Do you remember your first-love? Maybe it was a kindergarten classmate or a middle school crush. Perhaps yours was a high school sweetheart. For some, it doesn’t come until adulthood. What about you?
The word “first” can have two meanings: there is first in chronology, and there is first in priority. I don’t remember my chronological first love because of the supremacy of the love I have for my wife. Those feelings that I may have thought were love are now overshadowed by what I know as true love.
God and First-Love
Most of us can list a variety of things that we loved chronologically before we loved God. But where does God currently stand on our priority list? For most of us the problem is not that we don’t love God but that we don’t love God FIRST.
Consider the church at Ephesus established by Paul during his second missionary tour. The church held a special place in his heart and it became an important part of early church history.
In his letter to the Ephesus church, Paul commended them for their “incorruptible love for Jesus.” But some 30 years later, Jesus dictated a letter to them through the Apostle John. We find that letter in Revelation 2:1-7.
He commended them for doing a lot of good things (vs. 2-3), but had a very serious charge against them. In verse 4, Jesus chastises them for leaving their “first-love.” It’s not that they didn’t love Him and do good things for Him, but they didn’t love Him pre-eminently. They didn’t love Him the way they used to love Him.
Soul-Searching
How would you rate your love for Jesus? I’m not asking WHAT you do supposedly FOR Him, but how do you feel ABOUT Him? Neither am I suggesting you have abandoned your faith or that you don’t love Jesus at all? But what I am asking is do you love Him ABOVE ALL OTHER loves?
Sometimes we want things from His hand without pursuing His heart. We want His blessing but not His correction. At other times, we like to keep Him handy for when we might need a “favor” or answered prayer. But we don’t want Him directing our lives. We want all He might give us, but we don’t want Him asking anything from us.
We love Him, but do we love Him pre-eminently. Is HE most important in our lives? Is he our first thought or last resort? He is a part of our lives, but is He the owner of our lives?
Hooking Back Up with our First-Love
Jesus’ words to the Ephesian church (vs. 5) provide us a pathway back to Him as our first-love.
REMEMBER – think back to times in your life when you walked more closely with Jesus than you do now. Remember when He mattered to you more than anything else. Long for that same spiritual fervor for Jesus as a reality in your current life.
REPENT – own up to your culpability. In verse 4, Jesus said the Ephesians had “abandoned” the love they had for Him in the past. Jesus had not changed, THEY had drifted. Until we recognize that we are the guilty party, we can never recapture the love we once had for Him.
RETURN – Jesus told the Ephesians to do the things they used to do when Jesus was their first-love. Jesus welcomes us back into sweet fellowship with Him, but He will not force us to come back.
My challenge today is that you honestly evaluate what place Jesus has in your heart. Is He one of several or is He the One and Only? Is he on your list of priorities or the center in everything you do?