By Bro Kenneth Yoder
Revelation 2:1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; 2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: 3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. 4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. 6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Ephesus was the greatest city in the Roman province of Asia. It was a seaport, and by far the largest city of the seven in Revelation, it also was the most important from any point of consideration: religiously, politically, or commercially. It was a religious center, the home of the temple and worship of the mother-goddess Diana. The early church had a lot of false religion to face. They didn't labor in a vacuum, in a "religion less" world. They went out into a world full of religion.
Not only was Ephesus the center of worship of the mother-goddess Diana, but it was also the location of two temples devoted to Emperor worship and the home of all kinds of superstition and magic. When the Apostle Paul preached there and people were converted, the Scripture records in Acts 19:19, "Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver." That is a tremendous amount of money. They had a bonfire, and on occasion, I believe we ought to have one today.
The church at Ephesus, at the time the book of Revelation was written, was probably the greatest church on the face of the earth. It was the scene of Paul's greatest ministry. All the other seven congregations in Asia were established from Ephesus, a center of evangelism and a powerful church (Acts 19:10).
Sometimes we entertain the idea that the greatest cannot be in much danger, but the greatest church in that day was in trouble. They were in trouble in a way that most people would not recognize; they had lost their love. Many times only the Lord, who can look into the heart, knows when we are in this type of trouble.
These folks had kept up their religious efforts. They were hard working; they toiled and labored. They had patience, and they endured all kinds of difficulties. In spite of all this, however, there was something that the Lord saw which displeased Him, and it was a serious thing. Too often we feel that if a thing can't be seen, it is not serious; but brother, that is not the way the Lord feels about it. To the Lord, they are often more serious than the things that can be seen,
Some churches feel that they have things pretty well hidden, but that is never true. Jesus always knows. If you would read the first chapter of Revelation, you can't miss the fact that Jesus Christ personally dwells among His churches or congregations. Christ dwells in the midst of His people.
Let me tell you, the Lord knows what is going on. Those seven golden candlesticks are the seven churches, and Christ is in the midst of them. He is present, my friend, wherever God's people gather together. One of the first things He says when He begins to address each of these churches is, "I know thy works." Today, He is in the midst of His people, and He knows what is going on among them.
We read in Revelation 2:1, "Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks." As we have already learned, Ephesus was possibly the greatest church of that day and time, and the Lord visited them to investigate their situation and to bring either encouragement and inspiration or correction and judgment.
I want to stop long enough to clarify something. Generally speaking the word "angel" means a "heavenly being," but in this particular text, the idea of a "messenger" would be preferred over that of a heavenly being. The use of this word "angel" as "messenger" has support both in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament in its usage. The angel here is identified with the church leader, the leader of the congregation. We would call them a pastor in our terminology today.
Even though these messages were addressed to the "angel" of the churches, it is clear from the context of the message that it was not only intended for the leaders, but for the entire church. Revelation 2:1 tells us that Jesus walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. First, this indicates the constant, watchful care of our Lord over His churches.
In the Bible, particularly in the Revelations, Jesus is revealed to us as the triumphant warrior, doing battle for His people, watching over His people, and leading them on to victory. Jesus walking in the midst of His people means there is a constant watchful care that He exercises in every church, watching over them and their spiritual welfare and taking care of their needs. The second thing He implies is that He is there also for searching and inspection. Jesus is looking us over and inspecting us, not to be a faultfinder, but to point out to us those areas wherein we err so that we might be better able to please and serve Him.
In Revelation 2:2 we read, "I know thy works." Something similar to this is said in every one of the seven letters. This assures us that the Lord understands our situation, that He knows our struggles. As He exercises His constant, watchful care, He is aware of the things that the people of God are facing. It not only indicates that Jesus has knowledge whenever there is a failure, but He also knows when we are faithful. I believe the word "works" represents the entire course of their life, their entire conduct how they had lived.
Let us read verses 2-3: " I know thy works, and thy labour [hard work], and thy patience [endurance], and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast not fainted." All these things are positive, every one of them. Every one of them is a plus. Every one of them is something with which Jesus credited the church.
These things refer to their efforts and toil in maintaining the truth and their efforts to keep out false teachers. Brother, it is a toil and a labor to maintain the truth. You can have the truth and lose it. You have to maintain it; it is not maintained automatically. It takes toil, it takes discernment, and it takes being able to distinguish between what is right and wrong. This church at Ephesus had tried those who claimed to be apostles, and found them to be false apostles. I want you to understand that the Lord was commending them on their toil and efforts in maintaining the truth.
Did you know- that it takes a lot of effort to keep the church clean? It takes a lot of labor, and sometimes people get to the place where they become tired. People simply get tired of the battle, and then yield to the temptation of relaxing their efforts. They conclude, "What's the use?" Every one of us face this temptation to give up the fight, but this is a continuous battle that must be fought. There will always be effort required to maintain the truth. You can have a firm grip on the truth, but all it takes is one generation to remove a people completely from it.
In warning the elders at Ephesus, Paul said in Acts 20:29-30: "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."
Also, when writing to Timothy, who was at Ephesus, Paul said, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." This church, having been warned that there would be false teachers, fortified themselves against them. They took heed to Paul's warning. In fact, it was many years after Paul's warning that the Lord commended them in their successful resistance against false teachers.
I want you to see that these were earnest and serious people. These were not careless and indifferent folks; these were not folks who didn't care about doctrine. In fact, these folks cared very much about doctrine; they cared very much about how people lived. They were not a group of people who were indifferent and careless.
Brother, they were energetic for the Lord; they had fought for the truth and done it for a long time, by the way. The word translated "patient" here means "enduring for a long period of time." They had been patient and endured over a long period of time.
Christ said He knew how they could not tolerate them which were evil. The word "evil" does not so much refer to evil conduct, but evil in the sense of those who have misled people with their false teachings. In the Bible, those who lead people away from God and holiness are regarded as wicked, evil men. The Bible tells us that the Ephesians tried these men and found them to be liars. How did they try them? By careful scrutiny with the Word of God. You have to know the Word of God to be able to determine whether or not any teaching is true or false.
Ephesus was outstanding in their ability to distinguish between the truth and error. They had spiritual discernment whereby they could tell the difference between a true and a false teacher. They refused to tolerate these false teachers. Some of these other congregations tolerated false teachers in their midst, but Ephesus would not and did not. They were outstanding in their doctrinal purity.
If we could have visited that congregation, we would have found a people standing flat-footed for the truth as preached by the Apostles. We would have considered it a faultless congregation, but from the Lord's point of view, something was unsatisfactory. Verse 3 repeats, "And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast thou laboured, and hast not fainted." This very language suggests to us that the problem they faced was not a temporary, short-lived problem. It was a problem, my friend, which required continual, steadfast endurance; it required them to toil persistently. These folks were deeply committed to the truth of the Word of God.
Let's go on to verse 4, "Nevertheless [notwithstanding that which has gone before, even with all these good qualities] I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." Here, when Jesus talked about leaving their first love, He did not have reference to their letting down on the standard of the teachings of the Word of God. They had not allowed false doctrine, false teachers, or immorality.
When He said, "Thou hast left thy first love," we shouldn't understand that this has reference to a condition like the Laodiceans, who were careless, indifferent and lukewarm. These folks at Ephesus did not fall into that category. They were not that kind of people.
Their problem was of a different kind. The struggle that they had experienced with the false teachers had seriously affected their love one for another. Hatred for false doctrine can create harsh attitudes for one another, if we are not careful to keep our love ablaze in the same proportion as our hatred of false doctrine, we can very easily get into a condition where we lose our spirit of brotherly love. Then we are taught, my friend, to hate one another to prove that we are standing for the truth. We ought to be careful in our struggles against error not to allow them to cause us to become bitter and sour.
I have seen people who have struggled against compromise and who have been in the fight for so long that it has seriously affected their spirit. They preach the truth all right, but they preach it in such harshness. Most of the time, I believe this springs from anger and from frustration of trying to get people to do right.
I have heard men preach what was truth in a spirit of anger, in a spirit that was not intended to draw. It was a repelling spirit; in fact, it was meant to drive people away. Did you know that an entire congregation can become infested with a bitter, hateful attitude? Whenever they are united against what they believe is error, the whole church can have their love affected to such a degree that they all become embittered.
What a warning this letter carries to you and me today! I say again, in our struggle against error or false doctrine, we have to be careful that we do not become bitter or sour ourselves. If we do, our days as God's church are numbered. This is a very serious matter with the Lord.
The folks at Ephesus had many great qualities to be held in admiration, but in spite of those things that were commendable, there was a serious fault. My friend, I want to emphasize the fact that a loss of our love is a serious sin. In fact, the judgment with which Jesus threatened these people was extinction as the Church of God. Now that's how serious it is. Was not Jesus aware that this congregation was the greatest church on the face of the earth at that time? Did He know who He was dealing with? Yes, He did, but brother, all these factors just makes their lack of love more serious.
If Jesus threatened the existence of a congregation which was the greatest in its day for its lack of love, what do you think that message denotes to you and me? Do you think the Word of God that Christ spoke to Ephesus would be less meaningful today than it was then? No, it means just the same today. It means, my friend, that this loss of love is so serious that it can lead to annihilation as God's church.
Too many people don't realize it, but the binding force of God's church is love. When that binding force is curtailed, when love dwindles, it is only a matter of time until that congregation simply will cease to be God's church. You can't live without love and be the Church of God.
He said in verse 5, "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." I don't care how solidly people are standing for doctrinal truth, if they have lost their love, they are fallen, if you lose your love one for another, then you are fallen.
Christ told them in verse 5, ". . . .repent ... .or else. . .." This is a threat that if they did not repent, He was going to come and visit them with judgment. There is a space of longsuffering from the time that a people falls into any sin until the judgment comes, but it is only a matter of time when people refuse to repent.
Someone may ask, "How are we to recover from our loss of love?" We are to recover by repentance. To repent means more than mere acknowledgement. Repentance means more than confession. We can acknowledge and confess our sin, but repentance means to turn from it, to have a change of attitude, a change of heart and conduct. Unless we repent, Jesus will come to us with judgment.
We read in verse 6, "But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." I don't know precisely why the Lord injected this here, but possibly He did so to show us that when we repent of a loss of love, it doesn't mean to give up our hatred for sin and false doctrine. Yes, we can love one another and still hate sin and false doctrine. In fact, the Lord shares in that hatred.
Ephesus was possibly the greatest church in that day, yet Jesus threatened to visit them with a judgment so severe that they would cease to be His church because of its loss of love. That is serious! So many times people don't take this message seriously. Sometimes those who need it the most don't understand the real danger that they face.
There is a personal message for us as a fellowship in this letter. We can't continue to hate one another and remain God's church. Let me speak plainly: any church or group that has been a place of inspiration and power can in a very brief space of time lose all they have ever been for God by a loss of love for one another. .
Brother, this is God's Word, and if we do not take heed to it, we shall all suffer the consequences. It is a tragic thing to have once been an inspiration and then lose that influence for God. You can preach the same message but there is a difference, and that difference is that the peculiar anointing of the Lord is gone.
What are we to do? Let's stay clear of anything that causes us to lose "'our love, but let's not lose our hatred for sin and evil in the meantime, either. The fight against false doctrine can lead to the loss of our love. We can become hard, harsh, critical and divisive. Its right to hate evil, but you have to be careful that this virtue does not become an evil itself.
I believe this quotation is fitting here: "Every virtue carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction. The desire for sound doctrine and the resulting forthright action taken to exclude all false teachers can create a climate of suspicion in which brotherly love can no longer exist" (Mounce).
In our stand for truth and right, if we lose our love, we cease to be God's people. If on the other hand, we begin to champion a false love and begin to tolerate false teachers in the name of love, God hates that also, as we shall see in the letter to Thyatira.
I am disturbed that people do not take the losing of their love as a serious sin. I am disturbed that folks can justify their harshness, bitterness, and hate. I hope the seriousness of losing your love burns in your mind. The seriousness is this, that we cease to be God's people. When we begin to hate, we begin to die.
We read in Revelation 2:7, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh . .. ." The good news is, we can be over-comers of all these conditions if we will. We can be overcomers, and God can bless us with victory. Let us be faithful to our Lord and to one another.