Layover: Ephesus

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus…I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men…and [you] 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” (Revelation 2:1-4).

“Ladies and gentlemen…thank you for riding on B. L. Airways. Please be aware that you will feel turbulence from time to time. Be assured that the pilot has everything under control…just trust him. Our destination is Philadelphia, but we will have six layovers along the way.

“We are now flying over the Southwest coast of Asia. The body of water directly underneath us is the Aegean Sea, and the city you can see out of your right-hand windows is Ephesus. It was once a very important commercial center, excelling in government, banking, and religion. It was best known for the Artemision, which was the temple to Artemis and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

“We hope you enjoy your short stay in Ephesus.”

At the beginning of the book of Revelation, John records the words of Jesus which He wanted John to write down. These messages were to be delivered to seven churches that were in existence at that time. Often we study these churches and apply their experiences to our own churches today. Many scholars even apply prophetic significance, saying that each church represents a different Era of time in the Church Age. Ephesus is said to represent the apostolic period of the church, A. D. 30 – 100.

The goal of this group of studies is for us to notice what the churches did right and to try to apply this to our own personal spiritual lives. However, they also carry with them a dire warning because of the ways they each had fallen (with the exception of Philadelphia). Luckily, Jesus also gave instructions on how to rectify their situation. Whether those people originally did or not, it would behoove us to take to heart the advice of Jesus.

The two positive qualities given to the Ephesians were that they persevered and were intolerant of evil.

God knows that we will stumble in our faith on occasion—we will have our mountain top experiences, followed by deep valley dwellings. What the Lord requires of us is perseverance. If we fall, we are to repent and move on. Our goal is to say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight,” as we one day cross the finish line into eternity. We must persevere.

Along the way, we will encounter people who work to undo the good work we are doing for the Lord. Granted, many passages can be found that instruct us to meet sinners where they are and to be involved in their lives, just as Jesus so often did. There is a time, however, when association with someone can bring us down and eventually cause us to stray from the Lord. We must be vigilant in our relationship with the Lord and not let anyone put a strain on that relationship.

Where the Ephesians were lacking is found in Revelation 2:4, “…you have left your first love.” Even though they were good at looking the part, their hearts were in the wrong place. It may very well be that their motives were askew even though the works they did were great.

We can fall into this same trap. We can be involved in ministry after ministry in our local church. Everyone can look at us as the model Christian, while our hearts are far from the Lord. It could be that the works we do are simply habit, or our motives may be wrong. Whatever the reason, we can actually do mighty works for the Lord while we have left our first love.

So what do we do?

The instructions Jesus gives in verse five of our chapter are the following: “Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first.”

Maybe this message on this website is the alarm you need to wake up to the fact that you have lost your first love. If this is the case, then all you need to do is remember that there was a time when your love for the Lord was intimate. This is step one according to Jesus.

Next, He tells us to repent. We are to realize our wrong motives or whatever else causes our love to wane, and apologize to God. This repentance, though, is one where we make a conscience decision to fix our broken situation.

Finally, Jesus said to do the deeds we did at first. What deeds could these be? Well, it has to relate to the love that He said was lost. I believe we can regain this lost love by focusing on one of the foundational components of love: communication. We are to build everything else we say, think and do on strong prayer and Bible reading.

It makes sense if you think about our earthly relationships. When love breaks down in a marriage, the number one way to begin rebuilding that marriage always revolves around communicating with each other. Sometimes we plan getaways, or more weekend dates with our spouse. Whatever we do to get back on track, it always centers on communication.

God is the same in that He communicates with us. He actually wants to communicate with us personally, one on one. It was the primary reason for which we were created. So, to start rebuilding our love relationship with the Lord we should strengthen our prayer life and our Bible reading habits.

When we do this, we will hear the words of Christ: “To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat the tree of life which is the word of God” (vs. 7).

“We hope you enjoyed the first leg of our flight. Our next stop, where we’ll arrive in one month, will be Smyrna.”