First Love, or No Love at All Text: Revelation 2:1-7
Introduction: The Danger of Being Right
It is entirely possible to have a church that is a doctrinal fortress, a bastion of orthodoxy, a model of moral rigor, and a terror to heretics, and for Jesus Christ to be on the verge of shutting the whole thing down. It is possible to have all your theological ducks in a row, to win every argument, to dot every i and cross every t, and to have a heart that has grown cold, distant, and dutiful toward the Lord Jesus Himself. This is the terrifying warning to the church at Ephesus.
We often think that the great danger to the church is doctrinal liberalism, moral compromise, or a squishy, effeminate niceness that refuses to confront evil. And those things are indeed terminal diseases. But there is another kind of spiritual cancer, one that is far more subtle because it masquerades as health. It is the cancer of loveless orthodoxy. It is the religion of the grimly correct. It is the faith of the diligent museum curator, who keeps all the artifacts perfectly polished and in their proper cases, but has forgotten the living reality to which they point.
The letter to the church at Ephesus is not written to a failing church by worldly standards. By our standards, this was a great church. This was the church you would want to join. They worked hard, they hated evil, they kicked out false teachers, and they endured persecution. They had a doctrinal spine of steel. And yet, Christ says, I have something against you. Something so foundational that if it is not fixed, I will remove your very existence as a church. This is a warning to every church, and to every Christian, that it is not enough to be right. We are called to be right, yes, but to be right in the grip of a passionate, personal, all-consuming love for the Son of God.
The Text
"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: This is what the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says: ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot bear with those who are evil, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, you also have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first. But if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’"
(Revelation 2:1-7 LSB)
The Sovereign Inspector (v. 1)
The letter begins by establishing who is speaking, and it is everything.
"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: This is what the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says:" (Revelation 2:1)
Christ addresses the "angel" of the church, which is best understood as the messenger, the pastor, the spiritual leader of that congregation. Leadership has a particular accountability. But the message is from the Lord of the Church, and His self-description is packed with authority and intimacy.
He is the one who "holds the seven stars in His right hand." We are told in the first chapter that the stars are the angels of the seven churches. This means Christ holds the pastors in His hand. This is a picture of sovereign control and protective care. A faithful pastor is secure in the grip of Christ. But it is also a position of immense gravity. The one who holds can also be the one who lets go. His grip is not automatic; it is a function of His grace and our faithfulness.
He is also the one who "walks among the seven golden lampstands." The lampstands are the churches themselves. This is not a distant, deistic God. Christ is immanent. He is present with His people. He is walking the aisles. He is inspecting the premises. He is not an absentee landlord who just reads reports. He is on the ground, observing, seeing everything. His presence is a comfort to the faithful and a terror to the hypocrite. Nothing is hidden from Him. He knows the reality of our church life, not just the polished version we present in the bulletin.
An Admirable Resume (vv. 2-3)
Before Christ brings the hammer down, He first acknowledges their genuine strengths. This is not flattery; it is a fair assessment. He sees and commends the good.
"‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot bear with those who are evil, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, you also have not grown weary.’" (Revelation 2:2-3 LSB)
This is a five-point commendation that would make any church proud. First, He knows their deeds, their toil, their hard labor. This was a busy, active, working church. They were not lazy. Second, they had perseverance. They didn't quit when things got hard. Third, they could not "bear with those who are evil." This means they practiced church discipline. They had a holy intolerance for sin in the camp. They were not a "come as you are, stay as you are" fellowship. They understood that holiness matters.
Fourth, they were doctrinally sharp. They tested traveling preachers who claimed apostolic authority and, when they found them to be frauds, they exposed them. They were theological watchdogs, not gullible sheep. They valued truth. Fifth, He repeats their perseverance, emphasizing that they have endured for His name's sake and have not grown weary. They suffered for being Christians and they did not buckle.
By all external measures, this is an A-plus church. Hard-working, enduring, morally pure, doctrinally sound, and courageous. This is the church we all say we want. And it is this church that is in mortal danger.
The Central Indictment (v. 4)
After this glowing review, we get one of the most chilling verses in the New Testament.
"But I have this against you, that you have left your first love." (Revelation 2:4 LSB)
The word is not that they "lost" their first love, as though it were a set of keys they misplaced. The word is that they "left" it. It was an act of the will. It was an abandonment. It was a departure. They had maintained all the external activities of their faith, but the internal engine of it all, their passionate affection for Jesus Christ, had sputtered and died.
What is this "first love"? It is the zealous, joyful, all-consuming delight in the person of Christ that marks a new believer. It is the love of the bride for her bridegroom. It is the motivation behind all true Christian service. The Ephesians were still doing the work, but they had forgotten the why. Duty had replaced delight. Orthodoxy had become an end in itself, rather than a means to knowing and loving the glorious person about whom the orthodoxy speaks. They loved the fight for the truth more than they loved the Truth Himself. Their religion had become a loveless grind, a joyless duty. And to Christ, this is utterly unacceptable.
The Divine Ultimatum (v. 5)
The diagnosis is dire, but Christ provides a three-step prescription, coupled with a severe warning.
"Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first. But if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent." (Revelation 2:5 LSB)
First, they must remember. They are to look back to the height from which they have fallen. This is a call to honest self-assessment. Remember the joy? Remember the passion? Remember when prayer was a conversation and not a chore? Remember when the Word was a feast and not just study material? See the difference. Acknowledge the fall.
Second, they must repent. This is a military term, an about-face. It means to change your mind, to turn around, and go back in the other direction. It is to confess the sin of cold-hearted religion and to turn away from it. It is to admit that serving God out of sheer habit is an insult to Him.
Third, they must do the first deeds. The way back to renewed affection is through the pathway of obedience. Go back and do the things you did when your heart was on fire. The feelings will follow the feet. This isn't about manufacturing emotion, but about returning to the simple, loving obedience that characterized their beginning.
And the warning is stark. "If not... I will remove your lampstand." A church that will not love Christ will cease to be a church. He will revoke its charter. He will take away its light. It may continue to exist as an institution, a building with a sign out front, but as a true lampstand for Christ, it will be extinguished. The threat is not persecution from Rome; the threat is de-churching by Christ Himself.
A Shared Aversion and a Final Promise (vv. 6-7)
Even in this sharp rebuke, Christ finds one more thing to commend, before issuing a universal call and promise.
"Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate... He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’" (Revelation 2:6-7 LSB)
They shared Christ's hatreds. The Nicolaitans were likely a sect that promoted compromise with the pagan world, teaching that what you did with your body didn't matter. The Ephesians' doctrinal integrity gave them a holy hatred for this kind of greasy grace. This shows us that it is possible, and even commendable, to hate all the right things, while still failing to love the one right Person with the right passion. Right hatreds are good, but they are no substitute for a first love for Jesus.
The call to "hear what the Spirit says" makes this letter the property of every church in every age. This is for us. And the promise is for the one who "overcomes" this very temptation of leaving their first love. The one who repents and returns to Christ is the overcomer. And the reward? To eat of the tree of life in the Paradise of God. This is a promise of restored, eternal fellowship. It is a return to Eden, but better. The way to the tree of life, which was barred by the cherubim after Adam's fall, is now opened again through the work of the second Adam. The reward for loving Jesus is not a crown or a mansion, but the thing that love most desires: more of Him, forever, in unhindered communion. The ultimate goal is not just to be right about God, but to be with God. And that relationship must be defined, from beginning to end, by love.