In Revelation 2 we read Jesus’s warning to the church at Ephesus.
‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
As we read His words, may we be reminded of what is also written:
“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.” – Proverbs 21:2
The church at Ephesus has abandoned their first love and Jesus knew it. May we take heed. Whether we are exposing false apostles, preaching a sermon, rebuking false doctrine, feeding the poor, studying our Bible, speaking in tongues, or prophesying in His name, Jesus weighs the heart. He knows the motives and spirit behind our acts.
Since we, as the seed of Adam, seek self-exaltation, without His Spirit, we focus on compliance with the letter of the law as a means to justify ourselves. We will attempt to use the law to ascend His holy mountain. This is a violation of the intent of the law, which has been and will always be, to glorify God through the exaltation of the Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, the propitiation for our sin.
Jesus came to reclaim the hearts of men. Above all, He wants our love. He reminds us that we should “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” Without this, obedience to the rest of His word is but a resounding gong in his ear.
Do we wield the words of God out of a love for self or a love for Him? Do we search the scriptures looking for promises and power that will lift us up or lift Him up? Are we using God’s strength for our glory or His?
May all lampstands burning strange fire be removed until only Jesus, the true Light of the Word, remains. May He give us one heart, and a new spirit, one that loves God. The Spirit of God loves God. May His law, starting with the first commandment, be written on our hearts. When this happens, we will be a letter from Christ to the world, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
To God be the glory,
— Roger Garrison
