God’s love for us and our love for God motivates our work
Sept. 6 – Revelation 2:1-7
2 ‘To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands:
2 ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false. 3 I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.
The church in Ephesus received this letter. The church in Ephesus had been around for a long time, it was one of the well-established congregations in that part of the country we now call Turkey. There were lots of things going on, they were busy doing good work (vs. 2). They were faithful to the gospel message, and they had faced challenges and opposition and had kept on being faithful. There was good work happening and they had much to be proud of.
But the church, the people of the church, had lost the passion, the fervour, that had brought them into the church of Jesus Christ in the first place. When they first started following Jesus, their work in following Jesus was fired by their love for him. But over time that fire of love had ebbed and the work had become duty only, it did not have the fire of love. It had become brittle and lifeless, instead of being warm and full of care and grace.
Work for Jesus that comes from remembering his love for us, that comes from our love for Jesus, has a warmth and joy to it. Work for Jesus that is driven entirely by requirement and obligation does not have that warmth and joy in it.
Jesus said it well, our work for God needs to be rooted in a love for God. Our work for God is a declaration of our love for God. Such work is self-giving, is sacrificial, is warm for it is fired by the love of God for us and our love for God.
The church in Ephesus was doing the right things, but they had lost the fire that had led them to do the right things. They needed to fall in love with Jesus again. The obvious question is: where are we?
PRAYER:
God of love, we rejoice in your love for us. Fire our love for you, warm our cold and brittle hearts that we might with warmth and love for you follow in the steps of your Son and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.