But This I Have Against You .......

“But this I have against you: you have abandoned the passionate love you had for me at the beginning.”  Revelation 2:4 [TPT]

Have I caught your attention yet? Are you wondering what’s coming next?

This verse has been stirring on my heart for a while now and it got me thinking to my early ‘Christian’ years.  I realise now that I was so busy ‘doing’ that I didn’t give myself chance to fall in love with Jesus.  I was always busy doing work for God – I helped here and I served there. I did, did, did.

I wonder how my pride would have taken it if I heard God say to me “This is what I have against you – you didn’t even fall in love with Me at the beginning because you were too busy serving Me and thinking I was impressed with your good works”.

Fast forward many years to about 16 years ago, when I believe I truly fell in love with Father and Jesus for the first time, and Holy Spirit opened my eyes, my ears, and most importantly, my heart to the truth of the relationship I was pursuing with the Trinity. I say ‘truly fell in love’ because I believe that I did love God in the early years, but not in the way that He wanted me to love Him.

As we read through Jesus’ words to the Church in Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7), we see that Jesus acknowledges the good works that the Ephesus Church did for the Kingdom (just like me), how they recognised imposter and how they had endured trials and persecutions in His Name. But it seems to me that they got so busy DOING that they forgot to BE – BE in the Presence of the One who loved them and saved them. BE in the arms of the Father who was passionate about them. BE doing the works that God has called them to do BECAUSE OF the passionate love that they had for God.

How many of us have been so busy doing the works of the Kingdom, that we’ve forgotten about the passionate love that we should have for God BEFORE we even start doing the works of the Kingdom?

Scripture helps us to remember that being passionately in love with the Trinity is the highest calling that we have. God wants us to love Him first, and do the works of the Kingdom after that. 

Deuteronomy 6:5 (AMPC) “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being and with all your might.”

1 John 4:10-19 (TPT) [Commentary included for some verses]

"10This is love: He loved us long before we loved him. It was his love, not ours. He proved it by sending his Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins. [4:10 The Greek term hilasmos can be described as “a cleansing, satisfying sacrifice that provides a covering shelter.” A form of the word is used for “mercy seat” in Heb. 9:5. God’s love provides the answers for life’s greatest questions: (1) Why was I created? To receive and experience God’s love. (2) Does God care about me? God’s love is indiscriminate; he loves everyone and cares about every detail of our lives. (3) Am I really free to choose or reject God’s love? Yes—love must be a choice, freely and without compulsion. (4) What is the way of salvation? Love became a man, Jesus Christ, who died as our sacrificial offering and by believing in him we receive the gift of salvation. (5) How can I really know that I am saved? When we respond with faith to God’s loving invitation and then demonstrate it by loving others, we have the assurance of our salvation. (6) How can I know that God loves me? His love prompted him to send his unique and beautiful Son to the earth to be our Savior and Redeemer. He offers to everyone the invitation to experience even deeper measures of his love. And he gives us his Holy Spirit as confirmation that he loves and cherishes us and gives us the power to love others. See Eph. 3:14–21.]

11Delightfully loved ones, if he loved us with such tremendous love, then “loving one another” should be our way of life! 12No one has ever gazed upon the fullness of God’s splendor. But if we love one another, God makes his permanent home in us, and we make our permanent home in him, and his love is brought to its full expression in us. 13And he has given us his Spirit within us so that we can have the assurance that he lives in us and that we live in him.

14Moreover, we have seen with our own eyes and can testify to the truth that Father God has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15Those who give thanks that Jesus is the Son of God live in God, and God lives in them. 16We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love he has for us.

God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them. 17By living in God, love has been brought to its full expression in us so that we may fearlessly face the day of judgment, [4:17 The Aramaic can be translated “we will have open faces on the day of judgment.” For the true believer filled with God’s love, the day of judgment is not to be feared but looked forward to, for perfect love will have made us completely like Christ. Love provides us with no reason to fear the future or to fear punishment from God. See 1 Cor. 4:5.] because all that Jesus now is, [4:17 Or “because we are what he is in this world.” The verb tense is important. We are not like Jesus was, but because of grace, we are like he is now: pure and holy, seated in heaven, and glorified. See Rom. 8:30; Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1–4. Faith has transferred his righteousness to us.] so are we in this world. 18Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment [4:18 The immediate context shows that it is the fear of correction, “punishment,” or rejection. The Aramaic can be translated “Fear is suspicious.”] has not reached love’s perfection. 19Our love for others is our grateful response to the love God first demonstrated to us."

Going back to my testimony – I loved doing the works of the Kingdom. I loved serving others and I loved seeing others being blessed because of what I did. Sadly, that was all about ME. It was about me feeding my own needs and desires, and maybe even fear of not being loved enough by God. Today, I still love doing and serving, but now I do it from a position of loving God and being loved by Him.

It seems to me that there may be a very thin line between BEING PASSIONATELY IN LOVE WITH JESUS and doing the good works to which He’s called us, and BEING IN LOVE WITH HIM BECAUSE we do the good works to which He’s called us and hope that He recognises us and rewards us.

Let us fall in love with Jesus, and recognise that passionate love that He has for us. Let us do the good works that He has called us to do, but not because that’s what makes us love Jesus passionately, but because we are passionate about Jesus in the first place.

Be blessed in your journey with Jesus.

Jean