Reigniting Lost Love - Revelation 2:4

She was clearly discouraged over her husband's loss of passion for her.  She wondered why things couldn't be as they once were.  He called it mature love, a love no longer driven by hormones.  She called it lazy love, a love no longer expressed in actions.  Not she, nor I, underestimate the influence or lack thereof that hormones play in regards to love, but if we're honest, we'll admit that dormant hormones are easily reignited into burning flames with the arrival of new love.  Without putting forth an effort to keep the flame ablaze, first love will fade. 

After saying all sorts of nice things about the Ephesian believers Jesus rebuked them for forsaking their first love for Him (Revelation 2:4).  Like many marriages, church settles into a routine that robs the passion of first love.  Church becomes dry, stale, and lifeless.  Maybe the Ephesians considered it mature love, but not Jesus.  Nothing has changed.  In many respects our western world church is no different than the Ephesian community of believers.  We're doing lots of good, but we lack the passion of first love.  According to Jesus, that puts the western church on death's door.     

Jesus told the Ephesian believers to repent.  He warned them that they'd lose their witness for Him if they didn't do the things they did in a previous time of passion.  Jesus knew that doing those things that were once driven by the passion of first love would help reignite lost love.  If there was no return to their first love that which they called church would die.  Prior to its death it became a sickly shell of what was once a vibrant church.  That shell was cut to the ground by the swords of Muslim armies who conquered their way across the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.  This was the very land that the Apostle Paul conquered for Jesus by the sword of the Spirit.    

Jesus makes it clear.  First love can be lost.  It doesn't always mature, and, it can be reignited, whether in marriage or in church.  The choice is ours.  When routine replaces passion; when desire for other things steals desire for Jesus; and, when the spark of first love is extinguished, it's time to repent.  It's time to do the things we once did when passion for Jesus motivated all we did.   First love can be reignited.  Let's go for it.