The Seven Churches of the 21st
Century
Chapter
2
Ephesus: No Love for the Lord
Revelation 2:1-7
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.
The Root of the Letter (v.
1)
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;
Concerning
Christ
As mentioned in Chapter 1,
each of these letters contains some feature of the Lord
Jesus that is taken from the vision of Revelation 1. The
feature in view here appears in 1:12, 13 and
16:
And I turned to see the
voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven
golden lampstands, And in the midst of the seven
lampstands one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a
garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts
with a golden girdle. . . . And He had in
his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a
sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the
sun shineth in His strength.
Not only was the Lord
Jesus the Author of Revelation, He is much more; He is
the “Head Of All Ministry;” it is He Who controls and
empowers His Church. How we need to remember that
principle! As He promised, “?I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the world.?” The Ephesian believers knew
some great leaders—Paul, Timothy, and even the Apostle
John. But it is the Lord Jesus who puts such servants
where He wants them, where they can serve Him most.
We need to apply that
truth today. It is God Who calls men to the ministry. It
is not we who decide to be “ministers,” as is a common
tendency these days. There are many who merely choose
the “clergy” as their vocation. Worse, even among
evangelicals today the tendency is for men (and even
women) to appoint themselves as teachers or preachers,
regardless of biblical qualifications, training, and
ordination.
Moreover, it is God who
calls men to serve in specific local churches, not the
congregations. We should get away from the term, “the
church extended a call” because there not a single
biblical precedent for that concept. Where do we get
such terms? A church can certainly examine a man’s
qualifications and ask him to pastor them, but God does
the calling and guiding of men to the field.
Concerning
the Church
The basic meaning of the
word “Ephesus” is “desirable.” That is an amazing fact,
for in the eyes of many people, the church at Ephesus
was truly desirable, virtually perfect. Acts 19 records
the great beginning of that church. Paul did some of his
greatest work there, and that church became the center
of evangelism and church planting in Asia.
Prophetic
History
The church at
Ephesus pictures the history of the Church from
Pentecost to A.D. 100. As we have seen, and will detail
as we continue, this historical local church was mighty
indeed. The same was true of this entire period of
Church History. But, as we will see, even though there
was something desirable in the beginning, this church,
and this period of Church History, had one serious
problem.
Concerning
The City[i]
Paul founded the Ephesian
church near the close of his second church-planting
journey (Acts 18:19-21). He paused at Ephesus on his way
to Jerusalem and preached in the Jewish synagogue and
then left a Christian couple, Priscilla and Aquila, to
minister there. Upon his return to Ephesus during his
third journey (Acts 19:1), he spent an unusually long
time there, almost three years (Acts 18:18-21; 19;
20:31), longer than any other place during his church
planting ministry. The reason for the long stay was
undoubtedly because of how strategic that city was to
the spread of Christianity.
To say the very least,
Ephesus was an important city in the ancient world. Like
all the cities mentioned in Revelation 2 and 3, Ephesus
was located in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. It was
located on the Western shore and was, in fact, the
capital of that Roman province and its greatest
commercial city. It sat at the mouth of the important
Cayster River, right on the shore of the Aegean Sea, and
therefore functioned as the “Gateway to Asia.”
Additionally, four main roads, from all over Asia Minor,
led to Ephesus, and historians have even called it, “The
Market Place of Asia.” An analogy of this would be old
colonial Pittsburgh, which was called the “Gateway to
the West” because it sat on the Ohio River, which in
turn flowed into the Mississippi. As in that day before
mechanized travel, so it was in ancient times that
waterways were the crucial to travel and trade. Not only
was Ephesus a strategic waterway, it was an important
caravan route. An analogy here is as Chicago serves as a
hub for railroad travel, a highway to Ephesus made it
the hub of caravan travel.[ii] It was because of this
strategic location that Ephesus was important to
commerce and the military. It likewise proved valuable
as a strategic location from which to launch
evangelistic work. It is that latter point, in fact,
that provided the reason for Paul’s lengthy stay.
Because of this city’s strategic location, he wanted to
found a church and teach it at length so as to create a
solid launching pad for further work.
Ephesus was also important
for another reason—its pagan worship. Ephesus was among
the most pagan cities of that day. One of the seven
wonders of the ancient world was the great temple of
Diana (or Artemis in Greek), which was located at a
sacred site of an ancient Anatolian fertility goddess,
about a mile and a half northeast of the city. It was
widely represented on Roman coins, and was reported to
be four times the size of the Roman Parthenon.
Consisting of 127 white marble columns, each 62 feet
high, it was 425 feet long and 220 feet wide. All were
made of marble, and some were studded with jewels and
overlaid with gold. Additionally, each had been a gift
of a particular king, and therefore acted as a tribute
to the king who donated it.
Besides ornate carvings
and paintings, the temple was best known and most
revered for the image of Diana, which supposedly had
fallen directly from Heaven to Earth. The image was of a
crowned woman with multiple breasts that symbolized
fertility. The temple was so popular that Ephesus became
the religious center of all Asia. The worship of Diana
was hideous; it involved temple prostitution, orgies,
self-mutilation, sadomasochism, and other sexual
perversions. Some historians have called Ephesus, “The
Vanity Fair of the Ancient World.” Do we not have those
same things going on today? Besides Diana worship,
Ephesus was also known as the center of occult arts and
practices. Indeed, what better place could there have
been from which to launch evangelistic outreach? Paul
wanted to go to the center of pagan worship and then go
out from there. And it is, indeed, amazing what happened
in that city.
Directly linked to this
worship was commerce and tourism. People from all over
the region visited the temple, carried on worship, and
purchased silver shrines of Diana (Acts 19:24). The
significance of this is one of the most dramatic
illustrations in all Scripture of the effect the Gospel
has on those who truly believe. That truth, in fact, is
a recurring theme through all these seven churches. The
Gospel changes lives and changed lives means the
abandonment of pagan practices.
Like everywhere else
he went, Paul met opposition in Ephesus, but his
greatest work was done there. As mentioned earlier, this
church became the most prominent church in the region.
Acts 19:10 tells us: “All the Jews and Greeks who lived
in Asia heard the Word of the Lord.” That is astounding!
They didn’t have the printing press, raido, TV, or the
Internet, but the Gospel spread everywhere nonetheless.
How did that happen? Some might think that the reason
for this was because of great evangelistic campaigns and
citywide crusades, which today we seem to think are an
absolute must. But this happened because individual
believers, who were trained in the local church, went
out as witnesses. That is
evangelism.
We also discover that the
Gospel even hurt the economy in Ephesus. As people came
to Christ, they stopped purchasing miniature idols of
the temple and Diana, which were made by the
silversmiths. Again, this fact of the Gospel driving out
every piece of pagan religion will be a recurring theme
throughout our study. While we often invite it right
into our homes and churches, Godly people drive it out,
for it has no place there.
The Regard of the Letter (vs.
2, 3, 6)
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. . . .
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the
Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.
The first words we
notice are I know. In contrast to the common word
ginosko, to know by experience, and indicates a
continuing acquisition of knowledge, the word here is
oida (or eido), which
speaks of a full, complete knowledge.[iii] Our Lord knows His
Church and each of its individual
churches. He knows what’s
going on, whether good or bad, whether edifying or
detrimental, whether they are operating biblically,
traditionally, or even humanistically. This fact in
itself should challenge us today to examine what we are
doing and how we are doing it.
Again, “Ephesus” means
“desirable.” The church in Ephesus was doing great
things for God. In fact, we see here a truly amazing,
sevenfold commendation from the Lord Jesus. He praises
them for seven realities.
Their
“Labour”
The Greek behind
labour
is
kopon.
The verb form, kopiao, speaks of
“exertion and toil,” “the process of becoming tired,”
and the “consequent fatigue and
exhaustion;[iv] in short,
to labor to the point of exhaustion. They were
truly giving it their all.
Peter used
this word, for example, when he told the Lord that he
and his companions “toiled” all night fishing and had
caught nothing (Lk. 5.5). While we don’t see much toil
in casting out and reeling in our fishing line today,
they had labored all night in a small boat throwing out
their net and dragging it in over and over without
success. It is also used of the duty of a pastor to
study the Word of God: “Let the elders that rule well be
counted worthy of double honour, especially they who
labour in the word and doctrine” (I Tim. 5:17). In
contrast to today’s tendency to stay out of the
“Pastor’s Study,” entertain people with jokes and cute
sermons, Paul makes it clear that the responsibility of
a pastor is to exhaust himself in the study of the Word
of God. The Ephesian church, therefore, as a
whole, practiced true sacrificial toil in every area of
Christian service.
Their
“Works”
The Greek for
works is ergon, which
speaks of work in general, such as working “in a field
(Matt. 21:28) or at a trade (Acts 18:3),” or even “to do
business” (Matt. 26:16).”[v] The clear
implication here is that the Ephesians were
systematically doing good works. Not only were they
working to the point of exhaustion, but they were doing
it systematically and consistent, doing it every
day. As James declares, “Faith without works is
dead” (Jas. 2:7), that is, a profession of Christianity
that is not evident by godly living in every area of
life is a false profession. And with regard to the
believers in Ephesus, what they did matched what they
said.
Their
“Patience”
The Greek here is
hupomone, a compound word formed from
meno, “to remain,” and hupo, “under.” The
idea then is to “remain under,” that is, “to stay
behind, to stand one’s ground, survive, remain
steadfast.”
In Classical Greek, it was
“used frequently in military contexts,”[vi] to dig-in and hold
ground. The Ephesians, therefore, were enduring every
obstacle that came into the path of Christian service,
stood their ground, and persisted through it all, never
gave an inch.
It’s important that we
keep these first three commendations in mind as we
continue; they are most significant and will be in view
again in “The Rebuke.”
Their
Separation From Sin (“cannot bear evil men”)
Here is a great
commendation! These Christians would not allow sin to
remain in their midst. They were, indeed, following the
admonition Paul wrote to them many years before: “Put
off concerning the former manner of the life the old
man, which is corrupt . . . and put on the new man which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness”
(Eph. 4:22-24). What is the “old man?”
He is all that we were in Adam, that is, all the guilt,
penalty, power, and dominion of sin that was in Adam.
Paul lists in the surrounding context the sins that
characterize that old man, and Jesus now commends them
that they would not tolerate sin in their midst.
Undoubtedly this church practiced Biblical church
discipline, putting out anyone who was persistent in sin
and rebellious.
Their
Doctrinal Purity (“tried those who called themselves
apostles”)
In his farewell
address, Paul had warned the Ephesian elders that false
teachers would come from the outside and from the inside (Acts
20:28-31):
Take heed therefore unto
yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church
of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For
I know this, that after my departing shall grievous
wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also
of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse
things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore
watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I
ceased not to warn every one night and day with
tears.
Apparently, then,
they had not forgotten those words. At the time John
wrote, he was probably the only living Apostle, so it
was a given that false claimants would appear and claim
to have authority. An example of this was a group called
the Nicolaitanes. We shall
see this group again in our study of the church at
Pergamum, but briefly, this group, according to several
early Church Fathers (Ignatius, Irenaeus, Clement of
Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolytus) had turned “liberty”
into “license.” As one commentator writes, “What in
Ephesus was ‘practices’ (v. 6) became in Pergamum a
‘teaching’ (v. 15).”[vii] They viewed their
“Christian Liberty” to be a license to do anything they
desired, which of course resulted in total
self-indulgence. But the church evidently weeded out
those who took this heretical position and were on guard
for false teachers.
Here is one of
countless encouragements to
discernment in
Scripture.[viii] Additionally,
the Didache, or The Teaching of the
Twelve, was an early 2nd Century document, written by an unknown author,
which contains teachings on Church order. While it
wasn’t recognized as part of the Canon of Scripture, it
was highly regarded in the Early Church. It also warned
against false
teachers:
Welcome every
apostle on arriving, as if he were the Lord. But he must
not stay beyond one day. In case of necessity, however,
the next day too. If he stays three days, he is a false
prophet. On departing, an apostle must not accept
anything save sufficient food to carry him till his next
lodging. If he asks for money, he is a false prophet
(11.4–6)
Again, while that isn’t
Scripture, it is based on Biblical principles. As they
are today, false prophets were rampant in that day, and
one of the earmarks of such teachers is the motive of
money (II Pet. 2:1-3). Such teachers are out to get what
they can.
In a day when error
is everywhere and discernment is virtually nowhere, we
need this challenge. As Paul again wrote to the
Ephesians some years before, “That we
henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and
carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the
sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie
in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4:14). Obviously, the
Ephesians were at that time undiscerning, acting like
children, who will believe most anything you tell them.
The Greek for “children” is nepios, which is
a combination of ne (“not”) and epos
(“word”), so the literal idea is “one who cannot speak,
that is, an infant.” Metaphorically, it pictures one who
is “unlearned, unenlightened, simple,
innocent,”[ix] and even
“foolish;” when the ancient Greek philosophers wished to
dismiss someone who was foolish in his views, they would
use nepios with
biting sarcasm.[x]
What, then, is the
key to discernment? There is only a single principle:
what does the
Word of God say? It doesn’t matter if some new idea,
new method, or other new teaching “sounds good,” but
whether or not it’s right according to Scripture. At the
very heart of the Reformation was Sola
Scriptura, that it is “Scripture
Alone” that dictates all we believe and practice, not
Church Tradition, human opinion, or anything else. For
centuries Roman Catholicism has been adding its
traditions to Scripture, and even incorporating pagan
practices (and even gods) into its system,
Evangelicalism is not much better as it also adds men’s
teachings, methods, and ministries to Scripture. How we
need a new Reformation today![xi]
So, in light of
Paul’s challenge years before, the Ephesians were now
doctrinally pure, and Christ praises them for it. That
is, indeed, a great commendation. They were discerners
in an age that demanded such discernment.
Their
Endurance of Persecution (“hast borne, and hast
patience”)
We again find the
word patience (hupomone). The first time
this word was used (v. 2) it referred to service.
It now refers to suffering.
Most of the seven churches experienced persecution to
one degree or another. This was true of those in
Ephesus, as recorded in Acts 19. The Ephesians patiently
endured without complaint.
Their
Positive Attitude (“hast laboured, and hast not
fainted”)
The Greek used here
for laboured is a form of kopon, which we
saw earlier. The word here literally speaks of “fainting
from weariness” and implies discouragement. How often
Christians become discouraged! But may we realize that
discouragement is actually sin. Why? Because we can only become discouraged
when we take our eyes off Christ and begin to look at
circumstances and react to them. Well, these folks did
not become discouraged. In spite of persecution, in
spite of repercussions from church discipline, in spite
of rumors spread by spurned false teachers, they just
kept on laboring faithfully.
May we say once
more, this sevenfold commendation is, indeed, a
remarkable description! As one looks at these
commendations, he seems drawn to believe that this
church had everything a church needs. In fact, in the
eyes of many today, a church like this one would be
flawless. It would be held up as a model to follow. The
pastor of the church would no doubt write a book titled,
How to Build an
Ephesian Church. I have
personally seen churches like Ephesus. Churches like
this one have all the mechanics, all the programs, all
the great methods of evangelism, and experience what
they define as “great results.”
But there is still
something lacking in such a church, and it is this
thought that leads to our third point.
The Rebuke of the Letter (v.
4)
Nevertheless I have
somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first
love.
Despite its outward
appearance, our Lord had a strong rebuke for the church
at Ephesus. Let us first examine the problem and then
its cause.
The
Problem
We cannot help but
notice the first word of verse 4, Nevertheless.
Surely the Ephesian believers were feeling quite edified
by Christ’s words of praise, but undoubtedly their
“bubble was burst” by His nevertheless. In spite
of all they were accomplishing, there was still a
serious problem—they had left [their]
first love.
Please notice that
it does not say they “lost” their first love, as some
incorrectly quote. One does not “lose” his first love
like he would misplace his car keys. The Greek behind
left is aphiemi, which
literally means “to leave, desert, forsake, leave
behind.” What then does it mean to leave our first love?
Simply put: To
leave one’s “first love” means to leave behind the
simplicity, joy, depth, and passion of a personal
relationship with Christ.
Once again, some 35
years earlier Paul wrote to the Ephesians: “Wherefore I
also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and
love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for
you, making mention of you in my prayers” (Eph.
1:15-16). At that time the believers in this new work
loved the Lord and had a passion for the Lord. But now,
35 years later, most of the believers in Ephesus are
second generation, many of the first generation having
gone to glory. Now, while these believers had the
purity, they didn’t have the passion.
Everything had become mechanical and
methodical. The paradox is
that while they were doing things right, they were also
doing them wrong.
A practical
illustration of this is the newly wed couple. Their new
life together is one of constant excitement. Serving her
new husband is not service at all to the bride but
gladness, and pleasing his new bride is not tedious but
satisfying for the new groom. But after a couple of
years it all becomes habit. She keeps the house and
cooks the meals as well as before (perhaps even better),
and he provides as much as he did before (perhaps even
more), but things have just become routine. She no
longer sees him off to work but says “goodbye” from
somewhere in the house, and he no longer tells her that
he loves her as often a he did before. They have both
left [their] first love.
They’ve left behind the simplicity, joy, depth, and
passion of their love.
Perhaps the most graphic
biblical illustration is found in Ezekiel
16:8-15:
Now when I passed by thee,
and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of
love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy
nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a
covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou
becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water; yea, I
thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I
anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with
broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I
girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee
with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put
bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I
put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears,
and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou
decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine
linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine
flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding
beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And
thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty:
for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had
put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD. But thou didst trust
in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of
thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every
one that passed by; his it was.
Think of it! Once in
love with God, Israel had actually become a
harlot. And how close Ephesus was to that! This leads
right to the cause of the
problem.
The
Cause
Here is a truly amazing
contrast. Please remember the first three commendations
the Lord had for the church at Ephesus: their “works,”
“labour,” and “patience.” Now contrast those with I
Thessalonians 1:2-3:
We give thanks to
God always for you all, making mention of you in our
prayers, Remembering without ceasing your work of FAITH,
and labour of
LOVE, and patience of HOPE in our Lord Jesus Christ . . . (emphasis
added).
Do you see?
Works, labour, and patience are not enough in
themselves. Without the
controlling attitudes of FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE (I Cor.
13:13), our works, labour, and patience become mere
ritual; they become mechanical. We can do all the right
things, but still be wrong. That is exactly what
happened in Ephesus. The believers there did all the
right things but without the passion and depth that
gives it all meaning. The result was
emptiness.
How tragic it is that this
is the case in the lives of many believers today. We
pray, read our Bibles, go to church, sing, pray, observe
the Lord’s Supper, and do countless other things
mechanically. The passion is gone.
To go deeper, ponder three
further correlations.
First, our
works are tied to our FAITH.
James tells us this in those words, “Faith without works
is dead” (Jas. 2:17). All our works are to flow out of
our faith, trust, and dependency on Christ. We do
everything in the knowledge that God will use it for His
purpose. Apparently, the Ephesians were “doing things”
but without truly believing that God would in-turn
accomplish anything through it.
Second,
our labor is tied to our
LOVE. “God will not forget your work and labour of love”
(Heb. 6:10). Many of us do a certain thing only because
God commands it, or we do something in the church just
because the pastor asks us to do it. But that’s the
wrong motive. It’s simply mechanics, and God won’t bless
it. As important as doing the right thing is, it’s not
enough. All our labour must be done because we love the
Lord and want to serve and please Him.
Third, our
patience is tied to our HOPE. We can only be
patient in trials and tribulations because our hope
(which literally means certainty; Greek
elpis) is in Christ. The only
reason we can be patient in anything is that we are
looking way beyond the circumstances to our position in
Christ. Paul wrote of this often:
. . . We glory in
tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh
patience; And patience, experience; and experience,
hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which
is given unto us (Rom. 5:3-5).
According to my earnest
expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be
ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now
also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be
by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and
to die is gain (Phil. 1:20).
For what is our hope, or
joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? (I
Thes. 2:19)
Looking for that blessed
hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and
our Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13).
May we each ask ourselves,
“Am I practicing mechanical Christianity?” May we not be
guilty of just “going through the motions.” May our
churches not be guilty of mechanical, ritualistic, or
man-made methods and practices either in worship or
service. May we all truly love our Lord and cling to
that passion.
The Requirement of the Letter
(v. 5)
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.
The Lord Jesus required
three attitudes from the church at Ephesus.
“Remember”
The Greek behind
remember (mnemoneuo)
doesn’t just refer to the mental capability to recall
something, but also “to be mindful” of it and “take [it]
into account.”[xii] This is also in the
Present Tense, yielding the idea “keep remembering.” The
Lord Jesus wanted the Ephesians to just to constantly
take into account from whence [they were]
fallen, which implies two
principles.
Remember Where You Came
From
First, our Lord
says. One of the most beautiful verses in all the Word
of God appears in Isaiah 51:1: “Hearken to me, ye that
follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look
unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the
pit whence ye are digged.” To the nation of Israel God
said in effect in verses 2 and 3, “Remember your past;
remember where you came from; remember that your nation
exists only because of My power that created that nation
from an old man and an old woman who were beyond the age
of child-bearing.”
Oh, may we also remember what we were—lost,
hell-bound sinners. But God loved us, had mercy on us,
and sent His only begotten Son to die in our place. As
Paul told the Ephesians of their riches in Christ in
chapters 1-3 of his Epistle to them, we should make
habit of reading those chapters in our Christian life to
be remember what we have in Him.
Commentator William
Barclay recounts a short story by O. Henry:
There was a lad who had
been brought up in a village; and in the village school
he had sat beside a village girl, innocent and sweet.
The lad found his way to the city; fell into bad
company; became an expert pickpocket. He was on the
street one day; he had just picked a pocket--a neat job,
well done--and he was pleased with himself. Suddenly he
saw the girl he used to sit beside at school. She was
still the same--innocent and sweet. She did not see him;
he took care of that. But suddenly he remembered what he
had been, and realized what he was. He leaned his
burning head against the cool iron of a lamppost. “God,”
he said, “how I hate myself.” Memory was offering him
the way back.
Indeed, may memory bring
us back to the sweetness of fellowship with our
Lord.
Remember the Relationship
You Used To Have
Dear Christian, do you
remember the joy, the thrill, and the peace you felt
when you first came to Christ? Do you remember the
hunger and thirst you had to know more about what God’s
Word says? Many Christians have left that behind in
favor of the values and priorities of the world. Others
have left it for the new and novel, leaving behind
doctrine and chasing after entertainment in the Church
service. Still others have allowed their Christian life
to become “old hat,” just going through the motions. May
our relationship with our Savior continue to be as close
and as personal each day as it was on the day of our
conversion. In fact, it should be even more so.
“Repent”
The word
repent translates metanoeo, “to change one’s mind.” Not surprisingly, this
word is rarely found in Classical Greek because “Greek
society never thought of a radical change in a man’s
life as a whole, of conversion or turning round.” In
fact, the whole concept of conversion is not found in
Greek thought, but is derived from the New
Testament.[xiii] The idea in this word is
to turn around, change one’s mind, relent, and in the
theological sense involves “regret or sorrow,
accompanied by a true change of heart toward
God.”[xiv] So, in the present
context, the admonition of the Lord was, and is today,
to change our attitude toward God, to turn away from
mechanical Christianity, to get back the passion, joy,
and thrill that is characteristic of a spiritual
believer.
“Return” (“do the
first works”).
Notice carefully that this
doesn’t speak of “Christian service” or being “busy in
the Lord’s work.” They were already doing that! Rather
our Lord is saying, “Get back to the basics.” Get back
to the things that originally brought the joy and thrill
of knowing the Lord, namely: worship, the depth of the
Word of God, communion with God in prayer, fellowship
with other believers, and sharing with the lost people
around you the true Gospel of Christ. Oh, that we would
get back to the basics!
As one commentator
observes, this is the story of the bride in the Song of
Solomon (5:2-16). Her delay in answering his knock
caused him to withdraw and caused her sadness. Finally
finding him, however, the brought joy to her heart. For
her, then, the first works
were finding him whom she loved.[xv] Likewise, some Christians
delay in what they should do and leave that real love
for the Lord.
Let us also consider
the consequences of not heeding Christ’s admonition. He
said to the Ephesians, I will come unto thee quickly,
and will remove thy [lampstand].
As commentator Adam Clark put it, “Take away my
ordinances, remove your ministers, and send you a famine
of the word.” That is a frightening warning. And
tragically there is today a famine of the Word of God is
countless churches. Our Lord’s words vividly picture the
fact that He would remove their light, which would also
mean that real life and vitality would disappear.
It’s important to
note that the letter to Ephesus is, indeed, the key
church of the seven. It unlocks the door to the others.
We say this because it appears to be “the perfect
church.” Everything seems to be flawless. But such was
not the case, and Jesus said that if the problem was not
dealt with, He would remove the light from them. And
that is, in fact, exactly what happened to this
historical church. Today there is no church in that
region of the world. The entire area was swallowed by
the Moslems, and there is no Christian church for miles
around. What’s more, there isn’t even a city where
Ephesus once stood. Ephesus was destroyed by the Goths
in A.D. 262, and even though it was rebuilt, it never
rose to its former glory and completely declined by the
fifth century. Only a small Turkish town (Ayasaluk)
remains in the area. Writing in
1861, commentator John Eadie graphically described the
Ephesus of his day:
The candlestick was at
length removed out of his place, and Mahametan gloom
overspread the city. The city also has become one of
external desolation. The sea has retired from the
harbour, and left behind it a pestilential morass.
Fragments of columns, arches, and porticos are strewn
about, and the wreck and rubbish of the great temple can
scarcely be distinguished. The brood of the partridge
nestles on the site of the theatre, the streets are
ploughed by the Ottoman serf, and the heights of
Coressus are only visited by wandering flocks of goats.
The best of the ruins—columns of green jasper—were
transplanted by Justinian to Constantinople, to adorn
the dome of the great church of Sancta Sophia, and some
are said to have been carried to Italy. A straggling
village of the name of Ayasaluk, or Asalook, is the
wretched representative of the great commercial
metropolis of Ionia. While thousands in every portion of
Christendom read this epistle with delight, there is no
one now to read it in the place it was originally
addressed. Truly the threatened blight has fallen on
Ephesus.[xvi]
What a vivid example this
is of what a lack of God’s Word will do to a society!
How sad this is when we think of the Ephesian believers.
Of all the Christians in the New Testament, they had the
greatest advantages. They had had the most of Paul’s
time, teaching, and training. But now look at them. One
would think that with that great letter Paul had written
in their hands, that there would be no way they could
fall away from the Truth as they did. Sadly, however,
the same is true today. We also have that same letter in
our hands, but we still are weak.
Oh, may we return to our
first love!
The Reassurance Of The Letter
(v. 7)
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.
What a blessing it is to
see that our Lord doesn’t end his letter to each church
with His rebuke, but rather He ends with a tender
reassurance. Here Christ’s reassurance is twofold.
An
Exhortation
The exhortation,
which is found in each of the seven letters, is, He
that hath an ear, let Him hear what the spirit saith
unto the churches. Most of us probably tend to think
that to hear something simply means that sound
registers in our ears and brain. But Webster says that
it goes further than that: “to perceive or apprehend
with the ear; to gain knowledge of by hearing; to listen
to with attention.” Every parent has experienced times
when their child says he or
she hears what the parent is saying but doesn’t really
listen with attention.
The
Greek akouo, however, from which we get such words as
“acoustics” (the science of sound), goes even further.
It not only means to hear in general (e.g., Matt. 2:3),
to hear with attention (e.g., Mk. 4:3, “hearken”), and
to understand (e.g., Mk. 4:33), but also to obey.
A graphic example of this word appears in the parable of
The Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk. 16:19-31); when the rich
man asked Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to
tell his five brothers about the torment of Hell,
Abraham answered, “They have Moses and the prophets; let
them hear them.” His point was piercing. As he goes on
to explain, if they would not hear (obey) God’s Law as revealed, they would not be
convinced by someone who rose from the dead. That Truth
is proven everyday as people reject the resurrected Lord
Jesus.
It’s amazing how
many times in Scripture we see this principle of the
“hearing ear.” As Jeremiah declared to Israel, “Hear now
this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which
have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:”
(Jer. 5:21). Likewise, Ezekiel called Israel “a
rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not;
they have ears to hear, and hear not” (Ezek. 12:2). Why
did the Lord Jesus finally speak only in parables?
“Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they
seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do
they understand” (Matt. 13:13). Even His disciples
failed to really hear what he said: “Why reason ye,
because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither
understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? Having
eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do
ye not remember?” (Mk. 8:17-18). On several occasions
our Lord declares, “He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear” (Matt. 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mk. 7:16; Lk. 14:35).
James declares that some people are hearers but not
doers of the Word (Jas. 1:22-24), which implies that
while they might hear the Word, they don’t really
listen to the Word. What a
grave difference!
This dramatic
statement, therefore, shows that individual Believers
can be faithful no matter what others might do (or fail
to do). The implied question then is, “Are we going to
listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us?” The
Ephesians didn’t. Few scenes in Scripture are sadder
than this one. Here was a church that had everything,
but threw it all away. Likewise, much of Christianity
today has thrown away the Word of God. The joyous
thought in Christ’s statement, however, is that it
implies that there will always be some who
listen. As we’ll see, in every
period of Church History, no matter how corrupt the
period is, there is always a remnant, a group of
believers who stay faithful. May we each commit
ourselves to be a part of that
remnant.
A
Promise
Jesus ends His
letter to the Ephesians with the promise that to those
who obey His admonition he will grant the privilege to
eat of the tree of life. This subject has puzzled
many over the years, and several views have been
offered. The tree of life is
first mentioned in Genesis 3:22 where we find that if
Adam and Eve had been permitted to eat of this tree
while in their sinful condition, they would have forever
remained sinful. Our text, then, and Revelation 22:2,
speak of us eating the fruit and the leaves being used
to heal the nations.
More specifically,
believers will partake of the fruit as a symbol of
eternal life. Then, since it is through the nation of
Israel (according to the Abrahamic Covenant) that all
nations will be blessed (Gen. 18:18), then the leaves
(and perhaps the fruit also) will be used to “heal” the
nations, that is, make them acceptable in God’s sight.
We say this since the number 12 is symbolic of the
twelve tribes of Israel—the number seems to mean “Divine
Administration and Control”—and because the number 12 is
then used in reference to the tree of life. So,
all this is merely a symbol, a picture of
the fact that all men, no matter what nation they come
from, are accepted of God because of Jesus
Christ. It doesn’t mean all men
are accepted no matter what they believe—that is
Universalism—rather they are accepted if they have
trusted in the merits of Christ.
But the point we
need to make is, obedience brings God’s blessing,
and as our text declares, that blessing will take place
in the paradise of God, that
is, Heaven and the New Jerusalem. As Jesus said the
thief on the Cross, “To day shalt thou be with me in
paradise” (Lk. 23:43). Likewise, Paul recounted how he
had been “caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable
words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (II
Cor. 12:4). What does Paul mean? We don’t know! He
wouldn’t say. It was beyond language, beyond the limits
of what language allows. And as the Apostle John
declares later in the Book, “And I John saw the holy
city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”
(21:2).
Dear Christian Friend,
have you fallen out of love with the Savior? Have you
left your first love behind? Have you forsaken the
things that originally thrilled you about Christianity?
Christian pastor, have left behind the Truth of the Word
of God alone. If so, may you right now remember, repent,
and return.
[i] This section
adapted from the author’s exposition of Ephesians:
The Christian’s Wealth and Walk: An Expository
Commentary on Ephesians.
[ii] Both analogies
adapted from R. C. Sproul, Ephesians, p. 12.
[iv] Brown, Vol. 1, p.
262.
[vi] Brown, Vol. 2, p.
772.
[viii] I Kings
3:9; Matt.
7:15-16; 16:2-3;
24:23-26; Acts
17:11;
20:28-31;
I Cor. 2:15; II Cor.
11:3, 13-14; I Tim. 6:20-21; Phil. 3:2; Col. 2:8;
I
Thes. 5:21-22; Heb. 4:12; II Pet.
2:1-2; I Jn.
4:1.
[ix] Zodhiates, p.
1009-10.
[x] Brown, Vol. 1, p.
281.
[xi] See the author’s
exposition of Ephesians for a detailed analysis of 4:14
and the subject of discernment.
[xii] Brown, Vol. 3, p.
230.
[xvi] John Eadie,
Commentary on the Epistle to the
Ephesians (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, reprinted from Eadie’s 1883 edition), p.
liii.
