Day 342: Revelation 2:1–7

You also possess endurance and have tolerated many things because of My name. . . . But I have this against you: you have abandoned the love you had at first (vv. 3–4).

The letters to the churches in Revelation 2–3 contain several repeated elements that I want you to identify from the very beginning. Although they don’t all appear in each of the seven letters, here are the common components:

• Identification. Christ identified Himself in a specific way using some element of the first vision in Revelation 1:12–18.

• Commendation. While not every letter contains a commendation, all seven include the phrase “I know your . . .” based on His intimate acquaintance with them.

• Rebuke. In most cases, He pointed out something that needed correction.

• Exhortation. He instructed each church to do something specific.

• Encouragement. He always issued an encouragement to overcome. Celebrate the fact that no condition was irreversible!

Using these elements common to each letter to the churches, let’s see what Christ had to say to the church at Ephesus.

Identification. Note what Christ pinpoints about Himself to the church in Ephesus: “The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand and who walks among the seven gold lampstands” (2:1 hcsb). We would be tragically amiss to think Christ is uninvolved and unmoved by the conditions, activities, and inner workings of His present churches. He walks among us. Nothing is more important to Christ in any generation than the health of His church, since it is the vehicle through which He purposes to reach the lost and minister to the hurting.

Commendation. Based on His intimate knowledge of the church of Ephesus, Christ strongly commended them in verses 2 and 3: “I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. You also possess endurance and have tolerated many things because of My name, and have not grown weary” (hcsb).

Rebuke. “But I have this against you: you have abandoned the love you had at first” (2:4 hcsb). Remember, the apostle John was most involved in the church at Ephesus. Knowing what we’ve learned about him, how do you think he responded internally when he heard this particular rebuke concerning his dear ones in Ephesus? He was the pastor who had sought to teach them to love the Lord Christ. Did he feel a sense of failure or reproof?

Exhortation. In verse 5, Christ said, “Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent” (hcsb). Note a detail about the warning. Christ told the church in Ephesus that if they did not repent and do the things they “did at first,” He would come to them and remove their lampstand from its place. The terminology doesn’t mean they would lose their place in heaven. We lose our lampstand when we lose a vibrant position of godly influence on earth. In other words, we lose our light in the world.

Encouragement. “I will give the victor the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (2:7 hcsb). The sins of the church at Ephesus weren’t hopeless. Nor are ours! Let’s repent, though, so we can overcome!

Somehow in my previous studies of this letter, I have overlooked the original meaning of a critical word in the phrase from Christ’s rebuke about abandoning or forsaking their first love. I am astonished to find that the original word for “forsaken” is the same word often translated “forgive” in the New Testament. The word aphiemi means “to send forth, send away, let go from oneself.”75 The New Testament uses aphiemi in many contexts and simply means giving up or letting go of something, such as in the familiar words of Matthew 6:12 (kjv): “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

I could easily sit right here and sob. The thought occurs to me how often we forsake our first love—our indescribably glorious sacred romance—because we refuse to forsake our grudges and grievances. Please allow me to say this with much compassion as one who has been there: We cannot hang on to our sacred romance with Jesus Christ and also our bitterness. We will release one to hang on to the other.

The room unforgiveness is taking up in your life is cheating you of the very thing you were born (again) to experience. Send it forth! Not into oblivion, but into the hands of the faithful and sovereign Judge of the earth. For unless our lampstands are lit with the torch of sacred love, they are nothing but artificial lights. Fluorescent, maybe. But sooner or later, the bulb burns out.