This week we start Revelation 2. Which I suspect has something to say to any of us who are following Christ….
Rev 2 and 3 present some very ordinary local churches, clearly and honestly. Jesus, we see, knows – and values – what they do. Indeed, in chapter 1’s vision the first thing John saw – or that Christ drew his attention to – was the local churches, that – strikingly – Christ genuinely `walks among` (1:12, 2:1). So prone to fail, as we’ll see in these chapters; yet how radiant (`lampstands`), how eternally significant to God! How about to us? Had John been caring for these churches, and become wearied by their concurrent problems, and needed to have his vision renewed? We so much need to see the local churches in our own vicinity through this vision.
Some of these churches score highly on their grasp of truth, and discernment of false teaching, but – crucially – they have lost their first love (2:2,4). Others score highly on love, but are disastrously weak on the truth (2:19-20). (And Laodicea tries to be moderate, `lukewarm`, on everything, and makes Christ nauseous…) Ephesians 4 talks about the essential pairing of `speaking the truth in love`; they’re a combination, and they both matter. It’s well worth thinking in which of these two we ourselves are strongest, given our particular personality type, and which we perhaps need to grow in. Because truth without much love leads to cold, doctrinaire harshness; and love without much truth leads to doctrinal liberalism, sentimentalism, and loss of spiritual power; both are disastrous.
So if we reflect on each letter here, we learn how the Lord feels about the condition of each of these ordinary fellowships, and what the result of their particular approach is liable to be. The Ephesian church, Rev 2:1-7, is especially fascinating, because it receives five messages in the new testament: Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy (Timothy was based in Ephesus), this letter, and Paul’s address in Acts 20. And here, as elsewhere in the new testament (most obviously 2 Timothy, 2 Peter and 1 John), we sense that ‘second-generationitis’ has set in; the sclerosis that can happen once the days of pioneering enthusiasm (and pioneering blunders) are over. (Phrasing it that way raises the practical question whether our pioneering days should ever be over. It’s in most respects better to be in a pioneering ‘Joshua situation’ than a settled ‘Judges situation’; the ‘second generation’ is a hard place to thrive, if sometimes unavoidable. Perhaps the solution is always to seek a way back as close to the pioneering frontier as possible?) It seems Ephesus had finally learned the lessons about wrong doctrine that Paul had impressed so very tearfully on their elders (Acts 20:28-31), and on Timothy (2 Timothy 1:13-14; 4:1-5); we don’t know what battles had been fought in the church, and what debates and struggles they’d passed through, but finally they had ‘tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and found them false.’ (Rev 2:2; this may well be the same events as 1 John 2:19 and 4:4-5.)
And clearly that was good; a heritage to be proud of! There’s no sense at all of an either/or, that they must stop, or move beyond, their `contending for the [authentic] faith` (cf Jude 3) On the contrary, this comes at the end of Christ’s letter as their saving grace – `You have this in your favour` – as he commends them for hating the false teachings `which I also hate`. (v6 – a really striking thing for Jesus to say: there is something going on, within the church at Pergamum also (2:15), which Christ actually hates.) He says unequivocally, too, that He has seen the Ephesians’ ‘deeds, your hard work and your perseverance . . . You have persevered, and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary’ (vv2,3). But now . . . but now, with all that, their witness was on the edge of being terminated (v5)…
It is painful to read. For some of us it comes very close to home. We feel we have worked hard, laboured, persevered. And the Lord doesn’t see what we do as valueless (as false humility might suggest to us; NB Rom 12:3). Over and over again in these chapters He will say, ‘I know your deeds’, both good and bad (2:2,19; 3:1,8,15). To quote an old brother in my own church, Stanley Munday, `Christ knows what we do, how difficult it is sometimes, and what we have put up with!` But – somewhere along the line, Ephesus had lost the passion (v4). We recognise it all too clearly: among all our labours in God’s service, a tiredness can come that leaves no strength to pray, to love, to worship. And then our service grows weary, mechanical; the light is going out.
So the Lord issues a trumpet-call to face up to the issue (‘Remember` – like the prodigal son – `… repent!’, v5): face it, no excuses! He calls us to recognise the seriousness of the problem, and seek seriously for the Spirit to rekindle that ‘first love’ for Jesus; besides the service, the labour, the commitment to truth, there needs to be love-worship. It’s true – and important – that our personalities will mean we tend to express love for God in genuinely different ways; and while we all should seek to grow in each of them, we shouldn’t judge someone whose primary language of love to God is different from ours. (Gary Chapman’s The Love Languages of God is good on this; online summaries include http://dtjsoft.com/home2/the-five-love-languages-in-our-relationship-with-christ/ .) Indeed, this love we’re called back to isn’t just emotional self-indulgence; this love is expressed in action (cf 1 John 2:5, 5:3); without actions it’s dead, just like faith without works is dead. So what Jesus tells them is, `Repent, and do the things you did at first`(v4). `Do`; choose to set out on the deliberate journey of expressing again more of our love for God: in real time spent with Him (time is what we give to anyone else we love); drinking in His Word; responding in worship, prayer, and obedient changes of lifestyle. (Some of the early Ephesian converts had made a bonfire of things displeasing to God to the value of 150 years’ salary (Acts 19:19): that was their `works as at first`.) Choose too to set out on the deliberate journey of expressing again our love for our neighbour, in sacrificial evangelism and in caring. Surely this letter from Jesus demands that we pause, right now, and reflect; and perhaps make some decisions…
Vital stuff. But isn’t there a paradox here? Christ’s calling is, `Repent and do the things you did at first`; yet He’s making clear that their deeds and hard work (v2) aren’t enough at all if that vital `first love` has been lost (vv4-5). Isn’t the point that these actions are essential, and yet they are useless (cf 1 Cor 13:2-3?) unless there is also in me, in us, a deep love, a rekindled passion, for Christ? And that word `passion` may sound juvenile (`I’m 40, don’t ask me to act like I was 18`), but isn’t it (for example) what we see Jesus praising as Mary deliberately pours out, wastes, all her alabaster ointment in love for Him in Mark 14? `Love the Lord with all your heart and soul and mind and strength`: that is His first and absolutely essential commandment for our lives. Without that love, theology and doctrine will be dead, and even holiness, evangelism, and prayer will each tend into legalism. `Do the things you did at first`: a passion for God that doesn’t include feeding on His Word, and talking with Him in prayer, and sharing the good news of all that He died for, is fake, is not passion for Christ at all; but I can do all these things and yet my `lampstand`can disastrously be going out, because that deep, passionate love for Christ is not there. This is what we must pray for, and the rest will sort out if we want it to; we need to offer Him a heart that He can refill with passion!
So let’s say to the Lord, Lord I want that passion back, that first love, that passion fuelling the things I did at first! And if we want it, we will get it, because God longs to pour His love into our heart! `You will find Me`, God promises, `when you seek Me with all your heart` (Jer 29:13). Do you want that? Do I? If so, let’s find someone to pray with, and seek God’s face. Maybe you and your church are not doing badly at all; Ephesus probably felt (and with some reason) that they weren’t doing badly either; but God was looking, and rightly, for so, so much more. And He feels just the same way about us…
PS Just when (thankyou Lord!) I was studying this and wondering how to find my own way forward, our lead pastor preached a hugely relevant sermon on the importance of maintaining real personal worship time to Jesus each week (I realised I’d slipped lately into it being mostly study): being extravagant in worship; humility (sometimes expressed physically perhaps – kneeling?); singing joyfully to our Christ who is surely listening!; maybe writing your own psalm…
PPS Let’s note too that this issue isn’t just for us as individuals, though that’s the place to begin (otherwise we may well start judging others). Collectively, too, ‘lampstands’ do most certainly get ‘removed’ (v5). There are all kinds of movements that once burned with the fire of love for Christ, but have no spiritual impact now – though tragically the purely human structure often carries on regardless. (Compare Matthew 5:13: ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.’) `Only in the first and last of the seven letters is a church threatened with actual destruction`, says Wilcock, `and in each case the reason is the unnerving, purely negative one, that it lacks fervent devotion… On that your very survival as a church depends`! Mere beliefs held without that ‘first love’ can soon actually extinguish the light; such churches can bring shame rather than glory to the gospel. Let’s keep in mind, too, that the ‘removal of the lampstand’ can happen to people who once worked so very hard for God’s honour (vv2-3) . . .
Father, please help me, and then please help us in our own church, to grasp and work on these vital things; please, Lord, restore and refuel my passion!
