but I have against thee, that thou hast left thy first love.
Ephesus was a hard-working church that endured and refused false teachers. Yet the Lord, who had just praised all of that, says He holds one thing against them — and it is about their love, not their work.
Some older versions soften the charge by adding the word "somewhat." Those versions also read "first love" where the ESV has "the love you had at first," and the writers below use the older phrase. The charge is single, and it is severe.
This uncovers the root of Church and individual failure: the heart has departed from Christ. The fine gold had become dim. The flower was fading… Love is the very heart of Christianity, its crown, and its distinguishing glory. When love is missing, the moral power of Church and individual life is gone. Things may look fine and promising on the outside. Only an all-seeing eye sees the lack within: coldness of heart to Christ… The loss of that first, pure love is a serious matter. We must not treat it as a mere "somewhat," as the Authorised Version does.
Commentators describe it as a heart taken up with Christ, gripped by what He has done in redemption.
Ephesus had gone on well in staying consistent. But that forgetting of self, and thinking only of Christ, which are the first fruits of grace, were gone. As we find everywhere in the Scriptures, nothing can make up for a lack of heart for Christ… First love is that absorption of the heart with Christ. An overwhelming sense of His grace and love in redemption always produces it.
Everything the Lord praised in the verses just before was real. But it was not what He was measuring.
What is the test, then, of "first love"? Not "work" — activity in outward service; they had that at Ephesus. Not even "labour," for they had that too. No, nor "endurance," though that is a clearer sign of divine power in the soul than either. Not zeal against evil, nor courage to examine and refuse the highest claims. Not even suffering for Christ's name, and suffering without tiring. All this is good and acceptable to God, and the Ephesians had it all. Yet the Lord says, "I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first."
Love and works are not rivals. Where love is real, works follow.
It is not that works will be lacking where there is love. The Lord Himself, in this message, links "first love" with "first works." There were indeed works at Ephesus that the Lord could approve. But they were not the first works that come out of first love.
The reproach itself shows how much He cares.
What must Christ be jealous about but His love to the church, which was stronger than death? It is impossible for Him to forget His love to the church. So it is just as impossible for Him to rest content without her love returning to Him. Remember, only love can satisfy love… There may still be much outward fruit in "works, and labour, and patience." But whatever the toil and labour may be, the spring of it all is gone.
The wording matters. Where the ESV says "abandoned," the older text this writer quotes says "left." Either way, they walked away from something; they did not mislay it.
It is not, "lost your first love." I do not think that is a scriptural thought. It is, "left your first love." Something has come in, says that blessed lover in Revelation 2, that has eclipsed Me. All your affection for Me and interest in Me has gone. You can get on without Me now, but there was a time when you could not.
The heart cools in private before anything goes wrong in public.
Any sin a Christian falls into is only the outward act. There were failures in secret before the outward wrong ever showed itself… Notice how significant this is: at the very start of the church's history, love to Christ was already declining. That is the root and starting-point of all failure and sin.
The remedy is a return to the starting point.
The only remedy is to go back to first things. "You have abandoned the love you had at first… Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first." There must be a return to the beginning, and in the beginning Christ was everything. His will came first. He alone was "honoured, loved, adored."
- First — First love means self forgotten and Christ everything. A fresh sense of His grace in redemption produces it.
- Left — Not lost by accident. Something crowded Him out, and He noticed while everyone else saw a model church.
- No substitute — Work, labour, endurance and courage against error were all there, and all praised. None of them can stand in love's place.
- Because loved — He complains because His own love is too strong to accept a smaller return. Only love satisfies love.
- Root — This first cooling is where the whole decline begins. So the cure is to go back to the beginning, where Christ was everything.
Remember therefore whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works but if not, I am coming to thee, and I will remove thy lamp out of its place, except thou shalt repent.
The risen Christ walks among His churches. Here He speaks to one that was busy, discerning and patient — yet had let its love for Him cool. Verse 5 is His remedy: three commands, and a warning if they go unheeded.
The first word sends the church backwards, not forwards. Commentators read this as a rule that holds everywhere. You cannot see how far you have slipped until you compare where you stand with where you began.
The first clause holds a principle of the first importance, one the Word affirms again and again. To discover the character of our failure, or how far we have backslidden or departed from the truth, we must always go back to the beginning. For example, we can only see the true state of the church today by comparing it — or rather contrasting it — with what it was when it was first founded at Pentecost.
They were to recall a height of love, not a record of achievement. Even the city's name carries that idea.
The Lord never forgets His joy in the first love of His people. He never forgets Judah's first love. He remembers the Church's first love just as much, and He desires it — which is, in fact, what "Ephesus" really means. Remember the moral elevation you once occupied. To what depths you have fallen!
Memory alone only produces nostalgia. The second command is harder. It means seeing yourself as Christ sees you.
In the eyes of others the assembly at Ephesus might well look like a model assembly. In the sight of Christ it was fallen. The assembly must not only remember; it must repent. It is useless to grieve over the loss of early freshness if there is no repentance. What is repentance but owning our true condition before the Lord?
Verse 2 has already credited this church with works. So the call to do the first works cannot mean simply more activity. The difference lies in what drives them.
Recover "first love" and the "first works" will follow as a matter of course. To human eyes these may look just the same as the works mentioned in verse 2, but to His eyes they are very different. He judges everything by the motive behind it. The mainspring matters so much to Him that if first love is damaged for good, the ability to shine departs and the lampstand is removed.
"I will come to you" is not the promise of Christ returning for His people. It is a coming that deals with the church where it stands, like His warning to Pergamum.
With Ephesus, the only coming described is a providential coming: "or else I will come to you quickly, and will remove your lampstand out of its place." It is the same with Pergamum, where He fights with the sword of His mouth. But this is not His coming to receive the saints, nor to bring in His kingdom.
Older translations add the word "quickly" to this verse, and the ESV leaves it out. The difference matters, because the sentence on Ephesus was not carried out in a hurry.
"Or else I will come to you." He does not say "quickly" here, though our text has it, as it does at the later stage of evil in verse 16. "And remove your lampstand out of its place." He is slow to carry out judgment. This is the warning of the final removal of the assembly from its place of lampstand responsibility. That sentence is only put into force in Laodicea.
The lampstand is the church's place as a light-bearer. Losing it can look like a small penalty for a heart grown cold.
This may seem harsh treatment for such an offence, but the Lord looks to the final consequences. A church that was once taken up with work may grow cold in its affections. For a while it may escape scandalous evil and corruption, but it has lost its security. If it does not repent, its fall is sure, though it may be delayed. Its lampstand will be removed. It will stop bearing the light entrusted to it. God will openly disown it as unfit for His use.
Losing the lampstand raises an obvious fear: is salvation itself at risk?
Removing the lamp as a light-bearer does not in any way weaken the eternal security of all who build on Christ — the Rock of Ages.
The severity is not coldness. A church exists to show the world what Christ's love is like.
He cannot let anything remain in the world that fails to show the great love with which He loved the church. If He did, He would not be "the faithful and true witness." This tender, faithful reproach is the blessed proof that His love never grows cold, however much ours may fail.
- Remember — measure today against the beginning; that is the only way to see the fall.
- Repent — not regret over lost freshness, but owning your true condition before the Lord.
- Redo — the first works look the same as busy works. The motive behind them is what differs.
- Removal — this coming is a visit in judgment, not the coming for His people. What it takes away is the lampstand, the place of light-bearing.
- Rooted in love — the reproach itself proves His love never cooled, however much ours has.