In Rev 2:4-5 on the Ephesus church, “the love you had at first” is best understood as the church’s former love for Christ expressed in wholehearted devotion to Him – a love that had once animated its obedience, service and relationship with Him. The striking thing is that Ephesus had not become doctrinally apostate. It was working hard, enduring hardship, rejecting false teachers, and testing those who claimed to be apostles.
1. First love is more than emotional affection.
Jesus was not simply saying, “You don’t feel as passionate as you used to.” The surrounding passage shows that their problem was deeper. They were doing many right things, but the love that should have been the SOURCE and motivation of those things had diminished. This is very similar to what Paul says in 1 Cor 13:3 : “If I give away all I have… but have not love, I gain nothing.”
So a church can have sound doctrine, biblical discernment, hard work, perseverance, opposition to false teaching, and yet lose the love that makes those things pleasing to Christ.
2. What was their first love directed toward?
The Ephesian believers had originally received the gospel with a great devotion to Jesus. Their Christian life flowed from that relationship. But over time, the work of defending truth could continue even after the love for the Lord had cooled.
There is an important distinction:
They had not necessarily stopped serving Christ; they had stopped loving Him as they once did. That is why Jesus doesn’t merely say, “Stop doing these things.” He says: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” Rev 2:5.
The sequence is important: remember…repent…return to the works that flowed from that love.
3. “Do the first works” gives us a clue.
What were the “first works”? No list was mentioned but I believe they are the works that characterized their original love and devotion to Christ. In other words:
Do again what you did when your love for Me was fresh and wholehearted. The external activity might look similar, but the heart behind it is different. Someone can preach because he loves Christ or because he loves preaching. Someone can defend sound doctrine because he loves Christ or because he loves being right. Someone can serve the church because he loves Christ or because he loves ministry. Someone can evangelize because he loves Christ and lost people or because he wants to increase his ministry. The activity may be identical. The object and motivation of the heart are different.
4. There is an interesting connection with Ephesians.
This becomes especially poignant because the Ephesian church had once been remarkable for its love. Eph 1:15; Eph 6:24. So, historically, love for Christ and love for His people were prominent characteristics of the Ephesian church. By Revelation 2, decades later, Jesus commends their perseverance and doctrinal vigilance but says that something central has disappeared. That makes the warning particularly sobering – a church can become more discerning while becoming less loving.
5. First love does not mean compromising truth.
This is particularly important in light of what Jesus says immediately before the rebuke. He praises them for “testing those who call themselves apostles and are not” and for hating “the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” So Jesus does not tell Ephesus to become less discerning or more tolerant of false doctrine in order to recover love.Rather, He is saying “Keep your hatred of evil—but recover your love for Me.” Christian love and doctrinal faithfulness are not opposites. In fact, the greatest danger is when defending truth becomes detached from loving the Truth Himself.
6. The deepest issue: Christ wants the heart, not merely the work.
I think this is the heart of the passage. Ephesus had become a church that could say: “We know what is true. We know what is false. We have endured. We have labored.” And Jesus essentially says: “But do you still love Me?” That is why the warning is so severe: “If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” Rev 2;5. The lampstand represents the church’s witness. Orthodoxy, activity and perseverance cannot substitute for love for Christ.
So what is “first love”? First love is the wholehearted love and devotion to Christ that characterized the believer’s or church’s early walk with Him—a love that naturally expresses itself in obedience, fellowship with Him, love for His people, and joyful service. And notice the beautiful paradox. Jesus doesn’t tell Ephesus merely to work harder. He tells them to return to the relationship from which the works originally came. That is why I think Revelation 2:4 is one of the most searching warnings to a doctrinally sound church. It is possible to be right about Jesus while gradually losing your love for Jesus. And perhaps that is precisely why Christ puts “remember” before “repent.” They had to remember what it was like when Christ Himself—not merely His work, His truth, or His church—was the great love of their lives.
