Your First Love

Your First Love

As I write this article today, I do so with much hesitance and awe. “Hesitant” because I do not fully understand the book of Revelation. “Awe” because I see the magnitude of my God. Revelation is an incredible book to have at the end of the Bible because it completes all the scripture and points us to what “must soon take place (1:1).” When I read in chapter 4 about the throne of Heaven, I get so excited about our future. I can hardly wait to sit around the throne and join with the angels in saying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come (4:8).” Before we get to this incredible description of the throne of God, John takes us through the letters to the seven Asian churches. We get to see their good attributes along with their not so good attributes. The first letter was written to the church in Ephesus. They were commended for their hard work and perseverance. They were able to identify false apostles and endure hardships. That sounds great but what did they do wrong? “You have forsaken your first love (2:4).” This “first” love can mean either their love for each other and/or their love for Christ. This is even relevant for the church in America. I think the same thing can be said about us. I was talking to someone on Tuesday about the church in general and about where that person sees the church of today. One thing he said to me was that he feels the church is so busy loving its programs and tag lines that it has lost its love for Jesus. We get so focused on making our programs attractive that we forget that Jesus is attractive enough. “Remember the height from which you had fallen (2:5).” We have been saved from a life without joy, without hope, without a future. We have been given joy, hope and a future because of Jesus Christ, not any church program. If we have been given such a future, then we should focus all of our love and on one who secured that future for us, Jesus Christ.

Once I was lost in sin’s degradation,
Jesus came down to bring me salvation,
Lifted me up from sorrow and shame,
Now I belong to Him;
Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me,
Not for the years of time alone,
But for eternity.

Loving Christ,
Aaron Hodges