Have you lost your first Love?

Through the history of the church we have slowly gotten away from our first love.

In Revelation 2:1-7, Jesus addresses seven churches. The first one is the church at Ephesus, He says, “I know your good deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you do not tolerate wicked men, 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.” There are many churches this can be said about. And for the most part that is what we hope to become. And when we become this church, we pat ourselves on the back and say, “A job well done.”

“Yet” is what Jesus says next. It is in the “yet” that we see there is something wrong. It is in the “yet” we begin to see the problem, we have lost our identity. Jesus says, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which 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.”

The church is in danger of having its lamp stand removed. Why? Because it has gotten away from what it did at first. It has gotten away from its first love. It has gotten away from following Jesus—the man. He came to teach his bride how to live on earth and we have forgotten what that is because we have forgotten our first love. Our first love is not the church, it is Jesus. We have to stop selfishly loving ourselves and love Jesus.

The problem with making the church more like Jesus is that it is dangerous. The most religious fight against the ways of Jesus because it interferes with how they perceive their role in the kingdom. The church is not about following man, it is all about following a man—Jesus.