"... thou hast left thy first love" Revelation 2:4
The church of Ephesis had great feel for doctrine and an exemplary
service record. They possessed spiritual discretion and sound
judgment but were gutted of any capacity to please GOD by their
dearth of love.
Christian Chemistry 101: Hot orthodoxy + cold heart = lukewarm love (nauseating to the LORD and so stated in Revelation 3:16)
A certain Pharisee asked
the LORD some years prior: "MASTER,
which is the great commandment in the law? JESUS said unto him,
thou shalt love the LORD thy GOD with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great
commandment."
Matthew 22:36-38
If the first and great commandment is to love the LORD with all
our heart, soul, and mind, … then it must follow that the first and
great sin is to not keep this commandment.
Many in the church today hold a pre-Pentecost Peter-like affection for JESUS but do not love HIM! This absence of love for CHRIST begets an absence of love for what HE loves … i.e. holiness, fellow believers, and the lost souls of men, … and because love knows no vacuum, a deadly love for the world sets in. John cautions in another letter to: "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the FATHER is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the FATHER, but is of the world." (1 John 2:15-16)
Subsisting on lusts while severing the umbilical cord to the real source of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is anti-revival ... a perverse kind of test tube Christianity.
" ... remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent" Revelation 2:5
As American Christians we must remember upon WHOM our nation was founded. It will soon be too late. The Ephesians ignored their call to repentance to their own peril and Muslim Turkey now engulfs the archeological rubble of this once great church. If we in the American church do likewise, then can we but expect our candlestick (the light and influence of the church) to also be removed?
Revival Question #1: Who or what owns your first love?
Day One of revival begins by repenting of breaking the first of the Ten Commandments.
Memorize: "Thou shalt have no other gods before ME." Exodus 20:3