Building The Body Study 22 - What Went Wrong in the Body
Revelation 2:1-7 NIV
“ “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.2.1-7.NIV)
Have you ever been a situation where things are absolutely not what they seem?
At time time of writing, it’s just four days since I was rushed into hospital with a suspected stroke. I had none of the pathology that usually leads to such a thing. I’m fifty-one years old. My blood pressure and cholesterol were both within normal range. I was only a little overweight. I was not stressed or overly anxious.
I also bounced back really, really quickly. Within less than sixteen hours I regained full use of all of my limbs. My speech and my sight were both clear. I was right as rain.
All the signs pointed to a very severe attack of labyrinthitis or a hemiplegic migraine – two conditions that are not serious and do not require extended treatment.
But an MRI showed otherwise.
I’d had a Lacunar stroke.
A condition that requires both a lifetime of preventive medication and monitoring.
What we see on the outside of the Ephesian church is a group of people who were getting everything right. Look at Paul’s letter. Compare it with his letters to the churches in Corinth or Philippi. He had one thing deserving of admonishment. Everything in his letter is fine theology and guidance. It compares very well to his letter to the Roman believers.
Yet around thirty years later, something very serious was wrong.
So incredibly serious thay it led to the extinction of the ancient church in Ephesus, with the last Greek Orthodox families leaving in 1923.
It may seem to us that the extinction took some time, but the question we need to ask is why it happened at all. What was it that caused the church in Ephesus to slowly die, when everything seemed to be going so right for it?
That’s where this prophecy becomes so useful. Let’s look at our four closing thoughts on the church in Ephesus, starting with What They Got Right.
What They Got Right
Revelation 2:1-3 NIV
“ “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.2.1-3.NIV)
My sister was something of an academic perfectionist growing up. I recall she once got her results back from an examination, burst into tears and was utterly inconsolable that night.
We asked her to show us the result. With great shame and indignity, she showed us it.
She had scored 99%. That 1% drove her crazy.
We are always very prone to concentrate on what’s gone wrong. And that’s right, in a sense. We learn more from our losses than our victories.
But that can also lead us to become depressed, overly self-critical and almost defeated in our mindset.
That’s not healthy.
The Ephesian church did have a huge flaw that eventually caused it to cease to exist. But it also got three very big things right: things they are often missing from our modern church.
What are they?
Firstly, their toil. These were a people who worked hard and were committed to it. They simply did not give up when it was hard or challenging or when the the prospects of fruit from their labours seemed to be distant. They believed the principle Paul taught to the Galatians:
Galatians 6:9 NIV
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/gal.6.9.NIV)
They were committed to the task and entrusted the reward to God.
These were people who stood up to the struggle Paul talked about in Ephesians 6:10-20.
Secondly, their testing. They did not believe any old preacher or prophet who came down the pike. They tested them all to see if they were true.
This was, and still is, a vital principle in the Christian life:
1 John 4:1-3 NIV
“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1jn.4.1-3.NIV)
1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 NIV
“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1th.5.19-22.NIV)
And there is a very good reason for this:
Matthew 7:15-23 NIV
“ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.7.15-23.NIV)
There always ought to be a kind of ‘holy cynicism’ about us. We should always test everything to see if it tallies with the Scriptures and what we see in that preacher’s life.
I don’t even mind if you do it to me.
These Ephesians were very good at it. They were able to unmask the charlatans for who they were.
Theologically, they were on point.
They applied everything Paul had taught them in Ephesians 4:11-16.
We also see their commitment in travails.
They knew how to suffer for the truth.
We saw the febrile atmosphere in which they lived in Acts 19: how both the Jews and the opposing pagan powers made life very tricky for the Ephesian believers.
Yet they persevered. Not only were they unashamed of Paul's suffering (Ephesians 3:13), they were prepared to stand beside him and suffer with him.
If the message to the church in Ephesus ended there, we’d think it was a great church. If we ever came across a modern church like this, we’d be keen to fill out membership cards and join it.
This church had so much in its favour.
And yet it had a huge flaw. After seeing what they did right, we’ll now look at What They Got Wrong.
What They Got Wrong
Revelation 2:4 NIV
“ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. ”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.2.4.NIV)
There is such a thing as ‘asymmetric consequences’, when something seemingly inconsequential can have a massive impact. Like, for example, when the Mars Orbiter was lost because one team working on it used imperial measurements and the other used metric, or when a tiny detail missed on a medical report leads to a serious condition, or a criminal gets released due to a legal technicality.
This is not it. This is a huge miss.
Why?
Take a look at these commandments:
Matthew 22:37-40 NIV
“Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.””
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.22.37-40.NIV)
Two commandments that are, on the surface, very simple: love the Lord your God with everything you have; love your neighbour as yourself. Yet everything hinges on them.
Violate them, and the essence of all obedience and discipleship – every last detail of what it means to be a Christian – is al gone. None of it is left.
What this verse means is that the Ephesian church had all the shell of a church: the good theology, the good works, the strong commitment. But it was all hollow. They had lost the heart.
And it was the heart that was more important.
The astonishing force of the Greek word here is really quite something. As well as considering something of low importance and neglecting it, it was also used of a man divorcing his wife and abandoning her to destitution. It covers both accidental and wilful dereliction.
All this means they it’s possible for us to wilfully decide to stop loving God in anger, but it’s equally possible for the feelings to fade quietly until the fire in our heart becomes a dying glow, and everything we ever do for God is just our of duty or dull intellectualism.
In other words – and this to be a huge shock to us – we can have everything absolutely right on the outside and be absolutely wrong in the inside. As soon as our relationship with God becomes dull and formulaic – just a series of religious boxes we tick in exchange for a blessing – then that is the moment our love for God grows cold. And when that happens, we are on the slow fade towards sin.
After all, look what Jesus said about the Pharisees:
Matthew 15:7-9 NIV
“You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ ””
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.15.7-9.NIV)
Do you see it? These outwardly hyper-religious men were in fact guilty of breaking the whole law because their love for God had gone – or never really existed in the first place.
It was all for display only.
It was hollow.
The problem with where the Ephesians were was that it was heading in that direction. God was, in His mercy, giving then a warning that they needed to heed.
So we've seen, then, what they did wrong. It should startle us to see a church that had so much going for it fail in this way. But how can we fix it? If we find ourselves in their predicament, what can we do?
Let’s now look at What They Could Have Done To Fix It.
What They Could Have Done To Fix It
Revelation 2:5 NIV
“Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.2.5.NIV)
How do you rekindle a love that has grown cold?
I’m sure there are many marriage counsellors that would love to chip on with ideas at this point.
I am not one. I would never pretend to be one. I just know from some twenty-three years of marriage that how you idealistically envisage a marriage to be is not how it is.
Most people go into a marriage believing naively that every day will be like their wedding day, or that every day will even just be a good day. Those ultra-romantic interviews with elderly couples who have been married for sixty years and ‘never had an argument’ don’t help.
Because every relationship had its ups and downs. Every relationship blows hot and cold.
The issue is not just why did it blow cold, it’s how to make it hot again.
The Ephesians are provided with two pieces of advice and a warning here.
Firstly, turn around. Repent. Recognise that things are going wrong. Turn away from the wrong and face the right direction.
Isaiah 1:16 NIV
“Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.1.16.NIV)
This is often the problem. We actually like a religion of dull formality. We like it’s predictability. We like the idea of an impersonal, robotic God we can keep in a box and please with a few rituals and rites. We struggle with the idea of a Sovereign God who rightly demands our full and undistracted loyalty and obedience.
We like the idea of a God who loves us; we don’t like the idea of a God who wants us to love Him, let alone His people.
Yet that is what we have. And that is what we must do. And before we go any further, we must admit that we are in the wrong and repent of our sin – the sin of not loving Him as we should.
1 John 1:8-10 NIV
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1jn.1.8-10.NIV)
Secondly, we must go back: we must go back and do the things we did before.
Now, I find this to be quite remarkable. After all, we see love as a feeling, as an emotion. So we would think that God would tell them to feel they did before.
He didn’t.
He told them to do what they did before?
Why?
We can think of it like this.
Let’s say you have a car. You've driven it to the top of a hill but the motor has cut out. How are you going to get it started again? By taking the brakes off and letting it run back down the hill until the motor starts again.
What the Ephesians are being told to do is to do the things they did at first in the hope that this will kick start them to feel the things they did at first. Returning back to the way things were was to serve a reminder of what they once had, which would make them long for what they once had, which would trigger the longing and emotions for the way things once were, which would bring them back to the way things once were.
It works like this:
Psalms 42:1-5 NIV
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.42.1-5.NIV)
So if it feels like your relationship with God – and your relationships with others and yourself have somewhat flamed out and are at a very low ebb, here’s what to do:
Did you used to pray every morning and read your Bible? Do it again.
Did you used to listen to Christian music? Do it again.
Did you used to go to church? Do it again.
Did you used to attend a house group? Do it again.
Did you spend time alone with God in the wilderness? Do it again.
Did you fast? Do it again.
All the things you once did when you were a young Christian, so full of vim and vigour? Do them again. Do them all again.
Don’t wait for the feelings or the energy to come. Do them until the feelings and the energy come.
Because let me tell you something: if your love for God is burning low, He didn’t turn down the gas.
You did.
And because you turned it down, you can turn it right back up again.
It’s up to you.
We have seen what the Ephesians did right, what they did wrong and what they could do to fix it. Lastly, let’s see What They Stood To Gain.
What They Stood To Gain
Revelation 2:5, 7 NIV
“Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.2.5-7.NIV)
Right now, as I write these lines, I have had to make changes to my life. My diet has had to change. I’ve needed to go to bed earlier. I am on medication. I need to pay closer attention to my weight, my blood pressure and my health in general.
Why?
Because I had a stroke. If I don’t change my ways and pay attention, I could have another stroke, and it could leave me a cripple, or worse, dead.
I have the carrot in front of me of being healthy, and I have the stick of being dead.
So I do what my medical advisers tell me to do, because I want to live.
The angel here has confronted the Ephesian church with some very serious news. Here was a church that seemed to have everything right. They had plenty of which to be proud.
But the angel pointed out through John that they had missed the single most important thing about being a church and being a Christian: love. Not the ability to crush someone in a theological debate, or the right hymnology or ritual or dress code or decor.
Love.
I have no doubt that this truth stung. It had to. Of course it did. To find out that all the good you are doing had been invalidated by something so absolutely fundamental, that’s more than humbling.
The angel, God’s messaged, presents the church with both a carrot and a stick.
Let’s look, firstly, at the stick.
Revelation 2:5 NIV
“Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.2.5.NIV)
Do you understand what this means?
Revelation 1:20 NIV
“The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.1.20.NIV)
The threat here from God is that the church would cease to exist in Ephesus. God is talking about the death of Christian witness in this place.
That is serious.
It’s even more serious because it happened.
So that’s stick. But the carrot is really quite something.
Revelation 2:7 NIV
“ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.2.7.NIV)
Now, it’s all too easy to miss the incredible significance of this. Let’s go back to when the tree of life was first created:
Genesis 2:9 NIV
“The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/gen.2.9.NIV)
The tree of life was the means through which Adam and Eve would live forever. We know this because of what happened after they sinned:
Genesis 3:22-23 NIV
“And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/gen.3.22-23.NIV)
What God is promising the Ephesians is that if they overcame with Him, they would receive everything that Adam and Eve lost because of their sin. Adam and Eve had not loved God sufficiently to repudiate the serpent’s temptation and so they died; if the Ephesians loved God as they should, they would love forever.
Now, that is a reward and a half!
What we see here is if we truly follow Jesus and believe in Him, showing our trust and obedience of Him nit just in outward religiosity, but in loving Him as we ought, then we too will gain the Eternal life He won for us on the cross.
And that is absolutely worth it.
Conclusion
Revelation 2:1 NIV
“ “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. ”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.2.1.NIV)
Places like the United Kingdom, where I live, can be very confusing. You might be looking for a church to worship in, find a fine, and deeply impressive, historical church building, and believe you would be very privileged to worship in such a place. But then you go inside and realise that it’s nothing but a museum to the place it once was, or a cafe, or a furniture store, or an arts venue or a bar or nightclub.
Or even a mosque.
Dwindling attendances in some of our heritage churches has led to buildings being too expensive to upkeep, which, in turn led to them being sold off.
It’s a good thing that churches are way more than just buildings.
Religious fakery has also led to a great number of moral scandals attached to the church.
While no-one can possibly deny the terrible impact and the pain these scandals have caused, amplified by the crushing disappointment that those who did these horrible wrongs had reputations for being ‘people of God’, I want to point you to some very telling verses in Scripture:
Matthew 7:15-20 NIV
“ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.7.15-20.NIV)
The very fact that they did these things tells you something is very wrong with their walk with God.
Amidst all the distractions and the flak and vapour of what many claim to be the church, but is not, what is the true church? And do we need it to grow as Christians?
After twenty-one studies, ranging from the birth of the Early Church in Acts 1:1-13, to the end of the Ephesian church, foretold in Revelation 2:1-7, we should by now recognise the absolutely essential nature of the church for every Christian to grow, and what a good church looks like.
Now, in this final study, we have seen why it is that the church in Ephesus no longer exists.
There are many reasons why a church shrinks to the point where it is no longer viable. So many people have so many theories.
But this short passage gives is the definitive answer.
Love.
Churches die because of lack of love.
Lack of love for God. Lack of love for each other.
Lack of love for themselves.
They close because they stay open for the wrong reasons.
A church is not a museum of how things used to be. It should not preserve a long extinct culture in spiritual formaldehyde and sell tickets to a watching world.
A church should never be a relic or a curio, a tradition we keep because it ‘feels right’.
Neither is it a free ticket to an eternity we know we do not deserve.
The church is the Body of Christ. It is held together by love. When that love wanes, the church falls apart. It becomes irrelevant.
It has nothing to say to a world devoid of love.
Maybe you’re shocked that a man like me, who is not a pastor and does not have theological diplomas hanging from my wall can say such a thing.
It’s not just me. Look at who said these words:
Revelation 2:1 NIV
“ “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. ”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/rev.2.1.NIV)
Do you know who said these words?
Jesus Christ.
We have learned a lot over these past studies. We have seen so many aspects of what a church needs, from its mission to the character of its leaders to the growth and involvement and struggle of its members.
All of them are true.
But above all, it needs love.
Without love, it is not a church.
Without love, it is nothing.
And that is the most important lesson we can ever learn.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, this thought that I can have everything else right yet still be in the wrong because I do not love is such a challenge. Change my heart, O Lord. Soften it so that I love again. Help me to share that love with my church. I realise this is an existential issue – that my church could cease to exist if it does not love. Help me do my part to make sure that my church always exists. Amen.
Questions for Contemplation
Who is it that gave this message to the Ephesian church? Why does that matter?
What the Ephesian church get right? What did it get wrong? What does this teach us?
What is the most important lesson you have learned from these studies on the Ephesian church? How will you put it into practice in your life and your church?
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