Love: Commitment or Abandonment?

Introduction:

The entire Bible is predicated upon loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, as well as loving your neighbor as yourself - ;

Jesus repeated these commands for those who would follow Him -

The kind of love that Jesus calls for us to have is a committed, loyal, faithful, and obedient kind of love.

Yet, over the course of time we can grow weak in our love and commitment. Our love and commitment can be tested and we grow dissatisfied with our choices. Sometimes we feel stuck.

While that can happen to individual disciples, it also happens to churches.

Read

Are you ready to remain committed to Jesus Christ or are you on the verge of abandoning Him?

Jesus Knows

John was told to write a book and send it to the 7 churches in Asia minor (modern day Turkey) -

One book, seven churches

There’s a single message that all churches must hear and learn!

Jesus stands in the midst of His churches -

The lampstands are the churches -

The message to the church at Ephesus begins by acknowledging Jesus -

Jesus’ Authority and Power: He is the One who holds the seven stars

Fellowship with His Church: He is the One who “walks” among the churches

Because of His authority and His fellowship with the churches, Jesus is intimately connected with the activities of the churches. He knows what is going on in the congregations.

“I know your deeds” -

We are the church of Christ, meaning we submit to Christ’s authority and His rule in the churches. He is the rightful head of the church.

Here, John is showing us the Christ of the church—the emphasis begins with Jesus and His power and authority.

We are always under the watchful care and guardianship of Jesus, our Lord and Master.

Uncompromised Teaching

Jesus’ message to the church at Ephesus begins with the deeds of the church

The church appears to be sound and healthy -

Toil and labor

Perseverance

No tolerance for evil

Test the teachings of those who come among them

Endurance and faithfulness for the name of Christ

They hate the works of the Nicolatians -

This was written during a time of persecution on Christians for their allegiance to the Lord Jesus, not bowing to idols and Caesar - cf.

There was a growing movement to assimilate (liken yourself to others) and compromise—to avoid persecution.

Yet the church at Ephesus does not fall into that trap!

They learn the value of loyalty to Jesus and fight off the spirit of compromise.

They are intolerant () and test evil men and false teachers.

This is a church that is keeping their teaching pure and undefiled and uncompromised!

A church can have “sound teaching” but still be unfaithful to God.

Compromised Affections

While things look hopeful for Ephesus, the reality is that they have lost their first love -

Jesus warned that due to persecutions, love may grow dim -

When loyalty is put to the test, our allegiance and confession will wane.

Losing your first love is not, as some people suggest, that they have grown cold and loveless because of their emphasis upon teaching and upholding the truth.

Jesus praises them and acknowledges their diligence in holding fast the pure and unadulterated word of God.

Yet, obedience does not necessarily lead to love for the Lord -

We obey because we first love Christ and His word.

Love leads to obedience; it is not that obedience leads to love.

The church at Ephesus had “left” or “abandoned” or “separated” themselves from their first love. Sometimes the word is used to describe a husband-wife separation or divorce.

This was a very serious offense!

The church in Ephesus had compromised their love for God and others.

By the time of this writing, you have a church filled with 2nd or 3rd generation Christians.

They were keeping the church pure, for which they were commended by Jesus.

Yet, that was the extent of their work. They had merely become caretakers and custodians; they were not being propagators for the truth.

They were ok with the status-quo. They were not evangelistic.

What losing your first love looks like:

loss of growth — “protect what we have” mentality; take no risks, make no changes

loss of leadership — the church might have had elders that had led them into some murky territory; losing leaders in the church can be devastating and very difficult for a church

loss of the older generation — the ones who helped start the church and who saw firsthand the sacrifices that were made; there is often times a void and no one left to take their place

growth of resentment — the church “hated” false teachers and were intolerant, but sometimes that attitude can bleed over into other relationships or can be perceived wrongly by others

growth of hard hearts — churches think they are built around what they are doing right and they neglect to repent in areas that they are weak in; we may hear the message, but we think it is directed towards other people, not towards us!

“He who has an hear, let him hear...” -

growth of inactivity — churches that quit doing things and quit working laboring (evangelism takes a back seat)

loss of regular Bible study — individually and collectively; it’s a “church” thing that we only do on Sundays or Wednesdays, no more and maybe less (we become a no-show for class on Sundays and Wednesdays)

Be careful to avoid becoming a church that loses its first love!

Overcome

Jesus tells the church how to correct their course - ,

There is a genuine threat of losing fellowship with Christ -

First, they must remember where they used to be -

They cannot be restored if they do not know where to go and where things went wrong

Our memory can help us

Second, they must repent -

Repentance is mentioned a total of 10 times in the book of Revelation.

Four of those occasions are about the need of mankind-at-large to repent of their sins, wickedness, and idolatry - , ; ,

Six of those occasions are directed to Christians/churches who need to repent - , , , ; ,

Don’t be mistaken: repentance is not something that we did when we walked up the aisle to go get baptized. Repentance is a change of mind and conviction that leads to a change in our behavior.

Even after we have been baptized and have become Christians, we may sin and need to repent!

Remember: losing your first love is often times because of the growth of a hard heart that refuses to hear God’s message of repentance.

Third, they must go back to the beginning -

Read and 20 to learn how the church in Ephesus began:

sincerely wanted to be right with God and they acted when they were told what they needed to do -

engaged in daily studies -

many came and repented -

the word of the Lord grew -

Paul taught the gospel even when facing trials:

unashamedly -

public teaching and private teaching -

to all people -

a message of repentance to God and faith in Jesus -

gospel of grace -

kingdom of God - ;

whole counsel of God -

word of God’s grace -

The Ephesians helped and ministered to Paul -

Those who repent and do the good works will have a reward in eternal fellowship with God and Christ -

Those who repent and overcome will be allowed to eat of the tree of life, “the first fruit”

Conclusion:

Any church today can face the very same dilemma that the church at Ephesus faced—losing their first love

We must take great care to preserve loyalty, faithfulness, obedience, love, grace, and devotion—sharing the gospel and continue to work and labor in love to all people!

And when we have failed as a church, let’s learn to hear the message and apply it to ourselves first and repent.

That’s what Ephesus had done in the beginning and they needed to be restored to that ideal.

Will you repent today?