Here's one of the articles I wrote on prayer recently.
Reforming Ephesus
“To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,
These things says He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: ‘I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars, and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place- unless you repent. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” Revelation 2:1-7
Over the last couple of weeks, there’s been a lot of talk about intimacy in my house. It was sparked by our nightly devotionals, which were, at the time, in the book of Hosea. As a whole, Hosea shows, among other things, a picture of a lover scorned- of the Lord who, in intimate love for His chosen, saved them from their own selves and made them a people for His own pleasure. But His people, with whom he shared such intimacy- His grace, His word, His peace and so forth, did not reciprocate in kind: they perverted His word, worship and love.
Like the quoted passage above, Hosea is not generally addressed to persons on an individual level. Rather, they speak to the Church and are addressed to His people corporately. God indeed does instruct us in His word on how we, as individuals, relate to the Lord. But that’s not how the Lord addresses His people in the Old Testament, generally speaking. Most of OT instruction (outside of wisdom literature) is corporate in scope; applicable to us individually yes, but purposefully addressed to the whole body of Christ. Hosea and Revelation 2 both speak comfort to the individuals who trust in the Lord, while primarily defining challenges within the bodies being addressed- Samaria in Hosea’s case, and the church of Ephesus in the other. Furthermore, although the problems in these two congregations were very different, the practices (or lack thereof) that led to their rebuke are identical.
In verse 4 of Revelation 2, Christ charges the church that they have lost their first love. Now this charge seems at odds with the commendations given before (and even after) this statement. This church is not submerged into the kind of open and utter rebellion that’s pictured in Hosea. The Ephesians do not tolerate evil persons. Samaria does. Ephesian Christians know the word of God, and test the teachings of those who claim authority by the same. Ephraim worships two golden calves at Bethel, and call them ‘Lord’. These Ephesians even work long and hard among themselves and the land they minister to for the sake of the Gospel, while the Northern Kingdom allowed every god of the alien lands free reign within their borders and influence.
If these two congregations have something in common, we need to look at verse 4, and see if that applies. And to make that determination, we first must know what it is to have the corporate first love in the first place- since Christ is, as we mentioned, talking to a whole church and not to a group of individuals. We are one in Christ, and our Lord often speaks to us in this fashion in His word.
First love is an evangelical thing- it’s the blessing of the mission work. Let’s look at some mission works in scripture. In Acts 2:42, we see a three-fold description of this first love- fervency in doctrine, fervency in sacraments and fervency in prayer. All of these things are co-equal in their presentation; no one thing is superior to the other, but rather they are all pursued with the same level of dedication. In Nehemiah chapters 8 and 9, we see the identical set of firstfruits- A young congregation, just planted back in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile, turn to the Lord in doctrine (8:1-12), sacraments (8:13-18) and prayer (9:1-38). The congregation of the Lord, as it was leaving the wilderness for the fruits of Canaan, likewise sought proper doctrine (Joshua 4:4-9), sacraments (Joshua 5:2-7,10) and prayer (Joshua 3:3-6). I’ve seen this personally in a young mission church too- the three-fold fruits of a new congregation.
So what happened? It’s apparent in the text in Revelation that Ephesus was dedicated to sound doctrine. It’s also clear that this church was very Christ centered in its’ activities and outreach. There also does not appear to be an issue with their sacraments, for our Lord commended them for their opposition to the Nicolaitans, who were Gnostic and antagonistic in nature¹. The Hedonistic worship that results from such teachings is harshly rebuked by our Lord in Revelation 2:20-23. With doctrine and sacraments eliminated, prayer must be examined very closely.
Before we can conclude that the issue in Ephesus was based on its prayer life, we first need to determine if the Scripture makes a connection between the love of God and prayer- both individually and corporately. The examples of individual and private prayers of the saints are incredibly numerous in the Bible, and even Christ Himself demonstrates this kind of intimacy with the Lord (Matthew14:13,23). Christ’s teaching on prayer in Matthew 6:5-15 is familial in language- prayer is to a loving Father, not a transcendent tyrant. The private prayers of the saints are a bulwark towards being intimate with their Creator- We worship a God who is a Person(s), and we as human beings develop intimate relationships with those persons whom we communicate with the most often.
But the issue in Ephesus seems to be a corporate one. Now it seems logical that a church that is dedicated to sound doctrine would engage in corporate prayer often. Even churches that are not so dedicated will engage in corporate prayer activity on a regular basis. Indeed, corporate prayer can often be an issue of habit or even coercion. Consider 2 Chronicles chapters 34 through 36. The amount of reforms king Josiah made to the civil government, as well as demonstrating it’s subordination to the ecclesiastical authority of the Temple, are incredible. It would be like in the modern US, President Bush announcing that all non-Christian religious structures and land were now immediately forfeit to the government, who then bulldozed everything. Unthinkable, yet that is what Josiah basically did. And yet, in spite of this, the Prophet Jeremiah, who lived through these reforms personally, spake of Judah in Jeremiah 3:6-10 as a people who went through motions that they personally did not support in their heart. Josiah’s love for the Lord was not shared by the general public- they were ‘along for the ride’.
Within the context of worship, corporate prayer is highly regulated in Temple worship. It was specifically a priestly responsibility (Leviticus 16, Luke 1:5-17) to lead the people in prayer and sacrifice, in as much as both are intercessory in principle. In the case of Zacharias, his prayers for the people of Israel, which is what he would have been presenting at the hour of incense, we answered by the promise of the coming Savior. Meaning- he (Zacharias) and the people who were praying were of the same heart- seeking their Savior to rescue them from their sins. During the worship described in Nehemiah chapter 9, we see the Levites praying for the people of Israel, who had just come in sackcloth and ashes because of their sins. Their corporate prayer, made over the people during worship, rebuked the people for their sin and also promised salvation in the Lord, and continued blessings for the faithful. This prayer also served to demonstrate their solidarity towards the Lord, and was concluded with the signing of confessional documents to that end.
In the cases of Zacharias and Nehemiah, the people of God are depicted as being themselves individually prayerful, while the reforms of Josiah (and also Jehoash and Hezekiah- 2 Kings 12:1-16, 18-20) show prayerful leaders of non-prayerful people. Also noteworthy is that both Zacharias and Nehemiah ministered for a newly planted temple- Herods’ and Zerubbabels’, respectively. Both show congregations with prayerful individuals who are open, honest and trustworthy with their Lord in prayer. Both are ‘mission works’ in their newness.
But where the people of God are not in an intimate relationship with their God through constant personal and private prayer, the lack of intimacy becomes all too easily apparent corporately. Hosea as a whole shows this clearly- a people with no personal intimacy with God on an individual level that, over time, so perverted the worship of God that they as a people became a whole new faith and nation. Consider Hosea 11:1-4. God speaks in extremely tender and intimate language towards Israel, who although at one time heeded the voice of the Lord, no longer does so. Jeremiah 3:19-21 chimes with Hosea in proclaiming spiritual adultery as an issue perpetrated by a lack of intimate knowledge and relationship with the Lord: To the extent, in these cases, that the congregation as a whole served the Baals in the name of the Lord.
At the time Revelation was written, the church at Ephesus was large and well established. Paul had spent a long time at that church, and used it as a base of operations for mission work (Acts 19:1-10). Also, the temple of Diana was there, making the city one big boatload of Pagan influences. However, this church apparently was studious and confessional in nature- hence the adherence to true apostolic teaching and rejection of false teachers. Paul himself wrote to this church, and in his epistle encouraged them towards sound doctrine (Ephesians 4:1-15) within the context of love (Ephesians 3:14-21), a love which is intimate and prayerful (Ephesians 3:14, 1:15-21).
Comparing the epistle of Ephesians to the message to the church given in Revelation shows that in the few years between their writing, many of the exhortations of Paul had been taken to heart. Clearly, Ephesus was a church that studied God’s word, taught God’s word, Stood upon the truth, rejected false teachings and doctrines and sought to serve and worship the Lord in an orderly and diligent manner. This church was doing the work of the Lord for the glory of Christ.
But the first love; the intimate, personal prayer life of a church that results in constant reformation and renewal, was absent. Just as it had been in Israel of old, the people of God forgot the love of their fathers, and over time had become automatons for Christ. Without the personal, intimate prayer life and devotion as an integral part of the congregation’s daily living, the imminence of God was no longer felt. This is clearly shown in Revelation 2:5, where our Lord exhorts the congregation to remember from where they have fallen. The Greek term for fallen, ĕkpiptō, is used only two other places in scripture- Acts 27:29 and Galatians 5:4. In Acts, it describes what would happen if a ship came upon rocks, and the usage in Galatians is spiritually similar: It shows a soul separated from the special grace of Christ, dashed upon the Rock. This term being used here in Revelation 2:5 has the same premise- the congregation has forgotten the saving love of Christ, and is astray- reduced to flotsam that which should be safe in port. Strong language, but the basic trust in the Lord demanded by the Gospel cannot continue under these circumstances. Forgetting the first love, the love of our salvation, will lead to death. Those congregations in Biblical history that possessed a repentant and prayerful people caused revival and reform to the whole of the land. Those that ceased in this prayer life became distant to the reality of God’s intimate imminence, and over time shifted their focus on other ecclesiastical issues. The results of this were always the same- judgment. Church history is replete with churches that, having ceased in devotional intimacy, grew to become cults or went extinct- many of them reformed at the outset.
The very nature of repentance and forgiveness is an extremely intimate thing. Thus, the call of Revelation 2:5 is a call to repentance-which in and of itself demands spiritual intimacy with Christ. How can we be intimate, open and honest with someone that we barely know in person, but only read about? Consider David, who cried out in repentance in the Psalms over Bathsheeba. His soul-baring, gut-wrenching prayers show an incredible closeness and intimate, loving relationship to the Lord- while also continuing to be in awe of His transcendent nature. Habakkuk is a man solid in his doctrine and reverence to the Lord, yet cries out to God as a man cries out to his closest friend. Can you not see the wonderful closeness, girded by worship and truth, in the conversation between Abraham and God over Lot and Sodom? And there are scores of such examples.
Forget not the promise of our Lord in Revelation 2:5 and 7, that with repentance comes restoration. Furthermore, that perseverance in repentance, which is demonstrated through consistent and pervasive prayer (1Th 5:17) results in an intimate relationship with our Lord and Creator both as individuals and as a church. This repentance- coupled with sound doctrine and faithful worship, causes true revival and blessing (Deut 28:1-14).
Therefore, let us cry out to the churches of this land and declare to them, “Repent, you Ephesians! Call upon our God without ceasing! Know the Lord in His person as imminent, intimate and devoted to you”. Thus we, His people, must strive to be as devoted, intimate, repentant and forgiving as He is to us. We need, all God’s people, to close the door- and pray to our Father who is precious to us. The revival of our church, our city and our nation is but a life of repentant, prayerful devotion away.
Theognome
¹The Historical Record Regarding the Nicolaitans by Wade Cox,
http://www.ccg.org/english/s/p202.html
