The Church That Has Everything

I always have trouble buying presents for my dad. It isn't that I don't want to get him a present, but it's just that, most of the time, if there's something he wants, he'll get it himself unless it's too expensive--in which case, it's probably more than I can afford too. Most of the things I could get him that he would like, he already has. And I've heard other people express this same problem for someone they shop for: What do you get for the man who has everything?

And at first glance, it seems that this was the case for the church at Ephesus. It was the church that has everything. At the time when John wrote his revelation, the church at Ephesus was a thriving, healthy church. It had been one of the main centers of Christianity in the early days of the New Testament and by this time it was still going strong. It was a church that received words of commendation from Jesus Himself. What can you give to--what should you say to--the church that has everything? Yet Jesus did have a message for this church in the opening chapters of Revelation, and I believe that message is still a relevant message for us. But in order to understand what I mean, we need to look more closely at what Jesus said to Ephesus; there are four facts we see about this church as we look at the words of this letter which is found in Revelation 2. 

First, we see what the church had. As I said, Ephesians was a church that had a lot going for it. We don't know whether it was a rich or prosperous church. We don't know if it had influential members or prestige in the community. But we know that it had other things far more important than any of those.

It had doctrinal orthodoxy. In Revelation 2:2, Jesus says that the Ephesians had “tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.” In 2:6, Jesus commends them for opposing the Nicolaitans. We don't know exactly who or what the Nicolaitans were, except that they were some kind of cult that spread false doctrines within the church.

Even in the early church, there were false teachers who were trying to spread false doctrines. They claimed to be messengers of God, but they were not speaking the words of God. Some tried to the gospel into a form of Judaism and legalism. Others tried to turn the gospel into lawlessness and license. Still others simply tried to ingratiate themselves with their hearers in order to get something out of them.

Just as today, there were many voices speaking to the church, many voices that were not the voice of God, voices which sought to lead people away from the straight and narrow way. And all such voices the Ephesians had steadfastly and vehemently denied.

Christianity is founded upon truth. Jesus compared those who heard his word and followed it to those who build their house upon a foundation of solid rock. Because God's Word is true, it is the solid bedrock on which we can ground our faith. That is why it is so important to maintain a knowledge and understanding of God's word. What we believe matters. Galatia was struggling with false teachers who were peddling their own version of the gospel. And Paul told the people in no uncertain terms: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8) He realized this was vitally important. If we listen to other voices than the voice of God, if we believe in a gospel other than the gospel of God, if we base our life on words other than the word of God, it will corrupt the church and ultimately destroy the soul.

Obviously, this doesn't mean that someone who makes a mistake in doctrine is necessarily damned. We are all limited and we don't always understand what the Bible means. But the point is that these doctrines do matter. To hold on to the truth is important because it impacts the way we live. Which brings us to something else the Ephesians had.

They had righteous lives. Again, look at verse 2: “I know thy works, and thy labour, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil.” The Ephesians didn't simply know what was right. They were busy doing what was right. They were doing things for God. They were living according to his word. If there was someone in the church who was living in sin, they didn't try to excuse it and work around it. They could not bear those who were evil.

I mentioned before the fact that they rejected the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Though we don't know exactly who the Nicolaitans were, many scholars believe that they taught an idea of moral laxity--that because we are Christians and are saved by grace, then we can live however we want. This doctrine was certainly prevalent in the New Testament since several books contain condemnations of it. And this was something that the Ephesians had rejected. They were very careful to live righteous lives, lives that would be pleasing to God.

Jesus says that the Ephesians hated the same thing He hated. Their lives were in line with God's commands. Terrence Tiberio said that our hearts should be moved by the things that move the heart of God. That is, we should love what God loves, we should care about the things God cares about, and we should hate and shun that which God hates. It is a terrible thing when those who profess to follow God live a life that is deliberately contrary to the way God wants us to live.

But the Ephesians were living righteous lives. And they didn't just start out doing it, but they had persistent labor. Revelation 2:3: “And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.” In other words, they had a persistent, consistent life following God. They didn't give up all their standards when things got rough; they didn't reject their doctrines when those doctrines were unpopular; they didn't do what was right only when it was easy.

They did the right thing and kept on doing it. That was the kind of faithfulness and loyalty that the Ephesians had--the determination to follow God, to hold onto the truth, to do what was right, no matter what.

That was the kind of church Ephesus was. These are the things it had. And the point to notice is this: Jesus commended them for all this. Point being: these were good things; things that Christ was pleased with; things we ought to have. If we do not have these things, we should seek to have them. These things are important for the church and for the people in the church. We should ask ourselves: am I careful to study the Bible and hold to the truths I find? Am I living the way God wants me to live? Am I being faithful to follow God all the time or only when it's convenient? Could my life receive commendation like that which God gave the Ephesians?

The church at Ephesus was the church that has everything. Well, almost everything. Because that's the strange fact of this letter. Because for all the good things Christ had to say, this letter is ultimately not a letter of commendation but condemnation. The Ephesian church had nearly everything, but they were missing one thing--one thing which was so vitally important that all their other excellent qualities could not make up for this one deficiency.

And as we look at these verses we see what they didn't have. Look at verse 4. Despite everything they had, Jesus had something against them. There was a black mark against their record which could not be edged out by all the white marks; there was a negative which more than outweighed all the positives. “Thou hast left thy first love.”

Once they had been passionately in love, in love with God and with one another. Love had been the pulsing heartbeat of the church. But now, that was gone. The honeymoon was over and their love had begun to grow cold. They had fallen from the preeminence of love.

What does that mean? How can you have a church that doesn't have love? Certainly, this doesn't mean that they simply didn't have the same feelings of love. Feelings always come and go. There was something more involved here.

I think we can put this question this way: if they no longer had love, then what did they have? If love was not what was driving this church, then what was? If you don't put gasoline in the tank, you have to put something else. This part of the article is speculation because we really don't know exactly what was going on at Ephesus, but knowing human nature, I think there was probably one of three things that had come to replace love in the Ephesians.

It might have been sectarianism. Sectarianism means looking down on other people who are not in our circle. Remember, one of the things the Ephesian church was commended for was the purity of their doctrine and the fact that they kept false teachers out of the church. And that's a good thing. But it can easily turn into a bad thing. If we are not careful, maintaining God's truth can degenerate into maintaining our own party. 

We see this attitude among some of the Jews, who became so proud of being God's chosen people that they looked down in disgust and even hatred on the Gentiles or even on Jews who were not part of their group. Think of Jonah throwing a tantrum because God spared the city of Nineveh Think of the scribes and Pharisees complaining because Jesus preached to the publicans and sinners. But this wasn't just a problem then. This attitude of sectarianism still exists within the church. And when it is in the church, then love is not. We cannot love God and hate our brothers simultaneously. And if we are living to advance our own church, then we are not living out of love for God.

But it might not have been that bad. It might have been only habit. We all know what habit is. It is doing something simply because we've always done it. People often refer to it as “Going through the motions.” It's when you do something so often that you don't even realize you do it anymore. Habits are important. A big part of living a good life is building good habits. There's a song we sang when I was a kid: “Get the Bible reading habit/And then daily keep right at it.” We need to have good habits.

But there is a danger that something will become merely a habit. I have the habit of always turning out the light when I leave a room and always locking the door when I leave the house. So much so that there have been occasions when I wanted to leave the light on for some reason or needed to leave the door unlocked--and I would be thinking of that the moment I left the room, and I would still turn off the light and lock the door. Habits can reach a point where they have no relation to our will and go on their own. And with religion, the danger is that our service to God will be like that--something we do by habit without our will being involved at all.

But the worst possibility is pride. The Ephesians loved what God loved. But the danger of that attitude is that it can turn into thinking that God loves what we love. We can begin to put ourselves in place of God, where we live to exalt ourselves rather than exalting God. C. S. Lewis said the proud man is always very attentive in listening for the applause of one person--himself. 

The better the church is doing, the more pure and holy its life, the more danger there is that she will begin to prize her holiness and purity for its own sake and think it makes her better than other people--rather than making her look to God and realize that all she has comes only from God. When love for God is gone, we are too likely to replace it with love for ourselves. The church may continue for a time to do all the good things it once did, but they are being done in service to a different god and are born out of a different kind of love.

As I said, we don't know exactly what was going on in the church at Ephesus, except that they had left their first love. Whether they had replaced that love with sectarianism, private pride, or mere habit, I don't know. But I do know that those are the things today that can come into the church and replace the love of God and the love of one another. When the fire goes out, you have to start lighting candles. When God leaves, the idols come in. These dangers are still present to the church and to every individual today. And the thing to remember is that it isn't when the church is doing poorly that these dangers are present. The better a church is doing the more likely these dangers are. You can only fall from a high place. We need to be aware of these dangers--we need sometimes to ask ourselves: am I living out of a love for God? Or has something else replaced that love? And if it has, then what? 

That's the next thing we see here: What They Needed to Do. For all the bright words, the picture of this church is dark. But though it is dark, it is not hopeless. They may have fallen but they could get up. There was hope for the church. Jesus issues three specific commands in verse 5 as a prescription for the problem of this church.  

“Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen.” What Jesus is calling them to do is to stop and take account of where they were. It's a mistake to think that the road to sin always involves a definite and direct turn; that Satan will get a hold of us by one concrete temptation. It can happen that way, but it isn't the only way. Sometimes it is a matter of slow, gradual choices that take us away from God a few degrees at a time, so subtly one barely notices that it's happening. That's why it's important sometimes to stop and think about where we are in relation to God; to remember where we once were and where we are now. 

But not only were they to remember but to repent. The word repent means to change your mind, to think differently. It is possible that the Ephesians had slowly drifted away from their first love without any conscious choice--but if they were going to go back, they would need to make a choice. You can slide into sin, but you cannot slide in righteousness. “You can't go to heaven in a rocking chair,/'Cause a rocking chair won't get you there.”

Obviously, our own will can't save us. You cannot become righteous or even loving merely by decided to do it. There is a part that only God can do. But we have a part which we can do, and that part is to repent--to make a deliberate, conscious choice to turn away from the way we have been living and turn back to God--to give up the other things which have been cluttering our life and renew our love for God.

And this isn't just a matter of the will, but of our actions. That's the third thing Jesus told them; to reform. “And do the first works.” For all the good things the Ephesians were doing, they weren't doing the things they had been doing when they first had become Christians--or, if they were doing them, they were doing them in the wrong way. 

I don't fully know what Jesus means by saying they were to do the first works, but some writers think this refers to those things we do which reinforce our love for God. Love is not a thing we do, and yet the things we do can build and reinforce our love. This is obvious on a human level, and it is also true on a spiritual level. There are things we do--like praying, reading the Bible, going to the church, and testifying of our experience--which reinforce our love. Maybe the Ephesians were still doing these things, but not in the way they once had. Perhaps their prayer had become a mere habit, something they did without thought and without sincerity. Perhaps their Bible reading had become a matter of pride; that they read the Bible so they could appear knowledgeable to others. Perhaps their going to church and their testifying had become a means of supporting their own religious party rather than an act of love for God. That was why they needed to repent and go back to the way they had once lived--they had to go back to doing these things for the sake of God and not for their own sake.

And these three things--remember, repent, reform--are steps we should always be ready to do. We need to remember what God has done for us, remember what calling we have received, remember the responsibility which lies upon us. And if, when we remember, we find that we have moved from where we once were, we have to make the decision to change our course and do again the first works.

For this is a serious matter. There were two paths open to the Ephesians, the path they were on and the path of repentance. And both paths had consequences and these consequences were weighty matters. That is the final thing we see here:  What Would Happen to them.

Perhaps they had slowly and gradually moved away from God. Most likely their first love had died out by degrees and not in one fell swoop. But now, by these words of Christ, they were being brought to face with their position; they were being given a choice. They could refuse the invitation to repentance or they could accept it.

If they refused, they would be cast out. Verse 5 ends with these ominous words: “I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” To understand the picture, you have to go back to the opening of Revelation, where John had a vision of Jesus walking among seven golden candlesticks--candlesticks which represent the seven churches to which Revelation is addressed. Do you see that picture? Jesus is there and around him are his churches--but one church was on the verge of being removed, of being cast out. It might mean the destruction of the church. As a point of fact, the city of Ephesus would later be destroyed leaving nothing but ruins. The church and the whole city were destroyed. But even when the church continues to exist as an organization, it may still be cast out.

Without love, there will always be division. If the church leaves its first love for God and for one another, then it may have the finest building in the land, it may be packed with congregants every Sunday, it may have a score of useful ministries and programs. But if it is without love, it is without God. The candlestick has been removed from the presence of God. It may be a church, but it is not a church of God. The candle may still burn, but not with the light of the Lord.

But if they repented, they would be brought in. This is the promise of verse 7: If the church repented, if even some individuals in the church repented, if they overcame the temptation and circumstances they were in, then this is the promise of God: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

In the beginning, God put man in a garden, a garden full of fruit. But man sinned and so was shut out of that garden. There was an angel at the gate to bar the way to the tree of life. Because of sin, he was shut out. Later in Revelation, John sees a new heaven and a new earth--and once again, the tree of life grows on earth, and man is allowed to partake of it. But there again, some will be shut out. Sin always brings division. But if they repented; if they rekindled their love of God, if they lived a life of love, they would be brought in, allowed to enter the garden of God and eat of the tree of life.

Dr. Seuss tells the story of Sollo Sellu--a place where they have no trouble, at least, very few. Sollo Sellu is a veritable paradise where everything is perfect, where everyone is happy. If you could just get there, you would have no more problems. There was only one trouble with Sollo Sellu. And that the fact that nobody could get in. There was a mischievous creature living in the keyhole of the city gate which wouldn't let anybody open the door. And so no one was ever able to reach the city.

The church of Ephesus was like that. It had everything except the one thing it needed most. It was a good church, with good doctrine and pure life. The people there were dedicated to keeping the church pure and unadulterated. And that's good. They shouldn't have stopped that. It was good--but for all that, they lacked the key would open the door to true spiritual life--and that key was love. They had everything except love which means they had everything except God. C. S. Lewis said something to the effect that it is a terrible fate to have everything when everything does not include God.

And that danger is still present to the church. It is possible to forget God in the very act of serving God. It is easy to make the church a replacement for God rather than a means to God. And if that happens, there is only one thing to do--to remember, repent, and reform, to go back to living for God, doing those things which reinforce our love for God; making God and his work the first priority in our life.

This isn't easy. This is a battle. Revelation is a book of conflict and strife. But to him that overcometh there is the promise--the promise of eating the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God. And that is a proper reward for those who have rekindled their love of God, for love is the name of the life of God. To have love for God and for one another is already to be tasting of the tree of life. Where ever love is, there is at least a foretaste of the paradise of God.