Happy Valentine's Day!
Can you remember your first love? It usually involved notes such as this: "Do you want to go with ____? Check yes____ or no____."
If you checked yes, you were officially an item. Which pretty much meant nothing, although you could possibly score a heart-shaped box of candy on Valentine's Day. You might sit together at the movie (back when every 3rd grader in town went off to the movies with no parental supervision.) And when you were ready to break up, a friend would do the dirty work for you.
What we call first love was actually first like.
But when Jesus speaks of your first love, he means something much deeper and more serious.
And when he told the church at Ephesus that they had given up their first love, it was a ringing indictment. For all the good they did, they were not doing it because of their love.
Jesus did not discount their hard work for the church. It just wasn't done out of love for him. (And honestly haven't we all been there--working so hard doing the Lord's work that we forgot about loving him?)
Jesus is not looking for people who will flirt with him, bring him a box of chocolates once a year, and hold his hand every now and then.
His desire is for a lifelong commitment and a livelong joy in his love.
Nothing else will do.
"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love that you had at first." Revelation 2:4
If you checked yes, you were officially an item. Which pretty much meant nothing, although you could possibly score a heart-shaped box of candy on Valentine's Day. You might sit together at the movie (back when every 3rd grader in town went off to the movies with no parental supervision.) And when you were ready to break up, a friend would do the dirty work for you.
What we call first love was actually first like.
But when Jesus speaks of your first love, he means something much deeper and more serious.
And when he told the church at Ephesus that they had given up their first love, it was a ringing indictment. For all the good they did, they were not doing it because of their love.
Jesus did not discount their hard work for the church. It just wasn't done out of love for him. (And honestly haven't we all been there--working so hard doing the Lord's work that we forgot about loving him?)
Jesus is not looking for people who will flirt with him, bring him a box of chocolates once a year, and hold his hand every now and then.
His desire is for a lifelong commitment and a livelong joy in his love.
Nothing else will do.
"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love that you had at first." Revelation 2:4
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