While Editing this month’s exhortation, a phrase caught our eye “It is our obligation, and should be our pleasure, to work day and night to grow m knowledge and wisdom” Hopefully, we all read those words and responded that we are filled with joy and enthusiasm in our service to God, the Truth is not a burden but a joy in our lives
That would be good, if it were true More realistically, some of us are probably like those at Ephesus who served out of obligation with virtually no joy in their discipleship To these Christ said “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love Remember therefore from whence thou are fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (Rev 2 4-5)
Endurance without love
Think what it must have been like when this letter was first read to the Ephesian brethren – an evaluation from the Lord himself
He knew their works
- they had labored m the Truth to the point of fatigue
- they endured problems yet maintained constant attendance at meetings
- they could not and would not bear those who propounded error
(The Greek words used m verse 2 for “labor,” “patience” and “bear” are all strong words and the same three words are repeated m verse 3 – rendered “borne,” “patience” and “labored” in the KJV )
No doubt as the letter was being read, some of the brethren said to themselves, “Yes, that’s right, that’s just what we’ve done, we’ve borne the heat and burden of the day” At the same time, others were thinking, “Here it comes, the Lord is writing in heavy tones, he has seen the drudgery in our hearts.”
And come it did with a threat to disfellowship the whole ecclesia if reform didn’t occur.
No doubt Ephesus would have viewed itself as the most stalwart ecclesia in the area. Others were tolerating apostates or were weak in some way or other. How shocking to be grouped with Laodicea as the only two of the seven threatened with disfellowship by the Lord himself. Joy, warmth, enthusiasm – love – for the Truth is obviously very high on Christ’s list of priorities.
Detecting the loss of love
Fading of our love is not always evident in the big things – we carry on meetings, uphold the doctrine, continue the daily readings, refrain from vulgarity, drunkenness, immorality. It’s in the little things that the condition shows – we’re anxious for meetings to be over, rush through the readings, find fault with everyone, squash vigorous Bible discussion, find our minds constantly drifting to business or pleasure. When we’re in love with someone or some thing, our love is always there at the back of our minds. That will be true if we love God and His purpose.
If we ignore the little signals, we may miss the problem altogether. We may be laboring in the ecclesia to the point of exhaustion or vigorously defending the teachings, but we’ve lost our love and are blind to the fact.
A consolation is that if this is the case, “God shall reveal even this unto you.” Not coincidentally, that promise follows Paul’s exhortation to rejoice and his account of his own zeal in the Lord (Phil. 3:1-15). He urges us to imitate him and reassures us with the promise of God’s help if our enthusiasm is failing. Of course, we must be sensitive to God’s working in our lives or, when He provides the signals we’ve lost love, we’ll altogether miss them.
Recovering a first love
If the Ephesian problem is our problem, we must correct it or be in danger of falling from the grace of our Lord – which would be tragic. To restore zeal, imitating Paul’s thinking is a place to start. He never ceased thanking God for bringing him to a knowledge of Christ in spite of his blasphemous behavior. We can remember where we were before coming to the Truth: the aimlessness of our lives, the sins in which we walked, the darkness which ruled our minds. Contrast that with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God that now shines in our hearts. We know who we are, where we are going, what God wants. Our lives have purpose and direction all under the canopy of His grace. This should fill us with continuing thankfulness, joy and zeal.
Yet what if we were raised in the Truth? What if, from our earliest recollection, we believed the first principles as part of our family heritage; how could we experience what Paul did, or others do, when they find the Truth after searching for it? What if our parents kept us from serious sin so that we’ve always avoided the grosser transgressions; how can we rejoice in a change of life?
We can do it because there’s more to love than just knowing right Bible facts and avoiding gross sin. The “first love” Christ refers to is brimming with vibrancy; the law of the Lord is its delight all the day, the kingdom is its whole desire If we didn’t experience the thrill of discovering the Truth, let us think back to when the love of God burned bright in our hearts and recapture that spirit.
What if that’s never been the case? What if even our baptism was simply filling an obligation, and ever since all we’ve been doing is bearing the burden of the Truth? There never has been a stretch of “first love” to look back on and recover While such a condition may be unheard of to some, it may not be unusual with so many of us being third, fourth or even fifth generation believers.
Developing a “first love”
We may think that if we have not experienced the emotion of a great zeal for God in the course of our lives, there is nothing we can do about it Our emotions, we may feel, are quite beyond our ability to control.
This is not the case, for God has created us with a most useful faculty, if we take advantage of it Sometimes our hearts will follow our actions so that we can deliberately cultivate desirable emotions Christ alludes to this when he says “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt 6 21) The Lord indicates that if we lay up treasure in heaven rather than on earth, we will be filled with holiness rather than the emotion of covetousness Laying up treasure is a process we can deliberately engage in By so doing, we can actually alter our thoughts, motives and emotions.
If we apply that thinking to developing a “first love,” we would first think through what people do who are on fire for the Truth If their love of God is burning bright, as time, ability and opportunity permit, they will
- Preach the truth personally, ecclesially, near and far (“How shall they hear without a preacher?”)
- Linger over the daily readings (“Study to show thyself approved”)
- Play hymns, etc on CDs and tapes (“Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord”)
- Help someone with his/her problems (“Bear one another’s burdens”)
- Extend hospitality (“Distributing to the necessity of the saints”)
- Have an on-going Bible study to fill in spare moments’ (“Redeeming the time”)
- Visit the widows and fatherless (“Visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction”)
Our suggestion is that if we do such things, deliberately acting as if we were filled with a “first love” of the Truth, a fervent love will develop We can deliberately cultivate it.
That’s one suggestion, the second is to pray for it.[note: This is a useful practice to develop We’ve all seen people go through 800 page novels by reading them in their spare time, while falling asleep and so on The same can be done with lighter aspects of Bible study, e g surveying the prophets for kingdom prophecies and listing them as they’re found/note]
We are promised, “If we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (I John 5 14-15) There is nothing more “according to his will” than that we be filled with a love, enthusiasm and zeal for the things of God If we work for such a love and pray for it, surely that prayer will be answered.
We can have a “first love” even though we’ve never had it before The Truth doesn’t have to be a burden, it can be a joy – if we want it to be.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One