“I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, then, 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” (Revelation 2:4-5). This is from the message given to the church in Ephesus, the first of the messages to the seven churches of Asia Minor.
You have lost your first love.
Sounds like some upbraiding is going on. What’s this about the removal of their lampstand from its place? That reference comes from chapter 1, where seven golden lampstands are mentioned. They are identified as the seven churches (v. 20). (Side note: Imagine a congregation named the Church of the Golden Lampstand, where the signage out front proclaims, “Arise and shine, for your light has come”!)*
There are a number of takes on the precise meaning of the lampstands. Among the possibilities, I would suggest they represent the fire of the Spirit within the congregations. To prevent the lampstand’s confiscation, there is a call to repent. The primary meaning of repent, besides moral considerations, is a 180, a radical change of direction. “Turn around. Head back from whence you came!”
If there is any upbraiding, it’s done in love. Right before we get to the warning, we hear this: “I know your works, your toil and your endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not and have found them to be false. I also know that you are enduring and bearing up for the sake of my name and that you have not grown weary.”
Are they fooling themselves with that lampstand shining ever so brightly? Are the lights on, so to speak, but nobody is home? It is far too easy to drift into the appearance of spirituality without the fire burning inside. We might even be oblivious to dying embers.
In his book, The Resilient Pastor, Glenn Packiam speaks of “the slow slide toward spiritual death.” (69) As the title indicates, his primary audience consists of those in pastoral ministry. Still, he also wants to include “all who call on the Lord and want to see Christ build his church… It is for Christians everywhere.” (22)
What constitutes the slow slide toward spiritual death, spiritual coma? Packiam says for pastors much of that deals with demands of the job—preaching, teaching, leading worship, visiting, etc.—and meetings, emails, all kinds of busy work, yada yada.
The point is, with all of those demands, maintaining an “aura” of wisdom and centeredness can become challenging and even grueling without depth and replenishment of the Spirit. It can result in the donning of a mask, wittingly or unwittingly, to maintain appearances.
Again, I could go on, but I also know my audience is not simply composed of pastors!
Can any of us relate to the church in Ephesus? Have we, or are we in danger of, losing and abandoning our first love? (For our purposes here, this is not a question of our first love being another person!)
If the love has indeed faded, are we fully aware of the loss? Perhaps that explains the ongoing presence of the Ephesians’ lit lampstand. Do we have our own lit lampstand? Again: are the lights on, but nobody is home?
How can we explain the Lord’s threatened removal of the lampstand? Is it a punishment? In the next chapter we read, “I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent” (3:19). Can we see this as an act of grace and concern? If the fire of their witness to Christ, their testimony to the world, is diminishing, then we might expect the Lord to call “time out.” They need to get back on track.
Said a different way, would it be a loving thing to allow someone who is wearing a mask to live in that fantasy? Wouldn’t a wake-up call be needed? Wouldn’t a splash of cold water in the face be in order? One would hope there are no ice cubes in that splash of cold water!
And what about that mask? What happens if it is put on? We are hidden—hidden from others—and maybe hidden from ourselves. We wish to avoid having our true selves revealed. How appropriate it is that that wayward desire be expressed in the book of Revelation! In Greek, the book’s name is ἀποκάλυψις (apokalypsis). It is Apocalypse, which has to do with “unveiling,” “revealing.” Or can we say, “unmasking”?
The reality is we suffer from self-inflicted wounds. We choose that wayward path. If we wish to keep the Lord at arm’s length, then that choice, as injurious as it is, will be honored.
Ultimately, it is not about the appearance or the speaking of first love, but of living it. Remember the Lord’s requirement: “repent, and do the works you did at first.” Jesus wants to spare us from, to enable us to remove, the masks. Such deception is eventually self-defeating. We became a walking betrayal of our best.
Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches!
*Isaiah 60:1