“The Letter to Ephesus: LOVE” (Revelation 2:1-7)

The Most Loving Place in Town

Have you read the Book “The Most Loving Place in Town”? It’s a modern day parable for the church. One day Pastor Tim received an anonymous letter saying,

     I’m writing to bring something important to your attention. You have lost your first love. You and your church have drifted away from the love of God and one another as your first priority and into a pattern of success-driven busyness… (kindle location 173 of 1967)

Tim was shocked because he believed that the church was doing quite well. Something was going on almost every night. Bible studies, support groups, commission meetings, and so on. As Tim was pondering over the matter, the phone rang. It was Dani Wilson, one of the church members. She called to let the pastor know that she had decided to look for another church. At the end of the conversation Dani said, “I guess the bottom line is that this church isn’t exactly the most loving place in town.” It was an inconvenient truth. Tim began a search. He visited his mentor, close friends, and trusted church members. He found how far he and his church had drifted away from their number one priority: loving God and each other. At the end of the story Pastor Tim and the church were able to recapture their lost love and become a beacon of love in their community – the most loving place in town.

The Church of Ephesus

This story reminds us of the story of the Ephesian church. Jesus, the chief Pastor of the Church, evaluates the spiritual health of his church. Basically, what Christ thinks of the Ephesian church is this:

     I have watched your hard work in guiding the church out of a period of turmoil and challenge. You have endured a great deal and persevered with energy in creating a level of excitement and activity within the church. For all this I commend you. However, you have lost your first love. You have drifted away from the love of God and one another as your first priority. If this serious situation is not turned around, it will destroy the church’s credibility. But fear not! If you humbly accept the challenge to restore love into the life of the church again, your church can be the most loving place in Ephesus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit!

At that time the false apostles, called the Nicolaitans (6), sneaked in the church and led people astray from God’s truth. They supported the popular cultural values of sexual and religious compromise. They taught that Christians could participate in the cult of Ephesian idols heavily involved in sexual immorality and the eating of food offered to idols.[1] Thankfully, the Ephesian church rightly discerned truth from false teaching and kept its doctrinal purity. Its members didn’t listen to anyone if they spoke of anything except concerning Jesus Christ in truth. What a wonderful church the Ephesian Christian community was! Jesus commended them in this way: “But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (6). But the problem is, in this process somehow they have lost their first love. They were busy in their service, patient in their sufferings, and orthodox in their belief. But they lost their first love for Christ and for others. They became like Pharisees, who kept all God’s laws without love. As we know, without love we are nothing. Without love we are not a living church at all.

The Enemy’s Strategy

It’s the enemy’s strategy. We may win the outward battle. But in the heat of the battle the enemy attacks our hearts and our minds. He tries to make our hearts hardened, cold, dry, apathetic, and even hostile toward other people. Probably many of you have seen the film “Ben-Hur.” Judah Ben-Hur and Messala were good old friends. But Messala was ambitious and believed in the glory of Rome. Later he returned as the new commander of the Roman garrison. Messala demanded that Judah would deliver potential rebels to the Roman authorities. But of course, Judah refused. And because of that, his mother and sister were put into prison, and later they became lepers. Judah himself became a galley slave for three years. He swore to take revenge on Messala. And finally, he did win the chariot race and take his revenge. But in the meantime Judah’s heart grew hardened and cold. Esther, Judah’s beloved, said to him, “Where is my Judah Ben-Hur? You have become like Messala. I have lost Judah Ben-Hur, whom I loved.”  

The Ephesian Christians were so passionate for doctrinal purity. But as they battled, their hearts became hardened just like their enemies’. Their love for Christ grew cold. And they lost their passion for the message of the gospel. They just kept focused on maintaining the inward purity of the church. They became an inwardly focused church. They have all forgotten their primary calling – to be a light of witness to the outside world. In the Middle Ages Archbishop Trench wrote about the Ephesian church in this way: “A traveler visiting the village found only three Christians there and these sunken in such ignorance and apathy as scarcely to have heard the names of St Paul or St John.”[2]

We Love Because …

It’s a solemn warning for all of us. In verse 7 Jesus says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Today the Spirit says not just to the Ephesian church, but also to the entire church in every age, including our church. Then, how can we restore and rekindle our first love for Christ? There is no hint given in today’s passage, but John tells the way in his first letter. He writes, “We love, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us (3:16a). When we come to the cross, the flame of our love is kindled.

Earlier I shared the story of Judah Ben-Hur. At the end Judah didn’t mean it, but he attended the trial of Jesus. Judah witnessed how Jesus was being marched through the streets, how he was mocked, how he suffered, how he was crucified. Then, something happened to Judah. After coming back home, Judah said to Esther, “Today I witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus. Almost at the moment he died, I heard him say, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ And I felt his voice take the sword out of my hand.” This is the power of the cross. Christ’s love does melt down our hardened hearts and kindle our love for him and his people. Fanny J. Crosby powerfully proclaims this wonderful truth in this way:

I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice,
and it told thy love to me;
but I long to rise in the arms of faith
and be closer drawn to thee. 

Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
to the cross where thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
to thy precious, bleeding side.

Like the church of Ephesus, we as a church have a work to be done, a fight to be fought, and a doctrine to be kept.[3] But above all things we are called to love Christ and love one another. So let us come to the cross. Let us come daily to the foot of the cross –  the source of love. Then, the flame of our love for Christ and those around us will be kindled. And we will become a beacon of love in our community – the most loving place in town! Amen.

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[1] Craig Keener, The NIV Application Commentary: Revelation (Zondervan, 2000), 111.

[2] John Stott, What Christ Thinks of the Church (Three’s Company, 1990), 27.

[3] Ibid., 27.