Our First Love

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.    —Revelations 2:4

I am a proto-typical male. I dislike shopping. I may be understating my feelings so folks don’t think too badly of me. I really, really, dislike shopping, even though my wife loves me to go with her and spend time with her. When, rather IF, I go to the mall, I sometimes catch glimpses of my younger self as I see young couples from middle school to post college age walking hand in hand with dreamy looks in their eyes sharing a few moments of bliss shopping in the mall. The guy may even very attentively help pick out shoes and dresses. It’s a date. They are in love.

When folks first fall in love, they fall so head over heels in love they will do almost anything to demonstrate that love without being asked. I have seen girls become hunters and fisherwomen just to capture the man of their dreams.

We might draw a parallel to the Christian faith. When I first asked Jesus Christ to come into my life, I was so overwhelmed with God’s love and presence in my life, I read the Bible every spare minute I had reading the entire New Testament in the month of December. Granted, I was in college away from home. I had no obligations but to go to class, watch Star Trek immediately before going to the dining hall, and play ping pong. I made spending time with the Lord a top priority among these other lofty endeavors.

After I dropped out of college, returned to carpentry work, and got married, I had to discipline myself to make time for prayer, Bible reading, and quality time with the Lord. My first love, Jesus, was now in competition with many other demands in my life. In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus warned how the cares of this world act as weeds choking out the Kingdom of God from our lives (Matthew 13:22).

In the book of Revelation, Jesus dictates seven letters to seven churches. In the first letter to the Church of Ephesus, Jesus commends the church for their works, perseverance, and faithfulness, but condemns it for one small (or very large) thing, leaving their first love. Jesus urges the church to “remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first” (2:4-5).

Remember your first love. Remember the acts done out of total, unreserved, overwhelmed love you did at first. God is more interested in our all-consuming love relationship with Jesus than deeds done out of a sense of duty. In a recent book, Steve DeNeff and David Drury list the shift from Slave to Child as one of the transformations needed in order to become the Christian God intends us to be.  “Slave to Child is a shift in identity from serving God to loving God (SoulShift, 27).

In personal relationships, true love manifests itself both by lifelong dedication to care and support another person as well as the spontaneous demonstrations of joy and excitement of spending time with that person. Many wives and husbands, my wife for sure, would enjoy seeing more of the kind of excitement and infatuation demonstrated in those early days of courtship.

Jesus says, “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first.” In the Christian life and in our married life, remember your first love.