2:1 To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
Tradition tells us that the apostle John became the leader of the church in Ephesus and, while ministering there, was captured, tortured and exiled to Patmos from which he has written this letter. John eventually is released from his exile, and he returns to Ephesus where he eventually dies and is buried. While on the Isle of Patmos, John receives a vision in which his home church is addressed. In fact it is the first church of seven to be addressed directly by Christ. It could have been addressed first because it was the one John was most familiar with. But it is more likely that it was geographically closest to the island of Patmos from which John was writing and would have, therefore, been the first stop of the one who was carrying this letter to the seven churches who were to receive it.
Why only seven churches? Weren’t there more than seven churches in the Roman Empire at this time? There were indeed. Seven, however, is the number for “completeness” or “perfection” and, whenever we encounter the number seven in Revelation, we need to ask ourselves, “Why seven?” It is likely because those seven churches represented the “complete” number of churches in Christendom. In other words, this letter is being sent to every church, not just those seven, and not just those in existence at the time of the letter’s writing. Instead, it is being sent to the complete number of churches that will exist throughout time up until Christ’s return. And, so, while we will be interested to know the historical settings and situations of each church addressed here in antiquity, we need to understand that this letter is written to your church too. Jesus is, of course, in the position to judge every church at every time because he stands in the midst of the lampstands and we need to read His words as a critique of our own situations and recognize that He is examining us too.
What Jesus sees in Ephesus is that they were strong on biblical doctrine but weak in their love for one another. So strong is His criticism on this front that He says that, unless they repent, their lampstand could be removed- in other words, the light would dim, the Holy Spirit would depart, and they would cease to be a church at all. Most reading this may wonder why I say that they were weak in their love for one another. Many of us are used to hearing verse 4 quoted the way it is translated in the King James Version: “you have abandoned your first love.” If that is how we should understand Jesus’ complaint, then it would be natural for us to conclude that He is talking about their love for Him as He should be preeminent in their hearts. The translation of the ESV, however, is better: “you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Now, this could still be referring to their love for Jesus, but here are a few reasons I think it makes more sense to understand it to be referring to the love that existed within the church between brothers and sisters in the faith:
1) Jesus commends them in the letter for their doctrinal faithfulness, their works and toil, and their endurance in the face of the persecution. In fact, He commends them in verse 3 for “bearing up for my names’ sake” while not growing weary. This all sounds like the fruit of a love for Christ. Certainly, it does not sound like they have moved Christ out of their first position to some lower position.
2) Reading the books of Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and the letters of 1,2, and 3 John- all which centered on the church in Ephesus- we find that, while there are calls to faithfulness, the warnings are consistently concerned with their relationships as brothers and sisters in Christ. Some examples:
• In Ephesians, Paul praises them for their faith in Christ but then calls them in chapter 2 to “remember” that they are now one in Christ. In chapter 4 he not only calls them but “urges” them to walk in humility and gentleness and patience, “bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit” (vs. 2-3). Later in that same chapter he calls them to “put away falsehood” but, rather, speak the truth with his neighbor for we are one with one another. They are to not grieve the Holy Spirit but “let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from them…instead they are to be kind to one another, as God in Christ forgave them (vs. 30-32). In chapter 5 they are called to “walk in love” with one another.
• In 1 and 2 Timothy, Paul is concerned with false teachers leading people astray but also instructs Timothy to tell the Ephesians to “not be quarrelsome but be kind to everyone” (2:24).
• In 1 John, John says that he is not writing a new commandment but one that they have had “from the beginning” (2:7) and he proceeds to tell them that, “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light…” (2:9-10). In 3:11 John states, “This is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another.” In chapter 4, again, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God…”(vs. 7). In chapter 5 “everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him” (vs. 1).
• In 2 John, John writes to a local congregation in verse 4, “I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady- not as though I were writing a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning- that we love one another.”
The main concern that both Paul and John seem to have in these letters was that the Ephesian Christians were not, or were in danger of not, loving one another the way they ought. This was the commandment that they had “from the beginning” John says several times. It is this commandment “from the beginning” – this “first love”- that Jesus is condemning them for forgetting. The calls by Paul and John, both who are now absent from the church, have gone unheeded and Jesus says, “repent.”
Before He gets to the critique, Jesus does encourage them for several things.
They were a church that was actively working in service to God. We don’t know what exactly this work was but because the “works” and “toil” are so closely connected to endurance and standing against those who are evil, it seems that it is likely to be the work and toil of being doctrinally faithful. They are toiling in their efforts to be people who honor God by how they conduct themselves in the household of faith and how they uphold the truth. I think of Paul’s instructions to Timothy about what he was to teach the Ephesians. it seems that Timothy, and the church in Ephesus, took these commands to heart. They were very careful in the way in which the church was ordered, they had the right ministries and ministers in place, and they worked hard at being sure that they were upholding the truth.
Paul had told the Ephesian elders when he was leaving Ephesus in Acts 20, “After I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock” (vs 29), and Jesus’ words to the Ephesian church shows Paul was right. These Nicolaitans are also brought up in the letter to the church in Pergamum and some argue that “Jezebel” in the letter to Thyatira was likely a Nicolaitan leader there. It seems like the Nicolaitans were a group that followed the teachings of someone named Nicolaus who taught that compromise with the activities surrounding the worship at the temple to Artemis, was permissible. This would involve the food sacrificed to the idols and sexual immorality which often accompanied their pagan worship rituals. We know from Acts 19 that much of the city’s wealth came from activities related to the temple and so, perhaps, the question that faced Ephesian Christians included, “Is it ok to work on behalf of the temple and to promote its activities, as long as I don’t participate in the worship itself?” Nicolaus may have been teaching the Christians that those who said “no,” were being too legalistic in their efforts to be doctrinally faithful and that, being recipients of grace, they were free to mix in with the pagan religious life of Ephesus.
Jesus says, “I hate that idea,” and commends the Ephesians for testing the teachings of this false apostle and rejecting them. Some have pointed to Jesus’ comment in vs. 7, “To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life,” as a dig against the worship of Artemis because archeological discoveries have found that the symbol for the temple was a date palm tree. If this is the case, Jesus is saying, “Why mess with a palm tree when you can have access to the tree of life?”
And so the call is here for doctrinal purity. A call to test those who would put themselves forth as teachers. Today this call is more important than it has been in the recent past because the internet has opened up avenues by which false teachers, whom we would otherwise never have encountered, and teachings that we would have never conceived of, now have an easy means by which to get into our homes and our heads and influence us. Some of these teachers and teachings are easy to dismiss because their errors are obvious. Others are not. The thing is that, while there is more access to bad teaching, there is also more access to good, trustworthy teaching as well. With all that is out there that has been tested and tried and found to be true, there is no need to fiddle around with the stuff that you’re not sure about. Turn to those whom you know have already been tested and found to be faithful.
In Acts 19, we see how the Christian message stood in opposition to the worship of Artemis. Paul taught that there were no gods other than the One God of the Scriptures. In response, people were accepting Christ and no longer purchasing trinkets related to the temple. This hurt local businesses who depended on the income they made off of temple worshippers and, in response, a mob was incited against Paul and those travelling with him. That was now in the past, but the unpopularity of Christianity remained. The Christians in Ephesus, however, had stood firm and persevered.
And so are there lessons here for us? Yes, Jesus is watching how we handle the Word. He is watching how we conduct our worship. He is watching how we respond to false teachers and how we respond under pressure to conform to the godless, idolatrous context in which we live. These things will be addressed in other letters as well, but the main lesson for us in this letter is that we can be a well-organized and structured church, a doctrinally sound church, a church that is uncompromising when faced with the pressures of the culture around us, but, if we do not love one another, none of that matters. And it is not just a question of whether or not we are a good church or not, Jesus threatens that He will remove our lampstand from its place if we do not love well.
This all brings to mind 1 Corinthians 13,
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing” (vss. 1-3).
Jesus says, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the works that you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.”
Understand that removing a lampstand does not necessarily mean that particular church will cease to exist. The building may still be there, the people may still meet, and the sermon is still preached. The power of the Holy Spirit, however, has departed. Their spiritual flame has been put out. They cast no more light out into the darkness than a flashlight with dead batteries.
We find, in Jesus’ prayer of John 17, that loves magnifies the glory of Christ as a living testimony to the truth of the Gospel. 17:10 “All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.” Verses 22-23,
“The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
The unity that we have in love becomes a witness to the glory of Christ and how He is a demonstration of the love the Father has for His people.
The love we experience is also for our joy. Jesus says (verse 13), “These things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” And He concludes his prayer by saying: “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (vs. 26). This love that Jesus longs for in Ephesus, serves as a “joyful witness.”
So what hinders that? Many times it is that we have put up walls around us as we want to be cautious about opening ourselves up to new people because of a past woundedness. We all have been injured in past relationships. We all have experienced “lovelessness” from others and we don’t want to go through that again. That lovelessness may come in the form of a positive aggression, which can be emotional as much as physical, or it may come in the form of someone distancing themselves and withdrawing themselves from you which can be just as painful. One says “I don’t like you,” the other says “I don’t care about you.” Both say “I don’t love you.” When we have been made for love and, when, as believers, that is one of the primary means by which we glorify Christ, and one of the primary means by which we experience joy in Christ, the lovelessness can be devastating. And, so, we put up our guards and they can be slow to come down.
This may have been the way it was for the Christians in Ephesus. Remember, the Christian church is still new at this point and the church in Ephesus is composed of new believers, saved out of cultic practices. So, they are saved out of godless homes, in a godless society, which is engaged in godless worship. Can you imagine that emotional baggage that these people brought with them? 1 Corinthians 6:9b-11a gives us some insight:
Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you.
We recognize that we (vs. 11b), “Were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” You recognize who you are in Christ. You are one who has been given by the Father to the Son. Christ accomplished His work on earth for you as a demonstration of the Father’s love for you and when Jesus looks at you He says, “Mine.” He says to the Father, “All mine are Yours and Yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.” Can you imagine that? Jesus says you are His but then He adds, “I am glorified in him, I am glorified in her.” We’d find it unbelievable if He didn’t say it. Jesus says He prays for you, that He sanctifies you in truth, meaning that, through the Word of God, He sets you apart as holy. He says “I desire that they, whom You have given me, may be with me to see my glory.” All of this about you. And so, it doesn’t matter who you once were, and it doesn’t matter what others have said about you, it doesn’t matter what others have done to you, when you come to Christ (Col. 3:3), “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” and (Col. 3:4), “Christ is your life.” That is why (2 Cor. 3:4) we have confidence “through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.” We are (Rom. 8:37) “more than conquerors through Him who loved us” and nothing can separate us from “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vs. 39).
Seeing ourselves as whole in Christ, and leaving the past behind, we look forward. This, then, enables us to lower our defenses. We are able to be known for who we really are. In Christ we are whole, and knowing that, enables us to confess that, in the flesh, we do fail. And no matter what bad thing anybody says about me, the truth is actually worse. Far worse. Ultimately, left to myself, I deserve hell. Apart from Christ, that is where’d I’d be. If we can embrace that mindset, it enables us to put down any pretense we may be tempted to put up. The temptation is to be fake with one another and, when that happens, sincere love can’t be experienced. I told a story some time ago of a guy who was attending a former church for months and every time I tried to get deeper with him, he’d always change the subject to be about someone else. When tragedy finally broke him to the point that he dropped all pretense, I said “Brother, I’ve been trying to reach you for months now.” He said, “I know, but I was keeping you at arms-length because I was so afraid of how you would react if you discovered the real me.” We often turn to 1 Corinthians 13 for a description of love, but Romans 12 has a picture of what it looks like lived out in community. In verses 9-18, we find Paul saying, “Let love be genuine…” and then the call is:
Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in brotherly affection, out do one another in giving honor to each other, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in troubles, be devoted to prayer, contribute to one another’s needs, pursue hospitality, bless those who persecute us rather than curse them, rejoice with those who rejoice, be sorrowful with those who sorrow, live in harmony with each other, do not be haughty but be humble and associate with the humble, don’t see yourself as wise, don’t repay evil for evil but, in the sight of everyone, do what is honorable. Doe what you can, as far as it depends upon you to live peaceably with all.
Can you imagine what it would look like to live in a community that is marked by these qualities? It would be to live in joyful witness alongside others. It is no wonder that Jesus says that is what He desires and that if we are not seeking that, he’ll just remove the lampstand. Let us be sure to understand, however, that this is not a call that amounts simply to “try harder.” We cannot do this in our own strength. We will never be the church Christ calls us to by trying harder. It is only by His grace, in His strength, and it begins with us not looking at one another, and it sure doesn’t begin with us looking at ourselves, but it begins by looking at Christ.
Personalities may not click, we may enjoy some people more than others, but if we cannot love a brother or sister in Christ, the problem is not so much that we need to get to know them better but it is that we need to get to know Christ better. Because it is my understanding of the love that He has given to me that enables me to love you. Because you are no better than me and you are no worse than me, we are all desperately in need of the blood of Christ. If you are someone for whom Christ has died, someone whom my Savior says that He loves, someone that the Word says He rejoices over, and someone who has been placed in a bond with me as a spiritual sibling, how can I not love you?
Behold His beauty, the grace that is ours through Him, and meditate on 1 John 4:7-13:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
Revelation 2:7- “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit has to say to this church and to you.”
1) A few vignettes:
A) A study was done with children and their parents in which researchers told a group of mothers to interact with their young children but to show no emotion on their faces as they did so. They called this the “blank face experiment.” The children approached their mothers as usual, seeking to elicit a smile or laugh through their antics. When their mothers did not respond, the children eventually stopped engaging with them and retreated into their own little private play time. The children were hooked up to instruments that indicated that their heart rates increased when their mothers did not respond, and they seemed to be experiencing real anxiety.
B) Another study had 3 people sit together for 2 minutes without saying a word. Researchers found that when the group got up and left one another’s company, 2 of the individuals left feeling the same mood as the one of them that was the most emotionally expressive.
C) A group of men spoke for an hour about the relationships that they had with others in their church. Eventually, one of the older gentlemen surprised the others by breaking down in tears and announcing to the others, “I’ve never felt enjoyed, only tolerated.”
What are some observations that we can make based upon these 3 stories about relationships and the impact that we have upon others by the way in which we interact with them?
2) Another story:
A pastor told of an interaction he had with an unhappy couple in his church:
“They were unhappy about everything about the church, about me, about the way my kids ran in the sanctuary, everything. They went through this whole list and then concluded by saying, ‘But we want you to know that we love you in the Lord.’” Has anyone said to you that they “love you in the Lord”? Have you ever said that to someone? What did they (or you) mean by that?
The pastor continued:
“It’s almost as if there is this idea of ‘I don’t like you, I don’t like being around you, I’m not for you. Frankly, I’d be happy to receive bad news about you. But I’m a Christian and Christians are supposed to love, so this must be loving you in the Lord because I don’t love you in any other way.”
It seems that loving someone “in the Lord” means that you don’t like them, but you have to tolerate them because that is what Christians do. Are you familiar with, or have you engaged in, this type of thinking? Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 and Romans 12:9-18. In light of those texts, does it make sense to call “tolerating” someone loving them “in the Lord”?
The pastor didn’t think so as he concluded:
“It’s a pretense: ‘I don’t love you in any way, least of all in the way that God loves. But maybe I want to want to love you in that way.’
What should we do when that is the only type of “love” that we experience with someone?
3) We know that Jesus calls us to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). But of the love between His disciples He says, “Love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).
How would you define the difference between these two commands?
4) Jesus continues, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
How does this emphasize that the call to love is not simply a statement that says “it would be nice if you could get along,” but is instead a matter of great importance and urgency?
5) As those created in the image of God, we might say that the Trinity provides us with an example of how the dynamics between brothers and sisters in Christ should operate.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One and are equal persons, each inhabiting the other, their lives could be said to be “poured into one another” through the bond of love.
Reflect on the relationships within the Trinity. How should they inform the way we live out our lives among one another? Some questions to consider might be: Are any of the persons of the Trinity threatened by the others? In what ways do they seek the glory of the others in the way in which they operate in the world?
6) To truly love another, we need to take our eyes off ourselves and, even, off of the other person, and first turn them to gaze upon Christ. How does turning our eyes upon Christ and considering the grace shown to us through His life/death/resurrection enable us/free us to love others as we are called to do?
7) Hebrews 10:24 tells us that we should “Consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” Have you considered your relationships in terms of the impact that you are having on the other person? Are they encouraged by the time that they have with you? Do they find themselves wanting to love others and the Lord more by their time spent with you? Are they stirred up to good works because of your influence on them?
8) Christian philosopher Dallas Willard was told by someone that they didn’t like having to be cautious about what they say and were “Tired of walking on eggshells around people.” He responded: “Better that than to go around breaking eggs.” What do you think of his response? I know I immediately want to come up with examples of when ‘tough talk’ is necessary and use those examples to excuse my lack of sensitivity overall. I think I need better self-awareness about how I speak to people and the impact it has on them. How about you?
