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.
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Way back, when we first heard that knocking at the door, we, individually, answered – eventually. We were shocked, amazed, that God cared; that through Christ we were no longer alone. We were enthralled in our love for our new Lord.
ReplyDeleteTime passes.
We think we know our Lord. Our love becomes distracted in familiarity. Our love becomes distracted in all “our work for our Lord”. All our love for our companions in the church.
Then, once in a while, regrettably infrequently, we meet our Lord again, in the dark quiet stillness of the morning. We lay our souls open and bare to Him. We see the horrors in ourselves – the ones that He always sees. But He also sees the shreds of good that we cannot see in ourselves. Not the good delusions we have of ourselves, but the hidden good that only He sees.
Those shreds of good that He loves – for which he died horribly on the Cross.
The tears can’t be stopped when we’re with our First Love.