Have You Left Your First Love?

In the second chapter of Revelation, Jesus made a remarkable complaint against the congregation at Ephesus. "Nevertheless I have this against you", He lamented, "that you have left your first love."

Before we explore that complaint, however, let's look back for a moment.

In about 95 AD, while imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos, the Apostle John was approached by Jesus and instructed to record the Revelation (see our article, "The Day the Revelation Came to Man"). Moreover, Jesus told John that the Revelation would consist of three parts, including one portion devoted to the Church comprised of seven letters to seven congregations. (For more about the outline, see our article, "Jesus Outlines the Revelation").

The seven letters are recorded in Chapters two and three, and are particularly noteworthy because they are as relevant today as they were in John's time.

Yes, Jesus addresses issues appropriate to those particular congregations, but at the same time can also apply to all congregations, and even more, to all individuals. In other words, when Jesus ascribed His knowledge of these congregations' works and condition (good or bad) in the first century, He was also speaking to you and me in the twenty first century.

We must, therefore, explore each letter and therein embrace each praise and rebuke, encouragement and hope, despair and delight. Bearing in mind, that our Lord continues to move about the Church, watchful to guard against internal and external evils and mindful to rightly preserve its spiritual well-being as steadfastly today as yesterday.

Okay, with that in mind, let's consider this letter to Ephesus and see whether it strikes a chord and perhaps intends to admonish us.

"I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil", Jesus said. "And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary" (vs. 2-4).

Foremost, we must notice the good works attributed to the Ephesians lest we consider ourselves above reproach and ignore the admonition. This is not a lazy congregation devoid of church service; the works of the Ephesians were admirable. "Nevertheless," Jesus said, "I have this against you, that you have left your first love".

What does Jesus mean?

The love in question is the "early love" of the congregation. That first enthusiastically warm and affectionate love following a new life in Christ, where self is denied, all that displeases God is gladly abandoned, and fellowship one with another is joyfully embraced. In other words, despite commendable devotion to the Word of God, the members had strayed from sincerity; or as one commentator puts it, "members were going through the motions without emotion".

Has that happened to you? Do you attend church services out of obligation or a force of habit rather than a passionate desire to worship God (as you did in the beginning)? And has your fellowship (where your earlier heart was tender for one another) become argumentative and divisive?

If so, confess that condition to God right now and return to your first love. He loves you as a bridegroom loves his bride, and not unlike the members at Ephesus, is admonishing you because He desires you.

Welcome to the Revelation

"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,
but the glory of kings is to search out a matter"
--Proverbs 25:2

WELCOME! to the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Arguably, the most complete future installment of God ever beheld by a man and subsequently addressed to the Church.

BEFORE we get started, it’s important for us to understand why God has chosen to reveal this apocalyptic vision to us. Contrary to the teaching of some, the Revelation is not meant to serve as a “Tribulation Survival Kit” for the Church because the Church won’t be here. Nor is it given so we can set a date for Christ’s coming, or that we might identity the Antichrist. The Revelation has one primary purpose:

"To unveil Jesus Christ so we may know how God will accomplish all His work and purposes through Him in the last days."

WHILE many marvelous passages of truth in Revelation lend themselves to topical studies that should be discussed and learned, there are commentaries written by inspired men of God already available to the serious student without my adding yet another one. Therefore, I have limited my notes primarily to the events in the vision and have purposely avoided the traditional theological arguments and more complex exposition generally offered by scholars. My purpose is only to assist you in reading the Revelation from start to finish, help you better understand what the vision is about, and perhaps to wet your appetite enough to prompt more study.

ONE MORE THING before we dig in. If you've been avoiding the Revelation because you've considered it far too complex, obscure, or confusing for laypersons like us to understand, put your mind at rest. Even with all its symbols and images and some erratic shifts of events associated with John’s time travel, you’ll be surprised to discover how logical, chronological, and interpretable by Scripture this awesome vision really is.

PLEASE read each chapter of the Revelation directly from the Bible and then use the menu at the right to access my verse-by-verse notes. Afterward, test your knowledge with the Study Questions, and be sure to explore the other resources provided. Click "Post a Comment" below to leave a comment, or the envelope image to email this Revelation article to a friend.

May God bless and keep you throughout this incredible journey.

Jim Kobzeff
October 24, 2008
Learn the Revelation

"And new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you"
--Isaiah 43:9

On Sunday morning, 95 AD, somewhere on the small island in the Aegean Sea called Patmos, the Apostle John—having been banished there by Rome for his testimony of Jesus Christ—was in some remote corner of that island worshiping God.

Though the other days of the week were undoubtedly consumed doing hard labor inside the mines of the volcanic island in the company of other prisoners , Sundays apparently allowed the old Apostle time to be alone and to rest. On this Sunday morning, however, little did he know as he knelt in prayer that he would come face to face with Jesus Christ and then taken into heaven to eyewitness a vision of the future never before revealed to any man.

The Book you are about to study, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is John’s written account of that event exactly as he experienced it. All that he saw and heard he arduously recorded in compliance with the will of God so that the Vision might be shown to the Church, and thereby that the Church would know it.