First Love

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Revelation 2:4

I often hear Christians use this verse a lot. However, whenever they use this verse, the intention they seem to convey is that we have fallen away from God.

I'd like to share my perspectives on this verse. The verses prior to this verse actually says this:

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Revelations 2:2-4

The context of the scripture was targeted at the Ephesian Church. From the scripture, they were noted for their zealousness towards God. 

These were their attributes as listed in the verse:

- They were hardworking
- Had great perseverance in doing God's work
- Intolerant towards wicked men 
- Tested the word of self-proclaimed apostles like noble Bereans in Acts 17:11
- Obviously strong in the word
- Endured Hardship for the name of Jesus
- Yet remained strong

They seemed like such perfect Christians, serving the Lord to the fullest and careful in all their ways to honor God. Yet, God held something against them - they had forsaken Him.

How is that possible? The Ephesian church seemed so truly respectable in every way as Christians.

The common evaluation of the Ephesians in this verse is that they have focused more on the outwardly deeds of Christianity than on God himself. But their interpretation implies that God has to have the first place in our hearts, otherwise we fall into the category of the Ephesians in this passage.

Though I do not disagree with the fact that God has to be first place in our hearts, I disagree with the condemnation or inception of guilt with intentions to make people love God more. The only thing this achieves is to ultimately prove that we will never be good enough for God.

I believe, the true definition of forsaking "your First Love" is to forsake "the one who first loved you". There is a huge difference between the two. The first interpretation makes you try to love God more with your own human strength, while the other one relies on the revelation of God's Love for our relationship with God.

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” 1 John 4:16

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4 :19

Therefore, not forsaking God is to live and rely on His Love for us. That is, we love God and His people, because He first loved us. In order to love God more, we have to come to the revelation of His Grace and Unconditional love for us.

Many will quote from verses like Mark 12:30-31:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

The truth is, the Greatest Commandment was given to Israel since Deuteronomy 6, yet for the entire history of Israel as a nation, they always fell short of this commandment. That is, by our mere human strength, we can never attain this state of Love for God. This is a condition that can only be attained through the work of the Spirit in us. The Spirit of the Lord in us produces genuine Love for God in our hearts.

...the fruit of the Spirit is love... Galatians 5:22

About Repentance:

The verse after Revelations 2:4 says this:

Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. Revelations 2:5

God says to the Ephesian Church to repent and do the things they did at first. What does this mean? Was God telling them to do more than they have already done? What else have they not done and what were they doing at first?

To understand this, we have to go back to the book of Ephesians. In Ephesians 1, Paul says this about them:

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. Ephesians 1:15-16

From the beginning of their journey with God, they were noted for these things:

- Their Faith in the Lord

- Their Love for all God's people

Obviously, in their early years, they've developed such love and passion for God, but over the decades, they lost what was more important (i.e. Faith and Love in God) and became distracted with outward things.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Galatians 5:6

At the core of Paul's letter to the Ephesians contains what I believe is God's eventual will for them:
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19

God's message to the Ephesian Church was that they be rooted and established in Love by attaining the surpassing knowledge of the Christ's Love for them so that they may be filled with the fullness of God (i.e. becoming more like God).

Don't become like the Ephesian church as described in Revelations and become side-tracked with "Perfectionist Christianity" and deviate from what truly matters to God. Continue to walk in God as they have walked in God at the beginning and seek to attain the full measure of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21