(Rev 2:1,4,11 KJV) 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; Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (Rev 2:11 KJV) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Verses one through seven of the second chapter of the Book of Revelation are the record of the Lord's letter to the church of Ephesus in Western Asia Minor, written sometime during the fourth quarter of the first Christian century. This
letter, like most of the Book of Revelation, is written in rather highly figurative language, but figures that convey certain definite spiritual realities. We shall allow the record to speak for itself.

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who w.a1ks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you "hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

He who has an ear, .let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.

The author of this letter is Jesus Christ, the living Son of God. The transmitter was John the Revelator. The revealer and interpreter of the message was the Holy Spirit.

The letter was probably written primarily to the minister, here called "a star," or an "angel," the messenger to the church of Ephesus. While probably addressed primarily to the minister of the Ephesian church, the letter was nevertheless intended ultimately for the members of the church also, which church is represented here under the figure of a "candlestick," or
"lampstand." The message is the Word of God, "sharper than any two-edged sword" (Heb. 4:12a). It should be noted that the two-edged sword of God's Word has the special significance of both judgment and mercy, as it has throughout the Scriptures. This is likewise evident in the flaming sword in the hand of the cherubim at the entrance to Eden, which sword turned every direction. One edge was punitive judgment for their disobedience. The other edge was mercy that prevented them from reentering Eden and thus eating of the tree of life and living forever in their sins.

Paul founded the church at Ephesus on his third missionary journey. It was here that the church was first established in the home of Priscilla and Aquila. Here the twelve disciples (sometimes mistakenly referred to as the disciples of John the Baptist) received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit under the ministry of Paul (Acts 19:2-6); here the eloquent Apollos, from Alexandria in Egypt, was led into the deeper spiritual life by Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:24); here a great spiritual awakening occurred under the ministry of Paul (Acts 19); and here the great apostle to the Gentiles labored for over two years to establish the Ephesian church and to evangelize western Asia Minor (Acts 20:31).

Timothy was the pastor of the Ephesian church when Paul wrote the two pastoral epistles to him; and tradition has it that the apostle John was later pastor of this church, and that he finally died in Ephesus at a very advanced age. Another tradition holds that Jesus' mother, Mary, spent her last days in the church at Ephesus. Thus the Ephesian church, like many churches since, had a rich spiritual heritage. It had a great moral and spiritual responsibility, as great privilege always entails great responsibility. The words of the text of this message indicate that these Christians had, unfortunately, fallen from their original spiritual eminence: They had left their first love.

The Lord's Fourfold Commendation of the Ephesian Church

In the first instance Christ commends them for their deeds, their toil and their patient endurance: "I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance" (v. 2). Paul ends his great dissertation on love in the first Corinthian letter with the famous trilogy expressed in his conclusion: "But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13:13). Again he commends the Thessalonian Church thus: "Constantly bearing in In mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope ill our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father (1 Thess. 1:3). Now it will be observed that while the Thessalonian Christians had added to their faith, work, to their love, labour, and to their hope, steadfast patience, or perseverance, these Ephesian Christians had retained, as but empty shells of profession, their works devoid of faith, their toil devoid of love, and their patience or steadfast endurance, devoid of hope. They maintained their profession of Christianity while having lost the content or reality of the Christian experience.

The Lord commends the Ephesian Christians for their aversion to evil: 'I know. ..that you cannot endure evil men" (v. 2); and again, "Yet this you do have that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate" (v. 6). It appears that the evil men of verse two and the Nicolaitans of verse six are the same. These same evildoers are condemned in the letter to Pergamos (Rev. 2:14-16), and are likely referred to in the letter to Thyatira (Rev. 2:20-22). The Nicolaitans are named specifically but twice in the New Testament (Rev. 2:6, 15). Some suppose these Nicolaitans to have been antinolnians, or men who denied that Christians were bound by the moral law, and that sin ceased to be sin for those who had faith in Christ.! Ramsey holds that the Nicolaitans were pseudo-Christians who tried to bring about a compromise, first with Graeco-Roman society, which held customs that were both luxurious and idolatrous; and second, to effect a compromise through compliance with the Roman state, and for a show of loyalty through burning incense the statue of the emperor.

Irenaeus held that these Nicolaitans were the followers of Nicolaus of Antioch who was a proselyte converted at Pentecost and became one of the seven men chosen to serve the distribution of provisions to the Hellenist Christian widows (see Acts 6:5) Ireaeus held that Niclaus had forsaken sound Christian doctrine and With his followers lived in unrestrained fleshly indulgence. This position was Confirmed by Hippolytus who said the Nicolaitans were indifferent concerning what a man ate or how he lived. Clement of Alexandria said that the followers of Nicolaus misunderstood and perverted his teachings and lived in shameless indulgence. Drumwright sees a possible allusion to the doctrines of Balaam who seduced "the Israelites to immoral an idolatrous unions with the women of Moab" (Num. 25:1-31:16). Refraining from idolatry and fornication were two of the four prohibitions laid upon Gentile converts for membership in the Christian church at the first general, church council (Acts 15:28, 29), the other two requirement being abstention from violence ("blood"), and the eating of unbutchered meat ("things strangled"). It would appear from the letter to Pergamum that the teachings and practices of the Nicolaitans were related to, if not identical with, those of Balaarn who seduced the Israelites to compromise with evil by eating meat sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication, with the Moabitish women (Rev. 2:14,15; cf. Gal. 5:13).

Drumwright says: They were a people who used Christian liberty as an occasion for the flesh, against such Paul" warned (Gal. 5:13). The enticement to such a course of action was the pagan society in which Christians lived where eating meat offered to idols was common. Sex relations outside marriage were completely acceptable in such a society. The Nicolaitans attempted to establish a compromise with the pagan society of the Graeco-Roman world that surrounded them. The people most susceptible to such teachings were, no doubt, the upper classes who stood to lose the most by a separation from the culture to which they had belonged before conversion.

It would appear that the Nicolaitans doctrine was an insipid form of Gnosticism which held that only the spirit of the believer was the recipient of grace and the body, which was the source of evil, was of little worth, the destruction of which through dissipation would be a benefit in releasing the spirit from its evil bodily prison. Eusebius held that the Nicolaitan doctrines did not last long. This may be true unless it was but a phase of Gnosticism which indeed plagued the early church and bore its fruit in the later ages of the church. Nor is present-day Christianity entirely free from this brand of teaching, as is evident in the so-called Christian situation ethic. In any event, the Ephesian Christians had not compromised their ideals, principles, or practices. For this they are commended of the Lord. And in this they were far superior to much of the contemporary church that has sacrificed its ideals, principles, and practices on the altar of worldly compromise with secular theology, situation ethics, and even sexual immorality as expressed in pre- and extra-marital sex and homosexuality. Christ commends the church for its strict doctrinal orthodoxy and discernment of falsehood: ". ..you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false" (v. 2b). There may have been, other apostles than the original twelve in the first century, but that there were false pretenders to Christian apostleship among the apostles, Judaizers, or Jewish Christian legalists, who deceived the Christians and led them astray is certainly, evident. The Ephesian Christians still knew and adhered to sound doctrine, rejecting false teaching; and for this the Lord commends them most heartily. Again, we may ask, has the contemporary church measured up to this standard? Christ commends them for their patient endurance, and steadfastness.

They were under severe Roman persecution at that time for the sake of Christ's name, for which they suffered: "And you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. Thus Christ commends the Ephesian Christians for their works, labor, and steadfast patience, their aversion to evil and their endurance of suffering for His name's sake.

The Lord's Condemnation of the Ephesian Church

This condemnation consists of a single charge, though that charge is an all-important one: "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love" (v. 4). This charge has three implications.

In the first place, the loss of their first love meant the loss of the spiritual content of their Christian experience John declared in his epistle that "God is love" (1 John 4:8b) and in his gospel he made love the very foundation and fountainhead of salvation: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). To lose the first love from Christian experience is to lose the vitality of that experience. To lose God's love is to lose Christ's presence.

The second implication of the charge is that their first love had been supplanted by a second love. Man is so constituted psychologically that one affection, if lost, must be replaced by another. The stronger affection must win in the emotional tug-of-war in the soul of man. Exactly what the second love of these Ephesians may have been we are not told. That their first love for Christ may have been exchanged for a formal profession of religion that supplanted a vital spiritual relationship appears likely.

The third implication of this charge points to their inevitable weakness and ultimate spiritual and moral degeneracy, unless they should experience restoration to their first love.

The story is told of a once-famous old religious campground in the South where many people were richly blessed in other days, but which had long since fallen into a state of disuse and disrepair. It is said that the archway to the entrance had the fitting name of the camp, which evidently had been the name of the founder, the "has-been Camp".

Likewise, over the door of the church at Ephesus might have been written the condemnation by the Lord: "You have left your first love"; "Ichabod," the glory has departed, "The Has Been Church."

The Lord's Exhortation to the Ephesian Church

This is an exhortation to restoration, which implies four clearly outlined steps.

They are first challenged to "remember" their former spiritual benefits and blessings: "Remember therefore from where you have fallen" (v. 5). Spiritual restoration begins with reflection. Not until one makes comparison of the unfavorable present with the favorable past will the desire for lost benefits be reawakened. It was when the Master compassionately looked at Peter and the" cock crew, that "Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, 'Before a cock crows today, you will deny Me three times,[and] he went outside and wept bitterly" (Luke 22:61, 62).

Remembrance of the former benefits and blessings from Jesus was more than Peter could bear. The discovery or review of old photographs or possessions of earlier days, such as love letters, wedding anniversaries, family reunions and memorial days, all eloquently testify to the power of memory to awaken anew emotions long buried and dormant. It was such a reflection that produced in the prodigal son the disposition and purpose to return to his father's home: "But when he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father' (Luke 15:17, 18a).

The second step in return to the lost first love is "repentance." "Repent," said the Lord to the Ephesians. Repentance has been defined as a godly sorrow for sin with a consequent turning there from. It involves sorrow for the loss of Christ's favor and presence, by evil attitudes and action against Him, and a purpose to forsake sinful rebellion. But repentance is more than sorrow for sin. It involves a change of mind and a new course of conduct. Repentance is conversion as well as sorrow for sin committed against God. John the Baptist exhorted his hearers:

Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with your repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father'; for I say to you, that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. And the ax is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire (Matt. 3:8-10).

This definition of repentance is vividly portrayed in that experience of the prodigal son. As he draws up his resolutions to return home we hear him saying: "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men. And he got up and came to his father" (Luke 15:18b20a) To repent means to change one's mind and course of conduct.

The third stage in the return to the first love which they had lost was "reconstruction ": "do the deeds you did at first (v. 5), or when you first came to Christ. Weymouth's translation of this fifth verse is most illuminating: "be mindful therefore, of the height from which you have fallen. Repent at once and act as you did at first, or else I will surely come and remove your lampstand out of its place-unless you repent" (v. 5). Reconstruction must ever accompany repentance and return to make them valid. This is made evident in the great redemptive work of Christ outlined in Revelation 1:5b-6a, which reads thus: "To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father."
Having "loved us," and "released us" from our sins, he "made us' anew. God's redemptive work is a work of reconstruction, but we also have our part in that spiritual and moral reconstruction. To the Philippians Paul wrote: "So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12, 13). Sin and departure from God destroy man's ideals and relationship with God, but grace enables the repentant and restored sinner to rebuild the life for God that sin has wasted.

The final stage in the repentant soul's return to God is "reanimation": "To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God" (v. 7b). Here appears to be an allusion to the original tree of life in the garden of Eden from which man was barred through sin: "So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life" (Gen. 3:24). The forsaking of sin and return to God is always a return to spiritual animation. Said Paul, "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you" (Rom. 8: 11). There was joy and feasting on the occasion of the prodigal son's return (Luke 15:23-24) as also at the restoration of Lazarus (John 12:1-2), and there was spiritual animation consequent upon the deliverance of the penitent whose return is described in Psalm 40, and at the conversion of the Ethiopian nobleman under the ministry of Philip (Acts 8:39). God is a living God, and restoration to His favor means the impartation of His life here as well as hereafter. Said Jesus: "I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly" (John 10:10b).

The Lord's Stern Warning to the Ephesian Church Against the Danger of Final Reprobation

Hear His words: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (v. 7a); and again: "or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place-unless you repent" (v. 5b). The church is to God as the lamp stand is to the light it reflects. It is the holder and reflector of the light. It matters not how bright, burnished and conspicuous the lampstand may be, if that lampstand is devoid of oil and the light is extinguished, the lampstand is of no further practical value. It may serve for ornamental purposes, but all will be dark when the light has gone out. Such was the case with the Ephesians. They retained the profession of religion in their works, toil, endurance, moral ideals and strict orthodoxy; but they had lost the light of their first love. The lampstand stood there to no use. Said Christ: Either replenish the oil and light it again with divine love, and illumine the church and the world, or "else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent, says the Lord. The writer has often thought, with a sense of mixed amusement and pity, on the misstatement of an old gentleman who avowedly trusted for salvation in his membership in a secret order. Said he, I am a candlestick for heaven," obviously meaning that he was a "candidate" for heaven. How sad that so many Christian and church members, who like my old lodge member friend are no longer anything more than candlesticks or empty lampstands without light.

When the flame of Christian love burns low and finally dies out of the life of the Christian or the church, Christ will eventually, but sadly, remove the lampstand and close the door of the dark and deserted sanctuary. Said Christ: 'If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned" (John 15:6).

That the Ephesian church heeded the Master's warning repented, and found restoration to the favor and fellowship of God is evident from the fact that it flourished for several centuries. So, likewise, may any Christian who has lost this first love heed the admonition and warning of the Lord and repent, return, and be restored to again experience the joy of the Lord, and bear fruit unto righteousness to the glory of God. To the Ephesian church, the Spirit said, even as He is saying to the spiritually alienated church and individual today: "To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God" (v. 7b).

The unusual account is given of a couple who had been deeply in love, but whose marriage had unfortunately ended in the divorce court. Following the divorce, for which the man was responsible, this former lover and husband began to awaken to a sad sense of being alone and longing for reunion with his former wife and lover. Finally, overcome by an intense desire for his lost lover, he decided to pay her a visit at her parents home, to which she had repaired after the divorce. There he told her of his love and longing for restoration to he companionship.

This lady then presented a most unusual proposition to the man who had been her husband. Said she, "If you really love me as you now profess, you must first apologize for the injury which you have inflicted upon me. Then if you wish me back as you wife, you will have to court, woo and win my love as you did the first time you won me for your bride." The account has it that he accepted her proposition and thus won her again as his lover and wife.

It is such a proposition that the Lord made to the spiritually estranged Ephesian church and it is such a Proposition that He makes to the spiritually estranged individual or church today: "Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; ...To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God" (Rev. 2:5a, 7b). When the church and spiritually alienated Christians remember from whence they have fallen, repent and do the first works and return to God as at first, there will be a gracious revival of their love relation with the Lord Jesus Christ. .

The Lord's Gracious Promise to Those Who Return to His Loving Favor

"To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God" (v. 7b). What more wonderful promise could man have from a loving Savior? Man began in the Garden of God (Eden), where he had access to the tree of life, but he sinned and thus lost his access to that tree which God had planted on earth in Eden. Through the meritorious work of Christ, God planted another tree of life, this time a spiritual tree "in the Paradise of God," to which He offers access to all repentant and returning sinners. No man need experience the final loss of his soul in eternity. There is a way to overcome sin and return to the favor of God in Christ. That way has been set forth in this message. The alienated church, and the penitent sinner alike, may overcome by repentance and return to God, and again eat of the fruit of the tree of life "in the Paradise of God," and thus have life everlasting. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches"
1 (Rev. 2:7).