Our First Love

Who we are

The church at Ephesus in Revelation was the church that left their first love. I had always thought about as you would someone who lost their excitement from when they first got saved. I came to the realization that it is much more than that. The church at Ephesus first love and our first love is this.

JESUS CREED

This statement by Jesus was more than him just telling the scribe what of the over 600 commands was the most important, it was how the people of God were to be known. This is our first love.

Brothers and sisters the spiritual battle we are in, the enemy will stop at nothing to pull us away from our first love. We must trust the leading of the Holy Spirit to guide us in these commandments. If we want revival in us, in our churches, and in our communities lets return to our first love.

Loving God, loving others

Old Testament Shema

*Supposed to permeate through every part of the People of God.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 NRSV

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Repetition is the mother of all learning.

Military training

Leviticus 19:18 NLT

18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

Jesus includes this in his version of the shema.

Luke Defines who our Neighbor is

Luke 10:25–29 NRSV

25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” 29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

A WAY TO INTERPRET SCRIPTURE

Matthew 22:37–40 NLT

37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Scripture must be read through this lens. Why because everything God has tried to teach his people since the dawn of time hinges on these 2 commands. If our understanding of scripture fails to love God or fails to love our neighbor we have missed the point.

It is through the leading of the Holy Spirit

John 14:15–21 NLT

15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”

Jesus Response to the Scribe

You are not far from the Kingdom of God. This scribe was different from all the others who came to test Jesus. He genuinely wanted to know and discuss which commandment of the over 600 the religious leaders put in place was the most important.

When the Scribe saw that Jesus had answered well, and he repeated basically the same answer back to him, Jesus responded by telling him you are not far from the Kingdom of God.

What was he lacking? Following Jesus. The scribe though intrigued was still following the religious order of rule keeping and sacrifice, when Israel time and again fell flat on its face to keep these commands. In order to truly love God with the entirety of our being we must follow Christ, and through the indwelling Strength of the Holy Spirit love our neighbors without exception.

This is who We are

Mark: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition From the Text

Christian holiness has all too often been confused with rule-keeping and meritorious performance. Israel sometimes confused holiness with the elaborate rituals and performances of sacrifices and offerings. The prophets rail against this confusion of the means and end. The system was not to be an end in itself. It was, rather, the means of keeping and restoring the people to the appropriate covenant relationship with God.

If the meaning of holiness has become clouded, Jesus redefines it here by recalling his followers to the heart of God’s purposes. They are to be the means by which God will bless all nations, so that God’s good purposes will be fulfilled in all the world. This single-minded devotion to God and selfless love of neighbor is the essence of Christian holiness in the Gospels (see Brower 2005, 101). This is indeed how John Wesley succinctly defined what he meant by holiness of heart and life

Brothers and sisters, part of revival is taking stock of the life God calls his people into. Are you personally a follower of Christ who is defined by loving God without exception, and also loving you neighbor without exception? The same question can be applied to us the church. To ask it another way have we left our first love?

The love Christ calls us into isn’t a sentimental feeling or casual friendship or even pious phrases. Our identity of being God’s holy people is made know to others in how we live this command: Love God with all of our being and to love our neighbor as God loves them. We can only achieve this by following after Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through us in God’s rescue plan for all creation.

Brothers and sisters if we want revival in us, in this church, and in our communities, then loving God and loving others must be who we are as the people of God.