Thou hast left thy First Love

[Amethyst]

Like young people who fall in love, the Ephesians fell hard when they first came to Christ. Their hearts were captivated with their love for Jesus. There were no limits to what they would surrender to Him, no boundaries to their obedience. They were willing to sacrifice and leave behind anything to follow Him.

Acts 19:18,19 described the Ephesian believers’ early act of public repentance, when they burned their occult fetishes and attempted to amputate every connection to the past that would hinder their new lives in Christ. The repentance of these new believers was so deeply rooted in their hearts that it produced a radical, far-reaching, profound transformation that completely altered their way of living. They were fervently in love with Jesus and completely sold out to Him — with no sorrows, regrets, or reservations.

But by the time the apostle John saw the exalted Christ on the island of Patmos, decades had passed since the Ephesian believers first repented — and in the vision, Christ issued them this stern warning: “Your love, the first one, you have left.” The phrase “you have left” is from the Greek word aphiemi, which denotes the voluntary release of something once held dear or to neglect, to ignore, or to leave something or someone behind. Although the Ephesian believers were still committed to Christ, doing everything “for his name’s sake,” they no longer had the deep passion and fervency for Him that had once consumed their hearts. Over the years, as they became more doctrinally sophisticated and astute, their simple but profound first love for Jesus had somehow dissipated and slipped away from them, even though they never stopped faithfully serving Him.

More...

https://renner.org/article/thou-hast-left-thy-first-love/

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[Ronnie]

Worthy post, Amethyst!

 

[Hol]

Hmm, I've been thinking of the Ephesians outwardly obeying but not loving lots lately.

From two different sources of information I've considered how they may have possibly lost their love. I heard a pastor on the radio as I was driving who pointed to the fact that the Roman goddess Diana ruled the roost in the area. He suggested that influence and their resistance derailed their love. (I'm guessing through legalism?)

The second source is a book review. Dinesh D'Souza is commenting on C.S. Lewis' book The Four Loves.

Affection (storge): "t’s the familiarity of, “the people with whom you are thrown together in the family, the college, the mess, the ship, the religious house,” says Lewis. The affection for the people always around us, in the normal day-to-day of life, is the majority of the love we experience, even if we don’t label it."

Romantic (eros): Says Lewis. “In one high bound it has overleaped the massive wall of our selfhood; it has made appetite itself altruistic, tossed personal happiness aside as a triviality and planted the interests of another in the centre of our being. Spontaneously and without effort we have fulfilled the law (towards one person) by loving our neighbour as ourselves. It is an image, a foretaste, of what we must become to all if Love Himself rules in us without a rival.”

Charity (agape): "This is our chief aim, the unconditional love of the Father given to us through his Son. Affection, friendship and romantic love are each the training ground for charity to grow. It’s also a rival to the three."

Friendship (philia): “To the Ancients, Friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves,” says Lewis, “the crown of life and the school of virtue. The modern world, in comparison, ignores it.” Why? Perhaps we know it’s the most time consuming, the least celebrated, the one we could live without. Perhaps too, as Lewis says, “few value it because few experience it.”

There's lots to think over.