1“To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write:
“He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks among the seven golden lamp stands says these things:
2“I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can’t tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false. 3You have perseverance and have endured for my name’s sake, and have not grown weary. 4But I have this against you, that you left your first love. 5Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your lamp stand out of its place, unless you repent. 6But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of my God.
8“To the angel of the assembly in Smyrna write:
“The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life says these things:
9“I know your works, oppression, and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10Don’t be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. He who overcomes won’t be harmed by the second death.
12“To the angel of the assembly in Pergamum write:
“He who has the sharp two-edged sword says these things:
13“I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and didn’t deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. 15So also you likewise have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16Repent therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows but he who receives it.
18“To the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write:
“The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things:
19“I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first. 20But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols. 21I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22Behold, I will throw her and those who commit adultery with her into a bed of great oppression, unless they repent of her works. 23I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. 24But to you I say, to the rest who are in Thyatira—as many as don’t have this teaching, who don’t know what some call ‘the deep things of Satan’—to you I say, I am not putting any other burden on you. 25Nevertheless, hold that which you have firmly until I come. 26He who overcomes, and he who keeps my works to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. 27He will rule them with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots, as I also have received of my Father; 28and I will give him the morning star. 29He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
Have You Left Your First Love?
2 “I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can’t tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false.3 You have perseverance and have endured for my name’s sake, and have[a]not grown weary.4 But I have this against you, that you left your first love.5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your lamp stand out of its place, unless you repent.
Our first love should be Jesus and Him alone. That is such an easy thing to say, but it’s hard to figure out just how that happens. A few weeks ago, I was reading the news highlights online and succumbed to “clickbait.” I found myself reading an article titled “The reason for Tom Brady’s divorce.” I’m not a big NFL fan. As a matter of fact, the only NFL player that I know of at present is Tom Brady. But it caught my attention. As I read the article, I suspected that either he or she had gotten into an affair with another person. But there was no mention of any infidelity. There was no illness. There was no death of a child or any such traumatic event that precipitated the divorce. For lack of attention to the relationship, the couple just grew apart. In an interview with People Magazine, Tom explained that he would play the season and had no time for his family. And then, when the season was over, he would jump headlong into all of his business interests. He said his wife, Gisele, quietly sat on the sidelines in his blind spot. She had goals, too.
The most revealing statement in the article was when Brady said, “The only time I can find peace is when I am on the football field.” Reader, we fall out of love with our first love when we are attracted to the wrong things and distracted from the right things. Brady let himself become distracted from his wife and children. Tom Brady was distracted from the most important role in his life: being a father to his children and a husband to his wife. He found peace only in football, which is a scary thought when you’re at the end of your football career. Tom Brady forgot his first love, and he’ll never get back what he has lost. That’s a good picture of forgetting our first love.
The first message in chapter two is to the Church in Ephesus. We believe that John was living in Ephesus for much of his later life. Many scholars think that he moved to Ephesus with Mary, the mother of Jesus, after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. He then lived there for approximately 20 years until he was exiled to Patmos around 90 AD.
Ephesus is on the far western coast of modern-day Turkey. It was a very rich city with every earthly distraction you could imagine. Ephesus was a BIG DEAL. I have been there, and my breath was taken away by the expanse of the city. It had a huge library, miles of paved streets, and buildings. The ruins are like nothing I’ve seen anywhere else. The city amphitheater held 25,000 spectators. Many of us who live in the United States are surrounded by every kind of distraction known to man. Be on your guard. Fight against the distractions. Jesus and He alone must be your first love. When this happens, we must repent and turn back to Him!