Résumés. Most of us have them. You know the documents we come up with to note down our work experience, skills we have gained and the names of people who can vouch for us. I’ve seen brief ones and detailed ones. I’ve seen basic ones and sophisticated ones. Regardless of their appearance, résumés always show highlight reels of our expertise and are curated in a way that will guarantee that the applicant will get the position they are after.

Interestingly, résumés do not explain our experience navigating the positions we’ve held. Maybe you got promoted to the manager position but your résumé doesn’t show the times you would cry in the toilet because of how stressful the job was. Maybe you have 5 years work experience but for 3 of those years, you were having health complications but you still kept showing up. On the flip side, the brief nature of your résumé might not adequately show how much you loved your job and how excited you were every day you went into the office.

So Victor, what do résumés have to do with the letter to the church in Ephesus? Well, I’m glad you asked. In his instructions to John, Jesus reviews the résumé of the church in Ephesus. He starts by giving them a commendation if you may, of all the things that they are great at.

Revelation 2:2-3 NIV
I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, 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.

If we would pause there, we would undoubtedly say that this church is doing amazing! Hard work? Check. Perseverance? Check. Endurance? Check. Not following false teachers? Check. Great job church in Ephesus!

However, before we look at the correction part of this letter, we need to understand the context of this church. It was to this same church that Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians. In his letter, Paul did not just go straight into telling the church what they were supposed to do. In Ephesians 1 – 3, Paul made sure that they first understood who they were in Christ (their identity). Because it is from an understanding of their identity in Christ that they would have love for Him and their good works would ordinarily flow. In fact, Paul makes it clear to them that they do not earn their salvation through works, but through grace. When they understood and lived as people who were created in Christ Jesus, they would do good works that God had prepared for them in advance

Ephesians 2:8-10 NIV
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

In Ephesians 4 – 6, Paul then details what they need to do as a result of understanding who they are in Christ . Their works were always meant to be an expression of their love for Jesus.

Paul advises them  to:

Ephesians 5:1-2 NIV
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

It is very clear from the words of Jesus in Revelation 2 that they had obeyed Paul instructions as it related to their deeds:

• Paul asked them to stop stealing and work with their hands (Ephesians 4:28) and Jesus commends them for doing just that (Revelation 2:2)
• Paul urged them not to pay attention to doctrines presented by deceitful people (Ephesians 4:14, 5:6). Jesus says that they have mastered this (Revelation 2:2)
• Paul encouraged them to persevere (Ephesians 6:18) and they did just that (Revelation 2:3)
• Even more commendable is that they hate what Jesus hates (Revelation 2:6)

So what then is the issue?

Jesus says,

Revelation 2:4 NKJV
Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 

In other words, you guys have great deeds but you have forgotten who you were doing them for. The Greek word for left is aphiēmi which can be translated to mean ‘to depart from, to desert, to abandon or to neglect’. They did not lose their first love. It was not stolen from them neither did they misplace it. They left it. They abandoned it.

In my professional experience, I’ve had jobs that I really loved and some which, if I’m being honest, I just did because there was a salary and I needed to pay my bills. Yes I showed up and did both jobs but for one I couldn’t wait for the day to end so I could leave and for the other I couldn’t believe how fast they day had gone because of how much I was enjoying the work.

Please note that Jesus didn’t say that their deeds didn’t matter. Jesus made it clear that He delighted in their good deeds. What Jesus highlights is that He didn’t just care about what they did, He cared about the motivation behind their deeds. Was is out of duty or out of devotion? Was it to just get them over and done with or did they have a sense of joy as they did the works? Was it for show or was it genuine? The only way to know was to check their love meter – and unfortunately for the church in Ephesus, their love was running low.

So what is this first love? I believe it is the same that Jesus declared in Mark 12:30 – 31 – to love the Lord your God will all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbour as yourself. This kind of love would not have been a completely foreign concept for this Ephesian church. It was what they had at first. Now Jesus is urging them to get back to it.

Revelation 2:5 NKJV
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.

This is the charge Jesus gives to the church in Ephesus and that He is still giving to the church today:

Remember:
I am not married (yet) but I’ve heard couples say that during their wedding anniversaries, they rewatch their wedding videos because they want to reminisce and remember how they felt on that day. Because as life happens, it can be easy to forget how deep the love was at first.

Remember how on fire for God you were when you first got saved? Remember how you didn’t know many verses or understand many biblical concepts but you had a genuine desire to learn? Remember how you talked to Jesus as you went about your day about anything and everything? Remember how you longed for the morning to come when you would have your devotion time as you ate breakfast? Remember how you sounded like a broken record telling everyone about Jesus?

Jesus asks us, His church, to recognise how far we have fallen from that first love we had. I heard this quote that struck me – if the devil cannot destroy you, he will distract you. What things has the enemy brought to distract you? What things now have your first love? Jesus says Remember!

Repent
To repent means to change one’s mind. It is not just feeling sorry or remorseful. It is making a conscious choice to turn away and go the other direction. Like taking a U-turn from the wrong road to the right one.

It is what Revelation 2:5 in the Amplified version refers to as changing your inner self, your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior and seeking God’s will.

Jesus asks the church to turn from their loveless deeds and to now make actionable steps towards living a life that is centred on their first love for Christ. This is so important that Jesus says it twice in the same verse. It’s as if Jesus is saying it louder for the people at the back who missed it the first time –  Hey Church, REPENT!!!!

Repeat
I have an unstable relationship with the gym. Some might even call it toxic. It is an on and off relationship. One minute I am being consistent for months on end, the next minute I have taken an indefinite pause.

But, even in my inconsistency, one thing that gives me hope is a term called ‘muscle memory.’ As your muscles grow, they gain nuclei which are retained in the muscle fibres, even during periods of inactivity. When you start working out again, the nuclei speed up protein synthesis and allow the muscles to bounce back. It becomes easier to rebuild muscle than it was for you to the gain it the first time.

Jesus doesn’t tell the church in Ephesus to start doing new things that they have never done before. He is simply asking them to repeat what they did at first – when they still had that first love. Their spiritual muscles remember that first love and it would be much easier for them to return to it.

Jesus gives the same instruction to His church today. It can be easy to be discouraged because of the work it would take to go back to those deeds we did at first, because of how far we have fallen from them.

For the Prodigal son in Luke 15, he had gone a long way away from home and so the journey back to his Father’s house would be equally long. Not to mention he was extremely hungry. But step by step, he made his way back to His Father’s house. And when he got back, he realised that his Father had never forgotten him but had always anticipated for His return. Thank God that we have the Holy Spirit who convicts us and highlights to us the places where we have left our first love and lovingly guides us back.

All of this is not in vain. Jesus says that there is a great reward when we heed his warnings:

Revelation 2:7 NIV
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says!

Blessings,

Victor