What Jesus Threatens If a Church Persists in Seriousness Lovelessness

I can only imagine one thing worse than my church getting a letter from Jesus containing his personal complaint about our fellowship–the consequences should we fail to comply with his demands. Both happened to the church of Ephesus back in the 1st century. The text is recorded for us in Revelation 2:1-7.

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’”

In my first post in this series, The Serious Sin of Lovelessness, I introduced the letter with its complaint. In the second post, I Have This Against You, I unpacked the grievous complaint about their lovelessness. In this post, I want to consider Jesus’s prescription for change and consequences for failure.

A Continuous Remedy (v. 5a)

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

Note the two-pronged cure for lovelessness which Jesus prescribes: remember and repent. Remember is a present tense command. It conveys a continual calling to mind the fervent culture of love they enjoyed in the past. Apparently at one time these people practiced a Romans 12:10-like brotherly affection outdoing one another in showing honor. They knew some good old days of Philippians 1:9-like love abounding more and more with knowledge and discernment. A good memory can be a good thing in the Christian life.

But somewhere along the way something broke. They fell. They abandoned the fierce love they had practiced earlier. And so, he commands them to repent. That’s a different verb tense suggesting a decisive, immediate break with present actions in favor of an altogether different direction—do the works you did at first. And work it is. Love is labor and toil in all kinds of forms. Martin Luther said our life is to be a constant and ceaseless repentance. Nowhere is that more important—think 1 Corinthians 13—than in the practice of love. To lack it makes us nothing. 

An Ominous Warning (v. 5b)

What happens if we fail to conquer (v. 7), by his grace, in the matter of ongoing fervent love as a church? If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Jesus was dead serious, literally, with this church over its sin of lovelessness. Don’t be deceived. If we excel in championing doctrinal purity only to suffer a loss of ever-increasing love for one another, we face utterly devastating consequences. A failing grade in love invites Jesus’s sternest of judgments. I will come and remove your lampstand. Scholar D. A Carson explains:

“The removal of the lampstand from its place can signify nothing less than the end of Christ’s recognition of the church as a church of his. It will become as devoid of Christ as the temple of Jerusalem became empty of God prior to its destruction. So grave is the sin of lovelessness in a Christian church.”

An ominous warning indeed. May God spare us such a terrifying judgment.

In my final post in this series, I will offer four practical applications from the letter to help our churches thrive in love which keeps the lampstand burning brightly.