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; 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: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art 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. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. ~ Revelation 2:1-7

I want you to take a moment and consider the weight of this message from Jesus to the church at Ephesus. They had work, labor, and patience. They could not bear those who were evil and had even tested and rejected false apostles, much like many of us today. They had labored for Christ’s name. I don’t know about you, but that is what I would consider a pretty good Christian track record. Yet Jesus had something against them. With all this good and commendable service, they had left their first love.

It doesn’t take a Bible scholar or theologian to understand what Jesus means here. Jesus is to be our first love, and our passion. We can be very diligent in all the things that matter with regards to Christian service and defending the faith (all those things are important), but if we lose our passion for the man, Jesus (if we lose our longing and desire to sit at his feet and fellowship with him) we have missed the mark.

Refute error, defend the faith, and teach sound biblical practices, but in doing so keep your passion for Jesus. The sad reality is that if we aren’t careful we can become so consumed with exposing false teachers and false doctrines, that we ignore real and intimate fellowship with Jesus.

Our Christian experience can easily become political centric, Israel centric, Hebrew centric, exposing false apostles centric, etc. What truly drives us? If my focus isn’t Jesus and conforming to his likeness by the work of his Holy Spirit in my heart, I ought to take a step back and get my priorities corrected.

All those things the church at Ephesus were doing were good and commendable, but one thing was missing and that was the most important thing. As Christians, we have been called into fellowship with Jesus, and our christian walk is designed to flow out of our heart’s desire and love of Jesus.

True fellowship with Jesus is purifying, edifying, encouraging, and joyous. All those other things are important, but if we aren’t abiding in him, we can find ourselves disheartened, discouraged, and withering spiritually. Life is in Jesus alone, and abiding continuously in him is the goal of the Christian walk. Let Jesus be the center of our focus and from that place let us pursue the other things.

Give this some thought as it applies to your own life, and may the Lord himself give us each understanding.