A few years ago while raiding the discount bin at a local bookstore, I stumbled upon a copy of John Stott’s book What Christ thinks of the Church: An exposition of Revelation 1-3. This book turned out to be a gem. Not only is it a faithful and solid exposition of the early chapters of Revelation but it has also influenced my ecclesiology greatly. Plus, it is the main reason why Jen and I are touring the ancient sites of these seven churches while on vacation in February. So in preparation for this trip, I am going to be blogging my way through Stott’s book, sharing some of my thoughts on it as well as the corresponding passages in Revelation.
Let’s get started with Christ’s address to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-7….
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But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”
Revelation 2:4
Stott shows that the ‘forsaken love’ that Christ condemns in His letter to Ephesus is nothing less than our love for God. Stott makes reference to how ‘God likened Israel to His Bride and Himself as her husband’ (Jeremiah 2:2, Ezekiel 16:8, Hosea 2:14-20) as well as Paul’s representation of the Church being the bride of Christ in 2 Corinthians 11.
Just as God tried to woo the straying Israel to remember the ‘devotion of their youth‘ (Jer 2:2), Christ urges the Ephesian Church to “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” (Rev 2:5). The once passionate and devoted Ephesian church (Ephesians 6:24) has grown cold in their devotion and hence are subject to the divine rebuke. This leaves me to another pertinent question – what has caused the Ephesian church to forsake their first love?
Paul in his letter to the Corinthian church gave us insight to this question.
“I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
2 Corinthians 11:2-3
Even Jesus himself said
“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”
Matthew 24:12
Indeed that happened with the church in Ephesus. It is interesting to see the list that Jesus commends the Ephesians on – their works, their perseverance and their orthodoxy, didn’t mean much because their love and devotion for God was absent. He called them to repentance. In our churches today we have to be careful that we don’t fall into the same trap that the Ephesians had 2000 odd years ago. We can easily get caught up in debates about abortion, homosexuality and the doctrines and philosophies of the post-modern theologian. We can go on crusades to save the world, alleviate poverty or cure people of diseases. Don’t get me wrong – these are all important and are very much on God’s heart and are commendable but our first priority should be our love for God, our passion and devotion for God. Remember Love is the greatest of all things! (1 Corinth 13:13)
Where is our heart? Is the priority of our churches to love God? Do we sincerely and honestly devote our lives to loving God? We need to ask these questions and take a close look because Christ is walking amongst the lampstands and knows his church intimately.
(You can also check out my sermon on this passage here)
