He says to the Ephesian Church, “Have you left your first love? Yes, you have.” “Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen.” “I have loved you, and given myself for you,” was just the measure of the love to Him in which they should have walked as “the Church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood” —put under the guardianship of the blood as to all holy conversation, as seen in the priests. The blood was put on the hand, the foot, and the ear, both of the leper to be cleansed and of the priest at his consecration, so that nothing dishonoring such a guardianship was to be allowed. Then comes the question, Have we acted according to the blood that has been put upon us? Has nothing passed it in mind, act, or walk but what has been according to God? The Lord always exercises judgment in a Church, though He has long patience with it. God never lowers the standard of the claims of His first blessing, though He may be patient when His people fail.
What must Christ necessarily be jealous about but His love to the Church, and therefore just as impossible that He can be satisfied without the return of her love to Him; for, remember, that it is only love that can satisfy love. The very reproach He makes brings out the strength of His love to the Church, which cannot rest until it gets the same from her; for He cannot cool down to be satisfied with a feeble return of His love, however much the Church may have cooled down in her thoughts about Christ’s love to her. There may be still much outwards fruit in “works, and labor, and patience;” but let the toil and labor be what it may, the spring of it all is gone—You have left your first love; there is the grand mischief. It is no matter how much you toil and labor, if love to Christ be not the motive of your service, it will only be, as the apostle says, “like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal,” which dies with the sound thereof.
In Ephesus, then, we get the first great principle of failure, and therefore the grand general judgment which came upon the whole Church. “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works [see how He brings them back to the point of their departure], or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” He cannot allow that to remain in the world which fails to show forth the great love wherewith He loved the Church; for if He did, He would not be “the faithful and true witness.” This principle of tender, faithful reproach is the blessed proof that His love never grows cold, however much ours may fail.
In this respect the Lord’s way of dealing with individual souls is exactly the same as with the Church. He takes notice of all departure from Him, but the door is always open for “repentance;” and when the sin is judged and seen in the light in which God sees it, then there is nothing to hinder immediate restoration. The moment the conscience bows under the sin, and confesses it, then it gets into an upright position; an uprightness of soul, where evil has been is shown in the consciousness of evil and the power to confess it; and therefore the Church of God, or an individual soul, must get into this state of uprightness before God in order for Him to restore it. (Job 33:23-2623If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness: 24Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. 25His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth: 26He shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness. (Job 33:23‑26).) Get sin judged in the conscience, and then there is the revelation of the unfailing love of God to meet the need. It is thus in the daily details of Christian life. Judgments may pass upon His people, but His chastening love is seen in it all.
And thus is learned the reason why the Lord reproaches the Church for leaving her first love. There is in it the revelation of His perfect and unchanged love shining through the condemnation of their state. And do we not see this dawn in the natural relationships of life? Take husband and wife. A wife may take care of the house, and fulfill all her duties so as to leave nothing for which her husband could find fault; but if her love for him has diminished, will all her service satisfy him, if his love to her be the same as at the first? No. Well, then, if it will not do for him, it will not do for Christ: He must have the reflection of His love. He says, “I am not blind to your good qualities, but I want yourself.” Love, which was once the spring of every action, is gone; and therefore the service is valueless. If love is wanting, the rest is as nothing. It is true that our love cannot answer worthily, but still it may answer truly; for at least Christ looks for undivideness of object, though there be not adequateness of affection. There must be dividedness of heart if there is instability of affection. This was the secret of all failure at Ephesus. Undivideness of heart as regarded the object of affection had been lost, singleness of eye was gone, and the perfect reflection of that love which had laid hold of the Church for Himself was gone.
Still, while Christ says, “I have somewhat against thee,” He marks everything that is good. “Thou hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.” Well, then, it might be said, What can the Lord want more? He says, “I want herself.” Remember this as regards the Church. Then He says, “Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and do the first works.” To me this is a very solemn but touching word to us, for we have gone much farther from our first love than they; still the heart of him that is faithful finds a certain refuge in Christ, for his soul finds in the very reproach an infallible proof of His unchanged love.
What does He take notice of as excellent here? “Works, and labor, and patience.” Nothing positive is named that marks the decline, but the works that were done were not linked with the first love. And here let us observe, that the Church has a positive service very distinct from what the Jews ever had. God was not looking for the Jews to go out in love, but the Church, having received grace, is to go forth in grace to call poor sinners in. The Jew had the law as a wall to keep righteousness in, but no open door for love to flow out.
Take the Thessalonians, who, in this, are in direct contrast to these Ephesian saints, and who were in the freshness of their “first love.” What is noticed of them? “Their work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ”—just the very same things that are commended in Ephesus. What was the difference then? Not that they had no works, but that the true spring of them was gone; while in the Thessalonians the spring of it all was in full play. The three great principles of Christianity, faith, hope, and charity were all at Thessalonica (that is, the full link of the heart with the source of power). The faith which characterized their “work” kept them walking in communion with God. The love which characterized their “labor” linked them with the source of power. And in the “hope” which characterized their patience we get the coming of the Lord as the object for their souls for their patient waiting in service. Thus, in the Thessalonians you get spiritual power, Christ Himself as the object, and love characterizing it all. Suppose I go laboring, and the spirit of love is in my work; what a difference there will be when the whole service is stamped with the character of this love! If it is only in preaching the gospel, how fully shall I set forth God’s love to a lost world if the love of Christ is freshly springing up in my own soul! But, alas! how often have we to reproach ourselves with going on in a round of Christian duty, faithful in general intention, but not flowing from the fresh realization of the love of Christ to our souls.
J.N.D.