First Love

Bible passage: Read Revelation 2:1-11

What is ‘first love’? What are the qualities we associate with that kind of love? Do you think it is a form of love that is bound to end, or is it sustainable?

Is ‘first love’ the description you could give of your relationship with God? How does ‘first love’ show itself in a relationship with God?

Can you think of ways in which that ‘first love’ quality of relationship to God can be worn away? (Psalms 42:1-4 is an example)

Look at v1-3. All that is said about the Church at Ephesus in these verses is completely positive. Can you identify the strengths of this Church? If you were asked to identify the weakness of this Church, you could not identify it from the surface appearance of the Church. Why?

If the problem of this Church was not immediately visible, that means it was an internal problem - to do with the heart, the will, the attitude of the Church. This had changed, little by little, over time. Can you identify with this experience? How does this show itself?

Recall, if you are able to do so, for not everyone has a clear awareness of these things, the time when you first came to personal faith in Jesus. How did you feel in your self about Jesus and what he has done for us? Is that range of responses to the saving work of Christ still as strong in you, or has it changed and how?

Are there outward indicators in your life with God that are signs which can help you identify if there is a falling away in your love for Jesus? What do you think some of these might be?

The Lord identifies three steps we can take to restore our ‘first love’ for Him:

REMEMBER: Looking back honestly, is important. Do we have a tendency to fool ourselves about how we have changed? Consider William Cowper’s experience that he shared in the hymn, ’O for a closer walk with God’:

‘Where is the blessedness I knew, when I first saw the Lord?
Where is that soul-refreshing view of Jesus and his word?’

Can you echo that experience? Edmund Burke said that very seldom does a person take one giant step from a life of virtue and goodness into a life of sin and corruption. Usually, it begins by taking little steps into shaded areas, into darkness, until one day, hardly aware that the journey has been taken, we find ourselves far from God and lost in darkness. Is this remembering, reflecting, something that only we can do or is it something a good, trusted friend could help us do? How can we apply this to the Church as a body?

REPENT: How does this differ from regret or remorse? Repenting is an action. It means turning around, turning back to God. How is this a call that challenges our pride? How hard do you find it to admit when you have got it wrong?

RE-DO: What specific advice does Jesus give us in v5? We go back to the place where we lost that closeness and start over again. Is that humiliating, depressing or wonderful that this is possible?

Why do you think Christ’s judgment is so severe if a church does not repent (v5)?

Look at v8-11. Smyrna is given complete encouragement and praise from God as a Church. This was a Church which outwardly was going through very difficult and painful times, but there was an inner glory that gave a different way of looking at these people.

What does Jesus know about the believers in Smyrna? How do his promises help solidify faithfulness under pressure?

What role does affirmation and encouragement play in helping brothers and sisters stand in extreme circumstances?