Scripture to Read: Revelation 2:4
Over the last few days, we have read how our Lord Jesus Christ spoke words of affirmation into the believers who lived in Ephesus. Today though, we find the loving rebuke that our Lord lays out for the believers in Ephesus. Our Lord rebukes them for having left their first love. In other words, the believers in Ephesus had lost the deep, intimate love they first had for our Lord Jesus Christ when they first became believers. We continue to see how God is speaking to us and reminding us how we must examine every area of our lives daily so that we are passionately pursuing Christ and His Word. Christ tells us in Matthew 22:37-40, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. ’38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ’40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” Loving God and loving others are the two greatest commands from our Lord. If loving God and loving others were easy, God would not have to command us to do this above all else. The believers at Ephesus looked good on the outside and were doing some great works for God’s kingdom. But their passion and intimacy for our King had been sidetracked by other things. Pursuing our intimacy with our God and His Word and loving Him and His Word with all that we are is a daily choice we must each make every day.
Challenge & Application
1. What did God teach you today about who your first love should be and not leaving your first love?
2. How are you pursuing God and His Word so that you are following God’s command to love Him and His Word with all you are?
Don’t forget to pray using the A.C.T.S. (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) method!