Have You Left Your First Love?

Chrisitian Working Woman Transcript:

Monday, November 13, 2006

My Bible reading lately has found me in the book of Revelations. I was particularly impressed by the second chapter, verses 2 through 4, which is a letter to the church at Ephesus.

Here was one of the early churches who had taken a strong stand as Christians in the first century. These were not secret service Christians. They were people with very good intentions and a strong commitment to the cause of their Lord Jesus Christ. Here are the good things the Apostle John writes about this church:

They had good deeds.
They worked very hard.
They persevered and didn't give up easily.
They refused to tolerate wickedness.
They were quick to deal with false doctrine.
They had endured many hardships.
They had not grown weary.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'd be glad to have people say those things about me. That's a pretty impressive list. It's not easy to find people with those qualifications. What more could you ask for?

But this church had failed in their ministry. In verse 4 we read: You have forsaken your first love. Their deeds were right, but their hearts were cold.

As I've studied these few verses written to the church at Ephesus, God has impressed upon my heart how critical it is that our service for God come from a heart of love. It's very possible for us to do all the right things from a cold heart, and that makes our work for God ineffective, no matter how right it is.

Do you remember just before Jesus went back to heaven, He gave the Apostle Peter a job interview. You'll find it in John 21. Jesus was reinstating Peter for service, after his disgraceful behavior at the trial when he denied Jesus. And he asked Peter three questions. Here they are:

Do you truly love me?
Do you truly love me?
Do you love me?

Our Lord puts the same question to us today: Do we truly love Him? Or have we, like those dear faithful people at Ephesus, left our first love for Christ? I'm going to look at what it means to leave your first love, and how we can get back to that place and keep that first love alive. I think I'm just beginning to understand how vital this is to my walk with God. Have you left your first love?