First Love

June 27, 2023

In our series from John’s Revelation, I can’t get past Jesus saying to the church in Ephesus that they had lost their first love (Revelation 2:1-7). Jesus said early in His ministry that the greatest commandment is loving God with everything they have and their neighbor as themselves.

John’s Revelation echoed Jesus’ first words again—you cannot love God without loving people. The Ephesians had lost their love for God because they had lost their love for people. When you live constantly among people who not only rub you the wrong way but also live life totally different from you, it is easy to develop an attitude of at best indifference, even sliding into hate. Hate means to feel intense or passionate dislike for someone. Doesn’t that sound like the days in which we live? I believe this is what John was addressing when he said, “You have lost your first love.”

Paul had told the Ephesians in Ephesians 6 that our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual principalities and evils of our world. He urged them to love people and realize that the Enemy was the problem behind it all. In 1 John 2:15-17 this same John writes, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If you love the world, love for the Father is not in you. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful people, the lust of their eyes, the boasting about what they have and do, that comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”

The Christians got it. They ended up dismantling Rome through their actions of love. As Bart Ehrman said, “Christianity not only took over an empire. It was the most monumental cultural transformation our world has ever seen.”

That never changes. Love like Jesus commanded is what changes people. The world around us is hurting, and it’s hungry for the touch of someone who cares—who really cares! Through God’s agape kind of love—the unconditional, serving love God has for you, empowered by the Holy Spirit, you can be that someone. What things can be changed by that love? Who needs that love?

The apostle Paul wrote: "Let love be your greatest aim." 1 Corinthians 14:1 TLB

In a world that pushes us toward anything but love, how can we get there?

First, it’s impossible to love this way if you do not believe that God loves you with agape love. God’s love for you is unconditional and undeserved. He loves you in spite of your disobedience, your weakness, your sin, and your selfishness. God loves us sinners so much that Jesus died for us. The love God has for you, His forgiven child who wants to serve and please Him, is far beyond human comprehension.

Jesus prayed, “My prayer for all of them [the disciples and all future believers] is that they will be of one heart and mind, just as you and I are, Father… I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one—so that the world will know you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me” (John 17:21, 23 TLB). He loves us so much.

Jesus commands us to love. Focus on loving God, and as your love for Him grows so will your love for others. When Christians begin to act like Christians and love God, their neighbors, their enemies, and especially their Christian brothers and sisters—regardless of color, race, or class—they become like Christians in the first century. They will become irresistible. The world will be transformed. In the first century, people observed those first-century believers saying, “Look how they love!” That kind of love can’t be ignored.

But you cannot love in your own strength. That kind of love is impossible through your own efforts. That kind of love is supernatural and cannot happen without God’s supernatural resources. When Christ comes into your life and you become a Christian, God gives you the resources to be a different kind of person. With the motivation, He also gives you the ability. He provides you with a new kind of love.

You can’t love by trying hard, by making resolutions, by self-imposing discipline. The only way to love is by faith. Everything about following Jesus is based on faith. You were forgiven by faith, you received Christ by faith, you were filled with the Holy Spirit by faith, you walk with Jesus by faith.

If you have a hard time loving others, remember that Jesus commanded, “Love each other just as much as I love you” (John 13:34 TLB). Jesus would not command you to do something without giving you the power to do it (1 John 5:14-15). He has an unending supply of agape love for you to reach out to others, loving them as Jesus has loved you, and bringing them to faith.

It’s not just your friends. Love by faith every one of your “enemies”—everyone who angers you, ignores you, bores you, or frustrates you—with the kind of love with which Jesus has loved you. Agape love is an act of the will, not just a simple emotion. You can do it day by day, step by step, choice by choice.

Kindness is love in action. Putting others first is love in action. Showing compassion is love in action. Empathizing with others is love in action. Forgiving is love in action.

Truthfully, we all know what love like Jesus commands looks like. We must just do it. When we don’t want to do it, Jesus is saying to us, “I have this against you—you have lost your first love.”

May the Lord make your love to grow and overflow to each other and to everyone else… 1 Thessalonians 3:12 TLB