March 21
“’But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.’” (Revelation 2:4)
What arrests my attention about the church at Ephesus is all of the things they were doing right: they were doing good deeds, they were toiling, they were persevering, they were putting to the test those who claimed to be important in the church and putting out those who were found false, and they were not growing weary in all of their hard work for the Lord. They had a lot going for them, and if this were a church in my city today, it would probably be viewed as one of the better churches in the area, one that many Christians would want to be a part of.
Yet in spite of all they had going for them, they were displeasing to the Lord enough that He rebuked them and warned them that if they did not repent, they would experience pretty significant consequences. Who do you suppose Jesus was directing His comments to, primarily, the every day church goer in Ephesus or the leadership of the church at Ephesus? I think it was primarily the leadership He was speaking to. This is really worth thinking about. How many of us are faithful laborers in the church, perhaps leaders in the church, or perhaps full or part time Christian workers? How many of us have ministries that we are leading or have a significant leadership role in a ministry?
How can we test ourselves to see if our love for the Lord is lacking and we are in need of repentance in this regard? It may be difficult to see because we may be very busy in the church and may be viewed highly by others. We may receive regular praise and thanks for all the hard work we are doing in our church or ministry, we may play a key role in an important ministry, and without us, a lot of good and important things we are doing for the Lord would not move forward. But it is still possible, even in those situations, to have left our first love and be worthy of a stern rebuke from the Lord, as the hard-working, doctrinally correct Ephesians received.
Here are a few questions to ask ourselves to get us thinking about whether or not we may have left our first love:
- Am I feeling tired of the ministry related things I am doing?
- Do I desire to be doing more non-ministry-related things in place of some of the ministry related things I am doing??
- Do I resent any of the ministry responsibilities that I have?
- Do I resent others for not doing more to help?
- Do I worry and fret about the details, even sometimes alienating others by my insistence on doing things a certain way?
- What are all the benefits to me personally of doing this ministry? How do these benefits taint or alter my motives for doing this ministry?
Tomorrow we will continue our list of questions and conclude our comments about rekindling a zealous love for the Lord.