The tragedy of losing one's first love

 
Revelation 2:1-7
 
Today we begin the seven letters that John wrote to the seven Christian churches in Asia. As we read this material let’s watch for insights into living that come from what he says to each church. What is the strength of each and what is it that we should avoid?
         The first letter goes to the church in Ephesus, the most important city in the province. Situated at the mouth of the Cayster river on the Aegean Sea, it served as a center for international commerce. It was a very hard-working church that had retained its doctrinal purity where others had failed. Sounds great except for one thing – they had “abandoned the love they had at first” (v. 4). Sound in doctrine but tepid in personal awareness of the constant presence of the One they claimed to worship!
         A former pastor of the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in the Bay Area wrote a brief pamphlet about allowing God unrestricted access to every room in the house of your faith. How inconsistent it is to invite Christ into your life as a permanent guest but lock the door to the room where you keep your money (or where you watch TV). That seems to represent the situation in Ephesus. They had been patient in their responsibility to maintain doctrinal correctness but had posted a No Trespassing sign on a certain door of their house. Whenever a wannabe apostle came with a somewhat twisted message the church tested them. That group of believers in Ephesus knew their doctrine! Yet, unfortunately they had “abandoned their first love.” Matters of the mind had diminished matters of the heart.
         The answer is balance in one’s spiritual life. Attention to correct doctrine has been crucial to the Christian religion, but at some point pathological attention to one aspect of the faith may well diminish or even do away with another of equal or greater importance. One does not have to choose between the two. Mind and heart were meant to work together for the good of the entire body. Love lies at the very center of the Christian faith. It was Jesus himself who said that the first and greatest commandment was to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Matt. 22.37). Then he demonstrated that truth by allowing the Romans, at the demand of the Jewish hierarchy, to crucify him. How great is the love of God! And an authentic bearing of his name is to share his goal and bear the “penalty” of his rejection, the PC opposition of the losing side.