EPHESUS

“ To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,
‘ These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:2 “ I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; 3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. 6 But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7 “ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’
(Revelation 2:1-7 NKJV)


The context of Ephesus:
We find Ephesus in Acts and, of course, the letter to the Ephesians. In Acts, we learn that Ephesus has a temple of artemis (Acts 19:23-35) and a temple to Diana; which led to an uproar against Paul (Acts 19:23-41).

In Rev 2:2 we read Messiah Yeshua coming as “Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand”. The right-hand shows power and authority and the saving power of God (Psalm 20:6), and the stars represent teachers (Rev 1:20). Yeshua walks among the seven golden lampstands which represent the church; or church status (Rev 1:20). So what we have is a picture of Christ with the leaders of the churches in His right hand and His control over church status of a congregation.

In Rev 2:2 we see that the people of Ephesus are working hard. Yeshua is probably not talking about their civil job but rather the work for the Kingdom. They are not only working but they are persevering in their work. They are not tiring. They are continuing in the work full force.

They cannot tolerate the wicked. They can not tolerate sin. This would not mean that they did not associate with sinners. What they didn’t do is a compromise with them; nor did they allow it to enter the church. It’s highly possible they had removed wicked people from the church (1 Cor 5:9-13).

They tested teachers and pointed out the false teachers. They did not allow people to teach them theology apart from the doctrine of the Kingdom of God. Which takes us down to the point that they hated “the practices of the Nicolaitans” (Rev 2:6). There are many theory’s of how the Nicolaitans came to be but one thing sticks out in almost all theory’s - their practice was a Gnostic / Manichaeism theology. These theologies were basically a sloppy grace practice. They believed there were two equal waring powers of the universe, one good and one bad. In everything, there were two equal waring powers and since that was the case it did not matter what the bad side of man did as long as the spiritual side was toward God.

First, there are not two equal warning powers: God is Creator and satan is a creature. Satan can only do what God allows and can only go as far as God sets limits.

Second, when our spirit is toward God, our flesh follows. It is impossible for the flesh not to follow IF we turn toward God (Hebrews 10:26-31).

The church of Ephesus was dealing with hardships because of Christ; yet they were persevering and did not grow weary in it (Rev 2:3; 1 Peter 2:20-21; 4:16; Matt 5:11-12).

It sounds like this church really had it going on. It sounds so much better than most churches I know in America today. They never tired in their hard work for the Kingdom of God, they didn’t compromise with the world nor allowed in people who compromised, and they tested teachers to make sure their doctrine did not get distorted - and called out false teachers. This churches seemed like it rocked - until we get to verse 4

“YET, I hold this against you” (Rev 2:4). Even with all that good work, there was still a problem. Was it faith? no. Was it legalism? no. Was it not enough grace? no. What was it? They “have forsaken the love they had at first.”

What happened was, they started running through the rituals of church and there was no real relationship there. It was there at one time, but it grew cold.

Even though they were doing all those good things, the fall from a love relationship with God was a great fall (Rev 2:5). We need to consider this in America. Most don’t know what a relationship with another human is supposed to look like; none the less a relationship with someone you can’t see and touch.

Think about a relationship with your spouse, a close friend, a close relative. What do we accept in that relationship? Would you consider it a relationship if your spouse rarely talked to you; and when they did, all they had was a list of chores for you? Would you consider it a relationship if they spent their money only on themselves? Would you consider it a relationship if they never really wanted to learn about you and hear what you had to say? Would you consider it a relationship if they rarely wanted to spend time with you? What if you had a spouse who made excuses for why they could not spend time with you only to hang out with someone else? What if your spouse was sleeping around; would you call that a relationship? If it were legal, you’d probably want to kill them and the person they are sleeping around with. None of these are relationships yet the thing that should concern us is that we are that spouse when it comes to a relationship with God.

The truth about sin is, sin is not merely messing up or continuing in something that we are not supposed to do. We view sin from a man perspective and we must get into God’s Word to view sin from His perspective. When we choose sin over God, God see’s it as us “sleeping around” on Him. All through Scripture Israel is called a whore, a harlot, adulterer because they are engaging in sin (Jeremiah 3:8; Hosea 4:15-16).

In Ezekiel 16, the Lord reminds Israel of how He lifted them up from filth and nakedness. He paints a beautiful picture of His love toward His people. Then we get to verse 15:

you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it… You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger… You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. 29 Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied.
30 “How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord God, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot
(Ezekiel 16:15-30 NKJV)


We must see sin for what it is. If we want to take control of sin in our lives, we must see it in the way that God see’s it. We must understand that when we spend very little time with Him, spend very little money to expand the Kingdom, spend almost no time in wanting to learn about Him, that we are that spouse who is cheating on their Groom. Pursuing the pleasures in this world over God is not just having fun, living life to it’s fullest, making mistakes, or stumbling to a Holy God - it’s harlotry.

We don’t tend to view sin this way. We don’t tend to view the pleasures this world has to offer this way. Because we fell for a lie that a relationship with God was going to church, condemning sin (as it pertains to the Law), making sure we go to a good gathering that teaches good doctrine; but don’t miss this, the Ephesians had all this and were still not in a relationship with God. Their lives turned into a pattern, a habitual act, that led to a stale relationship. And, though they did not allow sin in their lives, the fall from this First Love was as great a sin that would keep them from Heaven. It was a sin they HAD to repent of (Vs 5b). Their repentance was one that they had to be victorious in (Vs 7).

Because of their fall from Love, Yeshua threatens to remove the “candlestick” (Rev 2:5); He threatens to remove their status as a church. Just because we build a building, market the music, donuts, and teaching, bring a gathering of people into the building each week to sing songs and listen to a sermon, it does not mean that is a church. Christ has control of the status of a church. Notice this, the letter is to the minister of the church. The minister is a star in Christ’s right hand, but it’s the lampstand (church status) that will be removed. We will not make it to Heaven if we are not part of Christ’s church (not any specific denomination).

If you’ve heard the argument of “once saved always saved” these letters to this churches should awaken to the truth. This is a New Testament church. This is a church who once was in a relationship with God. Look at the wording used: “You have FORSAKEN the love you HAD at first”. They had a relationship with God and now they don’t. We are not talking about anyone who was never saved, to begin with, we are talking about a church whose leader is in Christ’s right hand and with who Christ walks among their candlestick; yet, because they no longer have that love relationship, their church status is threatened; their eternal life with God and Christ is threatened. If you don’t want a relationship with God now, here, what makes us think we will have a chance there?
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