According to the Book of Acts, Ephesus was highly favored among the churches founded by the apostle Paul. He gave two years’ residence at one stretch to that prosperous and strategic city. During that time there was an abundance of apostolic physical healing and exorcism of the demon possessed, insomuch that the goddess Diana, that gave fame to the city, and her temple were being deserted. This inflamed Demetrius, a silversmith and maker of shrines for Diana. Seeing his livelihood shrinking, he created a fanatical riot from which Paul providentially escaped on that occasion.
Later, on a trip through the nearby town of Miletus, Paul called for the Ephesian elders. He used the example he had shown them during his two-year sojourn as a basis for the exercise of church eldership. Finally, when Paul was imprisoned in Rome, he wrote to the Ephesian church an epistle that gives us the highest peaks of the Christian revelation. It is surprising then to find that of all the assemblies where Paul ministered, the apostle John singled out, by Holy Spirit inspiration, the Ephesian church for censure. If the church at Corinth had been chosen, there would not have been such a surprise, for in the two epistles to the Corinthians sins and doctrinal deviation were present, calling for Paul’s correction. No, Ephesus has fallen.
Many of us envy the fruitful days of the apostles. Their successes were impressive, but moral decline and apostasy were present even then. These seven churches addressed in Revelation give evidence of departure at this early date. This is not to excuse us for our present-day delinquencies, but rather as a warning. Take a thoroughbred horse; its looks and performance are superb, but it is highly subject to disease compared to the animal hitched to some huckster’s cart. So those who are holding advanced Christian truths are Satan’s special targets. Job, the upright man that feared God, had not gone unnoticed by Satan. Nor had the Ephesian church.
As we read the letter to Ephesus in Revelation 2, the church had much to commend it. These pluses were shadowed by a single minus–“because thou hast left thy first love.” It would seem that is where all backsliding commences.
The first essential of an individual’s relationship with God is to love Him. This is proved in the first commandment as interpreted by the lawyer whom our Lord commended (Lk. 10:27). The conclusion to this is obvious: if one loves God, he will undoubtedly love his neighbor. Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church was, “And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Apparently the Ephesian church, some members excepted, had failed to know this love.
The love of Christ claims allegiance above all earthly ties. Only a divine Person could make such demands upon us: “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Mt. 10:37). Put such words into any other mouth and they could only come from a hallucinated idiot. No sober man would dare make such a statement that could only be open to ridicule. The love that Christ demands is a jealous love. It crowds out all rivals to it. Such vehement love hates anything that would challenge it. Hear again from that Holy One who only is entitled to Lordship, “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother and wife . . . yea and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” As we read through this Ephesian letter in Revelation 2, we discover a sense of alertness. They still discerned all that was contrary to the truth, either within or without. There were some within that were so noxious to God that they were commended for hating it: “Thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I (God) also hate.”
By contrast, the church at Pergamos appeared to be tolerating “the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes.” Since there is no record of any sect named the Nicolaitanes, it has been interpreted to be from nikao, “to conquer,” and laus, “the people,” or “laity” referring to the earliest form of clergy over the laity, thus breaking the brotherhood of all believers. From this we gather that love is more than a sentimental feeling.
With all that the Lord had said regarding love for Himself, it must have remained in Peter’s memory. That makes the interview with Peter after our Lord’s resurrection, following the failed night of fishing, all the more important. Peter is receiving his commission to feed Christ’s lambs and sheep. The qualification for all of this is clear, “Peter, lovest thou Me?” The test of our love to the Lord: “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn. 14:15).The joy comes when we do just that. The Lord said, “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love.”
Fortunately, the ground lost by the Ephesian church could be regained. The encouraging words come from the risen Lord, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.” Trace the journey back to the place where the departure began. Then “repent” and the root meaning to this word is “to change the mind.” Get back to God’s thoughts regarding loving what God loves and hating what He hates.
To be specific, the command is “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 Jn. 2:15). Things such as love of money, earthly pleasures, false ways in politics, and personal ease. Demas, named early with “Luke, the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14) must have grievously departed, for in Paul’s last epistle he laments, “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:10). There is no report that Demas got back into Paul’s confidence as did Mark, though it was some years before it was regained.
To regain the love for Christ which we left for other things is to abandon all that has occasioned it. Sometimes a period of departure has proved to be an expensive lesson before rediscovering what it means, “to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge . . .” (Eph. 3:19). The prodigal valued his father’s house after a stint in the far country. The Lord inquires of us all, “Lovest thou Me?” May there be a heartfelt reply in the affirmative.