1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:1-7)
People often think about what their legacy will be or what people will say about them at their funeral or after they are gone. As Christians, rather than being concerned about what people say about us, we should be concerned about what the Lord says about us. For the church in Ephesus, the words of the angel of the church start out quite good. V. 2 says, “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.” Those are words that I think most Christians would be happy to hear when we get to heaven. Most Christians would love to be commended for their deeds, their hard work and perseverance, their ability to endure hardship and not grow weary. If only the comments ended there.
But the angel’s comments continue in v. 4-6, and these comments are not nearly as flattering. “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” It is a scathing rebuke, especially in light of the compliments they received in the first 3 verses. The angel of the church of Ephesus was basically condemning them for doing the right things for the wrong reasons. The church in Ephesus worked hard, were full of good deeds, they persevered and had not grown weary in spite of everything. They were doing some very good things. But they were doing it for the wrong reasons. They had forsaken the love they had at first. They were no longer doing the right things because they loved the Lord and wanted to serve the Lord. We do not know why they were doing the right things. We do not know because we are not told. We know that they did the right things, but not because they loved Jesus like they once did. And without that love for Christ, their actions were empty. That’s why the angel tells them to consider how far they have fallen, to repent and to do the things that they did at first. They were told to take a look at themselves and see how far they had fallen away from where they once were. They were told to repent, to turn from their way of doing things for the wrong reasons. They were told to turn from the ways of doing things to please people, and to turn back to the things they did at first. They were told to do the things they did when they first fell in love with Jesus.
Many might think that would be a step in the wrong direction. After eating solid foods, children do not return to surviving off milk alone. So why would they want to go back to the things they did at first? Because the Lord does not care about what we do as much as He cares about our hearts and why we do them. It does not matter to God that we serve in 15 committees, and departments, leading 5 Bible studies a week, if we’re doing them to please other people and not Jesus. He would rather have His church return to the basics with a heart full of love and joy for our Lord and Saviour than have a church that builds massive buildings to impress the neighbourhood. The Lord would rather have us love Him and give our lives over to Him completely than build shelters for the needy to earn the praises of people. That’s not to say that Jesus does not want us to take care of the poor and powerless. He does. But Jesus wants us to do that out of our love for him, as we follow him, as we draw closer to him, not because we want to impress people.
What will the Lord say about you? Do you need to return to your first love? Do you need to repent and do the things you did at first, when you first fell in love with Jesus? Do you need to give up something because you have not been doing it for the Lord but for some other reason? The good news is the angel does not speak these words to condemn the church in Ephesus. The angel spoke these words to give the church a chance to repent and turn back to their first love. That’s why the angel says in v. 7 “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” If you are feeling a little tug at your heart, it is not our Lord condemning you. It is our Lord showing you grace and mercy and calling you back to Him. How will you respond?