First Love

A common feature here on Pair o' Dime Shift, is the "second hand" sermon point* from my weekend church service. This past week my pastor preached on Revelation 2:1-7 where Jesus addresses the church in Ephesus. He had some good things to say about this church, however, what he was most concerned about was that they had lost their "First Love." In this case, it appears that the Ephesian Christians were good at discernment and intolerance for evil, but had lost sight of their First Love, which is Jesus.

Essentially, we can get so caught up in "doing" that we forget the "why" behind the actions. It's quite the challenge really. It's so easy to say, "Hey, today I'm going to go work at a homeless shelter or sing carols at a retirement home because that's what I'm suppose to do." You don't have to be a Christian to do that. Our "First Love" wants us to desire Him and as a byproduct serve others. It can be easy to go through the motions of our earthly relationships. The kiss hello, the time spent together, etc. can become routine and essentially meaningless. Jesus challenged, well, essentially threatened to take away the Ephesian Church's "lamp stand" if they did not return to their First Love.

My pastor went on to ask the question of what a "first love" looks like. Perhaps we should look at what we would do for someone we are in love with. This is what Jesus wants. It's not the busyness of serving or ministry. It's the passion and desire to know him better. We do this through actions, but not in actions alone. When we're in love we would drop everything for that person. We would forsake many responsibilities for their sake. We would take risks to the point of death. We would be completely content just to be present with them. This is where the challenge lies. It's easy to see where the application is, but so extremely difficult to put it into action.



*You usually only get one point from me. It's typically all I hold on to on a Sunday morning. It's not my pastor's shortcoming...it's mine. So analogous to gossip, you only get part of the truth. I'm doing what I can but the sermons can be heard online as well.