Love Letters: Dear Ephesus, the Lost Love

Dear, Ephesus…

Ephesus was a significant city in the 1^st Century. It was not only home to the Roman governor, it was home of the Temple of Diana/Artemis which was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. The city was a huge business centre, thriving tourist attraction, and was one of the only free cities in the region. This meant Roman soldiers weren’t stationed there to control it.  Has been said, “Ephesus was an economically wealthy, politically influential and religiously corrupt city.”

Jesus opens his letter the church meeting in this city with 3 commendations:

Commendations:

• 1. Alert
• 2. Biblical sound
• 3. Discerning

We get the picture that the Ephesian Christians were proactive in their faith; they got in and got the job done without moaning or complaining. The are praised for their perseverance and, considering the culture of persecution they lived in, one would expect courage as well. They didn’t give in to immorality. They held to biblical ground and didn’t tolerate evil. They refused to allow sin to take root in the body of Christ. In short, they served well and worked hard. They were living out the command to be different, set apart, Holy.

Condemnation

However, willing as they were to serve, they lost something along the way. In their openness to be representatives of Christ, they lost their love for Christ. Jesus said,

 ³ You are persevering, and you have suffered for my sake without growing weary. ⁴ But I have this against you: you have lost the love you had at first. _{^{Revelation 2:3-4 (Complete Jewish Bible)}}

Maybe it was a case of transitioning from doing things out of their love for Jesus, into doing things from a sense of service? Duty? Expectation? This is a critical warning to us. If our motivation is replaced by anything other than intimacy with Jesus, we’ve lost our way: we too have lost our first love. What we do is far less important than our motivation to do it.

Bride of Christ

One of the illustrations the bible gives us to help us understand the relationship between God and His people, is of a Bride and Groom. I think this image can help us better understand this situation. Especially those of us who have been married.

Can you remember those early days: The passion, the obsession, the desire to please, and be with your partner? We were inclined to pardon many things, be patient in most things, and love all things.

But then, as the days, months, years passed, whilst the love remained, the passion dimmed… died, especially if kids came along. Then the desire to please turned more into, “You take care of that, I’ll take care of this, and I’ll see you on the other side.”

This may be how our marriage functions, but it cannot be how our relationship with God works. When our love falls into a rut of duty, repetition, and to-do lists; were going through the motions of the relationship without the emotion.

Road to Recovery

God knows we’re fallible and He not only demonstrates what to do when we lose something important, he gives us clear examples. As we heard in our Communion this morning.

When we lose something, we go back to the place we last saw it. To make things right again, we must go back to the place where it was broken, or to where the wrong turn was made. It is only at the point of brokenness can healing be found. It is only at the place where the wrong turn was made, can they right path be found.

Three Step Recovery Program

⁵ Therefore, remember where you were before you fell, turn from this sin, and do what you used to do before. _{^{Revelation 2:5 (CJB)}}

1. Remember where you were before you fell. Remember the time you were overwhelmed by your awareness of God’s love, forgiveness and the offer of restored relationship with Him. Remember when you loved Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. When he was your obsession.

2. Turn from this sin. The place of failure is site of recovery. Identify what or who caused the flame to die. Who or what did we give our devotion to, “Other than God”? Once we identify where we went wrong, what we did, or didn’t do, we turn around. The Biblical term for this is repent. It literally means “to turn and go in a different direction”.

3. Do what you used to do before. Don’t stay in that place of brokenness and remorse. Go back to that place of your first love. Rediscover your adoration and heart of continual worship then continue along the right path.

Why?

Why should we bother going through this process. If I’m doing the work, persevering and being different: Holy? How bad can it be? If God is so forgiving and gracious, why not keep on keeping on, if the outcomes are still the same? The job is still being done, right?

Well, in His letter to the Church in Ephesus, Jesus said, “do this 3-step process [paraphrasing]…

Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your menorah from its place — if you don’t turn from your sin! ^{_{Revelation 2:5 (CJB)}}

So, What’s So Great About a Menorah?

Glad you asked.

We learn about the Menorah in the OT. It first appears in Exodus. We learn that the seven-branched golden Menorah, or lampstand, stood in the outer sanctum of the tabernacle (tent of meeting) opposite the table of the Presence. It was to be hammered from one block of gold and its function was to illumine the sacred precinct, which only Aaron and his sons were allowed to tend.

It has come to symbolise a few things, God’s people and the tree of life, among other things. But we read of its purpose in _{^{Exodus 25:37 (CJB),}}

³⁷ “Make seven lamps for the menorah and mount them so as to give light to the space in front of it. _{^{Exodus 25:37 (CJB),}}

Its purpose was to give light to the space in front of it in the holy of holies. The lampstand held God’s sacred light to illuminate the work of his ordained priests who served him in the Tabernacle—the tent of meeting. This priesthood however, extended into the NT and beyond. And God’s holy Light wasn’t contained just to a lampstand.

The Light of Christ

1 Peter 2:9 Peter wrote:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ^{_{1 Peter 2:9 (CJB)}}

John 8:12 Jesus said:

“I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light which gives life.” _{^{John 8:12 (CJB),}}

Psalm 119:105 David wrote:

Your word is a lamp for my foot and light on my path. ^{_{Psalm 119:105 (CJB)}}

The menorah, the lampstand, holds the light of God to illuminate the space in front of it.

A Light for the path

As God’s holy people, we need a light for the path ahead so we can see where we’re going. We don’t need a light behind us. We don’t need to illuminate the places we’ve left behind. When we come into relationship with God, our past is wiped. Behind us is the blood of Jesus. Our sins have been removed from us as far as the east is from the west. We don’t need to focus on the past, we need a light to see where to go next as we live in the light of Christ.

But sometimes we can be so focused on the job, we lose sight of the path. We can get so caught up with everything going on around us that we take our eyes off the light. Then we wander into the darkness and become lost and stumble in the wilderness thinking we are forging ahead for God: sure in our conviction we are doing His work, saving His people, being salt and light in the darkness, when in truth, we are lost.

Works Aren’t Enough

We heard today the Ephesian Christians were alert, biblical sound and discerning, yet they were serving out of duty, not love. They had lost their way and needed to follow the three-step recovery plan of Remembering, Returning and Rediscovering their first love, which carried them through the ups and downs of life.

Things were hard for them make no mistake: persecution was real, but when they swam in the glow of their love for God, it made the trials easier. The hardships less daunting. The persecution less dire.

Left in the Dark

If we were to consider Who the light is, and just how significant He is to us and our lives: as individuals, and as the church—the Bride of Christ—we will realise we are helpless, hopeless and doomed without Him. And yet, whilst our Lord is gracious and merciful and he is patient and wise, he is not a doormat and without boundaries.

He said, do these things: remember, turn from your sin and do what you were doing before,

 ⁵ … Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your menorah from its place — if you don’t turn from your sin! _{^{Revelation 2:5 (CJB)}}

Tree of Life?

As I mentioned earlier, in NT times the menorah came to represent the tree of life. And if we consider the following verses, that symbolism seems apt.

⁷ Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the Messianic communities. To him winning the victory I will give the right to eat from the Tree of Life which is in God’s Gan-‘Eden.”’ _{Revelation 2:7 (CJB)}

Remember, Return and Rediscover and I will give you the right to eat from the Tree of Life in my new Eden. Or don’t, and I will cast you into darkness.

Remember folks, the Ephesians were praised for being alert, biblical sound and discerning. But it wasn’t enough. Not only wasn’t it enough, it didn’t even count If they’d lost their first love.

So What?

We started this study looking at the questions, “As a Church, and as individual children of God, what are our goals and how do we live, in these rapidly changing times?”

The first thing we can do is guard ourselves against the same fate as the Ephesians, earning the same complaint from our Lord. Perhaps it’s worth putting all things on hold and allowing Him to convict us of our heart attitude, before we take one more step. Better to stop on the path and check we are in the light, rather than continue along believing we are right, travelling further away from our Lord and His light.

Examining our hearts under the influence of the Holy Spirit is a sure-fire way of discerning our position. If our…

• Identity or role in the church has become more important to us than personal connection with Jesus
• Theology has higher priority than our quality time with our Lord
• Routine has become our security rather than our relationship with our beloved
• Service has become a chore,

Remember, Return, Rediscover

One of the best ways to remember, recall, rediscover our first love, is to acknowledge he first loved us with such passion, power and singlemindedness, that whilst we were:

• Consumed by choosing “Other than God” i.e. sinning, the Father offered up His only son as the perfect and only acceptable payment for our debt
• At war with him, our Lord Jesus Christ left glory to participate in our human experience and offered himself as a sacrifice to enable us true freedom.
• Cursing and abusing and hanging the Messiah to the cross, the Holy Spirit, Power of the Universe, Breath of life, was ready to give us his presence, gifting, and partnership in God’s perfect plan.

All of this was offered and accomplished, for us, whilst we were His enemies. If that doesn’t help us remember, return and rediscover our first love, fanning into flames the passion we first felt, then perhaps our light has already gone.

Joyful not Necessarily Easy

Loving Jesus makes life’s journey easy in one sense, because the light of his love illuminates our path and we know where we’re going. When we live out of the love for Jesus, many of life’s decisions are obvious. And yet, because we bare the name of Jesus, we are at war with the world. We are guaranteed to face difficulties, pain, trials and heartache as we follow in His footsteps. As it was for Him, so too for us.

But because we know whom we travel with, who travels within us, and who is waiting for us at the end of the journey, we are also guaranteed an exciting and joyful adventure.

As a church—The Bride of Christ—and individuals in these rapidly changing times, our goal is to cling to our first love. As we follow in his footsteps, guided by His light, glorifying His name we constantly check in.

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