Lyrics

Ephesus the first of the 7 Churches of Revelation, marked by work, labour and patience yet missing that vital spark. It is hard to imagine how a church could miss the very heart and purpose of it's existence yet Ephesus nonetheless had 'left your first love' This was not condemnation of intensity but of reality. It was not the criticism that they had failed to love the Lord 'enough' for in some ways such a statement could be made generically of all Christians at all times. Rather this was a criticism of reality. Like the Ephesus to which Paul writes in 1 Timothy, this was a church distracted from Jesus to other things : false doctrine and a false Gospel (1 Timothy chp 1), moral compromise (1 Timothy chps 1 and 4), money and materialism (1 Timothy chp 5) and rules over eating and marriage; asceticism (1 Timothy chp 4). Ephesus tragically had become the backdrop in 2 Timothy upon which was painted a picture of the last days where men were lovers of other things; lovers of pleasure, lovers of self and lovers of money (2 Timothy chp 3) more than lovers of God!
The solution to the problem at the church of Ephesus was to return to the reality and vitality of that relationship with the Lord Jesus.

Yours by

Grace in Christ

J Stewart Gillespie