The first message,
the foundational demand of Church life,
was given to Ephesus.

"You have left your first love."

Ephesus' spiritual heights, her severe purity,
her central focus, were compromised
for the sake of ministry,
serving human complexity,
and its work of discernment, service, learning.

Work for the Lord had swallowed
devotion to the Lord.

But I have this [one charge to make] against you
that you have left (abandoned) the love
that you had at first
        [you have deserted Me, your first love].
Revelation 2:1-4 Amplified Bible

As a warning to Ephesus,
it is the inevitable stress of all
who serve and obey.
His faithful followers
are the susceptible, those
who knew a deep experience
of First Love.

Service takes a progressing precedent
over focus and interest.
And Christ becomes secondary.

Jesus is the Son of Love.
Love begot Him.
Love is the name of His nature
and His Father.

And while we were made for "good works"
the work of serving,
for the discerning the false,
and to share His sufferings . . .
never can we leave Jesus' first need
which is our devoting to Him: first-place-love,
an exclusive adoration,
above all.

Beyond every other affection, to love Christ.
Superior to all hearts ties, bound to Him.
Supreme intimacy given only . . . to Him.

Christianity is a busy company, burdened as
knowing the Only Living Solution to a
world in the unending crisis of death.

Our tasks of God's glorious will are capable of
swallowing our heart's direction and
obscuring Him who is . . . the Only Reason.

The departure is subtle. It happens too easily.
A slight turn of the head and
you have gone to another direction.

False crises, clamoring duties claim your thoughts.
And when your thoughts leave Him,
your heart leaves Him.

A small distraction to the eye:
you look at human quagmires.
And when your gaze leaves Him,
your heart leaves Him. 

Christ would have us ever begin in Love,
motivated by Love as
steeped in His Love and from there . . .
to walk the practical byways.

Love always first,
nurtured in secret, secured by intimacy,
kept alive by conscious need . . .
this is the pleasure of the King.
Outside of this, Jesus is ever unpleased.
Completely unpleased!
No matter what else is commendable,
there is nothing that secures His presence
and gains His pleasure, except Love. 

The purpose of our existence is to
give Him pleasure.
Not humanity.
To serve His agenda, not our ambitions.

Do you know the inmost core of Jesus' pleasure?
Do you understand Christ's first desire,
a need we are meant to - able to - satisfy?

It is this:
merely to be an available recipient of His
unending
unfathomable
unimaginable . . . Love . . .

and by the fullness of His affection,
to return His love in wonder and joy,
first to Him.

Only then
to beam that secret Love onto the world.

God has made us 'fit to share His kingdom.'
For the purpose - that we labor for Him?
No! but for the glorious purpose of
experiencing, sharing, and giving back to Him . . .
God's amazing Love.

He has rescued us from the domain of darkness,     
and transferred us to
    the kingdom of the Son of His love
Colossians 1:13 NASB

So when you leave Love as the first issue,
the central priority, you have left the Son behind.
You have abandoned Him in the place
where you last loved Him.

Jesus never moves from Love.
He dwells ever on the foundation of His Love.
It is we who move away.
By fullness with which He fills us and
by the energy He gives us,
we move on past Him
whose sole interest
and highest purpose is . . . Love. 

By the very faithfulness He demands,
we are unfaithful to His heart.
Through the work He commissions,
we fail the labor of surrendering to Love.

We left.
We did not get pushed.
We never were robbed.

We left that which is our sole purpose.
Our only fulfillment . . . and His as well.

And ever - as Ephesus proves - life can
be that which we choose above
the One Love who chose us!

Copyright © 2004 Martha Kilpatrick