The address to Ephesus comes first, and most suitably so as we shall see. This Church had many privileges — the Apostle Paul had labored there for two years, as he tells us in his address to the elders, whom he called together at Miletus. The Epistle to the Ephesians was written from his prison at Rome about the year A.D. 64. From that time we have no direct reference to Ephesus in the New Testament till this address in Revelation 2, written about the year 96, that is, for a space of about thirty years. The lapse of time was therefore sufficient to put the Church to the test — that very Church, too, to whom the apostle had been the instrument used of God to bring out the very fullest and highest revelations as to the counsels of God for the glory of Christ, and the peculiar and special privileges which belong to the Church as united to a risen and glorified Christ.
Had we visited Ephesus, we should probably have thought that all was going on well. Outwardly it was so — they had works, labor, and patience; they could not bear evil men; they had tried false apostles — pretended successors of the true ones — and had found them liars. Not only this, but they had borne and endured in trials: they had much zeal and energy, for they labored and had not fainted. Ah! but He whose eye could see through all and could detect the inward springs of the heart as well as the outward condition, says to them, “I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love.” Be it in the case of the individual or the Church, decline takes place inwardly first, before it is seen or manifested outwardly.
It is unfortunate that the translators of the Authorized Version put in the word “somewhat” here, even in italic print, for it makes it appear as though what He had against them was but a small thing. This was not so; it was fatal if there were not repentance. And what unfoldings of the love of Christ had been brought out to this very Church at Ephesus! “Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:2525Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (Ephesians 5:25)); and just because His love is perfect, a love unchanged and unchilled by the Church’s failure, just for this very reason He feels the decline of love in those who are the objects of His solicitude. It is so even in human relationships; for if we love any one deeply, and we find that their love to us has grown cold, we feel it all the more; just because we truly love them. He does not say, You have ceased to love me altogether, but, You have left your “first love.” Other objects had come in, and Christ had not the place He once had in the heart. Service to Christ is most blessed and important in its place; but if Christ comes to the Church or the individual, and does not find a ready response in the heart to His love, of what use is outward service? If it does not spring from love and devotedness to Him, it is of little value in His sight.
The first point of decline, whether in the Church or the individual, is loss of first love — if Christ be the undivided object and the heart be right, then other things come right in their place. “Remember,” He says, “from whence thou art fallen.” We often speak of people as having fallen when they have got into open sin, but here the Lord looks on the inward decline as a fall. Then He calls for repentance, and a doing the “first works” — these were works the outcome of “first love.” Not works done as a matter of mere duty or service in a formal way, but works, the spring and source of which, in the heart of the believer, is faith, hope, and love. Knowledge of truth in the mind, soundness in doctrine, a right ecclesiastical position, all-important as these things are in their place, are no guarantee for the maintenance of first love. It is only as we go on in communion with the Father and the Son, as we feed on Christ as presented in the Word, as we dwell on His love in all its depth, its fullness, its devotedness even to death, that this freshness of first love can be kept up in the Christian.
However testing to the heart these addresses are, they are encouraging also. Christ “holds the seven stars in His right hand”: true, He is there to take notice of all that passes in the Church, and we should never forget this, but He has all power and resources at His command. “To him that overcometh,” He says, “will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” The promise to the overcomer always has a direct connection with the state of each Church. Adam was driven out of an earthly paradise, and the way was carefully guarded lest he should eat of the tree of life and live forever: but here it is as much as to say, “If you have not grown cold in your love to Me down here, you shall enjoy it in its unending fullness up there; I will give you the tree of life, and you shall have My presence and My company without an end.”
(To be continued.)