated us as believers.

Our Christian lives can lose the fire and passion that enlivened us at the outset. As churches and as individuals, we need to keep our lamps burning with the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

If we have lost our first love, we must call to God and ask him to rekindle our love for him and others.

Our orthodoxy must be leavened with love; otherwise we become stern and hard, forgetting the love that saved us from our own sins.[9]

[1]Duvall, J. S. (2014). Revelation(M. L. Strauss & J. H. Walton, Eds.; pp. 40–41). Baker Books. [2]Duvall, J. S. (2014). Revelation(M. L. Strauss & J. H. Walton, Eds.; p. 41). Baker Books. [3] Akin, D. L. (2016). Exalting jesus in revelation (D. L. Akin, D. Platt, & T. Merida, Eds.; Re 2:1). Holman Reference. cf. confer, compare, see [4]Schreiner, T. R. (2018). Revelation. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Hebrews–Revelation: Vol. XII (p. 570). Crossway. [5]Schreiner, T. R. (2018). Revelation. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Hebrews–Revelation: Vol. XII (p. 571). Crossway. [6]Schreiner, T. R. (2018). Revelation. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Hebrews–Revelation: Vol. XII (p. 571). Crossway. v. verse cf. confer, compare, see [7]Schreiner, T. R. (2018). Revelation. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Hebrews–Revelation: Vol. XII (pp. 571–572). Crossway. [8] Schreiner, T. R. (2018). Revelation. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Hebrews–Revelation: Vol. XII (p. 572). Crossway. [9] Schreiner, T. R. (2018). Revelation. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Hebrews–Revelation: Vol. XII (p. 572). Crossway.

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