Yahweh had something against the second-generation church located in Ephesus, an ancient seaport near the western shores of modern-day Turkey on the Aegean Sea. Under inspiration (2 Tim 3:16), John the Apostle charged the local church body at Ephesus,
You have left your first
love (Rev
2:4).
In
the English translation above, the emphasis is on the verb have left, but the Greek order
places the object of the verb (love) before the verb (have left) to emphasize the object of the verb (love) –
“Your first love you have left.” Love (Gk., agapen) refers to a very deep and
meaningful love (agape) that is sacrificial and selfless. Though the Ephesian
believers were passionate about doctrinal truth (Rev 2:2-3, 6) at the time of
the writing of Revelation (c. A.D. 95 or 96, but before the assassination of Emperor
Domitian on September 18, A.D. 96), their love had turned cold to the incarnate
truth, Jesus (cf. Jn 14:6). This indictment was more a matter of the heart
rather than the head or will.
The indictment, “Your first love you have left;” provides a logical assumption that when they left their first love, it created a spiritual vacuum, and they replaced it for something else, another
object of love, perhaps. Any person, place, or thing that hinders a believer’s love for
God and others is a sin. Any replacement of our first love competes for the will
of God for our lives and makes us guilty of spiritual idolatry. Thirty years ago,
Paul commended the Ephesians for their love for God and the saints (Eph
1:15-16), but since then, that was no longer the case with the second
generation of believers in Ephesus – “Your first love you have left.”
This
may not sound like a big deal to us when we compare the lack of love as sin to all
of the other kinds of sins out there in the world. Believe it or not, it was/is
a really big deal to Yahweh, this matter of forsaking the prime directive in
all of Scripture: love Yahweh your God with the totality of your being and love
your neighbor as yourself. I am of the opinion that this is the meaning of
leaving your first love. The prime directive for the Ephesian believers had
taken a backseat to something else. This will make more sense as we move along.
There
was this scribe who asked Jesus, Which is the first commandment of all (Mk 12:28, emphasis
mine)? Jesus answered him by quoting from Moses in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 in Mk
12:29-31,
(Deut 6:4) Hear [shama], O
Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
(Deut 6:5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
(Mk 12:29, emphasis mine) Jesus answered him, The first of all the
commandments is: HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.
(Mk 12:30, emphasis mine) AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR
HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH. This
is the first commandment.
(Mk 12:31, emphasis mine) And the second, like it, is this: YOU
SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. There is no other commandment greater
than these.
So, the scribe responded to Jesus’ answer to his question concerning, Which is the first commandment of all (Mk 12:28, emphasis mine)?
(Mk 12:32) … Well
said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and
there is no other but He.
(Mk 12:33) And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Now what Jesus said following the scribe’s understanding is significant because this scribe was spot on, intellectually, on the first and second commands because they were being violated by the vast majority of the spiritual leadership of Israel,
(Mk 12:34a) Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God.
Bear in mind that close (not far) is
not the same as being in the kingdom of God. Recall what Jesus told
Nicodemus who came to Jesus in the night,
(Jn 3:3) … Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
I am of the opinion that when Nick left Jesus that night, he was still spiritually in the dark, but I also believe he was born again later on but not during that nocturnal visitation (cf. Jn 7:50; 19:39). Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea (Mt 27:57; Mk 15:43; Lk 23:50-51; Jn 19:38) were among a handful of the Pharisees who believed that Jesus was the true Messiah. The bulk of the spiritual leadership in Israel died in their sins.
Below are some reasons as to why I believe that you have left your first love (Rev 2:4) is referring to a coldness toward the prime directive of loving God with the totality of our being and loving others as ourselves. You may come up with more. Keep in mind that all the law and the prophets are supported by these two commands alone (Mt 22:40) So they are broad in scope by what’s hanging beneath them!
The Prime Directive:
(Mk 12:30) AND
YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH
ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH. This is the first
commandment.
(Mk 12:31) And the second, like it, is this: YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. There is no other commandment greater than these.
1. Consider the importance of the prime directive containing two commands (1) to love God with the totality of our being (The heart speaks of our emotional nature; the soul of the volitional nature, the mind of the intellectual nature, and strength of the physical nature. It underscores completeness or totality rather than distinctions of our human faculties. We are to engage with the prime directive with the whole heart, nothing half-hearted or lukewarm is acceptable to God.) and (2) to love our neighbors, who are made in the image of God, as ourselves (reimagine our love for self and directing that same quality of love toward others, cf. Mt 7:12)?
According to Mt 22:40, Jesus said, On these two commands (Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18) hang all the Law and the Prophets (the entire OT actually). The Law and the Prophets collectively “develop and amplify” loving God and loving our neighbor! This is not a natural behavior but supernatural; only those who are born again can execute these two commands to Yahweh’s expectations and then only in the power of the Holy Spirit!
These two inseparable commands (And the second, like it, Mk 12:31, and On these two commands hang, Mt 22:40, and There is no other commandment greater than these, Mk 12:31b) comprise the prime directive throughout the scope of the OT, NT, and to the ongoing present time. Note the first love (loving God) is not predicated on loving your neighbor, but unless we love God with nothing less than the totality of our being (wholeheartedly), our relationship with others will suffer. A right relationship with God is normally reflected by a right relationship with others, generally speaking.
2. The prime directive is not optional or open to interpretation but is commanded, not suggested. Disobedience is sin and viewed as an unloving act toward Yahweh.
3. The only way that we show our love for God is in our loving obedience to His commands (cf. Jn 14:15, 21, 23; 1 Cor 16:22; 1 Jn 5:3), not out of a sense of duty. Should we set our love aside, we are telling God we do not love Him wholeheartedly. This is blatant and brutish given the fact that Jesus died for us (Rom 5:8). An attitude of “I didn’t ask Him to die for me” merely resembles the arrogant and disrespectful thoughts and words of a person who does not know Jesus.
4. The Apostle Paul characterized thinking, speaking, or doing apart from love (but have not love) as of no value, no help to others, useless: I am nothing and profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3). Love (agape) is the essential game-changer between producing only temporal value (self-serving) and eternal value (doing God’s will, Eccl 3:14; 1 Cor 15:58; cf. 1 Cor 13:13).
5. This love (agape)
is not merely human affection but a sacrificial and selfless love that has the
objective of helping others become more like Christ. We produce nothing or
something. Agape makes all the difference in the world. If we set love (agape)
aside or we left our first love, all that we do from there is without eternal
value unless we repent of it. As you can see, loving (agapao) God and loving
(agapao) our neighbor are quintessential in having a pure motive in promoting the kingdom of God. <><
