[Vibrant Church] The Motions

In the mid-first century CE, Ephesus was a natural place to plant a church. Its deep harbor and access to overland trade routes made it fertile ground for commerce, culture, and religion. No doubt, this is why St. Paul left Priscilla and Aquila there at the end of his second missionary journey and returned at the beginning of his third journey to spend three years there. While he worked in Ephesus, the gospel was proclaimed, miracles were done, and lives were performed, and as the church grew, it began to send people to nearby cities to plant other churches. In fact, most scholars agree the other six churches Jesus addressed in Revelation 2-3 were planted by the church at Ephesus.

For three decades after its start, the Ephesian church benefited from great leaders. In addition to Priscilla and Aquila (who likely left to return to their home in Rome) and Paul, there was Apollos, a well-educated and eloquent man who “was competent in the use of the Scriptures,” “instructed in the way of the Lord,” and “fervent in spirit.” He also had the advantage of Priscilla’s and Aquila’s tutelage and eventually went on to become an effective ministry second in prominence only to Paul himself. After Paul’s departure, there was Timothy, who claimed several distinct advantages. His mixed Jewish-Greek heritage uniquely prepared him to minister to both Jews and Gentiles. His upbringing by faithful women meant he had deep roots in Scripture. And he had the benefit of accompanying St. Paul himself on both his second and third missionary journeys. Then, St. John himself became the bishop at Ephesus and provide oversight to the growing constellation of churches that was growing up around the city. As the last of Jesus’ original twelve apostles, the church enjoyed the most direct connection to Jesus and his teachings of any church at the end of the first century.

Certainly, this great leadership contributed to the church’s greatness. In addition to the account of its beginnings, recorded in Acts 18-19, the church was recipient of one Pauline epistle, its pastor (Timothy) received two more, and it is difficult to imagine John wrote any of his contributions to the New Testament (i.e., John, 1-3 John, Revelation) without them at the front of his mind. From these, we can deduce that the church there lived faithfully, ministered boldly, and even confronted false teachers. Moreover, as the years passed, these things became systematized so that they were sustainable for the long haul.

All of these things combined to make the church at Ephesus the obvious recipient of the first letter dictated by the resurrected Jesus to St. John in Revelation 2:1-7. But what would Jesus say to such a church? What could possibly be wrong, and how could they possibly improve?

“Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

“Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

The Good: They were doing the works.

Jesus began his letter to the church at Ephesus with the declaration, “I know your works” and then commended the church for several things. First, he commended them for “your works, your labor, and your endurance.” In short, the saints there were doing lots of things to help lots of people. Second, he applauded them for refusing to “tolerate evil people.” That is, they called out sin and would not associate with self-proclaimed Christians who persisted in it. The church “tested those who call themselves apostles and are not.” They were constantly checking the character and teachings of those who asserted authority, and they denounced those who were found to be either teaching heresy or living hypocritically. They “persevered and endured hardships for the sake of [Jesus’] name.” When things took longer than expected, they kept going, and when they were harder than expected, the Ephesian saints did not give up. Even after thirty years, the church at Ephesus was doing the works they were supposed to do.

The Bad: They were going through the motions.

In verse 4, however, the accolades came to a screeching halt when Jesus announced, “But I have this against you.” For the original readers, this must have hit like a sledgehammer. They twere doing the right things, but as Jesus continued, it became clear that they were doing those things for the wrong reason: they had “abandoned the love [they] had at first.”

For Christ followers, love is not just a nice accessory to their faith. It was the thing that compelled Jesus to come to earth in the first place (John 3:16). It was what he demonstrated when he laid down his life to pay the penalty for our sin (Romans 5:8). It was what he identified as the two greatest comandments, declaring that every other command hung from it (Matthew 22:37-40). And it was the thing that was to distinguish his followers from everyone else in the world (John 13:35). To say that the Ephesians had abandoned their love, then, was to say that, while they were doing many fine things, they had lost the one thing that mattered most.

They were going through the motions, but those motions were hollow. Perhaps it was a sense of obligation or a point of pride. Possibly, it was just tradition: this is the what they always did. Maybe they were not just resisting evil; they were looking down on evil people. They were refuting false teachings, but instead of doing it with gentleness and winsomeness, in order to correct and restore (Galatians 6:1), they did it with harshness, abrasiveness, anger, and pride. To be clear, this shift did not happen overnight. No, the hollowing out of their hearts happened slowly over several years. It began with familiarity and routine: they became experts at filling soup bowls. It continued with exasperation: this guy was back again. It evolved into frustration, resentment, and condescension. And at each step, their love was eroded until there was nothing left.

Worse, Jesus’ deliberate wording here graphically explained the magnitude of the problem. According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, the word which is translated for us “abandoned” means exactly what we would think it does, but for the Christians at Ephesus, this specific word was significant. Their city was located on a deep harbor at the mouth of the Cayster River, but despite their best efforts to keep the harbor open, silt was slowly filling the harbor. In fact, while the city in John’s time was adjacent to the sea, its ruins are today more than two miles inland. This silting prevented large ships from reaching the port and left shallow marshes which were ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes. As a result, the entire city was moved multiple times through its history. The most recent relocation was in 292 BC when the king ordered an entirely new city built, the entire population moved, and the sewers of the old city stopped so the whole thing flooded. The believers at Ephesus could still see (and perhaps smell) the swamped ruins of the abandoned city. From a distance, it still resembled a real city, but the closer you came, the less you wanted to be there.

So it is with believers who abandon their love and simply go through the motions. They may still do lots of great things, and from a distance, they may even resemble a great church, but the closer they get, the less others want anything to do with them.

And it is not just others on earth. In verse 5, Jesus pronounced that, if the church at Ephesus continued on its present course, he would “come… and remove [their] lampstand from its place.” This was a reference to the start of this vision back in chapter 1. There, John found himself is a room with Jesus and seven golden lampstands. In Revelation 1:20, Jesus explained that the lampstands represented the seven churches, and so to remove the Ephesian church’s lampstand was to say that, while they may continue to meet and go through the motions, if they did not rekindle their love, and quickly, they would cease collectively to be a church, and they would cease individually to be believers.

The Solution: Rekindle love.

Clearly, there are believers and churches today that have abandoned love and are now merely going through the motions, and like the Ephesian saints, these are in desperate need of a solution. Fortunately, Jesus provided a three-point plan in verse 5.

First, they must remember how far they have fallen. This means looking back at what they did and, more importantly, why they did it. Like a teenager in love for the first time, they should be eager to do things for the objects of their love: God and their neighbors.

This notion was reinforced by the second point of the plan: repent. We typically think of repentance as a change of behavior, but behavior change is just a symptom of authentic repentance. Strictly speaking, the word refers to a change of mind, a transformation of the heart. When we decide our former desires were wrong and God’s are right, and we align our desires with his, our behavior will begin to change.

Third, they must do the works they did at first. This is a curious statement because, according to verse 2, the church at Ephesus was doing all the works, but again, the issue was why they were doing them. Therefore, getting back to their first love may not make a big difference on the surface. They would certainly continue doing many, perhaps even all, of the same things. The difference would be the attitude with which they did them. Instead of parading all their works, they would do them quietly. Instead of condescending those mired in sin, they would be filled with compassion. Instead of resenting having to do more, they would be eagerly looking for anything else they might be able to do.

All this seems, at first, to be counterintuitive. We generally decline to do things unless we have at least some passion about them. Jesus, however, knew that passion is often kindled and stoked by the things we do. Thus, if we act like we love God and people, sooner or later, we will discover that we actually do love them.

This is exactly what Jesus wanted for the church at Ephesus and for us today. If we find ourselves merely going through the motions of faith and ministry, then we must remember, repent, and return to the works we did at first so we can rekindle our love for God and people, and there are two reasons why this is so important.

First, we must rekindle our love for God and people because it is the only way to prevent Jesus from removing our lampstand from its place. If we want to be a church in more than name only, then everything we do must be driven by love.

Second, we must rekindle our love for God and people in order to claim “the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (7). Clearly, since we are not in the paradise of God, this is a reference to eternity. If we want to spend eternity with Jesus in New Jerusalem/heaven, we need to do this, but what if there is more to this passage? Elsewhere, Jesus spoke of abundant, eternal life in the present tense (e.g., John 10:10). This would suggest that we can experience this life here and now, even before we reach New Jerusalem. Indeed, when our love is rekindled, we will find in it a direct connection to the presence and power of Jesus unlike anything we had when we were just going through the motions, and as John 1:4 says, in him is life!

In the world today, there are many, many believers who are simply going through the motions. They are doing the right things, but not for the right reasons. The only reason that Jesus will honor is love. So if you find today that you are just doing the things you are supposed to do, then please remember, repent, and return to the works you did at first so your love will be rekindled and you will finally experience the abundant, eternal life Jesus promises here and now.