Letters to the seven churches: Ephesus

Revelation 2:1-7
The first church Jesus addresses of the seven is Ephesus. The name Ephesus means ‘darling’, and the description Jesus uses of Himself is “Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands” (see Rev. 1:13, 15). We are told in Rev. 1:20 that the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches (The Greek word angelos simply means messenger; this may refer to heavenly angels or even the leader of the church), and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Jesus is in the midst of the churches. He holds their leaders in His hand. Both of these aspects highlight the intimacy that Jesus has with His church.
Next, He commends them: for their works and perseverance, how they had tested false apostles and not grown weary. This reminds us of how Paul instructed the Ephesian elders to watch out for false apostles coming into, or arising from within the fellowship (Acts 20:28-31). It would seem that they heeded his advice. But they did this at the expense of something else, for which Jesus rebukes them: they had left their first love. The Greek word for ‘first’ is protos, which is not necessarily the first in order of time (i.e. as many think, the love you had for Christ when you first believed), but first in order of importance. As Christians our first love in life should always be to love God. The Ephesians had left this. They hadn’t ‘lost’ it, but they had moved away from it; perhaps in their zeal to root out the false teachers in their midst.
The exhortation is threefold: to remember, repent, and return (Rev. 2:5). Firstly they were to remember what things were like in the past. They were to repent of their current situation – to turn around. They were to return to doing the things they did at first (again, protos) – to get back to basics of loving God and loving people. Then we have the phrase ‘He who has an ear’ etc. It comes before the promise to the overcomer, which is to be given the right to eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God. This was something that God had taken away from Adam after he fell (Gen. 3:22-24). But for those who overcome – for those who are in Christ (1 John 5:5) – they will be given the right to eat from the tree of life, and live forever.