“Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” (Revelation 2:1-4)
Here, in these verses, we have the first church specific lesson from Jesus. Ephesus had great programs, believed all the right things, had doctrinal soundness— truth was there, but it was truth empty of love!
It is possible for a church to have all the right answers and still fail the test!
A church may be doctrinally correct, yet spiritually dead when it loses sight of Christ!
One can be truly in love with the church and all of its activities, and still not have a genuine love for Jesus!
We need correct doctrine, but it is not correct if it lacks the Person of Jesus!
We need to stand for truth, but it lacks Truth without the Person Who is Truth!
Church, if we want to see Christ’s power and authority operating in our midst, we must never allow programs to replace our passion for Christ, Himself. Stay with your First Love; keep the romance with the King of kings alive!