FIRST LOVE
unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; "I know thy works...thy labor...thy patience...thou canst not bear evil...thou hast tried them that say they are apostles and are not...thou hast borne...hast patience...hast labored...and not fainted
THIS IS QUITE A LIST of positive statements! Great spiritual strength and steadfastness is theirs or else Jesus would never have told the Apostle John to say these things to them! These Ephesians seem to be mega-christians! But "I have somewhat against thee...thou hast left thy first love."
WHO ARE THESE EPHESIANS?
We are introduced to them in Acts 18 & 19. In Acts 19 verses 1-7 we find that the Apostle Paul had his start there with twelve men whom God filled with His Holy Spirit. Next we see Paul persuading synagogue attendees for the next three months in verse 8. After that we discover Paul is teaching for two years in a school run by Tyranus in verses 9 and 10. Special miracles were given by God through the apostle, and after some exorcists met their match with a demon, great revival broke out in verses 17-19. So the Word of God grew mightily!
THESE PEOPLE WERE PRIVILEDGED
to have so much time to hear the deep teaching from Paul, to receive such training. They spread the gospel to all of Asia! Everyone heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ! This great city became a center from which missionaries, trained by Paul, went to establish churches in surrounding towns! These second generation missionaries established most of the churches who received letters from Apostle John as recorded in Revelation 2 & 3.
ALL DID NOT CONTINUE WELL
after the Apostle Paul left them. Gnostic heresy began to cirulate among them, leading men to discount something from either Christ's deity or from His humanity! Paul wrote to them from Rome in 63 A.D. his Epistle to the Ephesians, which was meant to be shared with all the other churches in Asia. (ref.Colossians 4:16) As when Paul first wrote Galatians and then the fuller explanations in Romans, so here Paul first wrote Colossians and then the fuller explanations in Ephesians. In Colossians, Paul focused on the dignity of Christ as the Head of the church, while in Ephesians he focused on the dignity of the church as the Body of Christ. The first three chapters of the book of Ephesians are perhaps the most profound things ever written, covering deep truths about the sovereignty of God, the grace of God, and the call to explore the unsearchable riches of God!
THE APOSTLE JOHN CAME TO LIVE THERE MANY YEARS LATER!
From there he wrote his letter of I John to also circulate among the Asian churches. What he wrote to others, he taught in Ephesus...
1) That God is Life and Light
- showing that the conditions of divine fellowship are to WALK in the light, CONFESS our sins, ACCEPT Christ as propitiation for our sins. - and showing that OBEDIENCE is the test of divine fellowship. John expressed obedience as:
LOVE FOR GOD,
LOVE FOR THE BRETHREN,
AND TO NOT LOVE THE WORLD!.
2) That God is Righteous Love
3) That Faith and Love Overcome the World
And it was John who said that, "We love Him because He first loved us."
WE LOVE HIM BECAUSE...
...because we have reason to love Him
...because He died for our sins
...becasue He alone, freely gives eternal life
...becasue He answers our prayers
...because He gives deep, inner peace
...because He gives every blessing we ever received
...because He is coming back for us some day
...because He sent the Holy Spirit
......who guides us daily
......who comforts us continually
......who abides in us constantly
......who guarantees our sonship
......who shed the love of God abroad in our hearts
It is too bad when WE LOVE HIM IF....
...if He gives us what we want
...if He preserves what we have
...if He protects us and our loved ones
...if He shows us how to go our own way
We love Him...because HE FIRST LOVED US!
HE FIRST LOVED US!
This is not a loop of circular love where we each prompt the other's love. This is more like a love-injection engine where He constantly PUMPS His love into us to keep us running!
...There is no "because" that drives His love
HE ORIGINATES LOVE
Mankind has corrupted love as we did worship as recorded in Romans 1:18-end. All that love was meant to be was slipping away from human understanding untill Jesus came.
HE EXAMPLES LOVE
Jesus, who is God, did not value equality with God as something to greedily cling to, but took with Him NO REPUTATION when He made himself in the fashion and likness and identity of a human servant. He took the death WE deserve so He could give us endless LIFE!
HE DEFINES LOVE
The highest word for love ever known to man was the Greek word AGAPE'. It was a simple word for chatitable giving until Jesus got a hold of it! Now it denotes a love that is based on itself! We love whom or what we value. We value another's beauty, intelligence, helpfulness, strength, mutual interests, or potential "pay-back" rating. Jesus proves His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, He died for us!
HE IS LOVE
I John 4:16 "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. GOD IS LOVE; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Try to imagine the vastness of God's undeservable, unmerited, unending, never fading love ... as clothing to wear, or air to breathe, or as an atmosphere that blankets a planet! Dwell In God's Love!
I find most people in one condition out of three possibilities.
1) They do not believe the amazing love of God
2) They have believed the amazing love of God, but have now believed thoughts inserted into their minds by the Accuser, Deceiver, Liar.
3) There are those who have learned to recognize Satan's false, negative hints about God, and now continue to walk freely and joyfully in God's love.
Today, return to that FIRST LOVE, originator of love, dwelling place called LOVE, that is God.Add your content here