The Day of New Beginnings

The First Love

 

Rev. 2:
1* ¶ "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:
 2* 'I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;
 3* and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary.
 4* 'But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
 5* 'Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent.
 
These passages are usually interpreted as meaning the love relationship with the Lord the Ephesians had at the beginning of their walk with God had deteriorated and they needed to return to it. We all know how we felt when we first came to the Lord and knew the thrill and wonder of His presence. But there is a deeper interpretation here that has its application as we enter the new day of His kingdom.
 
 Another way of saying they had left their first love is to say they had left their most important love. The Greek word used here for love is agape. That is the love usually attributed to the Lord. It is that objective, selfless love that seeks first the good of the recipient of it. Human nature is not capable of this kind of love. We love, only because He first loved us.  The Ephesians had moved in this love, which indicates maturity. And although they had left this “agape realm”, they still moved in quite a bit of spiritual perception. The Lord commended them because they had put to the test those that were false apostles. They had discerned the true from the false, which can be very difficult sometimes. They were established in the gift ministries to the church (Eph.4:11), and were moving in the gifts of the Spirit. Overall, they were doing fine in the realm of ministry, but they had fallen from the higher realm.
 
What is this saying to us today? The gifts and ministries to the church are not enough. There is a way of getting so focused on the ministry that we miss the heartbeat of God. It has been said many times, “Seek the giver of the gifts, not the gifts.” But that falls a little short also. The “ministry realm” must give way to a higher realm. It’s not that ministry will cease, or that the Lord will cease to commission ministries, but there is an entering into the Father’s heart we have not known yet. 
 
1st Cor. 12:
3* Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed"; and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.
 4* Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.
 5* And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.
 6* There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.
 
Notice carefully verse four through six. There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, varieties of ministries but the same Lord, and varieties of effects, or energizing operations, but the same God. We have here three distinct levels of functioning. The realm of gifts is manifested through the Holy Spirit, the realm of ministries, which is higher than the gift realm, comes through the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and finally, we come to the great energizing effects of the Father. It is this third realm that opens the door to a new day. It is the revelation of Emanuel, “God with us” (Rev. 21:1-7). 
 
The agape love is the key to this third realm of God’s manifestation to us. It’s interesting that verses seven through 11 of 1st Corinthians show us the gift realm, verses 11 through 30 show us the ministry realm, and then in verse 31 Paul says, “And I show you a still more excellent way.” Chapter 13 then shows us the Father realm, the realm in which all the energies of God are released. 
 
This realm is devoid of human input. The various motivations we have for a ministry and moving in gifts give way to an expression of the Father’s heart. It is a realm in which the most important thing becomes meeting God’s needs, even if it means giving up a seemingly bigger ministry. Many will stumble at this next step because their ministry will have a greater priority to them than moving in the First Love. 
 
Notice back in Rev. 2 that the Lord said if the Ephesians didn’t repent and return to their first love, He would come and remove their lampstand. What does this mean? If they didn’t move into the higher realm the Lord would remove their anointing and access into His presence. 
 
Luke 18:
18* ¶ A ruler questioned Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
 19 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.
 20 "You know the commandments, 'DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'"
 21 And he said, "All these things I have kept from my youth."
 22 When Jesus heard this, He said to him, "One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."
 23 But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
 24* And Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!
 
This parable must be looked at beyond the obvious lesson of riches being a hindrance to following the Lord. On a spiritual plane, it illustrates the Word in Rev. 2. The rich ruler can be seen as a type of the church. When he asks what he must do to inherit eternal life, which is a type of the new day or realm that God is opening to us, he is reminded of the commandments by the Lord. The commandments are a type of the ministry in the present realm we have functioned in. The ruler says, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” In the ministry realm, he is complete, he has functioned admirably. But Jesus says to him,  "One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." The Lord is telling the ruler to follow Him into a higher realm. Jesus then tells the ruler that he lacks one thing to enable him to enter in. It is the agape love. Selling all that he has and distributing it to the poor is type of this agape love that gives access into the higher realm. Having treasure in heaven means attaining God’s heart, for that is the higher realm. In 1st Cor. 13 which speaks entirely of the agape realm, verse 12 states, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” The agape love opens the door to this realm of knowing fully just as we have been fully known.
 
In verse 23 of our parable, the ruler became very sad because he was extremely rich. This is a type of those whose ministry has been successful. How hard it is to give up that which has been of God and has been a great blessing to us. When the functioning of the Lord through us has been rich, we can be reluctant to give it up. Our self lives can become entwined in the ministry of the Lord to the point that we won’t give up “our ministry”. Maybe the ministry has given us prestige, maybe it has given us a sense of security, or maybe a sense of accomplishment or self worth, but regardless, when the Lord sets before us an open door to a greater realm, we must be willing to let go and enter in.
 
Verse 24 states:  “And Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!”
 
How hard it is for those who have been successful in one realm to enter into a higher one. Yet, Jesus in Himself gives us the perfect example of laying aside one realm in order to fulfill the demands of the agape realm.
 
2Co 8:9* For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
 
Jesus fulfilled His own Words to the rich ruler perfectly, didn’t He? He laid aside all that He had on one level that He might become the perfect expression of the Father’s heart.