Loss of First Love

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.--Revelation 2:1-7

The message to the church at Ephesus was a “good news - bad news” message. This church was very busy, actively exposing liars and heretics and making everyone aware of the hateful works of the Nicholaitans which the Lord states in His letter to them that He also hates (their deeds). But while they are so busy exposing the false they have lost sight of the most important thing, love.

Just yesterday I was in a conversation with a woman that is extremely busy and tirelessly exposes the “heretics” of today, but it is very obvious that something very important is very lacking in her messages, although I fully admit it is good to be aware of these false teachers and to expose them. I tried to get that across to her but it only caused her to do to me what she complains the followers of these false teachers do to her. Not only that but she accused me and my husband of all sorts of things that are not only damaging, but untrue. I posted the entire conversation between us last night but it is so caustic that I decided against doing so, but pray that the Lord reveals to her that although she is right in exposing the false, she has definitely lost sight of the more important thing. It is glaringly obvious that her passion for Christ, a passion for sharing her love in a way that ignites such a love in others, is missing from her rants. 

The Bible warns us that we are to be careful when we correct others because we might fall back into such errors ourselves if we are so boastful. Such was the case with Ephesus. In exposing the terrible sins of others they themselves were guilty of a greater sin. When exposing and correcting others our main hearts desire should still be one of reclamation and restoration. If we cannot reach them with that it should still be our hope that the Lord will one day bring them to repentance, ever mindful that we ourselves were rescued from even greater sins, remaining humble before Christ. This woman showed her lack of humility and even felt emboldened to make untrue accusations to prop up her own errors.

I hope and pray that she, and others like her, realize what they (like Ephesus) are lacking in, and come humbly before the throne making their number one passion to win others to Christ Jesus, which is an even more important work than the continuous pointing out of others faults.