First Love
"I know your works and your labour and your patience... Nevertheless, I have somewhat against you because you have left your first love". Revelation 2:2-4 This note from Jesus to some of his followers describes a problem that often arises in marriages as well as in our relationship with God. But we can also draw a lesson from it that could apply to Christians. During courtship love is highly emotional, immature, and based primarily on the exciting prospect that the other person loves you. Over time, we learn to be faithful, to give as well as to receive, and to forgive. All of this goes to produce a superior form of love, which the world is sadly lacking today. But there are aspects of the courtship love which need to be preserved and nurtured throughout marriage. Emotions are not as important as faithfulness; but they are important all the same. And those emotions usually stem from our conviction that the other person loves us. In our service to God, we should not lose sight of the fact that what he has given to us is good news. Sure, he wants us to be faithful and obedient. He wants us to give up everything for him and go everywhere telling others to do the same. But it is very easy to make this sound like bad news instead of good news. The bottom line is that God loves us and wants to make our lives full and rewarding. Perhaps we need to be given the freedom to break the rules before we can begin to really appreciate them. That was the advantage the prodigal son had over his older brother. When he returned after a period of 'independence' he was far wiser than the brother who had never dared to question his father's authority. (Luke 15:11-32) Tragically, most prodigals never return and it is often because of fear that they will be condemned.
The church at Ephesus worked hard and faithfully, and they exposed the false teachers of their day, who excused disobedience (Revelation 2:2-3). Jesus commends them highly for this. But he still says, almost with a sigh, "Nevertheless... you have left your first love." The romance of 'first love' is not a necessity for salvation; but without it, love can become something of a drudge. And what was their first love? Wasn't it the love that John spoke of when he said, "Here is [true] love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us." (I John 4:10) Think back to the romance of human love. Wasn't it the excitement of finding someone who trusted you? Or who promised to care for and protect you? And so the 'first love' for us as Christians is to remember that, before anything else, "while we were yet sinners" Christ loved us... enough to die for us. (Romans 5:8) Right from the start Jesus expected obedience; but everything about the bitter pill that he asks us to swallow is sugar-coated in reminders of his love and of his desire only to do what is good for us. (See John 15:11-16) And we must keep this in mind ourselves when we make demands on one another. If God can endure so quietly and so patiently all the disobedience of the human race for so many years, perhaps we, too, can give people a little more time to come to a personal realisation of the reasoning behind some rules before we set out so eagerly to enforce them.
The church at Ephesus worked hard and faithfully, and they exposed the false teachers of their day, who excused disobedience (Revelation 2:2-3). Jesus commends them highly for this. But he still says, almost with a sigh, "Nevertheless... you have left your first love." The romance of 'first love' is not a necessity for salvation; but without it, love can become something of a drudge. And what was their first love? Wasn't it the love that John spoke of when he said, "Here is [true] love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us." (I John 4:10) Think back to the romance of human love. Wasn't it the excitement of finding someone who trusted you? Or who promised to care for and protect you? And so the 'first love' for us as Christians is to remember that, before anything else, "while we were yet sinners" Christ loved us... enough to die for us. (Romans 5:8) Right from the start Jesus expected obedience; but everything about the bitter pill that he asks us to swallow is sugar-coated in reminders of his love and of his desire only to do what is good for us. (See John 15:11-16) And we must keep this in mind ourselves when we make demands on one another. If God can endure so quietly and so patiently all the disobedience of the human race for so many years, perhaps we, too, can give people a little more time to come to a personal realisation of the reasoning behind some rules before we set out so eagerly to enforce them.