Maintaining Our First Love

Have you ever had to deliver bad news to someone? I can’t imagine that anyone really loves to deliver bad news to someone. Let me narrow this down a little bit. Have you ever had to deliver bad news to someone about something they did wrong? How do you go about pointing out those things? “Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Hey I like you, but....”

Have you ever heard of the compliment sandwich? The compliment sandwich is a method of delivering bad news or criticism by sandwiching it between two compliments. The goal is to take the sting away or soften the blow by placing the more negative comment between two better comments. For example, you might say, “That was a pretty great party. The guacamole wasn’t any good. It needed more salt or lime juice, but the rest of the food was really good.” That is the compliment sandwich. As Jesus delivers these messages to the seven churches, he gives them the compliment sandwich.

In Revelation 2-3, Jesus dictates messages to John, who is to deliver these messages to the respective churches. There are seven of them and today we are looking at the first church in revelation 2:1-7. This is the church at Ephesus.

Ephesus sat near the coast of what is now western Turkey. It was a once vibrant city that boasted a population of about a quarter million. Business was booming in Ephesus and it was also the home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world: the temple of Artemis/Diana. Paul planted the church in Ephesus in Acts 19 and this was the church Timothy pastored as Paul wrote 1 and 2 Timothy.

Let’s see what the Lord has to say about the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-7:

Revelation 2:1–7 NASB95

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. ‘Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’

In this sort letter to the church in Ephesus, we can see that there is a commendation in verses two and three. This is the thing they were doing right. Jesus was saying way to go. Then verse four comes the bad news part of the compliment sandwich. Verse five offers steps for correction, which is followed by another compliment in verse six. So let’s take a look at what was going on in the Ephesian church and try to understand what God is saying to the church today.

The mission is more than standing against evil.

As we look at verses two and three, we see that Jesus is commending them for their stand against evil men. The text does not present to us everything that the church was up against, but we can see that they were very busy. Jesus says he knows their deeds and their toil and their perseverance. Now the word toil means burdensome labor. This church was working hard. They were facing these challenges head on and they never gave up. We see in verse three that they endured but have not grown weary. They were fighting hard against those who would bring false doctrine into the church. We get a glimpse into the issues they faced as they were putting to the test those who called themselves apostles, but were not. If one calls himself an apostle and is not, he has proven to be a false teacher.

I have seen things on social media or I have received things in the mail advertising an event at a church somewhere and it says that apostle so-and-so is going to be one of the speakers. That’s an automatic no for me. I do not believe that there are any genuine modern day apostles. I believe that for someone to be an apostle, he must meet certain requirements. First, he has to be an eyewitness of Jesus and his resurrection. Second, apostleship is a position given to someone directly from Christ himself. Third, an apostle was bestowed with power to perform miracles. Based on these qualifications, it is impossible that anybody could be a legitimate modern day apostle. None of us are eyewitnesses of Jesus and his resurrection. We believe it based on the testimony we ave received from the Holy Spirit, but we are not eyewitnesses. This is the issue the Ephesian church seemed to be wrestling with. They were taking their stand against false teachers and false doctrine. Their stance against evil men likely included other things, but one of them must have been a stand against those who call themselves apostles.

The church at Ephesus was commended for such a stance, but then came condemnation.

The mission is fueled from our devotion to Christ.

In verse four, Jesus condemns the church for leaving their first love. Scholars have wrestled with what the meaning of this first love is, but all tend to agree that however it might have manifested itself in the life of the Ephesian church , at the root of it was a sincere devotion to Jesus. It would seem that the error the Ephesian church made was that in their pursuit of doctrinal purity, they forgot their motivation for doing so in the first place.

Do you remember the time when Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem and they passed through a Samaritan town but the Samaritans rejected Jesus? Do you remember James and John’s response to their rejection? They turned to Jesus and said, “Do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” And Jesus rebuked them for making such a suggestion. In that moment, James and John forgot the mission. They missed what Jesus was trying to show them.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever wanted to be right at the expense of the other person? As I studied this passage and considered what the charge against the Ephesian church was, it appears to me that might be the issue. They were right for standing on the truth and their convictions. They were wrong because it cost them to lose their devotion to Christ. It is entirely possible to do the work of ministry without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We can launch a campaign and stand on biblical principles. We can take our message to the streets and tell everyone how right we are and do so in such a way that they are then turned off by that same message. The church has been criticized for denouncing the things that we are against while not proclaiming the things we are for.

The question as I worked through this passage this week was boiled down to this: Do you care more about winning the argument or winning souls? Now the two do not have to be mutually exclusive. You can have one without the other or you can have both. We must guard against false teachers and false doctrine. That is a position on which we are unwavering. But we cannot let our zeal for doctrinal purity override our zeal for Christ. It is our sincere love for Christ that fuels the mission of sharing Jesus to the world.

We are in the middle of a massive culture war.

Let’s say that during a service some guy walks in and he’s got tattoos from head to toe and he comes and sits in the same pew as you. What is your reaction? Are you inclined to add some distance between you and him, or are you going to get closer? How would you respond to the lesbian couple or the transgendered person who walks in and begins participating in our worship service?

Once upon a time, I was a thief, drug abuser, and fornicator, but because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I stand before you today a transformed person. I became such because there was a group of college students and young adults who poured into me and showed me what lovingkindness looked like. Through that the Lord revealed himself to me, I came under conviction, and I turned my life over to him. Had the church group that I had been surrounded with focused on correcting my behaviors at the time rather than graciously speaking truth into my life, I may have tuned them out. But God, at the right time and through the right people, revealed the truth of his gospel to me and I responded.

Don’t let your zeal to be right inhibit you from effectively sharing the gospel from a zeal for Christ.

But if we have found that we have been focusing on being right, and have left our first love? Jesus gives us four steps:

Remember. Repent. Do. Hear.

Remember from where you have fallen. Remember your first love. Remember that joy you felt when you were madly in love with Jesus. Remember when your zeal for Jesus fueled your zeal for evangelism and serving others.

Repent. Agree with God that your motives and zeal shifted from doing ministry fueled from your devotion to Christ to asserting a series of theological positions because you overemphasized doctrinal purity. Remember, you are doing a good thing, but a good thing with the wrong motive can be counterproductive.

Do. Do the work you did at first. When things aren’t working out the way you thought they would. Stop, reassess, and return to the basics. Focus on your love for the Lord and his love for others. Then do the work he is calling you to do.

Hear. The final verse in this passage calls on the hearers to hear. It means pay attention. Don’t miss what is being said to you. This message comes from God. Those who are listening for his voice will hear it.

In a moment, we are going to sing our invitational hymn, I Surrender All. As we sing this song, consider whether you have been trying to do ministry in your own strength. Have you been so focused on being right that you have forgotten your devotion to Jesus? What is it that you have to surrender to the Lord in order for him to call you back to what is important?