The history of the church at Ephesus is both interesting
and sobering. Toward the end of his second missionary journey,
the apostle Paul came to Ephesus and spent a brief time there,
reasoning with the Jews in the synagogue. Acts 18:19-21. Later,
on his third journey, as recorded in Acts 19, Paul came, again,
to Ephesus and found about twelve men who had been baptized by
Apollos unto John's baptism. After Paul taught them more perfectly,
they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul spent about three years in Ephesus, preaching,
teaching, disputing, warning, crying, healing, and persuading
publicly and from house-to-house. When Paul left, the church was
well established. Then, as he ended his third journey, Paul stopped
at Miletus and called for the elders of the church at Ephesus
to come to him. Acts 20:17-38. He called them to record that he
had not shunned to declare unto them all the counsel of God. He
charged them to faithfully shepherd - feed - the flock and to
take heed unto themselves. He warned them that grievous wolves
would enter among them would even arise from among their own selves
speaking perverse things and drawing away disciples after them!
Paul commended them to God and to the word of His grace. He said
the word was able to build them up and to give them an inheritance
among all them which are sanctified. He left them with hugs, prayers,
kisses, and tears.
A few years later, Paul wrote a letter to the
faithful saints at Ephesus. We often refer to it as the book of
Ephesians. Paul wrote this letter while "in bonds."
(6:20) He reminded them that they, in the past, had "walked
according to the course of this world." He wrote, "That
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having
no hope, and without God in the world." They had been dead
in sins. (2:1-5) But, by the grace of God through the preaching
of the gospel of peace and their obedience to that gospel, they
had been quickened - made alive; they had been raised up and brought
back to God by the blood of Christ!
Paul had evidently received an encouraging report
of their "faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the
saints," and he ceased not to give thanks for them in his
prayers. (1:15-16). He wrote encouraging words to them - that
they not faint but be strengthened with might by the Holy Spirit
of God in the inner man. (3:13, 16). He begged them to walk worthy
of the vocation by which they had been called. (4:1) He urged
them not to walk in the vanity of their minds, but to walk in
love as Christ has loved us. (4:17,5:2). He admonished them to
walk as children of light; circumspectly not as fools. (5:8, 15)
About thirty years later, when Jesus Christ gave
His Revelation to John on the isle of Patmos, we find another
picture of the church of Ephesus. (Revelation 2:1-7) Something
basic to their hope had changed. They had maintained their labor
and patience. They would not tolerate evil people, exposed false
apostles, and hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans; they had not
fainted. Nevertheless, Christ had one thing against them they
had left their first love. (4-5) This one thing was so serious
that, if they would not repent of it and do the first works, the
Lord threatened to come and remove their candlestick out of his
place. They would cease, in the eyes of God, to be the church
of Christ!
What a sobering warning to the Lord's church in
every locality today. Through years of defending the faith, they
had evidently allowed their on-going labor against false teachers
and false doctrine to separate themselves from their first love
the fresh, innocent, motivating love of saving the lost and faithfully
caring for the church that had so dominated the early days of
their Christian service. Christ pleaded with them to remember
how it was in the beginning, to repent, and to do these first
works.
We would do well to examine our own congregations.
Have we left our first love? -Rt. 5 Box 1468, Salem, WV 26426.