Original Entry: March 9, 2008
McMinnville, OR
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. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place. Revelations 2:2-5
For the past two years I have maintained a hectic teaching schedule. I teach on Sunday mornings, Tuesday nights, lead a high school small group on Monday nights, and lead an adult home group on Wednesday nights. Recently I have been sharing this with my adult home group as a prayer request, planning on pulling out of two of my teaching requirements in June, but last week changed all of that. The group chose a spokesman and he walked up to me, put his arm around me and smiled, “Jim, we are firing you as our Bible study leader. We just want you to be a part of our group from now on.”
My mind began to race. “We are just finishing Ephesians chapter 3 and I have three chapters to go,” I reasoned. Being the obsessive finisher that I am, I began to bargain with him to let me at least lead until we are done with Ephesians.
After I went home that night and processed his words, it struck me that I wanted to finish Ephesians only for the sake of finishing, which is a distorted line of reasoning. My heart should have (should be) been to benefit the spiritual health of my family, the group, and my personal well being but I place finishing ahead of all three.
Ironically in Revelations chapter two we learn that the church at Ephesus was the same way. They had become experts at sniffing at lies and they had continued in their good works and “not grown weary (Galatians 6:9).” This was a committed church, a strong church, a church with a persevering spirit. This was the kind of church that would picket abortion clinics, protest the Gay Pride parades and write letters to the editor of their local newspapers. This was an activist church.
But they were a church that had “left (their) first love.” They persevered for the sake of finishing, served for the sake of serving, and protested the world’s wrongs simply because it was the right thing to do. They had, in fact, become so proficient in doing these things that they had forgotten about the most important thing. They had worked on the marriage but had rejected the romance. They were playing the game but forgot the love.
They were distorted in their line of reasoning. This got me thinking, “Why do men go to church every Sunday?” Is it for the worship, fellowship and teaching? If so, then his thinking is also distorted. He should go to church because of his love for the King. He should serve others because he loves his God. He should fight for the weak and fatherless because Jesus fought for his love. He should go to war over the atrocities of this world only because he loves Jesus.
He, Jesus, is the first motivation and the first love of the godly man!
