“I know what you’ve been doing, your toil, and your endurance. I also know that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles, but are not, and have found them to be false” (Revelation 2:2).
Jesus Christ and the apostles prophesied about the sprouting of false workers in the church. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheeps’ clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). In the history of the church the enemy has managed to do more harm through those inside the church than outside. But the Ephesian church made the right moves against the scheme of the enemy. This was a church that was serious in the matters of God. They “have tested those who call themselves apostles, but are not, and have found them to be false.”
Claiming to have and having are two entirely different things. The last days are terrible times of the multitude of ‘claimers’. The Lord of the church has warned us to test all claims. In Matthew 7:15-20 He taught us about true and false prophets. A spread of time is necessary to test false workers. We may need to take sufficient time to discern whether they are true or false, so that we are not mistaken. “You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16).
Any tree needs enough time to produce fruit either good or bad. Let time prove what is really inside. And it is true “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, nor a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:18).
False ministers may be good entertainers. They cannot make the slightest dent in a mount of sin. Many enjoy their feel-good ministry for a while. Sooner or later, surely their true colors will start to show up. But by that time everything they supposed they had built up would have collapsed. God is pleased with the stand of the Ephesian church that they did not entertain such people.
“I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary” (2:3).
God repeats the same word ‘patience’. In verse 2, He might have referred to ‘perseverance’ in relation to their hard work for the Lord. But here in verse 3 He refers to their perseverance in their toil against the false apostles. In tears we are to plant and in tears we are to protect it.
“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (2:4).
The virtues which God extols in the Church at Ephesus are not common in most churches today. Nevertheless, it does not invalidate her failure. When God says ‘I know’ it is not a common phrase which we casually use in our conversations. It is a higher expression coming from the One who knows every minute detail concerning this universe that still remains hidden to the human mind. God knows and takes heed of everything. That is why we are answerable to Him for every careless word we speak.
Here the short-coming of the Ephesian church is that ‘they have forsaken the first love.’ It is not clear whether this pertains to their love directed towards God or towards others and rightly so, as there is no need to tell the two apart. If we love God surely, it flows thereof that we will love others. Not vise versa. But the evidence of love works the other way round. “Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (1John 4:20).
God does not say that they have forsaken their love completely, but merely their first love. They do not love God as they loved Him in the past. What had happened to their love? The answer lies in understanding how love works in us and through us.
Man’s basic nature is primarily selfish and is the opposite of love. So in this nature he is incapable of loving God and people. His wellspring of love has totally run dry. It is in this situation that God steps in and initiates a divine flow of love by loving us unconditionally in our wretched condition. “… because the love of God has been poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit which was given to us. For when we were yet without strength, in due season Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:5-6).
We need to understand the three functions of love:
1. Reception of love: The measure in which we have received love from God is enormous. “Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God…” (1John 3:1a). But alongside the love, come two giants advancing against us, the first, unbelief and the other, worldliness.
a. Unbelief: Even though we have received God’s love we can experience and know it only through faith. The Bible says that God loves us. We simply believe it. But the great blunder we commit in this regard is measuring love through the eyes of the world. We measure the love of God by the measure of material things we may have received. The more we have, the more we believe God loves us. This amounts to sight, which is contrary to faith. “for we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
When we see God’s love in this way, we fail to experience God’s love, even though we may possess it abundantly. Rather, we act in anger like the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son. He thought that his father does not love him because he had received no spectacular material blessing to prove his father’s love, not even a calf. He was free to drink without limit from his father’s Ocean of love. It would have been more than enough for his own need and satisfied others around him as well. Even though he was the elder son of a rich man full of love, he lived a wretched life of poverty, a life without love. What a sad state to be in!
Why is it that we can know the love of God only through the lens of faith? God’s love is beyond our understanding. Paul says “and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). Adam’s sin led to a fall that has severely limited our bodies. Our knowledge and vision too have limitations. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall fully know even as I also am fully known” (1Corinthians 13:12). But God has made a temporary arrangement for us to see and experience heavenly truths right here along our earthly sojourn, which is the way of faith. b. Worldliness: It is a common folly among God’s people that when someone enters into the salvation experience, he enters into a new life with so many experiences which he has never had. It is almost like a child entering an amusement park for the first time. But what begins to happen now is that many attractions of the world enter into his life. Slowly his eyes are taken away from the Lord to the beauty of the world. Now his love is divided between God and the world. But it is merely a false assumption that we love both God and the world. Whenever our love for God gets divided, the love of God disappears from our life. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world” (1 John 2:15). Inevitably, the reservoir of love is now empty. It is a natural law that any empty space will attract other things. We find ourselves trying to fill the empty reservoir with all the ‘rubbish’ of the world. The strange thing about the things of the world is that no amount of them can ever satisfy. Life does not consist in the abundance.
2. Release of love: One of the most misunderstood and misused words in the Christian world is ‘love’. Often we refer to the carnality of the flesh as love. But that is far from the truth, for love is sacrifice, towards the one whom we love. God Himself has taught us what love is through His great sacrifice. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). When Paul taught husbands on loving their wives, he used the example of the Lord. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). When Christ loved the church he gave Himself. Nowhere in the Bible are we instructed to ‘receive love from others’ or ‘desire love’ or ‘others are obliged to give us love.’ The only commandment is to love others. That is because God has given us abundantly so we can share it. Unless we release love, we will be stagnating in our life.
3. Continue in love: “Let mutual love continue” (Hebrews 13:1); “Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty” (1 Timothy 2:15). God reminds the Ephesian church about their waning love and He calls them back to restoration: “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” (Revelation 2:5). God is merciful. He wants that none should perish. He always wants his people to repent and come back from their backsliding. He has four things to say in this regard:
a. Admit our fault: The Holy Spirit is the one who initiates the process of our conviction of the sin. But making excuses or attempting to explain and justify our part leaves little hope. To the extent that we move away from pretention, to that extent we come closer to repentance.
b. Repent: It should be a genuine act from the heart. “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it ” (Jonah 3:10)
c. Return: God wants us to come back to our original position. It is not enough to merely turn around from the former ways but to also come back to the right path.
d. Else face severe punishment:
“… If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent” (Revelation 2:5b).
Unfortunately in the Bible, we see more of those who failed to take the warnings of God seriously than those who actually did. Are we among the few who seriously consider the warnings of God, and do what we are told.
> to be continued next week.