Grace Notes // Letters to the Churches
To the Church of Ephesus, “Return to Your First Love”
Written by Kelly Burton
The church in Ephesus might look pretty familiar to people living in DC. It was a large, wealthy, important city and the center of trade and commerce in Asia minor at the time. It was home to two agoras and the temple of Artemis. There was a lot going on in Ephesus and a lot to pursue.
When the Lord speaks to the church in Ephesus through the letter in Revelation 2, He commends them for their hard work and perseverance, and for the hardships they have endured for His name. However, the Lord then points out a place of correction: that the church in Ephesus has lost the love they had for Him at first. He goes so far as to exclaim “Consider how far you have fallen!” (Rev. 2:5). He tells them to repent and do the things they did at first. If they do not, He will remove their lampstand from its place. It’s not that God wants to take away their light, but that if the church doesn’t do things out of love and connection to Christ, they will lose their message and mission for the city of Ephesus.
How often do we find ourselves working hard but our hearts aren’t in it? We throw ourselves so hard into what we think God wants us to do that we lose sight of why He wanted us to do it in the first place. It is all too easy to get caught up in the day to day. Even good things, like ministry, growth, success in the things God has called us to, can get in the way of what really matters. And the consequence for not keeping your heart close to God – even if you are working hard in His name – is that you will lose the light that you carry to those around you. The centrality of the heart matters more to God than the work you do or what you produce.
There are three things we can do to make sure we are loving God well.
Guard your heart
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” – Proverbs 4:23
Listen to His voice
Obey the things He is really asking you to do
Sometimes God’s voice comes like rushing water. It is a voice that continually calls you deeper and deeper. It can feel like you’re in over your head, about to head over a waterfall and you can’t control it. That’s where a lot of us pull back. It’s too scary to be entirely swept away like that. We feel like we’ll lose ourselves and all sense of control.
But that’s kind of the point. The call isn’t to control it. The call is to let that water completely wash over you; to go over the waterfall into whatever God is asking from you. When you do that, you actually become more fully alive in the person that He made you to be. And it becomes easier to cut through the clutter of who you think you should be, or what you think you should be doing for Him, and get to the heart of what He truly wants from you – for you to love Him.
PROCESSING
What does it look like to right your heart?
What does it look like to really listen to God’s voice? What is He trying to tell you?
What is God really asking you do and what does it look like to follow that in simple obedience?
SCRIPTURES
Revelation 2:1-7
Matthew 12:33-37
Ezekiel 43
Ezekiel 47