To the Church in Ephesus
(Acts 19:8-12)
1To 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.
2I know your deeds, your labor, and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate those who are evil, and you have tested and exposed as liars those who falsely claim to be apostles. 3Without growing weary, you have persevered and endured many things for the sake of My name.
4But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love. 5Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place.
6But you have this to your credit: You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will grant the right to eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God.
Ephesus was a great city and had a great church. Paul preached there for three years. Aquilla, Priscilla and Apollos served there. Timothy also worked there.
“I consider what is spoken to this angel as spoken to the whole Church; and that it is not his particular state that is described, but the states of the people in general under his care.” (Clarke)
“Surely it was a place of great privilege, of great preaching.” (Robertson)
“Ephesus was a stronghold of Satan. Here many evil things both superstitious and satanic were practised. Books containing formula for sorcery and other ungodly and forbidden arts were plentiful in that city.” (Gaebelein)
“This was grand of them: it showed a backbone of truth. I wish some of the churches of this age had a little of this holy decision about them; for nowadays, if a man be clever; he may preach the vilest lie that was ever vomited from the mouth of hell, and it will go down with some.” (Spurgeon)
“But I have this against you”.
Despite all that!
You have left your first love!
“A church has no reason for being a church when she has no love within her heart, or when that love grows cold. Lose love, lose all.” (Spurgeon)
They lost the love of God and without the love of God you cannot have the love for your fellow man. Their heart has grown cold!
They are given a warning to hurry up and repent!
Do you remember your love of God when you were first saved? (When you came to Christ)
Has your love grown cold?
I’ve always wondered why I was bald! Now I know because of this commentary!
“The churches of the land are sprinkled all over with bald-headed old sinners whose hair has been worn off by the constant friction of countless sermons that have been aimed at them and glanced off and hit the man in the pew behind.” (H.W. Beecher)
Blessings, David
No comments:
Post a Comment