The Church You Need To Know Series Part 16
Ephesus: The Church of Lost Love Due to a Lost Identity
The first 13 verses heavily emphasize a single word, which makes clear the centrality of one person. After blessing the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we learn that all our blessings are "in" Christ. Hence, Paul continues his repeated use of the preposition "in," emphasizing the believer's identity as in Christ, in the heavenly realms as opposed to worldly ones. And we are chosen in Him to be in His presence (emphasis on His). In the love of which He is the source, He predestined us for adoption into the Divine family to Himself (3 but 1) through the instrumentality (means) of Jesus Christ. All this is according to His purpose and will to the glory of His grace because we are blessed "in" the beloved. We are loved because He is loved first. And "in" Him we have been bought because the price paid was His blood as the Life is in His blood (Leviticus 27:11) for the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the richness of "His" Grace which "He" lavished on us. We are in these first 13 verses as much as He is, but all the emphasis is not on us but on Him if only the Church could learn this lesson). Only then are we not in danger of being an Ephesian Church.
Ephesus: The Church of Lost Love Due to Lost Gratitude
You can continue to see the emphasis of Chapter 1 by reading it. Chapter 2 slightly alters the emphasis by focusing on what Christ alone did to change us into something new and good from the evil we were. A reality that is impossible apart from imparting repentance. In chapter 3, we learn that Christ expanded the Gospel to include the world of nations by mentioning Gentiles. Therefore, two (Jew and Gentile) are made one. Two parts were brought together, which could not have been further apart in God's economy. Two becoming one is the critical reality, emphasizing unity.
Ephesus: The Church of Lost Love Resulted in a Lost Ministry
In chapter 4, Paul uses the term walk to emphasize what follows a believer's entry into a new and profound relationship with the living God. He focuses on One in his opening words and then brings the diversity of its members in a supernatural unity as a witness to the world. The Ephesian Church completely misses the mark in these regards. The comparison of a heavenly walk as opposed to a worldly one is missing when Christ is not the focal point. Say what we will that He is, but when our lives reveal He is not, He is not.
In Chapter 5, Paul continues to explain how we live in love with each other can proclaim what mere words cannot. By mere words, I mean words that are not authenticated by a better type of Life. This Life includes building up the Church, in love, and laying aside the wickedness of which we all were partakers. Chapter five concludes with marriage as an analogy of union, of which our present generation does not have a clue.
Chapter Six enters the general of a spiritual army of which prayerless people are unaware. He's called Satan, and he has zero mercy seeking whom he may devour. Ephesus was warned to wear their armor; otherwise, they would be in far more danger than they realized and could not stand on the evil day. Is it any wonder that they left their first love?
Ephesus Lost Love Becomes a Warning to All Churches
A person might think after reading the first three opening lines of the Church at Ephesus that it had to be a good Church. I lost count ages ago how often I heard someone say, "I go to a good Church." What if Christ said to their Church, "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love." If that were all Jesus said, we might be tempted to let it go, but when he followed with, "Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent."
Why does the warning come to all Churches today? Only the persecuted Churches in Revelation 2 and 3 are exempt from Jesus' call to repent. Therefore, all others are on notice to overcome the deficiencies in their Churches. To Ephesus, His last words are, "To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God." Should any believer take the Tree of Life for granted if they are unwilling to take the words of Jesus Christ seriously?
How Ironic it is that Ephesus is a Church of lost love, knowing that Christ came to save the lost by identifying with them, and giving the best reason ever to love with a full heart and an unspotted motive.
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