“Recapturing Love”

Revelation 2:1-7

John, an elder in the early churches of Asia Minor, finds himself exiled to the island of Patmos because he will neither renounce nor compromise his faith in Jesus Christ. Caught up in the Spirit of the Lord he is commanded to write the book we know as The Revelation of John. This book is to be shared among the churches of Asia Minor, particularly those in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

Very early in this book there are seven letters to the seven key churches listed above. Although each church receives its own message from the risen Christ, each of them will hear the words directed to all of them. They were all existing and doing ministry with the external threat of severe persecution hanging over their heads. Each of them was also contending with the internal threats of destructive heresies. The heretical groups mentioned by name in the seven letters are the Nicolaitans, the Baalamites, and the followers of Jezebel. Each of these heresies was a form of libertine gnosticism, a false teaching that denied the humanity of Christ, said that the physical human body was of no consequence, and further taught that what one did to or with one’s body, no matter how self-destructive, immoral, or unethical it might be, did not matter.

The letter to the leader, the angel, of the church in Ephesus opens with the twin reminders that all of the churches belong to the risen Lord – he holds them in his right hand – and that he is always among them – he walks among the seven golden lamp stands.

Then comes the body of the letter. In it the risen Christ lauds the congregation in Ephesus for its life and work, its faithful toil and gallant response to the troubles that afflict it. He praises the Ephesian Christians for their intolerance of evil and their willingness to challenge those who claim falsely to be apostles. They have willingly suffered rather than be disloyal to Christ. They have held fast to the cause of Christ even when doing so was a struggle. Further on he gives them credit for hating the works of the Nicolaitans, for despising, as he despised, the libertine gnosticism that was being spread about as if it were the true Gospel.

The church in Ephesus was strong. It had taken root, grown, and prospered in one of the world’s most sinful cities. Ephesus was a spiritual and moral cesspool. It was a place where criminals and con artists took advantage of those who were kind and good. As the center of Artemis worship Ephesus promoted, condoned, and financially profited from cultic prostitution.

Surrounded on all sides by sin and evil, the Ephesian church maintained its loyalty to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. The orthodoxy of its beliefs was above reproach. But not all was well. Hear the words of the risen Lord to this church, this fine, strong church: “I do have this criticism to make of you. You have lost the love that once you had, when you first became Christians. Think back to the standards that once you had, and repent, and live again the life you lived, when you first became Christians. If you do not, I am coming to you, and unless you repent, I will remove your lamp stand from its place. [Your church will cease to exist].”

They were preaching and teaching all the right things, adhering faithfully to the orthodox theology they had received from Paul, were holding up under persecution, and had not allowed themselves to be dragged back down into the moral cesspool that surrounded them. But something was off. Something was lacking - love.

What is this love they had when they first became Christians? What were the standards they so desperately needed to recapture? What was so different about their Christians lives now as compared to the lives they led in the congregation’s early days? The scholars differ. Some say that the church’s devotion to Christ and the Gospel had waned, that the Christians in Ephesus had lost their spiritual glow.

In one commentary the heading preceding these verses was “A Spiritually Inconsistent Church.” What was the inconsistency? William Barclay contends that the love lacking in the church was that love demanded by Jesus of all Christians. For whatever reasons the Ephesian Christians were neither showing this love to one another nor displaying it to the world. They were talking the talk of Christian love but they weren’t walking the walk.

Thus the inconsistency and hence the heading in Dr. Barclay’s commentary: “When Orthodoxy Costs Too Much.” That the orthodoxy of the Ephesian church was real and strong is obvious from the words of Jesus in today’s text. False teachers, fraudulent apostles, and evil in any form were not tolerated there. The people in that congregation obviously lived lives that were a strong moral and ethical counterpoint to the lives of the unbelievers around them. That was not a bad thing. It was a good thing, a real good thing.

But if in their efforts to maintain theological orthodoxy and doctrinal purity they had become unloving toward one another and the world around them, what good was their orthodoxy and purity to them? Without Christ-like love all of their many commendable attributes amounted, as Paul phrased it in I Corinthians 13, to nothing.

Furthermore their lack of love for one another was a telling symptom of the lessening of their love for Christ. The former must reflect the latter. Jesus was real clear about that as he taught his disciples in the upper room on the night of his betrayal and arrest: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Could it be that their love of and loyalty to words and behavior patterns, even biblical words and behavior patterns, had slowly been replacing their love and loyalty to the Living Word, Jesus Christ? Could it be that those Christians in Ephesus had confused orthodoxy, a means of faithfulness, with faithfulness itself?

Yes, it could. And it still can. To use Dr. Barclay’s words, orthodoxy can cost too much. It can harden into cold and merciless self-righteousness. It can lead Christians – good Christians - to attack one another’s character and engage in name-calling. It can tear families, congregations, and even whole denominations apart. It can turn our Christian witness to the world into a joke. How can those outside the church know that we are Christians by our love, when all we do is criticize and condemn one another?

Right now there are those on both the right and left wings of the Presbyterian Church who do not reflect the love of Christ as they promote and defend their various political and theological positions. They may very well be speaking the truth, or their version of it, but all too often they are not speaking it in love. Some of the things we Presbyterians write and say about each other can in no way be construed as positive. Sometimes, even when we say the right thing, the tone we use makes it clear that there is no love lost between those speaking and those listening.

Sometimes it seems as if we modern Presbyterians, like those long ago Ephesians, have lost the love we had at first. A passionate love for Christ and a Christ-like love for one another is often missing in the life of our denomination and in the lives of many of our congregations. We’re so caught up in either promoting one form of rigid orthodoxy or another or else trying to impose a similarly rigid form of political correctness that we lose touch with who and what God has called us to be.

Even if it were possible to attain perfect orthodoxy and the ultimate in political correctness, and even if we could somehow manage to achieve a working combination of the two, if we have to sacrifice Christ-like love in order to do so, then we will have accomplished nothing.

A church can be politically incorrect, but if it reflects the love Jesus, so what? A congregation’s theological understanding may leave a lot to be desired, but if the Christ-like love of that congregation makes it obvious that the folks there are indeed Christians, so what? Whatever else we may either have or lack as a church, there must always be a love of Jesus that is reflected in our love for one another. If we lose that love, we risk non-existence. The Lord himself will remove our lamp stand. Amen.