Ephesus

In the early years of ministry, it’s easy to feel utterly dependent on God, acutely aware that only He can work through our weakness. But as years pass, something subtle yet powerful often happens. Growing confidence, increasing experience, and the busyness of ministry life can quietly shift our focus—from clinging to God Himself, to depending on our competence, routines, and structures instead.

That’s not just a ministry problem. It’s a human one. We instinctively assume that time deepens love, strengthens devotion, and fosters a greater spiritual bond. But life, training, experience, and even success can erode the very thing we thought would only grow over time. And Scripture gives us a stark warning against that possibility.

The Ephesus Case Study: Love Lost Over Time

The book of Acts introduces us to the church in Ephesus as a community wholly gripped by God. In Acts 19-20, we see believers so passionately in love with Jesus that they publicly burned their books of occult practice—a dramatic testimony to their captivated hearts. Their zeal was unmistakable across Asia Minor.

Later, as Paul writes to the Ephesians, his tone shifts from celebration to concern. He prays that they might know Christ’s love more deeply and experience the fullness of spiritual understanding.

Then comes the most haunting moment. Decades later, John records Christ’s words to the church in Revelation 2:4: “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

Here we see something profound: a church that grew in strength, discernment, endurance, and theological clarity, yet lost the very love that once ignited its passion for Jesus.

Maturity Without Love Is Not Maturity

What might this look like in real life? Consider marriages that begin with an overwhelming affection and gradually settle into routine companionship. Over time, busyness, roles, and responsibilities compete for the attention once reserved for one another. Devotion becomes duty, a raised pulse at the presence of another gives way to rhythms of everyday life and routine, and fascination becomes familiarity.

Our relationship with Jesus can suffer similarly. We may grow in knowledge, resilience, and spiritual discipline, but when love for Him cools, we risk becoming proficient yet distant.

The church in Ephesus was strong, respected, and doctrinally sound. Yet, to Jesus, their primary failure was not moral collapse or theological heresy—it was lovelessness. They were enduring, but they had lost their first love.

Jesus does not dismiss their strengths. Instead, He calls them back to the heart of what really matters: zealous affection for Him.

First Love Matters More Than Performance

This challenge isn’t just for the early church; it’s timeless. I need it myself. You probably do too. The danger to our spiritual life isn’t only blatant sin or obvious failure—it’s the slow drift of the heart. Even good things can become idols when they push Christ from the centre of our affections.

This is why Paul repeatedly urges believers to walk in love—not merely to act lovingly, but to be motivated by love that mirrors Christ’s own. It’s why he prays that believers might know the breadth and depth of Christ’s love—not so they can tick a doctrinal box, but so their hearts might be captured all over again.

The church in Ephesus had everything Christians often aspire to: discernment, perseverance, doctrine, and ministry strength. But what they lost was the source of all those gifts: Christ’s love in the affections of their hearts.

Jesus’ response to them is equally personal and relational. Following His rebuke, He doesn’t suggest better practices or routines. He extends an invitation: “Repent and return to the love you had at first.”

This call to repentance isn’t about moral failure alone; it’s a call to reawaken our hearts.

What Does It Look Like to Guard the First Love?

Guarding our first love for Christ isn’t about lingering in a past emotional experience. It’s about cultivating a present and growing affection that shapes our identity, decisions, and purpose. Here are a few markers of that heart posture:

Dependence, not self-reliance: Celebrating grace more than competence.

Vulnerability, not performance: Transparent before God rather than projecting spiritual success.

Affection over achievement: Loving Jesus for who He is, not for what He enables us to do.

Stillness in busyness: Choosing moments of quiet devotion over frantic productivity.

We tend to assume that maturity means emotional steadiness—but sometimes steadiness is just numbness. Jesus desires more than endurance; He desires a deep, tender affection that fuels all other virtues.

A Personal and Eternal Invitation

When we reflect on the Ephesian example, we see a mirror for our souls. Losing our first love isn’t always dramatic. It can happen slowly, in incremental shifts: devotion to Jesus becomes devotion to our own agendas, ministry output, or spiritual achievements.

Yet the invitation remains: return to Christ, cultivate love, and never lose what matters most. Like a spouse longing for closeness, Jesus waits not for our perfection—but for our affection.

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians isn’t merely theological; it’s relational. And Jesus’ call to repentance isn’t about regret; it’s about renewal.

So today, pause for a moment with the question: Am I more committed to the routines of following Jesus—or to Jesus Himself?

Guarding your first love isn’t about going back to square one. It’s about moving forward with your heart fully surrendered to Him.

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A lot of people in our churches read a lot of the Bible as filler and waffle. They wouldn’t state that overtly, of course. After all, it is the word of God! But actually, in practice, a lot of the Bible is read without real engagement. Consider the epistles, for instance. Why does this phenomena occur?

1. Because of complex sentences. It can be hard for any of us to truly track a sequence of sentences from Paul.

2. Because of unfamiliar words. Stewardship. Saints. Manifold. Rulers. Not necessarily unknown words, but not words most people tend to use in normal life.

3. Because it seems to lack direct relevance. We can’t help but look for what it is saying “to me,” which means the rest can seem distant or theoretical.

4. Because of familiar words. Hang on, didn’t we say unfamiliar words were the issue? Actually, Christian terms can grow too familiar – grace, given, revelation, promise, gospel, church, wisdom, boldness, confidence.

I am looking at Ephesians 3:1-13, for an example. Paul begins a prayer in verse 1 and then gets distracted before returning to the prayer in verse 14. Why does he get distracted? Because he mentions his imprisonment for the sake of “you Gentiles.” This triggers his explanation of why those Gentiles in Ephesus shouldn’t feel the way they probably do feel – i.e. losing heart. (Actually, it was Trophimus, sent from Ephesus, who indirectly led to Paul’s arrest and imprisonment in Acts 20, so they probably felt an extra burden over Paul’s imprisonment!)

So to lift their hearts regarding his sufferings for them, and therefore to make clear their glory (i.e. their value expressed in his sufferings as part of God’s plan), Paul goes off on a theological digression that should thrill our hearts as well as it did theirs!

But instead most people read it as “blah blah blah…Gentiles…blah blah…grace…blah blah…wisdom…blah blah blah”

Enter the biblical preacher!

The preacher’s role, is, in part, to slow people down in this text and to help them make sense of what Paul is actually saying. No word is wasted, and no word should be lost under an indiscriminate “blah blah” flyover reading. So?

1. God gave Paul a key role in unveiling new news – God gave Paul a key role in his forever plan for the sake of the Gentile believers, which was to reveal the momentous new news of the Gentile co-equality in the gospel!

2. God gave Paul grace to preach Christ and explain the news – God gave the ultimate-sinful-nobody, Paul, grace to do two things – first, to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ; and second, to make clear God’s great plan, the new news about the Gentiles. Why? So that the church can be God’s trophy cabinet to show off his multi-coloured wisdom to the spiritual realms!

3. God’s plan gives us Gentiles stunning boldness! – God’s plan in Christ means that we Gentiles have ridiculous boldness when it comes to entering God’s presence (don’t forget the temple imagery in the previous section)!

So, the Gentiles in Ephesus shouldn’t lose heart, but instead they should be thrilled at their glory/value demonstrated in Paul’s suffering for their sake!

This is true for us too, just as the scars of Christ are beautiful to us because they show God’s love for us.

(I wouldn’t preach these three points as they stand, but I would make it my aim to help listeners hear the content of a section like this, turning the blah blah blah into Wow! after Wow!)