Revelation 2:1-7 To the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things said he that holds the seven stars in his right hand… I. WHAT IS IT? Most of us can probably remember an early enthusiastic preference or affection for some one. It was like nothing else in our lives. It stirred in us as the spring stirs in the earth when the green shoots appear. New capacities of working, enjoying, suffering, began to reveal themselves. Now, the same thing happens when Christ and His love are first revealed to us, and we rise up and meet them. It is an absolutely new experience. We feel an intense interest and a strong drawing of the heart. Spiritual things which seemed far off have suddenly come near. Life has become of meaning and value, not so much for what it brings to us, as for what it is; because it has become so full of love and of God. And we feel within us the working of a new passion — a yearning to do good, to sacrifice ourselves in some way, to make some return to that wonderful Divine love which seems to surround us like an atmosphere and lift us like an inspiration. It is so easy to do right; it seems shameful, almost impossible, to do wrong; we could not be so disloyal as to think of any forbidden thing, and a keen remorse seizes us if we appear to swerve by a hairbreadth from the straight path. In this first love, where vividly experienced, there are these three elements — an awakening, an enthusiasm, and a jealous preference. We realise God; we realise life; we realise the claims of men, the beauty of goodness, the baseness of sin, the triumphant power of righteousness, and the wide, deep meaning of eternity. But this love is not mere contemplation. We are eager to act in the light of this revelation, because all these beliefs are full of conviction and impulse, and we must do something for the Christ who has made all things new — who has given us a possession in all things, and, above all, a possession in Himself. That is the enthusiasm of the first love. But love is not love unless it is jealous — jealous not in a mean, but in a high sense — jealous of any interference with its course. Nothing can be tolerated which takes the edge off the soul, that keen edge which ensures success in work and conflict and prayer. II. LOSING IT, OR RATHER LEAVING IT. Sometimes a man looks back on the first love he felt to Christ with philosophic indifference: "Yes, I was rather interested in these things at one time — enthusiastic even after a fashion. Very curious, you know, how the mind works; I can scarcely credit it now. Oh, one of those passing phases of feeling, of course." Sometimes a man looks back to it scoffingly or contemptuously: "I believe I did once rather make a fool of myself about religion. I have got more important things now to attend to." Others assume a tone of self-congratulation. They narrate how they threw themselves into this piece of work or that; how there was nothing they would not do. A man plumes himself on the fact that, though, of course, he would never think of making sacrifices and exerting himself in Christ's cause now, that at one time he was just as active and self-denying as any ardent young Christian. Others I have known look back despairingly: "Yes, I once had these experiences you speak of — hopes bright beyond expression, and feelings fresh as the dawn. But the light is gone; the tide has ebbed, and won't flow again. I would that these feelings could come back, but we don't look for miracles nowadays." That is what some people say despairingly. Now the ways by which men generally forfeit their best spiritual possession are mainly these: Failure to feed it. All love is hungry, and the finer and purer a love is, the more it demands suitable nutriment. If your first love shows signs of failing, ask yourself, "Am I not starving it?" You are starving it if you are not seeking Christ as you sought Him at first, asking Him to reveal Himself to you; setting apart "still hours"; letting your heart go out to the only object to whom it is quite worth while for our hearts to cling. Or again, perhaps you are failing to develop your first love-to give it exercise. What sacrifices is your love making? what is it bringing to the Divine loved one's feet? Once more, you may be forfeiting your first love through failure to guard it. There is a keen spiritual edge with which all the best part of spiritual work is done. We must whet the edge; but we must also sheathe it. In contact with certain things it gets blunt. III. KEEPING FIRST LOVE. There are two theories about love that are thoroughly false — the theory of disenchantment and the theory of emotional exhaustion. Sometimes we are told that all love in its very nature is illusion; that our enthusiasm for a person or cause is very largely a creation of our own fond imagination; and that the cold touch of reality slowly dispels all that sort of thing. This is the philosophy of the cynics, and cynics are a set of fools, blinded by the conceit of their own superior wisdom. Of course there is excuse for disenchantment when the object of our affection changes, or when we have been deceived in it. But that cannot happen here; Christ does not change. And then as to what may be called emotional exhaustion. Love necessarily exhausting itself! what ignorant nonsense! Why, love grows by what it feeds on. And to love Christ is to keep near the fresh fount of all love. It is not an emptying of our full hearts; it is a filling of our empty hearts. Of course the Divine love — the first love — is not stereotyped. It does not retain always the same complexion or the same expressions, but it retains, or ought to retain, the same intensity. All love passes through phases, and develops not by standing still, but by moving forward. It is not meant that our first love to Christ should retain its juvenile form. But it is meant that it should retain its ardour, its capacity of sacrifice, and its jealous watchfulness. (John F. Ewing, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; |
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