Recorded in the book of Revelation are the results of an audit that Jesus had performed on the church in Ephesus. One of the things that they scored poorly on got me thinking about my own life.

The Ephesians seemed to be doing pretty well on most fronts. They did good deeds, worked hard, persevered through difficulties and were even very wise about keeping false apostles from negatively influencing their people. Good scores there. There was, however, something missing. Something not quite right.

The church as a whole was lacking in love.

Things had not always been this way. The Ephesian Christians once had what Jesus deemed to be a healthy love for God and people. But by the time John wrote the book of Revelation they had a major love deficiency.

Then Jesus gave them the following improvement plan.

#1 Realize the great chasm between the love you once had and the love you now have.
#2 Decide to change your behavior and begin again doing the loving things you used to do.

I never make conscience decisions to decrease my love for God. I have never systematically planned ways of treating people with less love. It happens more gradually than that. Today I realized that I share a flaw with the Ephesian church. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but I am sure that there is a great difference in the way that I used to treat people. How it happened wasn’t necessarily something that Jesus chose to mention in his adjustment of the Ephesians. He simply told them to return to their first love. I often leave the act of repentance to those who are becoming Christians for the first time or for those who have fallen into what I consider to be one of the big and nasty sins. What about the sin of being unloving?

Though it might be tempting to see this as a Debbie-downer rebuke, I think that it is mainly a passage of hope. It is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. It is his grace that says to go and sin no more. What a beautiful thing that Jesus reveals to us our flaws and that he gets us back on track.

I am making a fresh decision to love more like Jesus does. God help me.

Read the passage here: Revelation 2:1-7